$1M Prize for Brain Research

$1M Prize for Brain Research

While President Obama is reported to be weighing a new American program for mapping the brain and neuro research, Israel’s President Shimon Peres is also doing his part to encourage neuro research. Peres played an active part in setting up a $1 million R&D award for a breakthrough in brain technology. This is open to applicants from around the world.  Read more

Israeli Ag Bio

Israeli Ag Bio

Israeli biotech comes full circle with the recent Rosetta Green success story. Rosetta Green, a company that specializes in identifying unique genes and developing improved plant traits for the agriculture and biofuel industries, has been purchased by Monsanto for $35 million.  Read more

Lithuania: The Next Start-Up Nation?

Lithuania: The Next Start-Up Nation?

Lithuania could become a new hotbed of biotech activity,  with job opportunities and fresh domains for outsourcing and clinical trials, if the country is able to maintain the momentum it set into motion during the first Life Sciences Baltics Conference held in Vilnius in mid-September.  Read more

Creativity at the Interface of Academia and Industry

Creativity at the Interface of Academia and Industry

Aspiring biotech entrepreneurs often try to find a novel technology of their own that will lead to commercial success. But, as the career of Itschak Lamensdorf suggests, sometimes the best way to be both innovative and successful can come from facilitating the projects of others. When Lamensdorf completed his post-doc studies at the NIH in 2000, like many other young grads, he plunged into the business world with the ambition of using basic research that he had worked on as the foundation for a commercial start-up venture. The company he initiated was based on a modified antisense platform technology for  … Read more