- Former CSO Dr. Uwe Marx leaves for academia –
ProBioGen AG, a leading biotechnology company in cell engineering and production of biopharmaceuticals, today announced that Dr. Volker Sandig has been appointed to Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of the company. He will take over the duties of Dr. Uwe Marx, who will take an opportunity to lead an entrepreneurial innovation team at the Technical University Berlin.
In his 2002 novel Prey, Michael Crichton develops a scary scenario about the impact of “molecular manufacturing”, i.e. the convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, and information & communication technologies. The concept focuses on the risks of self-replicating, so-called “nanoscale assemblers” and was originally published by scientists K. Eric Drexler (former co-founder of the Foresight Institute) and Richard Feynman. Criticized and challenged by fellow scientists such as Nobel Prize winner Richard Smalley, the concept of molecular manufacturing nevertheless reflects society´s fear of novel, unknown technologies – specifically, the fear of losing control over some seemingly overwhelming artificial power.
MediGene AG today reported the results for its fiscal year 2009 and an outlook for 2010. Moreover, the company announced that its Chief Financial Officer Dr. Thomas Klaue will resign from office after the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting on May 11, 2010. He will be succeeded by Arnd Christ, formerly CFO of Swiss-based biotech company NovImmune. For further details, please click here.
For the first time, scientists have revealed why dark roasted coffee makes for a more stomach-friendly brew than lighter roast varieties. That’s good news for all of us who would like to benefit from coffee as it decreases the risks for obesity, Alzheimer’s and colon cancer, but often refrain from drinking it because it irritates the stomach and spurs heartburn.
Affectis Pharmaceuticals AG today announced it has raised €3.3M in the first tranche of a Series D financing. Existing investors LSP, Aescap Venture, KfW, Bayernkapital and EMBL Ventures were participating in the round. Moreover, the company announced the appointment of Alex Martin as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Martin had previously served on the Supervisory Board of Affectis and joined the company fulltime as CFO in August of 2009. He succeeds founding CEO Herbert Stadler, who is retiring.
Almost everybody has been to – or at least heard of – public readings and performances called poetry slam. Hosted by unkown, upcoming writers, these events offer a great opportunity to present their literary works in front of a large and usually cheering audience.
Micromet, Inc. (NASDAQ: MITI) announced today the closing of its previously announced underwritten public offering and raises net proceeds of approximately $ 75.3 million, after deducting the underwriting discount and estimated offering expenses. For more information, please click here.
Whether it’s about vaccines, new drugs or side effects of existing medications – media coverage of medical topics very often is poor and biased. Written from an industry or pharma critics perspective, it exaggerates either risks or benefits. In addition, writers often do not seem to be familiar with the various tedious tasks, steps and regulatory requirements of drug development.
The agenda for the upcoming Deutsche Biotechnologietage, Germany´s largest biotech industry event hosted by BIO Deutschland, has been updated with additional information. Check out the latest details on the workshops, panels, and speeches at http://bit.ly/ProgrammBiotechnologietage (only in German).
You are on a business trip and want to go by cab? Not sure how much it will cost? Use Taxometer, a mobile taxicab fare calculator. It will calculate the costs for (at this time) over 200 cities in 20 countries worldwide, including major cities in the US, Australia and Europe and show you the way the driver should go. Once you have decided to spend the money, you can call the next available dispatch center. As a pro, the App comes with a “drunken mode” – just shake your iPhone and you get the cost to your home address and a big button to call a cab! Taxometer costs € 2.99 in Europe and $3.99 in the US.
