Improving the quality of life in Arizona to benefit future generations.
PADT has helped found a new company, XO Thermix, with two long time medical device industry veterans. The startup has licensed IP from the University of Minnesota that was developed by Dr. Erik Cressman and provides a new method for ablating tissue based on exothermic heating. Exothermic heating occurs when two appropriate chemicals, say an acid and a base, mix together and release heat.
Researchers in Mexico have found that three common species of bacteria have voracious appetites for methyltestosterone (MT), a potentially harmful steroid that fish farmers use to change the sex of tilapia. The discovery may eventually result in a safer environment for farm workers and nearby residents and wildlife. It has global implications given that tilapia is raised in more than 100 countries, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently renewed two important cooperative agreements totaling more than $12.5 million over five years. These awards leverage previous investments for studying the ethical, legal, economic and policy implications of the relatively new, nature-altering science called nanotechnology.
The Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University received $6,507,000 over a five year renewal, while the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at University of California, Santa Barbara received $6,076,000 for the same time period.
Nanotechnology allows researchers and manufacturers to controll matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Societal benefits of using the science to create new materials, devices for medicine, electronics and energy production could be transformative. But creating such things through molecular manipulation raises health and safety risks as well as ethical and legal questions.
US Oncology, Inc., the nation's leading integrated oncology company, announced today that it has enrolled the 1,000th patient in a Phase I clinical trial through its US Oncology Research Network. Phase I clinical trials present special challenges, including increased safety concerns, higher variability of patient disease, more complex trial designs, and some first-in-human trials, making Phase I trials more difficult to operate in the community setting.
Weight bearing gait aides such as conventional walkers and belts could quickly become a thing of the past in rehabilitation centers of hospitals as Secure Tracks (http://www.securetracks.com) today announced the launch of its innovative new patient support system. Customized for each hospital’s unique needs, Secure Tracks is a purely mechanical system that consists of a ceiling-mounted monorail track, an exclusive trolley and a U-shaped support device that allows patients to stand completely upright and walk with a natural gait without the need for a harness.
Take a little Arizona sunshine and mix in water and some cow manure.
It's the perfect recipe for what some see as the next major industry for the state: algae farming.
Arizona with its sunny, warm climate has been hailed as the ideal region for algae biomass production. Proponents hope that algae, which can contain up to 60 percent oil, can some day squeeze out a petroleum substitute that could be produced at a price low enough to compete with natural gas.
But first, researchers must find the best way to mass produce the crop, something that several companies in the state are hustling to do.
One Arizona firm, Phyco Biosciences, is banking on its agricultural-style series of plastic-lined troughs bubbling with oxygen and nutrients to commercialize algae biomass.
Many lizard and snake species populations are crashing at Organ Pipe National Monument, researchers have found.
The declines match a recently discovered global decline in snakes and lizards that scientists say could be linked to climate change.
University of Arizona research scientist Phil Rosen said his analysis found 50 percent declines in eight snake species and a half-dozen lizard species that he has trapped for 22 years at Organ Pipe Monument, about 140 miles southwest of Tucson.
Genetically modified crops benefit both farmers (by reducing the need for purchasing expensive pesticides) and consumers (by providing crops that studies have shown are safer and healthier than conventional food, as well as cheaper, given the economic benefits to farmers). Now a new study shows a third group gains from GM crops: farmers growing conventional corn next to GM fields.
Mayo Clinic has signed a contract with UnitedHealthcare that allows the health insurer's commercial-plan customers to have access to Mayo's physicians, hospitals and clinics.
The contract gives UnitedHealthcare customers "in-network" rates at Mayo Clinic's facilities in Arizona; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Rochester, Minn.
UnitedHealthcare officials say the contract benefits its customers by providing them access to Mayo's cutting-edge medical technology and services.
The University of Arizona has won two federal grants to start two public-health training centers.
Hundreds of people will get free job training through the new centers at the UA's Zuckerman College of Public Health.
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