Biotechnology business in Norway: Peripheral advantage, or just periphery?

Research on biotechnology related firms has long been associated with the agglomeration of “dedicated biotechnology firms” and partners such as large corporations, research institutes and venture capital firms. At the same time it is acknowledged that such agglomeration trends may be most closely associated with medical biotechnology. This paper shows that there are more than 130 firms which may be classified as biotechnology related firms in Norway. Furthermore they are spread out throughout the country, albeit with more than half being located in the Eastern part. While there is indeed a great preoccupation with medical biotechnology also in Norway, the survey shows that two other distinct traits are present: a concentration of firms being focused on diagnostics and drug delivery rather than on therapeutics, and a focus on marine biotechnology (more than one third of the firms) within nutrition related products rather than or in addition to medical products. In addition to contributing these descriptive findings the paper thus opens up the agglomeration discussion, and suggests that foci on such niches as those which are prevalent in Norway may function with geographical distribution patterns different from those prevalent within the current medical biotechnology focused literature.

Novel Techniques and Their Applications to Health Foods, Agricultural and Medical Biotechnology: Functional Genomics and Basic Epigenetic Controls in Plant and Animal Cells

Selected applications of novel techniques for analyzing Health Food formulations, as well as for advanced investigations in Agricultural and Medical Biotechnology aimed at defining the multiple connections between functional genomics and epigenomic, fundamental control mechanisms in both animal and plant cells are being reviewed with the aim of unraveling future developments and policy changes that are likely to open new niches for Biotechnology and prevent the shrinking or closing of existing markets. Amongst the selected novel techniques with applications in both Agricultural and Medical Biotechnology are: immobilized bacterial cells and enzymes, microencapsulation and liposome production, genetic manipulation of microorganisms, development of novel vaccines from plants, epigenomics of mammalian cells and organisms, and biocomputational tools for molecular modeling related to disease and Bioinformatics. Both fundamental and applied aspects of the emerging new techniques are being discussed in relation to their anticipated, marked impact on future markets and present policy changes that are needed for success in either Agricultural or Medical Biotechnology. The novel techniques are illustrated with figures presenting the most important features of representative and powerful tools which are currently being developed for both immediate and long term applications in Agriculture, Health Food formulation and production, pharmaceuticals and Medicine. The research aspects are naturally emphasized in our review as they are key to further developments in Biotechnology; however, the course adopted for the implementation of biotechnological applications, and the policies associated with biotechnological applications are clearly the determining factors for future Biotechnology successes, be they pharmaceutical, medical or agricultural

Lactate signalling regulates fungal β-glucan masking and immune evasion

AJPB: This work was supported by the European Research Council (STRIFE, ERC- 2009-AdG-249793), The UK Medical Research Council (MR/M026663/1), the UK Biotechnology and Biological Research Council (BB/K017365/1), the Wellcome Trust (080088; 097377). ERB: This work was supported by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Research Council (BB/M014525/1). GMA: Supported by the CNPq-Brazil (Science without Borders fellowship 202976/2014-9). GDB: Wellcome Trust (102705). CAM: This work was supported by the UK Medical Research Council (G0400284). DMM: This work was supported by UK National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC/K000306/1). NARG/JW: Wellcome Trust (086827, 075470,101873) and Wellcome Trust Strategic Award in Medical Mycology and Fungal Immunology (097377). ALL: This work was supported by the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology and the University of Aberdeen (MR/N006364/1).Peer reviewedPostprin

Poorer European Countries are Less Concerned about Biotechnology than Richer Countries

The author examines the relationship between GNP, media coverage, and public perceptions of the utility, risk, and acceptability of medical and food-related applications of biotechnology

Dissection of the Candida albicans class I chitin synthase promoters

We acknowledge financial support from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (10161), Medical Research Council (New Investigator Award to C.A.M.), the European Community FUNGALWALL and SIGNALPATH initiatives and the Wellcome Trust.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Contact-mediated control of radial migration of corneal epithelial cells

We thank Darrin Sheppard and other staff at the University of Aberdeen Medical Research Facility for specialist technical assistance. We thank Patsy D. Goast for overnight microscope monitoring. This work was performed under the Biotechnology and Bioscience Research Council Grant number BB/E015840/1 to JMC.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Replication-Coupled PCNA Unloading by the Elg1 Complex Occurs Genome-wide and Requires Okazaki Fragment Ligation

Open Access funded by Medical Research Council Acknowledgments We thank Dr Anja Bielinsky for plasmids and Dr. M.K. Raghuraman for a cdc9-1 strain. Alexander Lorenz (University of Aberdeen) provided valuable comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) grant BB/K006304/1 to A.D., Medical Research Council Career Development Fellowship MR/L019698/1 to T.K., and MEXT Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas to K.S.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Stress-induced nuclear accumulation is dispensable for Hog1-dependent gene expression and virulence in a fungal pathogen

The authors thank E. Veal for intellectual input. This work was funded by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Research Council [J.Q. BB/K016393/1; A.J.P.B. BB/K017365/1], the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) [D.M.M. NC/N002482/1] and the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award in Medical Mycology and Fungal Immunology [097377]). D.M.M. and A.J.P.B. are also supported by the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology at the University of Aberdeen (MR/N006364/1).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Choosing Between Promising and Crowded Industries: How Does the Venture Capital Industry Fare in Each?

Incredible profits from Initial Public Offerings have been highly emphasized. This paper refutes these profits as being standard and supports the market’s return to normalcy by stratifying annual and cumulative returns for different industries: Biotechnology; Communications; Computer Related companies; Medical, Health and Life Science industries; Non-High-Technology companies; and Semiconductor and Other Electronics Industries. This paper tests whether an entrepreneur has greater potential for success in continually promising fields or whether one should slug it out in a risky but potentially very rewarding industry. A comparison of success is made between already competitive businesses and those, which are young and growing.Initial public offering, venture capital, annualized and cumulative rates of return, Information Technology, Medical, Health and Life Science, Non-High Technology, Biotechnology, Communications, Computer Industry, Semiconductor and Other Electronics Industries

New directions for the treatment of adrenal insufficiency

The following funding bodies supported this work: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC BB/L00267/1, to LG), Rosetrees Trust (to LG), Barts and The London Charity (417/2235, to LG), EU COFUND (PCOFUND-GA-2013-608765, to LG and GRB). IH is supported by a Medical Research Council (MRC, G0802796) PhD studentship