By Lynne Taylor

The US Food and Drug Administration will never have sufficient resources to be “the quality-control unit of the world,” and drugmakers will have to assume more responsibility for the quality of their products, a senior agency official has told US legislators.

The FDA is not the industry’s quality system, and the agency is holding companies accountable, Janet Woodcock, director of FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, warned after addressing a hearing convened on April 24 by Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Senate Education, Labor, Health and Pensions (HELP) Committee to discuss the contaminated heparin supply. “Any legislative fixes that do not address quality by design will fail,” she added.

An algae photobioreactor on the roof of MIT university.

The clear polycarbonate tubes are approx 3 meters high, and 10-20 centimeters in diameter.

It removes upto 86% of the NOx and 40% of the CO2 of the smokestack emissions that are bubbled through it. The algae are feeding on exhaust with 13% CO2 content. This size algae photobioreactor can't handle the entire exhaust emissions, it would need to be much larger for that.

This photobioreactor you see here on the roof of MIT, has since been dismantled and reassembled in Naboomspruit (now called Mookgopong) South Africa at a biodiesel plant.

http://www.infinitibiodiesel.com

Source: BioNano Insider

While Italy is often referred to as the "best kept secret" in the life sciences industry, Tuscany is perhaps the best kept secret of all.

Renowned for its exceptional beauty, art and history, Tuscany is far less known for its important role in Italy's emergence as a center for bio-nano innovation. Only now are people beginning to recognize the region's growing capabilities in fields such as immunology, endocrinology, biochemistry, oncology and neurosciences - to name just a few.

Maverick scientist Craig Venter claims he can create artificial life in the lab. Is this the dawn of a new era for mankind?

By: Jonathan Leake, Science Editor, TimesOnline.co.uk

From Frankenstein’s monster through I, Robot to the lost young cyborg of Steven Spielberg’s AI, the idea of creating artificial life from inert matter has long inspired human imagination.

Last week that thrilling but unsettling goal appeared to have come a step closer with the announcement by Craig Venter, the maverick scientist, that his laboratory had constructed the world’s first completely synthetic genome.

Location: Millennium Broadway Hotel & Conference Center, New York City

Plan to join the industry's top financial professionals at the 2008 meeting, with an agenda designed to meet the current investment climate - showcasing companies best positioned to provide market leadership. Future Leaders will continue to emphasize fresh companies making the transition from the private to public equity markets, as well as public plays positioned to move between tiers based on value or milestones.

Contact:
Joshua Kolins, Thomson Financial
phone: 646-822-2726
email: Joshua.Kolins@thomson.com

Official Site

Micro and nanotechnologies are revolutionising medicine:

'Almost invisible' tools are being developed by European researchers to discover diseases earlier and to treat patients better.

The miniaturisation of instruments to micro and nano dimensions promises to make our future lives safer and cleaner. A team of European researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Technologies Institute near Saarbruecken is using nanotechnology to improve diagnostic capabilities.

In the "Adonis"-project, nano-sized gold particles are used to detect prostate cancer cells at an early stage.

Biotechnology is often used to refer to genetic engineering technology of the 21st century, however the term encompasses a wider range and history of procedures for modifying biological organisms according to the needs of humanity, going back to the initial modifications of native plants into improved food crops through artificial selection and hybridization.

Bioengineering is the science upon which all Biotechnological applications are based. With the development of new approaches and modern techniques, traditional biotechnology industries are also acquiring new horizons enabling them to improve the quality of their products and increase the productivity of their systems.

Host: Farm Foundation
Date: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 - Thursday, January 17, 2008
Time: 8:30 am
Location: Westin City Center, Washington, DC
Contact: Ann Bublitz/BioTech Decisions, Inc.
Phone: 515-285-2741
Fax: 515-285-2978
Email: annbublitz@biotechdecisions.com
Website: www.farmfoundation.org