f-star, an antibody engineering company developing novel antibodies and antibody fragments based on its unique Modular Antibody Technology, announced today that it has acquired future royalty obligations to New Century Pharmaceuticals via a one-off payment.

....click the link to read more 

Frost & Sullivan is launching a new end user study on outsourcing trends, perceptions, selection criteria, and other important dynamics to contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs). The study includes detailed interviews with more than 150 executives within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry involved in outsourcing to CMOs, with the objective of elucidating opportunities and threats and providing a greater understanding for parties interested in competing in this market.

....click the link to read more 

Washington, Jan 20 (ANI): Water might not be so unique after all, with researchers pointing out that the properties which were believed to be only present in water, might also be there in some simple molecules simulated by researchers.

....click the link to read more 

By precisely mapping what happens when individual molecules collide, researchers have uncovered unanticipated details about the mechanism of the bimolecular nucleophilic substitution (SN2) reaction , a fundamental molecular transformation in organic synthesis (Science 2008, 319, 183).

In the classic SN2 mechanism, when a nucleophile such as a chloride anion attacks a compound such as methyl iodide, methyl iodide ejects the iodide "leaving group" and, like a cheap umbrella in high winds, undergoes an inversion of configuration to yield methyl chloride.

....click the link to read more 

Wuxi PharmaTech Inc ., a Chinese contract researcher for nine of the world's top 10 drugmakers, agreed to buy closely held AppTec Laboratory Services Inc. for about $151 million to bolster biotechnology production.

AppTec, of St. Paul, Minnesota, is expected to have $70 million to $72 million in 2007 revenue with a compound annual growth rate of 46 percent since 2004, the companies said in a conference call today. Like Wuxi, AppTec provides laboratory testing of devices and biopharmaceuticals. Wuxi will also assume $11.7 million in debt.

....click the link to read more 

SHANGHAI, China--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rohm and Haas Company (NYSE:ROH), the leading supplier of binders and additives for the global paint and coatings industry, today officially launched the initial operations of its new manufacturing plant in Sanshui, Guangdong Province, China. To date, the company has invested approximately USD $10 million in this site, which will make products based on acrylic emulsion technology. This is a significant milestone for Rohm and Haas’s strategic footprint in China and further demonstrates the company’s commitment to chemical engineering in the South China coatings market.

....click the link to read more 

The helium we have on Earth has been built up over billions of years from the decay of natural uranium and thorium. The decay of these elements happens at an extremely slow pace. We have been using Helium at a steady rate and now face the prospect that he world's largest reserve, which is outside of Amarillo, Texas, could be depleted there within the next eight years.

As well as many deflated balloons, this would have a large negative impact on engineering, science and technology, according to Lee Sobotka, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

...click the link to read more

The lack of hazard information on the thousands of chemicals which are used in everyday products could be a potential ticking time bomb.  Some scientists believe that consumers need to focus on the enormous gaps in our understanding of how these chemicals affect health and the environment

The effects of human exposure to chemicals in consumer products are difficult to ascertain and are subject to dispute. As a result, there is a growing gap in the ways governments regulate chemicals.

....click the link to read more 

A report in 2004 did not see lead in bullets as a major hazard, However times change ---
LEAD IS DENSE and ductile, has a low melting point, and is inexpensive, making it long prized for molding into ammunition.  

....click the links to read more

Faced with low-cost competition from Indian and Chinese newcomers, established contract research firms elsewhere reach for the scientific high ground
EARLIER THIS MONTH, Sharon E. Tetlow, a senior vice president and the chief financial officer of the San Francisco-based biotech firm Cell Genesys , went to Shanghai for the first time. Cell Genesys already conducts research programs with contractors based in Europe and recently started working closely with a research partner in China.

....click the link to read more

Scientists at the University of Virginia have discovered a new class of hydrogen storage materials that could make the storage and transportation of energy much more efficient — and affordable — through higher-performing hydrogen fuel cells.
Bellave S. Shivaram and Adam B. Phillips, the U.Va. physicists who invented the new materials, will present their finding at the International Symposium on Materials Issues in a Hydrogen Economy at the Omni Hotel in Richmond, Va.

....click the link to read more

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have used a uniquely-constructed perforated diamond cell to investigate oxide glass structures at high pressures in unprecedented detail.