Technology Transfer

"With engineering I view this year's failure as next year's opportunity to try it again...." Gordon E. Moore, co-founded Intel in 1968

The annual growth of biotech cultivation grew last year at its slowest pace since 1996, when biotech crops were first commercialised, according to a report by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, a non-profit group that advocates the use of bio-crops.

Lein Applied Diagnostics, a British company that develops blood glucose measuring for people with diabetes, has announced it has received further investment from its shareholder Seven Spires Investments. The company is seeking more investment to put a non-invasive blood glucose meter into clinical trials.

Marc Van Montagu, Europe's founding father of genetically modified crops and a powerful advocate for their acceptance in Europe, speaks to Science|Business News Editor Thomas Lau.

Micromet AG, a spin-off from the Institute for Immunology at Munich University, said it has agreed to grant four licenses of its single chain antibody technology to Abbott Laboratories, Alligator Bioscience AB, Haptogen Ltd. and an unnamed biopharmaceutical company, for the development of cancer treatments.