GLITR Friday, October 16, 2009

Your report for Friday, October 16, 2009

Detroit to host World Stem Cell Summit
State and university officials announced Thursday that the 2010 World Stem Cell Summit will be held in Detroit and will be co-hosted by the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University. The conference will take place Oct. 4-6, 2010, at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center. The summit will attract more than 1,200 of the most influential stem cell stakeholders from more than 30 countries representing the fields of science, business, policy, law, ethics and advocacy. There will be more than 150 renowned speakers, producing a unique international network designed to foster collaborations, economic development, technology transfer, commercialization, private investment and philanthropy. The event will be organized by the non-profit Genetics Policy Institute. In addition to the three University Research Corridor universities, the event will be co-hosted by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. More.

NanoBio product kills drug-resistant bacteria found in CF patients
Ann Arbor-based NanoBio Corp. Thursday announced compelling preclinical data for NB-401, a nebulized nanoemulsion-based agent that kills highly drug-resistant strains of bacteria commonly found in cystic fibrosis patients. Currently there are limited treatment options available that effectively address these resistant bacteria. The study results were to be presented at the 2009 Annual North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference in Minneapolis, Minn. More.

Solid State Lighting Association aims to make Michigan global leader
The Michigan Solid-State Lighting Association today announced the official launch of its organization. MSSLA was established in a collaborative effort with Michigan-based corporations, universities, and state agencies engaged in manufacturing, research or development of solid-state lighting products. As environmental consciousness and green building continue to grow in all industries, the MSSLA mission is to help ensure that Michigan becomes a global leader in solid-state lighting manufacturing, research, and development through knowledge sharing, education and public policy advocacy. Founding members of the MSSLA include DTE Energy, Ilumisys, LEDOS, Lumatek International, Midwest Circuits, Relume Technologies, the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth, the University of Michigan, Wayne State University and XUS LED Lighting. More.

MSU lands grant to improve African agricultural technology
The New Partnership for Africa’s Development and Michigan State University will use a five-year, $10.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to connect African biosafety regulators with advances in technology -- an initiative aimed at reducing poverty through improved agricultural practices. The foundation announced the grant in conjunction with Bill Gates’ keynote address Thursday at the World Food Prize Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa. It is part of a package of nine agricultural development projects totaling $120 million to address long-term food security. More.

Michigan Tech gets grant to study wildfires, climate change, health
Where there’s smoke, there may be health risks. And where there’s climate change, there may be more -- and more intense -- wildfires. What does that mean for the health of people downwind from the smoke? A team of Michigan Technological University researchers has received a $452,086 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for the first year of a research study of the impact of climate change on wildfires and the resulting impact on human health of smoke from the wildfires. More.

E2 Detroit: Entrepreneurs to the region's economic rescue

Hundreds of people gathered at Wayne State University Thursday certain that in their heads is the Next Big Thing.

More than 450 people signed up for the fifth annual E2 Detroit conference at the McGregor Memorial Conference Center, for a full day of entrepreneurial advice and counsel. Estimating actual attendance was a bit difficult, since attendees occupied two different rooms in the building for the keynotes. Matt Roush, WWJ Newsradio 950 technology editor, served as the day's master of ceremonies.

The day opened with comments from Wayne State president Jay Noren, who touted Michigan's University Research Corridor, the collaborative research effort of Wayne State, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan that together draws more than $1.4 billion a year in outside research funding, good for third place among similar university consortia in the United States.

Noren also scooped Gov. Jennifer Granholm, saying she would announce Thursday afternoon that an international symposium on stem cells would be held in Detroit in 2010. He said Wayne State's business and technology park, TechTown, would jump into embryonic stem cell research in a big way with the URC.

He also said more than 900 people have enrolled in TechTown's entrepreneurial training program.

Randal Charlton, executive director of TechTown, began his talk by holding up the recent Time magazine cover showing Detroit's desolation.

"While no one could question that that picture was taken in Detroit, it is not the whole picture," Charlton said. "I think even the writer would acknowledge that, and if he doesn't, I've already invited him to an old car factory north of I-94 that was built in 1927, that lay empty for 30 or 40 years, that now has, guess what, a parking problem. We're full. We have no space. We have 123 companies, new companies in things lie the car business, engineering, research, health care and IT."

In fact, Charlton said, "We've got a problem. We've got to build new facilities to house these companies. Detroit is on the move."

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ESD forecast event to feature kudos for Rothwell
The Engineering Society of Detroit will present its 2009 Design and Construction Industry Summit Award to Doug Rothwell, president of Detroit Renaissance, for his outstanding contributions to the development of the region. In addition to the Summit Industry Award, the ESD Economic Forecast Conference will focus on the new energy for economic revitalization that is being felt in Michigan. Attendees will hear from expert speakers about a Michigan that is global, connected, energized and ready for a major economic turnaround. More.

Appia hiring regional managers in Los Angeles, Houston
Traverse City-based Appia Communications Thursday announced immediate openings for regional sales managers in Los Angeles and Houston. Appia provides communication and networking services to small and midsize companies and organizations. Vice president of sales Jason Ulm said that growth in these markets warrants additional full-time staff. More.

Kalamazoo firm gets NIH grant to test hearing product
Kalamazoo-based OtoMedicine Inc. said Thursday it has received a two-year, $1.1 million Small Business Innovative Research Phase II award from the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, part of the National Institutes of Health. OtoMedicine is a Southwest Michigan First Life Science Fund portfolio company. This federal grant will provide funding for the company to conduct a human, clinical study testing of OtoMedicine’s oral therapeutic product, AuraQuell, for prevention of noise-induced hearing loss caused by gunfire. The company is working with the Universities of Michigan and Florida. More.

THE WORLD IN TECH

Sony to launch PlayStation 3 with larger hard drive
To give more room for game, movie and music downloads, Sony is launching a PlayStation 3 with a larger hard drive on Nov. 3. The $350 gaming console will have a 250 gigabyte hard drive, more than twice as big as the recently launched slimmer, lighter PlayStation 3. That one costs $300 and has a 120 gigabyte hard drive. Other than the hard drive size, the new PS3 will look and work the same as the 120 gigabyte system. Sony's move comes as game companies gear up for the holiday season, when they reap most of their profit for the year.

Microsoft says it can restore wiped Sidekick data
There may be a happy ending after all for owners of Sidekick phones who thought they might have permanently lost contact numbers and other personal information they had put on the gadget. Earlier this week, T-Mobile said information stored by many Sidekick owners was "almost certainly" gone for good following a failure of the computers that remotely stored the data. But Microsoft Corp., whose Danger Inc. subsidiary makes the phones that are sold through T-Mobile USA, said Thursday it recovered "most, if not all" of the missing data and will restore it as soon as it validates the information. Microsoft also apologized for the glitch. More.

China-bound ex-Ford engineer charged with trade secrets theft
An engineer copied thousands of electronic documents and stole trade secrets before quitting Ford Motor Co. for a new job in China, authorities said Thursday in announcing criminal charges. Xiang Dong Yu, also known as Mike Yu, was arrested Wednesday in Chicago after traveling from China, the U.S. attorney's office said. An indictment in Detroit charges Yu, 47, with theft and attempted theft of trade secrets and unauthorized access to a computer. The maximum penalty on the theft-related charges is 10 years in prison. The indictment says Yu copied design details on doors, mirrors, steering wheel assemblies, power systems, wipers and other vehicle components. More.

Oracle's Ellison to IBM: 'Make our day'
Larry Ellison ratcheted up his rhetoric against IBM Corp. on Wednesday, challenging Oracle Corp.'s longtime partner and rival to "make our day" in a battle over business software performance. Ellison, Oracle's billionaire CEO, shook up the technology world in April by outbidding IBM and snatching up struggling server and software maker Sun Microsystems Inc. for $7.4 billion. The deal, which still needs approval from European antitrust authorities, would make Oracle more of a one-stop technology shop, like IBM. It led to a feeding frenzy on Sun's customers, with IBM and Hewlett-Packard Co. playing on fears about Oracle's plans for Sun's technology to steal business from Sun. Ellison fought back Wednesday in a speech in San Francisco, promoting a $10 million prize Oracle is offering to any organization that finds Oracle's database software doesn't run at least twice as fast on Sun servers as it does on IBM's fastest computers. More.

Stocks: Shares gain as energy firms offset losses in banks
A late-day surge left stocks with modest advances Thursday as a jump in the price of oil lifted energy companies and offset weakness in bank shares. The gains came a day after strong profit reports from JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Intel Corp. vaulted the Dow Jones industrials above the 10,000 level for the first time in a year. Stocks spent most of the day lower but rallied in the final 15 minutes of trading ahead of quarterly reports from Google Inc., IBM Corp. and chip maker Advanced Micro Devices that arrived after the closing bell. All three topped expectations and could help the market extend its gains if reports due early Friday from General Electric Co. and Bank of America Corp. aren't spoilers. Analysts say the market's late bounce signals investors are still looking to get into the market. More. The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) rose 1.06 points or 0.1 percent to 2,173.29. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) rose 47.08 points or 0.5 percent to 10,062.94. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX) fell 4.73 points or 1.4 percent to 329.78. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) fell 4.42 points or 0.8 percent to 547.6. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index (DRG) roe 3.27 points or 1.1 percent to 297.94. The NYSE Arca Biotech Index (BTK) rose 6.4 points or 0.7 percent to 931.17. Finally, the Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) rose 4.54 points or 0.4 percent to 1,096.56.

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