In less than nine months, Xconomy San Diego has emerged as the most-authoritative source for news and information about technology innovation in our sun-splashed region—and beyond. As the third and newest hub in the Xconomy network, we set out from the beginning to describe how and why San Diego is renowned for pioneering advances in … Continue reading “Xconomy, San Diego Union-Tribune Enter Into Syndication Partnership”
Category: National
Aveo Pieces Together a Plan to Rival Big Boys of Cancer Drug World
Great biotechnology stories have three essential ingredients—science, medicine, and business. Aveo Pharmaceuticals CEO Tuan Ha-Ngoc told me last week that he thinks about these same elements in his quest to build a sustainable company. Few companies ever put together all the pieces, though, and it’s too early to say if Cambridge, MA-based Aveo is one … Continue reading “Aveo Pieces Together a Plan to Rival Big Boys of Cancer Drug World”
J. Craig Venter Gets Some Federal Stimulus Funding, Out-of-Town VCs Get Better Results, Third Automaker Parks Downtown & Other San Diego BizTech News
The recession may be resetting our expectations, but technology innovation could be re-arranging our thinking about the importance of hometown VCs. And the arrival of a new venture-backed automaker in our region also raises an interesting question: Could San Diego become America’s new “Motor City?” Forthwith, the highlights from last week’s news: —The V-Vehicle Company, … Continue reading “J. Craig Venter Gets Some Federal Stimulus Funding, Out-of-Town VCs Get Better Results, Third Automaker Parks Downtown & Other San Diego BizTech News”
PhysioSonics, Looking at Blood in the Brain, Aims to Monitor Effects of Drugs
Walk into a hospital with the telltale symptoms of a stroke, and chances are you’ll get something called a transcranial Doppler ultrasound test. This tool uses ultrasound waves to look inside the brain, noninvasively, to see how fast blood is flowing. What’s important about that? It’s a useful technique to see whether a clot or … Continue reading “PhysioSonics, Looking at Blood in the Brain, Aims to Monitor Effects of Drugs”
Balancing Computer Security and Innovation—A Talk with RSA’s Art Coviello
It’s no surprise that the president of RSA, the security division of Hopkinton, MA-based information management giant EMC (NYSE: [[ticker:EMC]]), has strong views about the need for better security practices within corporations and government agencies. But Art Coviello, who joined RSA in 1995 and helped engineer its 2006 acquisition by EMC, says the problem isn’t … Continue reading “Balancing Computer Security and Innovation—A Talk with RSA’s Art Coviello”
The Greater Vancouver Gaming Cluster
When people think of game companies in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle-area giants like Microsoft, Nintendo America, and RealNetworks tend to dominate—not to mention successful startups like Big Fish Games, PopCap, and WildTangent. But just 120 miles to the north lies another haven for makers of video games. Vancouver, BC, is noted for being like a … Continue reading “The Greater Vancouver Gaming Cluster”
EMC Extends Data Domain Offer, ClickFuel Tanks Up with $2.5M, Auriga Measures $2.75M, & (a Little) More Boston-Area Deals News
Just a few deals to report from last week—perhaps New England’s tech and life sciences firms were all too busy attending XSITE? —Auriga Measurement Systems, a wireless instrumentation and design company in Lowell, MA, raised $2.75 million in additional seed funding from undisclosed investors. Ohio-based White Oak Partners put $1.5 million into Auriga in 2007. … Continue reading “EMC Extends Data Domain Offer, ClickFuel Tanks Up with $2.5M, Auriga Measures $2.75M, & (a Little) More Boston-Area Deals News”
Academia Beckons: Launching the BU Kindle Mentoring Program
I joined Boston University (BU) as a Lecturer and Executive-in-Residence in January 2008 and have been teaching courses on entrepreneurship to MBA students. My academic career has expanded recently with two projects. First, I am collaborating with a friend and colleague Vivek Wadhwa at Duke University (I’m now an Adjunct Research Scientist at Duke’s Pratt … Continue reading “Academia Beckons: Launching the BU Kindle Mentoring Program”
Xconomy Marks Two Years as The Source for Innovation News
For the last few months, we here at Xconomy have been extremely busy planning XSITE, the Xconomy Summit on Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship, which packed the auditorium at the Boston University School of Management on Wednesday. At some point in the hullabaloo, we remembered we had another important event fast approaching—tomorrow, in fact—the second anniversary … Continue reading “Xconomy Marks Two Years as The Source for Innovation News”
A Huge Thank You to XSITE 2009 Sponsors, Speakers, Partners, and Attendees–and a Special Shout-Out to One Particular Friend of Xconomy
We are taking a deep breath here at Xconomy. On Wednesday we held our biggest, most ambitious event ever: the Xconomy Summit on Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship, aka XSITE 2009, at Boston University. All told, some 400 people attended the all-day event at BU’s School of Management, which featured what we think is the year’s … Continue reading “A Huge Thank You to XSITE 2009 Sponsors, Speakers, Partners, and Attendees–and a Special Shout-Out to One Particular Friend of Xconomy”
Documents Shed Light on Cam Garner’s Stealth Venture
The mystery surrounding San Diego’s Evoke Pharma is beginning to clear. The specialty drug company co-founded by serial entrepreneur Cam Garner has been operating in stealth mode and has said little about the experimental drug it is developing for gastroparesis, a digestive disorder that affects diabetics. But a recent quarterly filing from a third party, … Continue reading “Documents Shed Light on Cam Garner’s Stealth Venture”
Xconomy HQ is Bursting at the Seams; Xconomy’s Pages Won’t Be Quite as Full as Usual
I’m extremely pleased to report that Xconomy’s headquarters in Cambridge are jam packed this week, since everybody flew in from our Seattle and San Diego offices for the inaugural XSITE—Xconomy Summit on Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship—yesterday at Boston University. It’s a rare treat to have everybody together and, fortuitously, we’re also coming up on the … Continue reading “Xconomy HQ is Bursting at the Seams; Xconomy’s Pages Won’t Be Quite as Full as Usual”
Xconomy Summit Hits Boston: Lessons on Innovation, Plans for Recovery from Dean Kamen, Juan Enriquez, and a Host of Other Leaders
Boston-area entrepreneurs unveiled their inventions for optimizing decision-making, delivering drugs to the bladder, and providing a “check-engine light” for the human body. Investors shrugged off the bitter economy and talked about their future plans to create new tech companies. Inventor and educator Dean Kamen delivered an inspirational speech on ways to train the coming generation … Continue reading “Xconomy Summit Hits Boston: Lessons on Innovation, Plans for Recovery from Dean Kamen, Juan Enriquez, and a Host of Other Leaders”
Qualcomm Exec Helps Start Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance, Lawsuit Entangles La Jolla Pharma, Sorrento Raises Cash & More San Diego Life Sciences News
We saw several San Diego biotechs raising cash over the past week, which might be a sign that some green shoots are emerging in the regional economy. Read up on that and the rest of San Diego’s life sciences news. —Less than three months after its debut, San Diego’s new West Wireless Health Institute says … Continue reading “Qualcomm Exec Helps Start Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance, Lawsuit Entangles La Jolla Pharma, Sorrento Raises Cash & More San Diego Life Sciences News”
Boston Scientific CEO Retires, Replaced by Former Zimmer Boss
[Updated with CEO pay packages, 9:52 am Eastern] Boston Scientific president and CEO Jim Tobin is retiring, and will be replaced by Ray Elliott, the Natick, MA-based medical device maker said today in a statement. Tobin, who has led the company (NYSE: [[ticker:BSX]]) for a decade, will turn 65 in another two months. The change … Continue reading “Boston Scientific CEO Retires, Replaced by Former Zimmer Boss”
Cell Therapeutics Ships App to FDA, Targeted Genetics Cuts Again, Sanofi CEO Looks to Biotech & More Seattle Area Life Sciences News
We had a smorgasbord of life sciences news this week, featuring updates on Northwest companies developing drugs, devices, vaccines, and scientific instruments. —Cell Therapeutics has bet the company on pixantrone for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and this week it hit one of its key goals for the year, by turning in its new drug application to the … Continue reading “Cell Therapeutics Ships App to FDA, Targeted Genetics Cuts Again, Sanofi CEO Looks to Biotech & More Seattle Area Life Sciences News”
West Wireless Health Institute Discloses First Clinical Trial
San Diego’s new West Wireless Health Institute today announced its first clinical research program, saying it will oversee randomized clinical trials of wireless heart monitoring technology developed by San Jose, CA-based Corventis. The institute, which announced its presence less than three months ago, was established to advance healthcare by helping medical device makers and others … Continue reading “West Wireless Health Institute Discloses First Clinical Trial”
EMC Opens Research Arm in Cambridge, Joins MIT Media Lab as Sponsor
EMC has joined the growing ranks of major information technology companies boosting their R&D presence in Kendall Square, creating EMC Research Cambridge, a small research arm near MIT. It has already moved the headquarters of RSA Laboratories to the new outpost, and has signed on as a corporate sponsor of the MIT Media Lab. The … Continue reading “EMC Opens Research Arm in Cambridge, Joins MIT Media Lab as Sponsor”
Cell Therapeutics Files Cancer Drug Application, In Nick of Time
Cell Therapeutics has bet the company on an experimental drug for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and today it hit a critical deadline in the nick of time. The Seattle biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CTIC]]) said today it turned in its application to the FDA for clearance to start marketing the drug in the U.S., meeting its goal of … Continue reading “Cell Therapeutics Files Cancer Drug Application, In Nick of Time”
Amnis Rolls Out Souped Up Scientific Tool, Just as Customers Start Feeling Flush
Seattle-based Amnis spun out of the University of Washington a decade ago, fired up about developing a new type of sophisticated imaging instrument with potential to enable all kinds of cool experiments in the lab. Yet it never really caught on in a big way, and nobody has yet published a groundbreaking paper in Nature … Continue reading “Amnis Rolls Out Souped Up Scientific Tool, Just as Customers Start Feeling Flush”
Biogen and Fellow Boston-Area Biotechs Ready for Biogenerics
Boston-area biotech companies have kept a close eye on how U.S. regulators decide to govern the approval of copycat versions of biotech drugs. Now I’m seeing more signs that some of these companies could actually become major players in the business of making biogenerics (which are also called biosimilars, follow-on biologics, and other names, depending … Continue reading “Biogen and Fellow Boston-Area Biotechs Ready for Biogenerics”
RealNetworks Rolls Out Novel Media Player, Moves Deeper into Mobile and Social Space
Seattle-based RealNetworks (NASDAQ: [[ticker:RNWK]]) announced today the first new version of its RealPlayer media software since May 2007. This beta version of RealPlayer SP lets you download video in any format and quickly put it on your mobile phone or portable media player—whether you have an iPhone, iPod, BlackBerry Storm, Palm Pre, or any of … Continue reading “RealNetworks Rolls Out Novel Media Player, Moves Deeper into Mobile and Social Space”
Life Science Leaders Converge in Newport, PubGet Gets Your Paper Faster, I-Therapeutix Eyes $15M Prize & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News
Our Seattle compatriots have all arrived in Boston for XSITE. We wish we could say they brought the rain with them, but in fact, Boston has been far wetter than Seattle all month. The week’s life sciences news, however, isn’t quite the downpour you’ve all been dealing with outside. —Wide-roaming correspondent Ryan McBride took in … Continue reading “Life Science Leaders Converge in Newport, PubGet Gets Your Paper Faster, I-Therapeutix Eyes $15M Prize & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News”
One Day Til XSITE: Just A Few Seats Left, but Plenty of Innovation to Go Around
This is it. After two months of all-out effort here at Xconomy, we are just about ready to rock and roll with XSITE 2009 at Boston University. The event starts first thing tomorrow morning, so we are down to the wire. We have over 350 people registered and fewer than 20 tickets left (get yours … Continue reading “One Day Til XSITE: Just A Few Seats Left, but Plenty of Innovation to Go Around”
TruFan Swings For the Fences
Rafe Anderson is moving up into the big leagues. His sports social media network, TruFan, officially goes national today. TruFan grew out of a collection of websites—Sawxheads, Celtsheads, and Blackandgoldheads—which focused solely on Boston teams. Now the national network will include 122 communities for clubs across the country, spanning Major League Baseball, the National Football … Continue reading “TruFan Swings For the Fences”
Amazon Buys SnapTell, Madrona Backs Animoto, MDRNA Works Out Tech License, & More Seattle-Area Deals News
It has been a fairly busy start to the summer in the Northwest. In the past week, we’ve seen a number of deals in software, Internet, displays, biotech, and energy. —Portland, OR-based Reductive Labs raised a $2 million Series A round led by True Ventures in Palo Alto, CA. Reductive, whose founders are in Salt … Continue reading “Amazon Buys SnapTell, Madrona Backs Animoto, MDRNA Works Out Tech License, & More Seattle-Area Deals News”
Venter Institute Gets $8.8 Million in Stimulus Funding
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) said today it is providing $42 million to The Human Microbiome Project’s three large-scale sequencing centers. One of the centers is J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, MD, with its headquarters in San Diego, which gets $8.8 million as part of the government’s economic stimulus package for research that … Continue reading “Venter Institute Gets $8.8 Million in Stimulus Funding”
After the Breakup: BioMarin Says Ex-Partner La Jolla Pharmaceutical Dragging its Feet on Stock Registration
Hard times can make for hard feelings between former drug development partners, which seems to be what’s happening between Novato, CA-based BioMarin (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BMRN]]) and San Diego’s ailing La Jolla Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LJPC]]). Once the love was gone, BioMarin just couldn’t get rid of the La Jolla Pharmaceutical shares it owned fast enough. So it … Continue reading “After the Breakup: BioMarin Says Ex-Partner La Jolla Pharmaceutical Dragging its Feet on Stock Registration”
Why EMC Wants to Build a High Performance Data Center in Holyoke
Scene: An abandoned brick building along the Connecticut River. The image dissolves, then reforms to show a new, ultra-modern factory in its place. Move to interior shot of computers and server banks. Brilliant academics ponder the future. Highly trained young professionals walk purposefully, the future alive in their eyes. I have no idea whether the … Continue reading “Why EMC Wants to Build a High Performance Data Center in Holyoke”
Reductive Labs, Moving to Portland, Raises $2M for Open Source IT Automation
Portland, OR, is gaining an interesting new software company—and this one comes with its own venture funding. Reductive Labs, an open-source startup that helps companies automate their IT management, announced today it has raised $2 million in Series A financing led by True Ventures in Palo Alto, CA. True Ventures put in $1.75 million, and … Continue reading “Reductive Labs, Moving to Portland, Raises $2M for Open Source IT Automation”
Pubget Speeds Up Science Journal Searches, Provides Marketing Tools
Ramy Arnaout, a clinical pathologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, believed he and his colleagues were wasting precious time performing Web searches for scientific journal articles. Time would be better spent curing diseases and treating patients. So he developed an application at first to use on his own computer to speed up … Continue reading “Pubget Speeds Up Science Journal Searches, Provides Marketing Tools”
Xiant, a New Paul Allen Startup, Rolls Out E-Mail Organizer Tool
Paul Allen has still got it. The Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist announced today the launch of a new Seattle company, Xiant, and the public beta version of its software tools for organizing your e-mail inbox. Xiant (pronounced “Zi-ant,” which rhymes with “giant”) is being run in-house at Vulcan Technologies, the company that handles all of … Continue reading “Xiant, a New Paul Allen Startup, Rolls Out E-Mail Organizer Tool”
Successful Startups Put Some Distance Between Their HQ and Their VCs
The conventional wisdom used to be that technology startups should be located as close to their venture investors’ main offices as possible. That way, it’s easier to call on your venture partners’ experience and networks, get them to attend your board meetings, and so forth. But the conventional wisdom may be dead wrong. Private equity … Continue reading “Successful Startups Put Some Distance Between Their HQ and Their VCs”
Targeted Genetics Cuts Workforce in Half in Bid to Survive Into August
Targeted Genetics, the Seattle-based developer of gene therapies, said today it is cutting more than half of its workforce in a bid to make its dwindling cash reserves last into August. The company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:TGEN]]) said it will cut its staff down to just 10 to 15 employees by the end of the July, compared … Continue reading “Targeted Genetics Cuts Workforce in Half in Bid to Survive Into August”
Waitaminnit—San Diego is the Headquarters of America’s Latest Green Auto Startup?
When Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced that a startup automaker based in San Diego will build a new line of fuel-efficient cars in Monroe, LA, nobody was more surprised than some folks at Cleantech San Diego. The V-Vehicle Company, founded in 2006 by former Oracle executive Frank Varasano, says it “will produce a high-quality, environmentally … Continue reading “Waitaminnit—San Diego is the Headquarters of America’s Latest Green Auto Startup?”
San Diego’s Wireless Incubator Hatches, Geospatial Software Gains Ground, EcoDog Gets an Angel, & More San Diego BizTech News
As the unemployment rate climbed to 11.5 percent statewide in California, and 9.4 percent in San Diego County, two local industry groups announced major initiatives to encourage and support innovation in the region. Read up on that and the rest of San Diego’s business and technology news: —San Diego’s software industry, which already hosts a … Continue reading “San Diego’s Wireless Incubator Hatches, Geospatial Software Gains Ground, EcoDog Gets an Angel, & More San Diego BizTech News”
Should You Sign Up for Google Voice? Xconomy Readers Share Their Beta Experiences
Back in March, I wrote a column about Google Voice, the reincarnated version of a voicemail unification service that Google acquired from Grand Central back in 2007. The free service gives you a single phone number for life that isn’t tied to any particular land line or cellular device—instead, calls ring through to whichever phones … Continue reading “Should You Sign Up for Google Voice? Xconomy Readers Share Their Beta Experiences”
Mirabilis Medica Aims to Help Women Avoid the Dreaded Hysterectomy
It only takes about 30 minutes from downtown Seattle to get to what some people like to call the “Silicon Valley of Ultrasound,” in Bothell, WA. So when I heard about another ultrasound startup company, one with a name that comes from the Latin word for “miraculous,” I figured it was worth checking out. There’s … Continue reading “Mirabilis Medica Aims to Help Women Avoid the Dreaded Hysterectomy”
Data Domain Fight Continues, Adimab Adds Merck and Roche as Partners, BigBelly Solar Gets Dirty With Waste Management, & More Boston-Area Deals News
[Corrected 4:40pm ET, June 22; see first item] Deals last week involved everything from cancer screening to trash compacting, but the analysts were kept on their toes by the dramatic events unfolding between EMC and Data Domain. —Reuters reported that data storage giant EMC (NYSE [[ticker:EMC]]), of Hopkinton, MA, was prepared to raise its bid—from … Continue reading “Data Domain Fight Continues, Adimab Adds Merck and Roche as Partners, BigBelly Solar Gets Dirty With Waste Management, & More Boston-Area Deals News”
Are Government and Utilities the New Sexy Destinations for MBAs?
I’m sure some of you have heard a version of this quote before: “In the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, large families in the U.S. sent their fifth or sixth child to work for the government or a utility company under the assumption that the later the child was born the less intelligent he/she was.” Even … Continue reading “Are Government and Utilities the New Sexy Destinations for MBAs?”
I-Therapeutix Raises $15M in Round Led by Polaris
I-Therapeutix is reaping the rewards of its swift development of a hydrogel bandage to seal surgical wounds on the eye. Hatched in 2006, the Waltham, MA-based startup has already garnered European market clearance for the product and plans to reveal today it has landed $15 million in a Series C round of venture capital. Polaris … Continue reading “I-Therapeutix Raises $15M in Round Led by Polaris”
Innovation Insights, and How Microsoft Enabled the Internet, From Technologist Dan Rosen
Ask Dan Rosen to define innovation, and he’ll say it’s “a breakthrough in technology that leads to a business breakthrough.” It’s a concept that Rosen is well acquainted with, having been a founding partner of Seattle-based Frazier Technology Ventures, a prominent venture capital firm, and the CEO and president of his own investment and advisory … Continue reading “Innovation Insights, and How Microsoft Enabled the Internet, From Technologist Dan Rosen”
Sorrento Therapeutics Raises $2.3 Million
San Diego-based Sorrento Therapeutics has raised $2.3 million in a one-time equity investment, according to a filing yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The biotech, which specializes in new methods for developing 100-percent human monoclonal antibodies, was founded in 2006 and lists Steve Zaniboni, Antonius Schuh, and Henry Ji as executives and directors. Zaniboni … Continue reading “Sorrento Therapeutics Raises $2.3 Million”
Living Proof Lathers $9M in Fresh Capital into Beauty Products Operation
[Updated at 11:15 am] Living Proof, a Cambridge, MA-based startup applying advances in material science from institutions such as MIT to the beauty industry, has raised $9 million in a new round of equity financing, according to a regulatory filing. Polaris Venture Partners, which founded Living Proof with MIT inventor Bob Langer and others, provided … Continue reading “Living Proof Lathers $9M in Fresh Capital into Beauty Products Operation”
SolarCasters, a One-Man Startup, Seeks Funding for Solar Power Forecasts
Steve Ihnen knows to the minute when the clouds will arrive. From the Redmond, WA, office of his company, SolarCasters, he keeps an eye on weather conditions around the world with satellite data. Then, using complex mathematical modeling software, he collates cloud-cover, humidity, and other factors to calculate how much sunlight will reach the ground … Continue reading “SolarCasters, a One-Man Startup, Seeks Funding for Solar Power Forecasts”
Accumetrics Gunning To Be the Medical Diagnostics Standard for Managing Cardiovascular Disease
Doctors often prescribe a drug like clopidogrel (Plavix) or aspirin to help prevent their patients from suffering a heart attack, stroke, or even waxy plaque buildup along the inside of blood vessels. But how do they know if the dosage is correct, and that the drug prescribed is actually working as intended to prevent blood … Continue reading “Accumetrics Gunning To Be the Medical Diagnostics Standard for Managing Cardiovascular Disease”
Sanofi CEO Bets Outside U.S., Gears Up for Flu Pandemic, and Seeks To Learn From Biotech
Not long ago, drug companies would break out quarterly income streams from the U.S., Europe, Japan, and something called ROW, as in rest-of-world. Investors usually didn’t care about the last numbers, because they were little more than a rounding error. That’s not the case anymore, as these countries are often called “emerging markets.” They’ve grown … Continue reading “Sanofi CEO Bets Outside U.S., Gears Up for Flu Pandemic, and Seeks To Learn From Biotech”
The Transformative Twelve: Presenting the XSITE Xpo Showcase
June 2009 is a month of firsts for Xconomy. It’s the first anniversary of our Seattle site. It’s the first time we’ve organized a full-day innovation conference, the Xconomy Summit on Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship, coming up on June 24. And, as part of XSITE, it’s the first time we’ve assembled local startups for a … Continue reading “The Transformative Twelve: Presenting the XSITE Xpo Showcase”
Boston’s Digital Entertainment Economy Begins to Sense Its Own Strength
Let’s say you live in Boston and you’ve just hit on a great concept for a cross-media property, with all the attendant merchandising tie-ins: a special-effects-laden movie, a console video game, a comic, a kids’ cartoon, action figures, a novelization, a persistent online world—in other words, the next Matrix or Transformers or Harry Potter. To … Continue reading “Boston’s Digital Entertainment Economy Begins to Sense Its Own Strength”
TB Isn’t Going Away, and Pharma Isn’t Ignoring It
Many people thought tuberculosis had gone away. Unfortunately, it has not. Indeed, it is coming back strongly, and in a multidrug resistant form. This has occurred at a time of a vacuum in drug discovery and development for tuberculosis. Fortunately, government institutions like the National Institutes of Health, non-governmental agencies like the Seattle Biomedical Research … Continue reading “TB Isn’t Going Away, and Pharma Isn’t Ignoring It”