28/03/2008 - Boston Business Journal

Verizon Communications Inc. Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg said that he expects Massachusetts to play a key role in the company’s future growth, but warned excessive government regulation could retard its ability to provide innovative services.

Seidenberg spoke at the Boston College Chief Executives’ Club of Boston luncheon, where he laid out Verizon’s (NYSE: VZ) plans to continue its investment in the area.

“Massachusetts is an important market for Verizon, as well as a locus for significant investment and innovation,” he said. “We’re making these investments in Massachusetts because, like all technology-driven businesses, we’re big believers that investment and innovation are the keys to long-term growth.”

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Ted Agres, Contributing Editor
Drug Discovery & Development - October 01, 2007

Policy & Projections

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) appears to be taking a cautious, deliberative approach as it approaches the myriad of scientific and regulatory issues involving nanobiotechnology and nanomedicine. After nearly a year of study, the FDA’s Nanotechnology Task Force is merely recommending the agency study the matter more fully and consider developing guidance for industry to assess the benefits and risks of drugs and medical devices using nanotechnology.

The report, issued in July, says the FDA should improve its scientific knowledge about nanoscale materials and determine whether it has the necessary tools to describe and evaluate their use. The report stops well short of recommending any specific regulatory actions, such as mandatory labeling, as many consumer and environmental groups have urged.

http://www.dddmag.com/FDA-nanotechnology.aspx

Source: The Military and aerospace blog
Component suppliers who even suspect that their products might be designed into military systems need to take steps to protect themselves from potential violations of International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). If they don’t, they risk serious trouble.

I’m not talking about just fines; I’m talking about losing your company. The bottom line is protecting yourself. This is risky — to the point that in extreme circumstances you could be working at Wendy’s the next day, warns Dean Young, facilities security officer for Celestica Aerospace Technologies in Austin, Texas.

Young made his comments Wednesday in a panel discussion at the Military & Aerospace Electronics Forum (MAEF) conference and trade show in San Diego, which concluded Wednesday afternoon.

Component suppliers should be on guard for ITAR issues, particularly if they are doing business with the large prime defense contractors. Most of these large companies have ITAR organizations in place to help their suppliers navigate often-treacherous ITAR waters, but sometimes problems can occur, experts admit.

To know more, click here.

Source: site Amplitude Laser

The Tangerine series of ultrafast fiber amplifiers has been awarded an honorable mention during the PHAST/Laser Focus World innovation awards.

Colocated with the CLEO conference, may 4-9, 2008, San Jose, California, PHAST (PHotonics Applications, Systems and Technologies addresses advanced photonics technological solutions.

Tangerine is a unique ultrafast fiber amplifier, offering simultaneously high average power and high pulse energy for applications where process quality and speed are the key to an efficient and economically advantageous solution.

Tangerine ultrafast fiber amplifier

Source: optics.org

The world’s most powerful wide-angle survey telescope uses a huge two-in-one mirror to become the widest, fastest and deepest eye of the new digital age.

The casting of a giant two-in-one mirror will enable Arizona’s Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) to capture the entire available night sky once every three days. The ground-based telescope will provide time-lapse digital images that will allow astronomers to track moving objects such as planet-approaching asteroids and comets.

Each image will be recorded at high resolution by a 3.2 billion pixel camera arrayed in a 64 cm detector. The unique optics will allow the LSST to see a section of sky roughly 40 times the size of the full moon, while conventional large telescopes are only able to image sections of sky just of a fraction of the size of the moon.

To know more, click here.

Source: optics.org

Optical trapping is a rapidly advancing and versatile field. Kishan Dholakia speaks to Marie Freebody about the breakthroughs so far and his expectations for the future.

Kishan Dholakia

Kishan Dholakia heads the Optical Trapping Group at the University of St Andrews in the UK. His pioneering research into optical landscapes has enabled complex patterns of light to sort, separate or transform many molecules or cells at once. Applications that benefit from this research range from single-cell analysis to fundamental studies of light.

Can you summarize how optical trapping works?
If we focus a laser beam to a small spot of the order of 1/1000th of a millimetre, we can form a trap. A transparent object or bead will refract light causing a change in the light’s momentum. This attracts the bead to the centre of the laser point where an equal amount of light is refracted in all directions. Some light is reflected, which means that the final equilibrium position of the sphere is close to, but not exactly at, the beam focus.

To know more, click here.

Friday, March 21, 2008
Boston Business Journal - by Mark Hollmer

The Massachusetts Senate passed its version of a $1 billion life sciences initiative late Thursday, bringing an economic incentive package heralded by Gov. Deval Patrick closer to reality.

In a statement, Patrick said the 10-year investment of grants, tax and education incentives would bring “together the resources of our unparalleled research universities, teaching hospitals and industry” to create jobs.

The bill has several dozen amendments and must now be reconciled with a different version passed by the Massachusetts House last month.

Patrick and the life sciences industry said the investment is necessary to keep the life sciences sector growing. Some business leaders want the investment spread among other industries as well.

By Shirley S. Wang
Word Count: 1,048 | Companies Featured in This Article: Novartis, NitroMed, Genentech, Pfizer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson

As pharmaceutical makers find it increasingly difficult to bring new drugs to market, they are turning to genetic tools to seek uses for medicines that failed to make it out of the development pipeline. The discovery of new links between genes and diseases can help not only to design new treatments, but to salvage drugs that are shelved when they come up short in clinical trials. The idea is “to take some of these compounds, capitalize on past investments sitting idle, and now selectively accelerate them in the development process,” says Terry Hisey, a pharmaceutical-industry strategist at the consultancy Deloitte …

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120631682077958247.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

Friday, March 21, 2008 - 10:56 AM EDT
Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology - Mass High Tech

The Massachusetts state Senate approved a $1 billion life sciences stimulus bill in a 32-4 vote Thursday, the State House News Service reports.

The bill is now headed to House and Senate committees to finalize the package.

The Senate approved the legislation three weeks after the House passed a version of the bill, intended to fuel growth in the life sciences sector over the next 10 years.

The package includes a $500 million public bond to pay for capital projects in the life sciences sector, $250 million in research grants, and $250 million in tax incentives for firms in the industry that create jobs in the state. To know more, click here.

Stem cell experts await new president

All three presidential candidates have voiced support for expanded federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, and scientists at a conference in California are hopeful that new policies could open up research opportunities. “The rubber could hit the road within months,” said the director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. “It’s not rocket science. We know how to do it.” The Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) (3/19)

Courtesy BIO SmartBrief

McCain’s proposed health policy sparks debate
A proposal by Sen. John McCain that encourages Americans to purchase cheaper drugs from Canada could amount to a $40 billion loss for the drug industry over 10 years. Supporters say McCain’s health care proposal would help the 47 million uninsured Americans get access to care, but critics warn it could encourage the importation of fake drugs and raise insurance premiums. Bloomberg (3/20)

Courtesy BIO SmartBrief

Biotech experts discuss industry opportunities
A panel of biotech firm executives at a recent conference discussed the market for therapies aimed at senior citizens, RNAi technologies, federal regulations for stem cell research, incorporating diagnostics into R&D and other issues critical to helping the industry advance. Knowledge@Wharton (free registration) (3/19)

Courtesy BIO SmartBrief

Source: Security Solutions

ABI Research says that the video surveillance market is poised for explosive growth, which the firm forecasts to expand from revenue of about $13.5 billion in 2006 to $46 billion in 2013. Those figures include cameras, computers and storage, professional services and hardware infrastructure: everything that goes into an end-to-end security system.

According to ABI Research vice president and research director Stan Schatt, “We’re at a key inflection point in the diverse video surveillance market, because we’re moving from an analog-based industry to a digital one. A rising tide lifts all boats: the result is a multitude of opportunities for vendors.”

Source:

Source: Security solutions

ABI Research says that the video surveillance market is poised for explosive growth, which the firm forecasts to expand from revenue of about $13.5 billion in 2006 to $46 billion in 2013. Those figures include cameras, computers and storage, professional services and hardware infrastructure: everything that goes into an end-to-end security system.

According to ABI Research vice president and research director Stan Schatt, “We’re at a key inflection point in the diverse video surveillance market, because we’re moving from an analog-based industry to a digital one. A rising tide lifts all boats: the result is a multitude of opportunities for vendors.”

Video surveillance finds uses in a variety of vertical markets such as retail, education, banking, transportation and corporate business. But it can also transcend the security industry. New facial recognition software can analyze shoppers’ behavior within stores, for example, tracking eyeball movements as shoppers view product displays.

European video surveillance markets are more mature than those in North America (some say the UK, with its 4.1 million surveillance cameras, is the most monitored society on earth), but massive deployments are also now taking place in North America and, in connection with the upcoming Olympics, in China.

To know more, click here.

Source: Bio Optics World

By using confocal multiphoton microscopy, researchers from the Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami Miller School Of Medicine and Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm, Sweden) have been able to view for the first time ever how transplanted insulin-secreting cells function when they are inside a living organism.

To know more, click here.

Biotech firms seek reverse mergers for access to capital
Private biotech companies are looking at reverse mergers in the public sector to counter the slow public offering market. Biotech firms are seeking companies that have had financial troubles or public shells as a way to gain access to capital markets.

Courtesy BioWorld Online

Source: Optics.org

A new holographic technique that achieves dynamic high-contrast imaging offers a unique solution for studying biological processes at the molecular level.

To know more, click here.

Source: Bio optics World, March

Pour acceder a la version en ligne, cliquez ici.

En page 5 : “Multiphoton microscopy aids development of antivirus vaccines” (NIAID au NIH a Besthesda)

En page 10: “Supercontinuum lasers begin to shine on biomedicine” (on y parle de Fianium et de notre ami Vladimir Kozlov-qui ne m’aime pas beaucoup je crois….)

En page 14: des news d’IMRA: “IMRA switches gears following eye-laser deal with Carl Zeiss Meditec”

En page 16: ” Two methods for super resolution imamging” (FLIM et STED)

Un dossier tres interessant, p.25 a 27 sur la microendoscopie. On y parle de Mauna Kea technologies. Et en page 26, a point nomme, une PUB D’IMAGINE OPTIC…c’est beau. Bravo pour vos campagnes de pub toujours bien placees!

p.30:”Ultrafast lasers advance deep tissue imaging”; article de Coherent. Theme: CARS.

Source: HS Daily Wire

Deuxieme edition pour ce salon. Pour en savoir plus : http://www.globalbordersecurity.com/

Boston Globe /
March 13, 2008

[...] The ramp-up by technology companies is reflected in state workforce data that show Massachusetts gained about 8,400 jobs in professional, scientific, and technical services last year, a 3.4 percent increase in one of the key high-tech labor categories. The state also added 2,100 jobs in scientific research and development, and another 800 in the information sector, which includes software publishing.

At the same time, Massachusetts lost 2,600 jobs in manufacturing and 3,300 in construction, many of them tied to the slumping housing and building industries, according to figures from the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. A survey by the Federal Reserve, released last week, indicated the supply of skilled labor remains tight in New England, especially in such fields as technology, engineering, finance, and biopharmaceuticals.[...] more

Tags: Boston, Economy

Source: Space War Express
Researchers at The University of Alabama in Huntsville have developed a wide-angle camera that will be able to provide security forces with the ability to monitor large areas through high-resolution images taken from a satellite or an airborne craft, according to researcher David Pollock. It was Pollock who first discovered that if you point a large number of lenses toward a common point, and then make a small correction on each of the lenses, you provide a camera with capabilities that far surpass existing technologies.

“If you look at high-resolution images taken by satellite or aircraft, the field-of-view in those photographs is tiny,” he said. “This camera provides anyone with the ability to view the entire scene and, simultaneously, zoom in closely on a certain area with very high resolution at real time.”

Flying at an altitude of 15,000 feet, a developmental version of the camera can see a 21-kilometer diameter area with a resolution of 0.3 meters. As a comparison, most Google Earth imagery is 1 meter.

The optics systems patent shared by UAHuntsville and Sony Corp. provides this unique coverage and resolution, according to Pollock.

Images from existing cameras have to be tiled like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle before a full picture can be seen. This can create problems for security forces, such as Department of Defense, border or harbor patrol or homeland security. For example, vehicles can end up appearing more than once if they move from one image to the next between exposures. These types of errors frequently exist in online mapping tools, such as Google Earth or Microsoft’s Virtual Earth, according to Pollock.

That’s where researchers at UAHuntsville stepped in to configure an array of light sensitive chips - each one recording small parts of a larger image - and place them at the focal plane of a large multiple-lens system. The system has the structure of a common kitchen utensil, a colander. The camera would have one giga-pixel resolution, and be able to record images at five frames per second.

ArguSight, an Illinois-based company, has signed a licensing agreement with the university and seeking venture capital to bring the product to the commercial marketplace. CEO Stuart Claggett compares the product to a popular TV product.

“The complete camera system is like a ‘TIVO’ in the sky,” he said. “It captures high-quality imagery and records all the data. A user can request numerous high-definition video windows of live data in real-time or you can review all of the video on demand on the ground when the aircraft lands.”

Ultimately the camera can cover nearly a hemispherical field-of-view with uniform image quality and sensitivity. The initial camera design constraint was to obtain greater than 109 samples within a 10 x 10 km ground footprint. It was quickly realized that with 4 mega-samples (mega-pixel) per camera this would require 271 cameras. The constraint leads to significant, greater than 90 percent sample redundancy.

Reducing the redundancy to less than 1 percent significantly expands the field-of-view, Pollock said. Further, because of the modular nature, the field-of-view can be configured to suit specific applications.

For example, what one might call a Mohawk, an arc of cameras would sample a long, narrow strip. Also, a camera that can operate in other spectral regions, with a field-of-view configuration and a sample size to suit the application is feasible, according to Pollock. He states that software development to fully exploit the camera data capacity continues.

Pollock said the camera could have far-reaching implications for the military, crime prevention and enforcement as well as traffic analysis and emergency response support. The giga-pixel camera will fit in a one-meter cube, could be flown on any type of vehicle - airplanes, helicopters, blimps or unmanned aerial vehicles.

UAHuntsville filed the patent for the large-format giga-pixel camera and shares that patent on a 50-50 basis with Sony Corp.

Source: Biophotonics.com

Bahaa Saleh has been named dean of the University of Central Florida (UCF) College of Optics and Photonics and director of the UCF Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL). He will replace Eric Van Stryland, who intends to focus on his research in nonlinear optics, UCF said in a statement. The two will work together during the transition. UCF said Saleh’s appointment will begin sometime in 2009. Saleh, a professor and chairman of the electrical and computer engineering department at Boston University (BU) since 1994 and co-director of its Quantum Imaging Laboratory, is deputy director of the National Science Foundation Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems. His research interests include statistical and quantum optics, optical communication and signal processing, nonlinear optics, photodetectors, image processing and vision. He has written Photoelectron Statistics and Fundamentals of Photonics and numerous articles and conference proceedings. He was editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Optical Society of America (OSA) from 1991 to 1997 and is currently editor-in-chief of Advances in Optics and Photonics. A member of the Boston University Photonics Center, Saleh is a fellow of OSA, IEEE and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Cairo University in 1966 and a PhD from Johns Hopkins in 1971. He was a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin at Madison from 1977 to 1994, and he has taught and conducted research at the University of Santa Catarina in Brazil, Kuwait University, the Max Planck Institute in Germany, the University of California at Berkeley, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and Columbia University. Saleh was awarded the 1999 OSA Esther Hoffman Beller Award for his contributions to optical science and engineering education, the 2004 SPIE/BACUS award for photomask technology and the 2006 Kuwait Prize for optical science

Source: FCW.com

The Homeland Security Department will hire Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory for independent testing of the next-generation technology system that DHS plans to deploy later this year to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.

DHS hired Boeing in December to develop the new command and control center and common operating picture (COP) system, which officials say will replace much of the system Boeing created under Project 28 in Arizona. DHS initially tasked Boeing to design a prototype for securing a 28-mile stretch along the Arizona border. Officials say that Project 28 equipment swapped out of Tucson may be redeployed elsewhere.

Project 28 and COP represent the key initial task orders of DHS’ multibillion-dollar, multiyear initiative to use a mix of virtual and tactical efforts to bolster security along the border.

The announcement of Customs and Border Protection’s plans to hire Johns Hopkins as an independent tester is not unusual; independent verification is common practice in large government contracts. However, insufficient operational testing by CBP before the system was delivered is one of the reasons credited for Project 28’s delays.

DHS accepted Project 28 eight months late and government auditors have said that a lack of testing of its mixture of sensors, cameras and radio towers ahead of delivery by the border patrol was partly to blame for the delays.

Richard Stana, director of homeland security and justice at the Government Accountability Office, said at a hearing of the House Appropriations Committee’s Homeland Security Subcommittee today that going forward, three major lessons must be adhered to: CBP needs to be involved earlier in defining the requirements of the system, equipment and software needs to be tested before the system is fielded and deployed, and overall expectations and timeframes may need to be tamped down.

“I think it’s important as we move on and put Project 28 behind us, so to speak, not to lose those lessons,” Stana said. “Test the equipment and the software before you field it, before you deploy it — you will save yourself lots of problems.”

Stana noted that Boeing had acknowledged the issue and said it was working to resolve it.

To know more, click here.

Source: optics.org

A new laser technique could spot counterfeit gemstones without damaging the material.

A team at New Mexico State University (NMSU) has used an ultrashort pulse laser from Raydiance to uniquely identify individual gemstones with certainty, and differentiate fake stones from the real thing. “Lasers have been used in the past to determine the type, origin and quality of gemstones, but until now we had never seen a laser that did not cause damage to the stone and lower its value,” explained Nancy McMillan of NMSU to optics.org.

An optical technique called laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), in which a focused laser ablates a small area of a specimen’s surface so that the resulting tiny plume of plasma can be analysed, has been applied to gemstones in the past, but with limited success.

“Gems have been analysed by nanosecond LIBS and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), but both leave unacceptably noticeable damage trails on the stones,” said McMillan.

To know more, click here.

“In Boston, Michael Brennan, property manager for the private company that operates the South Station bus terminal, said total passenger traffic has risen about 2,000 people a day in recent years to 12,000 on average, driven by lower fares and the ease of use compared to flying. Business travelers and students alike take advantage of the low fares.”

“Buses aren’t alone in seeing traffic spikes to New York. Amtrak reports it carried 613,000 people between its three Boston-area stops last year and New York’s Penn Station, up from 460,800 in 2006. At the same time, air travel seems to be under pressure: Farecompare.com shows 624,679 passengers flying from Boston’s Logan airport to New York’s LaGuardia airport for the first 11 months of 2007, the latest data available. That’s about 10,000 fewer people than in the same period in 2006. Rick Seaney, the firm’s chief executive, said the difference likely reflects fewer seats on the route and rising costs pressuring people to take the train or bus.”

More from Boston Globe

Un article sur l’optique adaptative en p.69: “an adaptative optics phase correction mechanism combined with a specially designed filter can prevent catastrophic damage to critical optical components in a high intensity laser system”.

Et on vous a vus, Amplitude: belle photo de Tangerine dans la page “new products” p.93. Mais pourquoi ne pas mettre l’adresse email d’Amplitude Laser? Imagine Optic aussi: belle pub en p.71! BRAVO!

Source: HSDaily

Project 28, built by Boeing along twenty-eight miles of the Arizona-Mexico border, was meant to showcase advanced border security technologies which DHS would use in the more ambitious $8 billion border surveillance system along the U.S.-Mexico border; DHS initially said that the project’s technology failed to deliver on its promise, and gave Boeing a three-year extension; DHS now defends its handling of the project.

To know more, click here.

On avait ete en contact avec lui pour Massport.

Source: HSDaily

Airport security is about more than lighters and scissors; it is about offering efficient and effective answers to this daunting challenge; industry’s innovative technologies, and close cooperation between industry and government, are two essential ingredients of such answers

When homeland security issues are raised, more often than not the discussion begins with airport security. With millions of passengers — many arriving from or departing to foreign destinations — and tons of baggage and cargo passing through our commercial airports each day, maintaining security is a daunting challenge. Often overlooked in debates over permitting scissors or cigarette lighters on board an aircraft is the close cooperation developed between the federal government and the security industry. Equipment manufacturers are working with government agencies to design and test new technologies that can provide higher levels of security, while moving passengers through the security process more quickly. Advances in video technology are being deployed in airports and expected to play a large role in increasing overall security. A project currently underway for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which operates Boston’s Logan International Airport, uses a video intrusion detection system to help monitor the airport’s waterfront perimeter. The system includes the installation of fixed and dome cameras, along with infrared cameras capable of detecting intruders at night and during poor weather conditions. The cameras integrate with automated surveillance software that triggers an audible alarm when violations of security rules, such as movement in restricted areas, are detected. The software provides full-time monitoring of incoming video signals, which can enhance the effectiveness of onsite security personnel by extending their coverage to other areas of concern. The completed system also features a wireless network that can provide security staff with fire-walled, secure command-and-control capabilities through a wireless, Web-enabled remote management system. Other airports are employing another system to help security personnel better determine when unauthorized personnel enter a restricted area. The system uses stereo optical tracking with machine vision technology to provide real-time video that is tied into an airport’s existing access control system. This combined system can better distinguish between people and objects to help determine whether unauthorized individuals enter secure areas through doorways using practices commonly referred to as tailgating or piggybacking. Tailgating occurs when one authorized person holds the protected door open for another person that he or she knows or perceives to be authorized. This practice completely removes the authorization system from the process and circumvents the system’s ability to reject a revoked or counterfeit pass or badge. Another form of unauthorized entry is piggybacking, which can occur at heavily used doors, such as in an airport baggage area, when unauthorized personnel slip though the door behind authorized personnel. The system also alerts security personnel when a person tries to block a door from completely closing in order to enter once the area is clear. The Department of Homeland Security has cited airport passenger exits as one of the weak points in airport security. A new security system uses video and microwave technologies to monitor these exits for possible security breeches. The system targets intruders attempting to bypass airport security checkpoints by going the wrong way through an airport exit, or those who attempt to throw weapons or other objects to an accomplice waiting on the other side. Detecting movement, the system uses microwave technology to scan for people or objects traveling in the wrong direction. If spotted, the system erupts with flashing lights and a loud alarm warning that a security breech has occurred. Simultaneously, video surveillance cameras provide live and recorded video of the breech to airport police, providing them instantaneously with an image of the suspect. Today, with so many airport police equipped with wireless PDAs, the images can be quickly disseminated to officers throughout the airport, aiding in apprehension efforts. These are but few examples of how the security industry has stepped forward to work with federal officials to create new products and find new applications for existing technology in order better to secure our airports. Paul Brisgone is national director of ADT’s Federal Systems Division.

Research Triangle Park, N.C.
Nanotech Co. Liquidia Finally Finds A CEO
Nanotechnology company Liquidia Technologies Inc. has finally found a permanent chief executive.
http://www.liquidia.com

February 19, 2008
By John Carroll

Massachusetts creates a new biotech economic development model

If some of the most ambitious states can be criticized for anything, it’s limiting the scope of their support to a specific research field like stem cells. Massachusetts is poised to go after a much more ambitious agenda, and state officials–led by Governor Deval Patrick–are factoring in the kinds of figures that could have a big impact around the Boston area, home to one of the biggest biotech clusters in the world.

Massachusetts already has good credentials as a leader in the biotech field. The scientific brains at MIT and Harvard and other institutions in the college-rich Boston area spawned the kind of development programs that helped spur the creation of a host of new companies. And as the companies grew up, the hub effect started to take over, with venture capitalists moving in and executives leaving to form their own start-ups. It’s the kind of basic, ground-up approach to hub-building that several other states on this list are hoping to foster.

But the state has also earned a reputation as a tough place to do business of any kind. Simple things like permitting new facilities became a notorious chore. The cost of living is high. And many of the development incentives that other states have touted for years have been absent in Massachusetts.

Until now.

The Legislature appears ready to OK the final version of a long contested bill that will provide $1 billion in backing for biotechnology. Much of that money will go to a new life sciences center at the University of Massachusetts, with other funds for tax incentives, new equipment purchases and training. Stem cell research isn’t neglected. Massachusetts intends to become the largest repository of new stem cell lines for research. There are also plenty of reported strings on this money, including one provision that may require any companies that benefit from their funds to have their U.S. headquarters in the state. In a global business like biotechnology, parochial concerns like that would only blunt the initiative’s intended effect.

Nevertheless, if the incentives perform as expected, Massachusetts has the potential to become a new kind of trendsetter, creating an incentive program that a broad range of states can compete with.

Courtesy FierceBiotech

Cambridge start-up gets into gene sequencing biz

Cambridge, Massachusetts has been home to many of the world’s most innovating drug developers–and now it’s home to a start-up in the biotech fold that is pioneering a pricey new service to map the entire genetic code of individuals. Two people have agreed to fork over the $350,000 fee to Knome to have their genome mapped, a privilege restricted to only a very short list of people whose genomes have been sequenced in high-profile research projects.

“I’d rather spend my money on my genome than a Bentley or an airplane,” Dan Stoicescu, a Swiss biotechnology entrepreneur (and millionaire), told The New York Times.

Bargain hunters might want to wait a bit. The price of sequencing–which will open the door to determining individual reactions to drugs and the risk of diseases–is coming down fast, and some technology players in the space are aiming for a $10,000 price tag. The last word on this topic goes to James D. Watson, the scientist whose genome was sequenced earlier by another company as a freebie demonstration project.

“I was in someone’s Bentley once–nice car,” he told the Times. “Would I rather have my genome sequenced or have a Bentley? Uh, toss up.”

- read the report in the New York Times
- see Knome’s release on its first clients

Source: optic.org

Zygo has entered the market for in-line inspection of flip-chip substrates and packaged integrated circuits with its acquisition of Canadian-based Solvision and its Singapore subsidiary. The deal reflects Zygo’s strategy of moving to in-line process control applications and expands the company’s semiconductor presence beyond wafer-level inspection, according to a statement. Continued product development will occur in Montreal, while the integrated circuits packaging inspection product line will continue to be developed and manufactured in Singapore.

Source: optics.org

The most intense laser in the world could improve radiation treatment of cancer and shed new light on ultra fast light-matter interactions.

A 300 TW laser with an intensity of 2×10²² W/cm² has been developed by researchers in the US. They claim that the laser, which is a modification of an existing 50 TW laser, sets new records for both output power and beam intensity. What’s more, the laser can produce the intense beam once every ten seconds, while existing petawatt-scale lasers can take up to an hour to recharge (Optics Express 16 2109).

“We have demonstrated the highest power and highest intensity repetitive short-pulse laser,” Victor Yanovsky, a researcher at the University of Michigan, told optics.org. “Several groups are working on these types of laser, but we made it first by upgrading our existing 50 TW Hercules laser system.”

The Ti:sapphire laser emits at a wavelength of 800 nm with a repetition rate of 0.1 Hz and a pulse duration of 30 fs. The researchers believe that such intense lasers may be helpful in developing better proton and electron beams for radiation treatment of cancer, among other applications.

“The aim of our research was to investigate the basic science of light-matter interactions at ultrahigh intensity and particle acceleration,” commented Yanovsky. “New physics such as radiation reactions, quantum effects and relativistic ion plasma is predicted at high intensities. Practical applications of particle acceleration include ion cancer therapy.”

The team increased the intensity of its 50 TW Hercules laser system by focusing the beam to a wavelength-limited spot measuring 1.3 µm. The Hercules design is based on chirped-pulse amplification, which uses diffraction gratings to stretch a very short duration laser pulse so that it lasts 50,000 times longer.

“Nanojoule-energy short pulses with a duration of 10 fs are expanded by 50,000 times to a pulsewidth of 0.5 ns using a grating-based stretcher,” explained Yanovsky. “This stretched pulse can then be amplified to much higher energies without damaging the optics in its path. We passed the beam through a series of Ti:sapphire crystals, which boosts the pulse energy to around 20 J.”

After the beam is amplified, an optical compressor reverses the stretching and squeezing of the laser pulse until it’s close to its original duration. The beam is then focused to a tiny spot using adaptive optics, resulting in an ultra high intensity beam.

“The beam is compressed to 30 fs using a grating-based vacuum compressor,” explained Yanovsky. “We then use a f/1 parabolic mirror to focus the beam to a 1.3 um spot - this increases intensity by 8 orders of magnitude.”

The next steps for the team are to shorten the pulse duration to 10 fs and stabilize the carrier-envelope phase.

Source: optics.org

Adaptive optics and dynamic wavefront control shrink the focal spot to increase the intensity of a pulsed petawatt laser.

A French team has combined adaptive optics (AO) with an elaborate alignment system to effectively correct wavefront aberrations in a high peak-power laser, achieving focal spots close to the diffraction limit. “The optimization procedure produces a considerable improvement in focal spot quality with a Strehl ratio of 0.7 for full-energy kilojoule shots,” Ji-Ping Zou of the LULI laboratory told optics.org. “The procedure, once integrated into our control system, is straightforward and there are no operational penalties.” (Applied Optics 47 704.)

The LULI (Laboratoire pour l’Ulilisation des Lasers Intenses) laser delivers kilojoule pulses in the nanosecond range at 1053 nm, and is capable of reaching the petawatt regime through chirped pulse amplification.

Zou’s group classified the wavefront aberrations in the source into three categories, and tackled each separately:

• Aberrations resulting from static imperfections of the optical elements and beam misalignment.
• Thermally induced aberrations appearing before, during and after a single shot caused by non-uniformity of heat deposition from the pump light.
• Cumulative thermal effects that build up in the LULI system during a sequence of shots and further degrade the laser wavefront through thermal relaxation during the following hours.

“We distinguish the thermally induced aberrations into two classes because their correction is different,” noted Zou.

The first category of aberrations is minimized by precise beam realignment between two successive shots, combined with a closed-loop AO system employing a bimorph deformable mirror with 32 actuators (see Adaptive solution). An additional semi-automatic realignment of beam pointing and centring between shots controls the second category, while the AO system tackles the third group.

“This combination enables residual thermal tilt to be corrected before running the closed-loop AO system,” said Zou. “Also the response matrices of the deformable mirror are always the same, so the closed-loop runs under good conditions.”

The result has been reproducible focal spots close to the diffraction limit for full-energy kilojoule shots fired at one shot per hour. Zou’s group has achieved a focal spot with a Strehl ratio - a measure of the fractional drop in light intensity as a function of wavefront error - of 0.7. The focal intensity can therefore reach 2.2 x 10¹⁸ W/cm² in the kilojoule per nanosecond range, and intensities as high as 10²¹ W/cm² are foreseen by Zou. Shot-to-shot reproducibility of the focal spot is said to be excellent, which is very important for laser-matter interaction experiments.

wave distortion

“I think this result is excellent in comparison with similar laser systems around the world,” commented Zou. “There are some costs involved in the AO system and the semi-automatic alignment module, but this is a one-time investment.” Once the system is in place the shot repetition rate, which is usually limited by the recovery time of the laser amplifiers, can be doubled with a clear economic advantage.

“Our next steps include studying more efficient pumping and cooling systems to minimize thermal effects, and investigating a hybrid AO system composed of a deformable mirror and a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator,” said Zou. “Efforts will also be made to increase the laser pulse contrast, defined as the ratio between the main pulse and temporal noises around it.”

Debate over follow-ons focus on market exclusivity

The Boston Globe weighs in with a lengthy look at the tussle over biogenerics–a.k.a. follow-ons and biosimilars. The smart money is betting that at some point in the not-too-distant future Congress will get around to giving the FDA authority to approve biogenerics on a case-by-case basis. But don’t expect the biotech lobbyists to back off of this issue anytime soon. As a concession, BIO is seeking 14-year market exclusivity for biotech drugs to compensate developers for the time it takes to gain approvals for these complex therapies. And they may come close: Lawmakers including Massachusetts’ Ted Kennedy are backing a 12-year period of exclusivity.

- read the article in the Boston Globe

Boston Globe / March 1, 2008

As the epicenter of biotechnology in Massachusetts, Cambridge is home to top university researchers and scores of companies, including Genzyme Corp., Biogen Idec Inc., and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. But as lab space in the city becomes increasingly scarce and expensive, several biotech companies have recently taken flight to the suburbs.

Cambridge-based Shire Human Genetic Therapies last month said it will move its headquarters and many of its 675 local employees to the site of the former Raytheon Co. headquarters in Lexington. Altus Pharmaceuticals Inc., which has 160 workers, plans to move its headquarters to a Waltham office park this summer. And several smaller biotech companies, such as ImmunoGen Inc., WMR BioMedical Inc., Magen Biosciences, and Microbia PE Inc., all recently decided to move their operations from Cambridge to nearby towns, according to real estate firm Colliers Meredith & Grew.

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