Nuala Moran

The Norwegian Government is weighing a Euro 300M rescue package for the biotech industry as part of a national financial rescue package it is due to announce by the end of January.

ETH Zurich is celebrating a record year for spin-offs, creating 23 companies in 2008. Six companies were established in computer science and six in communication technologies and services; four in bio-technology/pharmaceuticals; four in electrical and electronics engineering; two in medical devices, and one in micro- and nanotechnology.

There could be no more graphic and endearing image of the potential that stem cell research has to replace damaged or diseased tissue - and treat the previously untreatable - than the picture of the smiling, happy and restored Claudia Castillo, after a windpipe transplant.

Healthcare is unreceptive to technology because it still operates under a 19th-century business model. It’s time for its organisation and systems to change.

Converging technologies are changing the face of healthcare. What is the role of industry in driving this change, and how can the public and private sectors work together?

The Future Delivery of Medicine: technology is delivering huge potential to improve treatments, but can we afford it?

Technology holds inspiring potential. But can outdated healthcare systems unlock it? A conference at University College London sought – and found – some solutions.

Standardised patient records could give the same boost to healthcare as the GSM standard provided to mobile communications, says Nuala Moran.

Cash-rich pharma is dropping any pretence they are buying cash-strapped biotech for access to innovative technology. What it wants is products. Let’s hope it doesn’t suffocate the feedstock of innovation in the process.

Who can deliver on science and innovation? I can, says the UK’s new Science Minister, Paul Drayson.