Category: Boston

Stem Cell Summit

A gathering of stakeholders discussing the evolving climate for public and private funding of stem-cell research, with sponsorship from the Genetics Policy Institute, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Burrill Life Science Media Group. Invited: “Top innovators, researchers from around the world, clinicians, government officials, business leaders, political strategists, bioethicists, legal experts and advocates.” $895 … Continue reading “Stem Cell Summit”

Directing Clean-Energy Investment in Massachusetts: An Xconomy Debate

In a survey publicized last week, the non-profit Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) confirmed what most local energy entrepreneurs and investors have been saying for months—that there’s a remarkable upswing underway in clean-energy activity in the state, at least judging from the number of new companies sprouting up and the number of people these companies are … Continue reading “Directing Clean-Energy Investment in Massachusetts: An Xconomy Debate”

TiE Boston Hull Wind Turbine Tour & Cruise

We doubt you’ll see Ginger, Mary-Ann, or Mrs. Howell, but the Professor will no doubt be on board for this three-hour tour from Quincy’s harbor terminal to Hull Wind, a 660-kilowatt wind turbine that produces about one-quarter of the electricity used by residents of Hull, MA. The cruise, sponsored by the entrepreneurs’ group TiE Boston, … Continue reading “TiE Boston Hull Wind Turbine Tour & Cruise”

Want to Maximize University Tech Transfer? Here’s a Little Advice

Boston University recently announced plans to enhance its technology transfer efforts. I have worked constructively with BU’s Office of Technology Development on a number of start-ups, including Afferent Corporation, a medical device company based in Providence, RI, and applaud the plans for expansion. As BU and other universities ramp up their efforts to commercialize technology, … Continue reading “Want to Maximize University Tech Transfer? Here’s a Little Advice”

Cleaning the Slate, Raising Funds, and Filling the Executive Suite

Last week saw two key local firms taking steps to clean up some years-old messes. Here’s more on that, and a roundup of the rest of the week’s news. —Genzyme (NASDAQ: GENZ) announced it had reached an agreement-in-principle to pay $64 million to settle a four-year-old class action lawsuit brought by shareholders of a Genzyme … Continue reading “Cleaning the Slate, Raising Funds, and Filling the Executive Suite”

Tech Cocktail Boston

Join entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, bloggers, and technology enthusiasts at a networking event that’s grown very popular with the tech-startup crowd in Chicago and is now coming to Boston for the first time. Register free at http://techcocktailboston1.eventbrite.com/. But hurry — attendance is limited.

Genzyme’s Myozyme Production Problems Fuel Online Biogenerics Debate

The last couple of days have seen a flurry of blogging about biogenerics (or biosimilars or follow-on biologics, depending on your take on the issue), prompted in part by a Wall Street Journal article about Genzyme’s troubles scaling up production for a recently approved enzyme drug. Myozyme, approved by the FDA last year for the … Continue reading “Genzyme’s Myozyme Production Problems Fuel Online Biogenerics Debate”

A123 Inks Deal to Develop Battery Cells for GM Electric Car

A123 Systems just landed a promising deal with General Motors to co-develop the battery cell for the automaker’s Chevrolet Volt line of electric cars and other vehicles. GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz made the announcement yesterday during a speech in Michigan. Under the deal, Watertown, MA-based A123 will co-develop the lithium-ion battery for GM’s E-Flex … Continue reading “A123 Inks Deal to Develop Battery Cells for GM Electric Car”

Follow-Up: Alnylam’s Biodefense Contract the Program’s Largest

Just a quick follow-up on yesterday’s post about Alnylam’s $39 million contract with the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency to develop an RNAi-based treatment for infection with hemorrhagic fever viruses. We just heard back from the folks at DTRA. Not only is Alnylam (NASDAQ:ALNY) the only New England firm to win a contract this year … Continue reading “Follow-Up: Alnylam’s Biodefense Contract the Program’s Largest”

Personal Finance Tracking for People Who Won’t Buy Personal Finance Software

I’ve been using Quicken and Turbotax to manage my finances for so long that I don’t even blink at spending the $30 to $100 that Intuit extorts every year for the newest version of the programs. But for an entire generation of younger adults, spending that much on a piece of software that comes in … Continue reading “Personal Finance Tracking for People Who Won’t Buy Personal Finance Software”

Gilbane Boston

The fourth annual Gilbane Conference Boston, focused on web content management for businesses, including wikis, blogs, search, digital rights management, text analytics, and semantic technologies.

More Government Dollars for Alnylam Biodefense Initiative

Cambridge-based Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY) announced today that it has been awarded a three-year, $39 million contract with the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency to develop an RNAi-based treatment for infection with hemorrhagic fever viruses such as those that cause Ebola and Marburg disease. The contract brings the amount of money Alnylam has raised via federal … Continue reading “More Government Dollars for Alnylam Biodefense Initiative”

Xconomy Completes Series A Financing—Founders Swear Staff Will Be Paid

“Quick, the bank closes at 5:30.” “Did anybody actually count the money yet?” “Now can I have a drink?” Such were the words of dignity and calm that emanated from 10 Rogers Street in Cambridge late yesterday afternoon—the lawyers had just couriered over a manila envelope full of checks, marking the close of Xconomy’s Series … Continue reading “Xconomy Completes Series A Financing—Founders Swear Staff Will Be Paid”

MIT Professor Explains Resignation, Charging “Unconscious Discrimination Against Minorities”

There’s an interesting discussion going on at The Scientist‘s website about discrimination in academia, and particularly at MIT. The conversation was sparked by an essay written by Frank Douglas, formerly Professor of the Practice at MIT and director of the school’s Center for Biomedical Innovation. Douglas, who is black, resigned last June in the wake … Continue reading “MIT Professor Explains Resignation, Charging “Unconscious Discrimination Against Minorities””

Brix Are for Kids: Local Innovators Give Children Tools to Create Their Own Video Games

At DigitalBrix in Nashua, NH, husband-and-wife team Nanu and Naveena Swamy believe that video games are too important to leave to video game developers. They’re about to unveil the public beta version of a Web-based system that lets kids become game authors and even form their own virtual game studios, recruiting friends to design, build, … Continue reading “Brix Are for Kids: Local Innovators Give Children Tools to Create Their Own Video Games”

Firms Fail to Measure Return on Innovation, says BCG

Apparently, a lot of executives have a mystical faith in innovation, believing that it will pay off somehow, even if they can’t see the results from previous investments. That’s one conclusion from an analysis published today by local management-consulting leader Boston Consulting Group. Only 46 percent of executives BCG surveyed this year say they’re happy … Continue reading “Firms Fail to Measure Return on Innovation, says BCG”

VCs Making More Deals, For Fewer Dollars

More venture capital deals, particularly early-stage deals, but fewer dollars. This was the bottom line highlighted in today’s MoneyTree report on venture capital covering the second quarter of 2007. The report showed a nationwide 15.6 percent rise in deals—from 845 to 977—in Q2 compared to Q1. At the same time, investment fell from $7.4 billion … Continue reading “VCs Making More Deals, For Fewer Dollars”

No Summer Blockbusters for Troubled Film-Editing Giant

Quick, which local company’s name is more recognizable in Hollywood than it is here in Massachusetts? A gold star for you if you answered “Avid Technology.” Among filmmakers and TV producers, the Tewksbury firm’s Avid Media Composer brand is virtually synonymous with nonlinear film and video editing, the digital-age version of the cut-and-glue techniques used … Continue reading “No Summer Blockbusters for Troubled Film-Editing Giant”

BG Medicine Files for $80 Million IPO

BG Medicine, a molecular diagnostics company based in Waltham, MA, announced today that is planning an IPO on Euronext Amsterdam under the symbol “BGMDX.” The registration statement that BG filed with the SEC said the company would seek to raise up to $80 million through the offering, though it didn’t specify the number of shares … Continue reading “BG Medicine Files for $80 Million IPO”

What’s Wrong with Energy Investing? Part I

I just returned to Kendall Square after spending a spectacular weekend at Squam Lake in New Hampshire and at the forefront of my mind—and what I could not shake over the weekend—is the state of the development of the New England energy ecosystem. Granted, I have a personal agenda, as in 30 days I commence … Continue reading “What’s Wrong with Energy Investing? Part I”

Ze-gen: Waste Is A Terrible Thing to Waste

As a Web journalist, I’ve been writing and thinking about intangibles like software and the Internet for so long that my idea of “hardware” is an Apple iPhone, and I’d almost forgotten that a “router” used to be something you use to cut grooves in wood. So it was a welcome kick in the pants … Continue reading “Ze-gen: Waste Is A Terrible Thing to Waste”

Sunday Afternoon Drive (on the Web): Fake Steve Jobs on OLPC

I was just wandering around the web on this fine lazy summer Sunday, when I decided to check out the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, which I hadn’t visited in a while. I had missed two posts from less than two weeks ago containing Fake Steve’s thoughts on the One Laptop project, which is based … Continue reading “Sunday Afternoon Drive (on the Web): Fake Steve Jobs on OLPC”

Good News for Genzyme, Bad News for Boston Scientific, and all the Other News We Didn’t Get to This Week

The recent heat wave seems to have driven members of the local tech community into their offices rather than out to the beach, because this week has seen too many announcements for us to keep up with. Here a few of the most interesting ones: —After a string of disappointing clinical-trial results and a protracted … Continue reading “Good News for Genzyme, Bad News for Boston Scientific, and all the Other News We Didn’t Get to This Week”

Negroponte Selection to Dow Jones Panel Raises Questions

As a member of the proposed committee to oversee Dow Jones & Co.’s editorial integrity in light of its presumed sale to News Corp., MIT Media Lab visionary and One Laptop Per Child organization founder Nicholas Negroponte has come under scrutiny for his close ties to Rupert Murdoch and his company. Yesterday, Yankee Group founder … Continue reading “Negroponte Selection to Dow Jones Panel Raises Questions”

Bypassing the Old Boy Network in the Entertainment Business

Some pretty awful Hollywood movies get greenlighted because they seem to combine elements of previous hits: 2003’s universally panned Lucy Liu-Antonio Banderas action film Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, for example, was undoubtedly pitched as “Charlie’s Angels meets The Matrix for the Game Boy crowd.” Well, the new social-networking site Nextcat can be summed up as … Continue reading “Bypassing the Old Boy Network in the Entertainment Business”

Newcomer Alert: Digital-Media Veteran Larry Kramer Joins Polaris

Yesterday brought the news that Larry Kramer—the founder of MarketWatch and former president of CBS Digital Media—has signed on as a senior advisor to Waltham-based Polaris Venture Partners, where he will help shape the venture giant’s digital-media portfolio. This morning we caught up with Kramer (via phone) in Macau, which he describes as a Vegas … Continue reading “Newcomer Alert: Digital-Media Veteran Larry Kramer Joins Polaris”

From Open Curriculum to Open Government: New State CIO Hopes to Make Bureaucracy Easier to Navigate

Sometime this November, MIT will put its 1800th course on line, completing the implementation phase of its OpenCourseWare initiative and essentially making the school’s entire curriculum available worldwide. But the woman who orchestrated this trailblazing effort won’t be there to see the milestone event. She’ll be across the river on Beacon Hill as Massachusetts’s new … Continue reading “From Open Curriculum to Open Government: New State CIO Hopes to Make Bureaucracy Easier to Navigate”

Big Year-Over-Year Downturn in Venture Funds Raised in Q2

Venture capital fundraising was markedly down in the second quarter of 2007 compared to the same period last year, according to a report released yesterday by Dow Jones VentureOne. All told, U.S. venture firms raised just $3.23 billion in the quarter, 62 percent less than in Q2 2006. This marks the biggest year-over-year quarterly downturn … Continue reading “Big Year-Over-Year Downturn in Venture Funds Raised in Q2”

The MERL Diaspora: Researchers from Defunct Mitsubishi Group Fan Out to Other Companies

Yesterday, we reported on an ongoing wave of departures among senior members of the once-renowned research division at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL)—and a June lab reorganization that eliminated the division altogether in favor of six technology groups with a greater focus on product development. Xconomy has since obtained more details about the researchers who … Continue reading “The MERL Diaspora: Researchers from Defunct Mitsubishi Group Fan Out to Other Companies”

As VMware Prepares for IPO, EMC Looking More Toward Internal Innovation

This summer’s hottest IPO might well be the forthcoming sale of 10 percent of VMware, the virtualization company owned by storage giant EMC (NYSE:EMC). The offering showcases the highly successful acquisition strategy of Hopkinton, MA-based EMC, which over the last roughly four years has laid out more than $7 billion to acquire upwards of 30 … Continue reading “As VMware Prepares for IPO, EMC Looking More Toward Internal Innovation”

FDA Panel Votes in Favor of Biogen’s Tysabri for Crohn’s Disease

Despite numerous gloomy predictions in the media over the last few days, a joint meeting of two FDA advisory committees went well for Biogen Idec (BIIB) yesterday. The panel voted 12-to-3 in favor of recommending that Tysabri (natalizumab)—codeveloped with Elan and already approved for multiple sclerosis—be approved for treating moderate-to-severe Crohn’s disease in patients for … Continue reading “FDA Panel Votes in Favor of Biogen’s Tysabri for Crohn’s Disease”

Upheaval at MERL: Mitsubishi Electric Breaks Up Famous Computer Science Lab

Mitsubishi Electric Company of Japan has quietly disbanded the long-term research wing of its most famous international outpost, the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) in Cambridge, MA, Xconomy has learned. The research lab, long home to some of the world’s leading investigators in computer graphics, artificial intelligence, user interfaces, and speech recognition, lost its administrative … Continue reading “Upheaval at MERL: Mitsubishi Electric Breaks Up Famous Computer Science Lab”

Sequencing the DNA of Local Innovation

A little over a week ago, legendary venture capitalist Esther Dyson explained her reasons for being one of the first 10 people to have their genomes sequenced—and made publicly available—for Harvard Medical School professor George Church’s Personal Genome Project. Yesterday, Church revealed all but one of the rest of the folks on that list. (One … Continue reading “Sequencing the DNA of Local Innovation”

Dr. Vest Goes to Washington: Listening Hard as He Seeks to Revive Engineering and Technology

Charles M. Vest, president emeritus of MIT, has arrived in Washington to head the National Academy of Engineering. Every morning, Vest’s jogging route from his Arlington, VA, condo—“approximately 2.5 miles, slowly”—takes him past the Iwo Jima memorial to the Netherlands Carillon, around the edge of Arlington National Cemetery, and across Arlington Memorial Bridge toward the … Continue reading “Dr. Vest Goes to Washington: Listening Hard as He Seeks to Revive Engineering and Technology”

Getting Disruptive Ideas to Market

I’m interested in how one takes inventions to scale. Obviously, that is what Boston Scientific was all about. How do you get a disruptive idea, in particular, into the marketplace? In my opinion, people frequently take the wrong approach. Disruptive ideas are very threatening to the establishment, or whoever owned that marketspace before. They may … Continue reading “Getting Disruptive Ideas to Market”

Live from Boston, Easier TV and Radio on Your Phone

Time was when telephones were only for talking, radios were for listening, and TVs were for watching. But digitization and the wireless Internet mean that no piece of content stays in its original medium for long. And today a Boston startup is emerging from stealth mode to unveil the latest cross-media technology, a streaming-media service … Continue reading “Live from Boston, Easier TV and Radio on Your Phone”

Local Innovators in Business, Technology, and Science Honored by President

It was a big day down in Washington for several members of the Kendall Square innovation community. President George Bush handed out the 2005 and 2006 National Medals of Technology and National Medals of Science, and four notable locals were among the recipients. I watched the webcast of the ceremony with a crowd of some … Continue reading “Local Innovators in Business, Technology, and Science Honored by President”

Real VCs Aren’t Afraid to Cry: The Anti-Portfolio

It’s said that real self-confidence means being willing to own up to your faults and foibles. If that’s true, Bessemer Venture Partners, with offices in Wellesley Hills and five other locations worldwide, gets our vote as the most secure VC outfit around. Google, Apple, eBay, FedEx, Intel, PayPal, Cisco, Lotus, Compaq. Would you admit it … Continue reading “Real VCs Aren’t Afraid to Cry: The Anti-Portfolio”

Tech Sector, Consumers Alliance Debate Best Way to Give Consumers Green-Electricity Options

When is green energy not so green? The central Massachusetts gas and electric distributor NStar said Tuesday that it plans to sign long-term power contracts with wind farms in Maine and upstate New York and let NStar customers get their electricity directly from those facilities, in exchange for a small premium on their utility bills. … Continue reading “Tech Sector, Consumers Alliance Debate Best Way to Give Consumers Green-Electricity Options”

Reeves to Menino: Cambridge is the Brains of Biotech

Boston’s mayor, Tom Menino, isn’t known for precise comments to the media (they don’t call him Mumbles for nothing) but something in Tuesday’s Boston Globe struck us as wacky, even for him. In an article about a big new lab that Joslin Diabetes Center is building in the Longwood Medical Area, Jeffrey Krasner wrote: “Menino … Continue reading “Reeves to Menino: Cambridge is the Brains of Biotech”