after agreeing recently to collaborate in developing new technologies.
—A team of robotics students from San Diego’s High Tech High, a public charter school, won the prestigious Regional Chairman’s Award in the San Diego regional competition of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.) The team known as The Holy Cows now advances to the championship scheduled for April 16 to 18 in Atlanta.
—San Diego’s Victory Pharma raised $45 million in venture funding in a secondary round that included Essex Woodlands Health Ventures of Palo Alto, CA, and Ampersand Ventures of Wellesley, MA. Victory specializes in acquiring and developing drugs for treating pain and the side effects of other pain drugs.
—Another San Diego-based life sciences company, Sangart, said it raised $50 million in venture funding that closes out its Series F round. The biopharmaceutical startup is developing artificial blood products based on human hemoglobin.
—Luke described development of a potential neurological drug therapy at Boston, MA-based Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BIIB]]), which has operations in San Diego. The company says its neublastin could someday lead to a nerve-healing treatment for phantom neuropathic pain.
—San Diego’s Verari Systems is at the vanguard of data center equipment suppliers that are helping customers cut their energy costs by maximizing the energy efficiency of their servers. Among the newest concepts is the development of a “data center in a box.”
—Researchers who have spent years collecting data on how universities can improve innovation gathered at UC San Diego last week for a Kauffman Foundation seminar. The work is intended to guide changes in four countries where new technologies play a key economic role: the United States, Japan, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
—Cadence Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CADX]]) says it is scrapping development of its omiganan pentahydrochloride (Omigard) after the gel failed to show it was better than standard iodine at preventing catheter-related skin infections. The decision has triggered a restructuring.
—Wireless industry pioneer Arlene Harris told Juha-Pekka, our innovation journalism fellow from Finland, that she co-founded Del Mar, CA-based GreatCall and its Jitterbug mobile phones to realize her vision of a simple, easy-to-use wireless phone service.
