SynDevRx is developing novel polymer-fumagillin drug conjugates to treat metastatic cancer. Fumagillin analogs are clinically proven anti-tumor agents, but suffer poor physical properties and toxicities, which prevent their clinical development as small molecules. Our conjugates demonstrate significantly improved physical and anti-tumor properties with minimal signs of toxicity in animal testing.

SynDevRx polymer drugs connect poly (hydroxymethacrylamide) (HPMA) to novel fumagillol analogs via proprietary chemistries providing the solubility and pharmacokinetics of the HPMA polymer and enhancing the activity of the fumagillol analogs.

SyndevRx's technology provides a new paradigm for the design and development of polymer drugs. While conventional polymer therapeutics produce drugs with improved physical properties and, in some cases, safety, conventional polymers effectively dilute (i.e. reduce) drug activity thus requiring high polymer-drug doses.  SynDevRx polymer drugs improve the physical properties of the conjugated small molecules and enhance (increase) the activity of the released drug through novel linker chemistries thereby significantly reducing the polymer-drug dose.

SynDevRx polymer drugs were compared to the small molecule fumagillol derivative, TNP-470, in vitro and in vivo. In metastases models, three different conjugates were identified that show comparable activity to TNP-470 at less than 10% of the TNP-470 dose (relative molar dosing). In an A549 lung cancer xenograft model, the same three conjugates showed better activity than TNP-470 at less than 10% of the TNP-470 dose (relative molar dosing) without any observed toxicities at these efficacious doses.  This demonstration of SynDevRx technology not only provides new, effective cancer therapeutics, but also exemplifies a better approach to polymer drug design.

Source: MHT

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School developed an artificial lung that helped rats breathe for about six hours, according to a Reuters report.

The article points to a finding in the journal Nature Medicine, indicating that the development shows progress in organ growth from patient cells. In the case of the rats, researchers grew tissue used in lungs after combining rat cells and human lung cells. Read more here. 

Source: Boston Business Journal

Two Bay State companies and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will receive a total of $7.4 million for energy research projects, the U.S. Department of Energy announced Monday.

The funding, provided through the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Tyngsborough, Mass.-based Beacon Power Corp. (Nasdaq: BCON) will receive $2.2 million for a flywheel energy storage project, while Newton, Mass.-based General Compression Inc. is slated to get $750,000 to investigate an energy storage process that uses compressed air and requires no fossil fuels. Read more here. 

Source: MHT

The six governors of New England states, along with five Eastern Canadian premiers, agreed Monday to establish a goal of reducing energy use in buildings by at least 20 percent by 2020.

The meeting in Lenox was convened by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and also yielded several other agreements, according to a news release from Patrick’s office. They included adopting the highest energy-efficiency building codes and examining the possible implementation of a regional low carbon fuel standard, to reduce the carbon intensity of transportation fuels. Read more here. 

Source: MHT

New England energy research projects will receive $18.5 million through the latest round of funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), the DOE announced Monday.

Among the awards are $4.4 million for a power electronics project led by MIT, $2.2 million for an energy storage project at Tyngsboro-based Beacon Power Corp. and three projects – totaling nearly $9 million – led by the United Technologies Research Center in East Hartford, Conn. Read more here. 

Source: MHT

Boston-Power Inc. has won a new round of venture capital worth $60 million, which will help the company to grow its operations in Massachusetts, the company announced.

Christina Lampe-Önnerud, founder and CEO of the Westborough-based lithium ion battery maker, said the funding will support the company’s next stage of worldwide growth and is “good news for Massachusetts.” The company plans to scale up its manufacturing operations in Taiwan along with its research, development and marketing operations in Massachusetts, Lampe-Önnerud said in an interview. Read more here. 

Source: Bizjournal

Massachusetts cleantech companies saw $124 million in venture capital investment in the second quarter, according to data released Thursday by the Cleantech Group and Deloitte.

The state saw 8 percent of all cleantech VC funding in North America during the quarter, according to the data. Only California saw more funding, but the difference was substantial: the state saw 67 percent of the North American funding, with $980 million in VC for cleantech companies.

Source: OptoIQ

Cambridge, MA--The Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a quicker, simpler, and cheaper eye test that uses a small plastic device clipped onto the front of a cell phone’s screen. Especially in the developing world, the device could replace the large device called a phoropter, fitted with dozens of different lenses that can be swung into place in front of each eye in various combinations, while the patient tries to read a standard eye chart on the wall ahead. It could also replace a second, more expensive system called an aberrometer that shines a laser into the eye and uses an array of tiny lenses to measure its characteristics, with no interaction from the patient. Read more here. 

Source: MHT

Source: MHT