Directory assistance for the 919 area code in North Carolina no longer lists a phone number for Macronex Inc., a small biotechnology company located in Morrisville. Although technically still a going concern, Macronex currently has only two employees and is in the process of going out of business. STRAPPED: ImmunoGen CEO Mitchel Sayare observes, from hard experience, that "things are not going well for companies that don't have enough cash." "We've pretty much closed our operation . . . a cas

The Scientist 9[12]:1, Jun. 12, 1995 News University Technology Offices Focus Effort On Overcoming Academic 'Cultural' Barriers Now that efficient systems are in place for patenting, the matter at hand is surmounting concerns about the process among faculty By Lee Katterman Sidebars Using the Internet for Technology Transfer . . . Royalty-Sharing Formulas* of the Top 10 U.S. Universities . . . In little more than a decade, licensing of university technology h

The Scientist 9[12]:, Jun. 12, 1995 News Using The Internet For Technology Transfer By Lee Katterman Several universities have turned to the Internet to help promote the inventions of their faculty. In some cases, universities have provided searching capability, permitting the Internet browser to display nonproprietary descriptions of inventions available for licensing. Here are the URLs (Universal Resource Locators, also known as "addresses") that turned up during some

The Scientist 9[12]:11, Jun. 12, 1995 News Royalty-Sharing Formulas* Of The Top 10 U.S. Universities By Lee Katterman ROYALTY-SHARING FORMULAS* OF THE TOP 10 U.S. UNIVERSITIES (ranked by total royalties from FY1993) University of California system (FY1993 royalties received: $45,440,022) Subtract costs of patenting and an administrative fee from gross royalties First $100,000 net royalties: 50% to inventor for personal use 25% to state of California 25% to invento

Glamorous competitions spur American students to excel in lab work by offering big-money prizes and high-profile acclaim In March, the 53rd annual Westinghouse Science Talent Search brought 40 high school students to Washington, D.C.--all of them finalists in the venerable annual competition. The purpose of the young people's visit was twofold: to showcase all of their research achievements and to select 10 of the finalists as win

Glamorous competitions spur American students to excel in lab work by offering big-money prizes and high-profile acclaim In March, the 53rd annual Westinghouse Science Talent Search brought 40 high school students to Washington, D.C.--all of them finalists in the venerable annual competition. The purpose of the young people's visit was twofold: to showcase all of their research achievements and to select 10 of the finalists as win

Tobia, so only groups of two to four students can enter, not individuals. "And we encourage a diversity of expertise among the team members," she says. An entry consists of an essay up to 12 pages long describing a community problem, some history and measures already taken to address it, a detailed description of the science-based solution, and a discussion of possible positive and negative consequences of the proposed fix. Arthur Eisenkraft, a physics teacher and science coordinator

After the rigors of grad school and postdoctoral work are over, many a young scientist aspires to make an independent mark in the world of research. And that usually requires finding a tenure-track position at a university, joining an industrial research group, or perhaps becoming a research scientist at a government lab. Or so goes the conventional wisdom. In fact, many Ph.D. scientists in the United States opt for something else. Instead of applying the tools of research to their own projects

Biologist Stephen Stricker needs a confocal laser imaging system to do his research, a need shared by about 20 of his colleagues at the University of New Mexico. Fortunately for them, a new program offered by a major manufacturer of confocal systems aims to better the chances that such scientists will be able to assemble sufficient funding to obtain these devices by helping them identify potential sources of equipment grants. Last September, Cambridge, Mass.-based Bio-Rad Laboratories Microsc

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that each year as many as 20 million animals are used in various university and industry settings for basic research and product testing. This figure represents a sizable drop from the late 1970s, when the USDA estimated that about 33 million animals per year were used. Two reasons are usually cited for this trend, says Daniel Ringler, director of the Unit for Laboratory Animal Medicine at the University of Michigan. First, many researchers have al

Public Awareness Of Cancer Research: The Driving Force Behind GM's Awards Author: Lee Katterman, p. 21, 22. It's not easy to compete with the prestige of the Nobel Prize. But the 13-year-old General Motors Cancer Research Foundation's annual awards program is quickly earning a reputation as a Nobel "predictor." Of the 47 cancer researchers to receive awards from the GM Foundation, four later received Lasker Medical Research Awards, and five won the Nobel, including 1990 laureate E. Donnall Thom