Source: FirstWord

Research published in Nature on Wednesday revealed that scientists have identified all mutations in melanoma and lung cancer cells, which has allowed them to produce the first complete cancer genomes. Scientists at the Wellcome Trust's Sanger Institute in the UK, who are part of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC), stated that "we have never seen cancer revealed in this form before… By identifying all the cancer genes we will be able to develop new drugs that target the specific mutated genes and work out which patients will benefit from these novel treatments."

As part of their work, researchers sequenced all DNA from normal and tumour tissues in a patient with melanoma and in a patient with lung cancer, and found more than 23 000 mutations in the lung tumour and more than 33 000 in the melanoma. However, researcher Andy Futreal explained that "somewhere among the mutations we have found lurk those that drive the cells to become cancerous," which could be potential targets for the development of new oncology drugs. "Tracking them down will be our major challenge for the next few years," he added. Read more here

Source: The Wall Street Journal.

Some – but not too much – government involvement is good for venture capital.

That’s a conclusion of a Globalization of Alternative Investments report issued Tuesday sponsored by the World Economic Forum. The research project, led by Harvard Business School Professor Josh Lerner, examined more than 28,800 enterprises based in 126 countries that received venture capital from 2000 through 2008. They represented a wide range of industries, but many were high-technology companies. The researchers divided the enterprises into three groups: those with only private venture capital, those with less than 50% of their venture capital from government-supported venture groups and those with 50% or more of their venture money from government-supported groups. Read more here:

Source: The Wall Street Journal.

The global IPO market has been more lemon than lemonade in recent years. But even as the U.S. market shows some signs of life, venture capital investors in China are souring on U.S. exchanges and turning instead to domestic markets and Hong Kong for their exits.

Source: Boston Globe Innovation

Dear Governor Patrick and Secretary Bialecki:

I suspect that when you meet with business groups around the Commonwealth, they all spend their time trying to persuade you why their industry is the most important, whether they are cranberry growers, fishermen, builders, educators, or Fluff producers.

That's why Monday's IT industry pep rally in Watertown felt pointless to me. UMass produced a report detailing how vital IT is to the state's gross domestic product, and how many jobs it supplies (fewer today than in 2000, it turns out.) The morning's conversations were focused on the bone-headed question "How can Massachusetts seize the opportunity to become the premier technology hub?"

Here's a better question for you two, and everyone on the IT industry committee you created: can we all stop doing this silly dance to the tune of "our industry is so important, please pay more attention to us, Beacon Hill?"

What is important to all of us, policy-makers and private sector-ites alike, is creating more jobs, solving big problems, and growing important companies here -- keeping Massachusetts a hub of innovation. (Secretary Bialecki, as you candidly said on Monday, "The governor has told me that my top three priorities are jobs, jobs, and jobs.")

Rather than doing more studies, forming more blue-ribbon task forces, or putting on more panel discussions and meet-and-greets -- none of which actually create jobs -- I'd suggest that the IT industry, and every other innovation-oriented industry in Massachusetts, start developing initiatives (and expanding existing initiatives) to address seven questions.
To read more, click here.

Source: MHT

The IPO window for biotech companies remains mostly shut. Venture capital firms are so busy propping up - or weeding out - existing portfolio companies during the recession that they have little energy and cash to fund new startups. And the so-called "patent cliff" facing big pharma is approaching fast: One third of approved drugs will go off patent by 2012.

This all adds up to an environment in which academia is positioned to play a key role in refilling pharmaceutical companies' pipelines.
To read more, click here.

Source: MHT

As if being an entrepreneur weren't bad enough, try it in an industry where there is zero likelihood of an IPO in the foreseeable future, where your potential acquirers are running amok and your investors are still bunkered in.
(...)

And where there is promise, New England's talent is already there: We excel at the type of R&D that is netting government grants, and we are growing niches such as surgical robotics or medical device design and development.

So fear not, entrepreneurs. Business may not be easy, but to paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt, nothing is worth doing unless it means "effort, pain and difficulty." To read more, click here. 

Source: MHT

Can you recognize an innovator when you meet one? The adage that you can tell a pioneer because he is the person with the arrow in his back may be true, but it doesn't help to identify innovators. (...)

1) Innovators think there is a better way.
2) Innovators know that without passion there can be no innovation.
3) Innovators embrace change to a fault.
4) Innovators have a strong point of view but know that they are missing something.
5) Innovators know innovation is a team sport.
6) Innovators embrace constraints as opportunities.
7) Innovators celebrate their vulnerability.
8) Innovators openly share their ideas and passions, expecting to be challenged.
9) Innovators know that the best ideas are in the gray areas between silos.
10) Innovators know that a good story can change the world.
To read more, click here.

Source: Xconomy

Nasuni, a Natick, MA-based startup developing a cloud storage product, reports this morning that it’s raised $8 million in a Series A financing from North Bridge Venture Partners and Sigma Partners. The founders of the stealthy company are CEO Andres Rodriguez and Robert Mason, both of whom are former executives of a Massachusetts-based online storage management firm called Archivas, which Hitachi Data Systems acquired for $120 million in 2007. Waltham, MA-based North Bridge was also an investor in Archivas, according to its website. Read more here

Source: Xconomy

Here are the 5 biotech innovations from this decade that are currently (or will be shortly) making a big difference for patients with a variety of diseases.

1) Cancer therapies such as Roche/Genentech’s trastuzumab (Herceptin) and Celgene’s lenalidomide (Revlimid).

2) HIV therapies such as Gilead Sciences’ combination of efavirenz, emtricitabine, and tenofovir (Atripla).

3) Improved flu vaccines.

4) Therapies for hepatitis C such as Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ telaprevir.

5) Tumor vaccines such as Dendreon’s sipuleucel-T (Provenge).

Read more here

Source: in-Pharma Technologies.com

Outsourcing-Pharma presents its latest round up of movements in the pharma outsourcing sector, including appointments at Absorption Systems, CliniComp, Clearstone Central Laboratories and CTI.

Absorption Systems, a specialist in testing absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity (ADMET), has appointed Ramesh Bambal as director of scientific officer.

Before joining Absorption Systems Bambal worked at GlaxoSmithKline for 12 years. At Absorption Systems Bambal will oversee drug discovery, business development and process improvement.

Phillip LaJoie has been appointed as vice president (VP), deployment at CliniComp, a provider of clinical documentation systems. LaJoie has more than 25 years experience in information management and technology at organisations including Naval Medical Center San Diego.

CTI Clinical Trial and Consulting Services (CTI) has appointed Robert Gordon as senior medical director. Gordon has more than 30 years clinical and regulatory experience at companies including Roche Laboratories, UCB and LifeCycle Pharma. Read more here

Source: Yahoo! News

PARIS (AFP) – Scientists have used nanosensors for the quick detection of cancers through blood tests, with nanomaterial also enabling the release of medicine at targeted organs, said studies released Sunday. A technique developed at Yale University in the United States allows scientists to "detect tiny amounts of cancer biomarkers in a small volume of whole blood in just 20 minutes," the journal Nature Nanotechnology reported.

Yale added in a statement that the findings could "dramatically simplify the way physicians test for biomarkers of cancer and other diseases." Researchers developed a device that acts as a filter and catches cancer biomarkers, in this case for prostate and breast cancers, on a chip while washing away the rest of the blood.

This allows for detection of extremely small concentrations on the order of picograms (a trillionth of a gram) per millilitre of blood, Yale said.

"This is the equivalent of being able to detect the concentration of a single grain of salt dissolved in a large swimming pool," it said. Read more here

We briefed you a few days ago about the CIC's 10th anniversary party. CIC is the home to over 200 startups in Cambridge, MA, including Hubtech21!

Check here  to get a flavour of the party:

Source: The Hill

More than 5,000 employees who rely on the U.S. research and development tax credit signed a letter to Congress asking for a long-term extention of the credit, which will expire Dec. 31.

The House is expected to vote on extending the R&D tax credit today. Senate action is less certain as the chamber wrangles over the healthcare bill. A coalition of manufacturers, scientists, engineers, drug makers and other companies that rely on the tax credit are asking lawmakers to make it permanant as a way to create new jobs and provide some stability for industries hit hard by the recession. 

The R&D Credit Coaltion says 70 percent of the tax credit's benefits go toward paying the salaries of workers involved in research and development activities. TechAmerica said in a report that letting the credit lapse would risk the loss of 120,000 jobs in the U.S. The credit has been extended 13 times since it was enacted in 1981. Read more here

Source: Yahoo! News

PARIS (AFP) – Scientists in France have isolated a new giant virus that lurks inside amoeba and whose gene pool includes genetic material from other species.

The virus "is a completely new viral form," said Didier Raoult, head of infectious and emerging tropical disease research at Aix-Marseille 2 University in France.

The genome of the so-called Marseillevirus encompasses a complex repertoire of genes that are "very different from the DNA of other virus forms," and shows that there is genetic exchange between other micro-organisms such a giant viruses and bacteria found in amoeba, he told AFP in an interview.

Amoeba, single-cell life forms that can be parasites on either human or animals, are acting as "a sort of cradle of creation for new viruses and bacteria," Raoult said, whose research was also published this week by the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences. Read more here

Source: The Wall Street Journal.

By JAMES FREEMAN

The most powerful czar in Washington will receive some long-overdue scrutiny today when the Supreme Court hears a challenge to the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).

This board, created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, regulates the auditors of publicly-traded firms. The members are hired by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and, say the plaintiffs in Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB, do not answer to the president. This violates the Constitution's "appointments clause," according to which senior executive-branch officials should be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

Yet Sarbanes-Oxley, or Sarbox, itself should be subject to scrutiny. New research suggests that the costs of this legislation far outweigh its benefits to the investing public. Read more here:

Source: Venturebeat

The U.S. Department of Energy continues to churn out important announcements — today establishing a fellowship program via its ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy) initiative. This news follows the Department’s distribution of $100 million in stimulus grants to experimental fuel, battery and carbon capture projects yesterday. Read more

Source: MHT

Infoscitex Corp. may not be one of the New England defense industry behemoths, but it seems to be holding its own in winning sought-after contracts.

The Waltham contract engineering shop's recent successes include a $13 million U.S. Air Force warfighter performance research award and a five-year, $50 million Air Force aerospace research contract. While it expects to generate $26 million in revenue this year - barely 1 percent of the net sales booked by crosstown defense giant Raytheon Co. - company officials contend that having the right relationships is more important than size.

"You have to be able to speak the language, and therefore be involved in knowing what's coming down the pipeline," said Infoscitex CEO Stu Haber. "The more people that know you and know your capabilities, the more they will think of you when a contract is coming up."

New England has long been a hub of activity among defense firms working on electronics, networking and other high-end military systems, yet a significant portion of U.S. Department of Defense dollars doled out to the region go to smaller suppliers working on components of systems or entire segments of a technology platform. As the military shifts its focus toward more high-tech and specialized warfare, experts predict that contractors will continue to rely heavily on the new technologies coming out of small and startup companies.

"Small businesses tend to be the sources of innovation in technology and large primes are always looking for potential partners," said retired Brig. Gen. Donald Quenneville, executive director of Defense Technology Initiative, a regional trade group.
To know more, click here.

Source: MHT

Six New England companies, all based in Massachusetts, will head to Davos, Switzerland, in January as members of the list of 26 technology pioneers announced by the World Economic Forum today in advance of its 2010 annual meeting.

The companies are: Cambridge-based cancer nanotherapy developer Aura Biosciences Inc.; Westborough-based lithium ion battery maker Boston-Power Inc.; Cambridge-based bioplastics developer Metabolix Inc. (Nasdaq: MBLX); Bedford-based medical device developer MicroCHIPS Inc.; Waltham-based biopharmaceuticals developer Proteon Therapeutics Inc.; and Lexington-based StreamBase Systems Inc.
To know more, click here.

Source: MHT

Technology company CEOs, industry group to officials and academia gathered at Communispace Corp. in Watertown this morning to listen to the findings from a UMass study on Massachusetts' tech economy and to hear Gov. Deval Patrick's keynote address on the state of the IT sector in the commonwealth.

At the meeting, findings were released from the University of Massachusetts' Donahue Institute's study, "The IT Industry: Hub of the Massachusetts Technology Economy." Aside from Gov. Patrick, speakers included John Halamka of Beth Israel Deaconess, Jeffrey Nick of EMC Corp., Colin Angle of iRobot Corp., Rich Miner of Google Ventures, Dave Balter of BzzAgent, Diane Hessan of host Communispace, Michael Goodman of UMass Donahue Institute, Donna Cupelo of Verizon Corp. and Emily Green of Yankee Group, along state and local officials.To know more, click here.

Source: SFGate

Some children get severely obese because they lack particular chunks of DNA, which kicks their hunger into overdrive, researchers report.

The British researchers checked the DNA of 300 children who'd become very fat, on the order of 220 pounds by age 10. They looked for deletions or extra copies of DNA segments.

They found evidence that several rare deletions may promote obesity, including one kind they studied further and found in less than 1 percent of about 1,200 severely obese children.

That deletion, on chromosome 16, apparently causes trouble because it removes a gene that the brain needs to respond to the appetite-controlling hormone leptin, said Dr. Sadaf Farooqi of Cambridge University.

In her study, children with a chromosome 16 DNA deletion "have a very strong drive to eat," said Farooqi, who co-led the research. "They're very, very hungry, they always want to eat."

The work, reported online Sunday by the journal Nature, has already produced a real-world payoff. Farooqi said four children with the chromosome 16 deletion had drawn the attention of British child welfare authorities, who blamed the parents for overfeeding them.

"We were able to intervene" and get the parents of two children off the hook, and the other two cases are under discussion, she said.

That's happened before when the scientists uncovered genetic causes for severe childhood obesity, she said. Read more here

Source: CNN

Editor's note: Pete Cashmore is founder and CEO of Mashable, a popular blog about social media. He is writing a weekly column about social networking and tech for CNN.com.

(CNN) -- As 2009 draws to a close, the Web's attention turns to the year ahead. What can we expect of the online realm in 2010?

While Web innovation is unpredictable, some clear trends are becoming apparent. Expect the following 10 themes to define the Web next year:

Real-time ramps up

Sparked by index.htmlTwitter, Facebook and FriendFeed, the real-time trend has been to the latter part of 2009 what "Web 2.0" was to 2007. The term represents the growing demand for immediacy in our interactions. Immediacy is compelling, engaging, highly addictive ... it's a sense of living in the now.

But real-time is more than just a horde of new Twitter-like services hitting the Web in 2010 (although that's inevitable -- cargo cults abound). It's a combination of factors, from the always-connected nature of modern smartphones to the instant gratification provided by a Google search. Read more here

Source: CIC

Source: Bio Optics World

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it is reopening a public docket to gather information and comments on LASIK devices, according to a notice published in the Federal Register. The FDA will accept comments and observations until Nov. 15, 2010.

"At this time, the agency is reopening the docket to continue to receive public comments," the notice said. "Information and comments submitted to the docket will assist us in identifying ways in which we can improve our public outreach efforts regarding the safety and effectiveness of LASIK devices."

The docket was previously open between Sept. 12, 2008, and Sept. 14, 2009.

Source: Biooptics World

As more therapies become available, doctors increasingly wish to identify diseases as early as possible and monitor their initial stages in order to address them appropriately. In the case of eye maladies such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), they need to watch the retina so they can time the treatment properly.

FIGURE 1. Images of the pupil (above) and wavefront (below) obtained with the Shack-Hartmann sensor (left) and with a digital wavefront camera (right) demonstrate a significant difference in resolution.

To know more, click here.

Source: Feedblitz

During my Open Office Hours last week, I had a chance to chat with Joshua Levitt, the prime mover behind an interesting project up in Woburn: the International Green Technology Trade Center. The goal is to open a "permanent trade show" featuring energy-related technologies from around the world, and host an on-going series of conferences and seminars to bring people in. Their tag line is "Where the world meets to trade green."

Levitt has his eyes on the TradeCenter 128 building in Woburn, which has solar panels on the roof and has a gold-level certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. His objective is to sign up 50 tenants, and open the center in about 25,000 square feet by February. "We've got a lot of small, independent companies signed up," Levitt says, though he won't reveal a specific number. To read more, click here.

Source: Government Technology

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is dedicating a total of $220 million in grants to support test cases for health-care IT and data exchange within 15 communities, the department announced Wednesday, Dec. 2.

The initiative, called the Beacon Community Cooperative Agreement Program, will build infrastructure for health IT, and will implement privacy and security measures for the health-care information that is exchanged, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Dr. David Blumenthal, the department's national coordinator for health IT, jointly announced in a press release. to know more, click here.

Source: MHT

Massachusetts officials broke ground on a $40 million Wind Technology Testing Center in Charlestown Tuesday with the hopes that the research facility will spur private investment in wind energy.

The U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored project will allow researchers and businesses to test blades for wind turbines up to 90 meters long, the only such facility in the United States. The DOE selected Massachusetts to host the facility in 2007 with $2 million in initial funding, and in May the project garnered $25 million in stimulus grants to provide most of the project financing. Massachusetts' Renewable Energy Trust will provide the balance of the financing.

"The clean energy sector continues to grow in Massachusetts, and this wind technology testing center will be a tremendous boost," said Gov. Deval Patrick in a statement. "Testing the next generation of wind turbines here will make Massachusetts a hub for the research and development of the fastest-growing energy source in the world." Patrick cancelled an appearance at the groundbreaking because of illness.
To know more, click here.

Source: Xconomy

Tim Rowe says he has happy news to share at the Cambridge Innovation Center’s 10th anniversary party tomorrow night (see main story). The founder and CEO of the rental office facility has long had a spreadsheet showing how much money venture capital firms have invested in CIC companies, and last month, he says, the total cleared the $1 billion mark.

Altogether, 29 companies that are either current or former residents of the CIC have won venture funding. And the exact total of the funds they’ve raised is $1,028,000,000, Rowe says. (The full list of venture-funded CIC companies is below.)

“That is a real milestone for us, because it validates what we are doing in a way that almost nothing else can,” Rowe says. A billion dollars, he notes, is the equivalent of an entire venture fund in the bloated dot-com era, or three or four funds these days. Read more here

Source: Mass High Tech

Angel investing: Dollars down, deals up

The Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire says that 24,500 entrepreneurial ventures received angel funds in the first six months of 2009, but that they shared a shrinking pool of funds

27%   The drop in angel investment dollars in the first half of 2009 versus the first half of 2008
6%   The increase in the number of ventures getting angel funds in the first six months of 2009
19%   The drop in the number of investments in seed and startup investments
58%   The increase in number of investments in post-seed/startup ventures. Read more here

Source: Mass High Tech

When President Obama’s $19 billion electronic health records initiative was announced in February, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Paul Grabscheid, vice president of strategic planning of Intersystems Corp. said the company planned to hire 100 workers as a direct result of the economic stimulus funds. Today, the company has met that promise, and then some — adding between 150 and 200 workers by the end of this year, to its initial 800-person team.

But Grabscheid said that the stimulus package hasn’t been the driver of that growth.

Source: Mass High Tech

As young entrepreneurs, we bring passion, energy and fresh views on problems.  We’re hard working, curious and eager to learn.  We’re also lacking a few important tools in the entrepreneur’s utility belt: experience from past ventures, a well-developed network and a healthy bank account to draw from. While it would be easy to say the biggest need for us is funding, I believe there are greater needs.

It’s never been easier for us to bootstrap our startups. We launch websites and use social media to garner attention with next to no money, which has worked for everything from restaurants to presidential elections. We are the Internet generation, so the majority of us have the skills to fully utilize these tools for our startups.

Some of my fellow young entrepreneurs have lamented that it would be much easier if they could focus exclusively on their startup as opposed to having to hold a different job while they develop their business. I believe this bootstrapping phase is important to our development as entrepreneurs. We learn time and budget management skills, as well as how to say “no”; sometimes the most important thing we can do is understand where our time is best spent. For those of us that are still looking for the opportunity to develop their startups exclusively, there are now over 22 different incubators across the country to apply to (8 of which are in our area). Read more here.

Source: Innovation Economy

It's great to see a third Boston-based venture capital firm joining the Open Office Hours Movement, Siemens Venture Capital.

Open Office Hours is a grass-roots initiative aimed at bringing down the barriers that typically separate early-stage and first-time entrepreneurs from getting good advice, or capital, from more established entrepreneurs, execs and investors.

Anupendra Sharma of Siemens Venture Capital notes that his group typically makes investments in smartgrid technologies, water, wind, solar, diagnostics, imaging, healthcare IT, manufacturing software, lighting, and transportation. (The same sectors that the German parent company operates in.) They're planning three Open Office Hours dates at their Back Bay offices. Sharma writes:

Instructions:

When: 2nd Fridays from 10-11:30 AM for the next three months (Dates: Dec 11, Jan 15, Feb 12)

Who: Anupendra Sharma, Eric Emmons and Andrew Jay, Partners @ SVC Boston office

How: Email Tina Gibson: tina.gibson@siemens.com.

What: Send Tina a) short description b) short pitch you can run through in 20 minutes / she'll have it ready to go so email it to her in advance c) names of who may attend d) what are you looking for / asking for help with. We'll provide coffee. Plan to be here for 30 minutes. If we can go longer, we will.

Source: United Press International

BOSTON, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've identified proteins that allow them to distinguish between cancer and normal cells with 97 percent accuracy.

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine and the Boston University Biomedical Engineering Department said in addition they've developed a computational strategy to identify key biological pathways that are active in cancer and "dormant" in normal cells.

The scientists said their findings will ultimately lead to the development of drugs specifically aimed to inhibit such cancer proteins. Click here to read more