Clear, the biometrics company you’ve probably seen at airports and at a few other prominent queues, is rolling out the capability to simultaneously verify your ID and pay for an alcoholic drink with your fingerprint. It’s only at Seattle’s CenturyLink and Safeco Fields (and only a handful of concessions stands at those) but if it’s successful you can bet we’ll be seeing more of it.
View More Clear for beer: Biometrics provider now enables alcohol purchases at Seahawks and Mariners gamesCategory: Bio
CRISPR DNA editing may cause serious genetic damage, researchers warn
CRISPR-Cas9, the gene editing tool that is currently the darling of biotech and many other fields, may not be quite as miraculous as early tests suggested. A new study finds that what scientists thought of as a scalpel may be more like a felling axe, causing damage hundreds of times what was previously observed.
View More CRISPR DNA editing may cause serious genetic damage, researchers warnElizabeth Holmes reportedly steps down at Theranos after criminal indictment
Elizabeth Holmes has left her role as CEO of Theranos and has been charged with wire fraud, CNBC and others report. The company’s former president, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, was also indicted today by a grand jury. These criminal charges are separate from the civil ones filed in March by the SEC and already settled. There […]
View More Elizabeth Holmes reportedly steps down at Theranos after criminal indictmentReviveMed turns drug discovery into a big data problem and raises $1.5M to solve it
What if there’s a drug that already exists that could treat a disease with no known therapies, but we just haven’t made the connection? Finding that connection by exhaustively analyzing complex biomechanics within the body — with the help of machine learning, naturally — is the goal of ReviveMed, a new biotech startup out of MIT that just raised $1.5 million in seed funding.
View More ReviveMed turns drug discovery into a big data problem and raises $1.5M to solve itWatch IndieBio Accelerator’s Demo Day today
Today, April 17th at 2:00 PT, TechCrunch is bringing you IndieBio‘s Demo Day. IndieBio is a four-month accelerator focusing on biotech companies. Early-stage companies are given mentorship, 24/7 access to biosafety level 1 and 2 labs on-site, insights from industry experts and $250,000 in funding. The 2018 batch of 14 companies range from innovations in […]
View More Watch IndieBio Accelerator’s Demo Day todayMIT cuts ties with brain preservation startup Nectome
MIT is disassociating itself from Nectome, the Y Combinator-backed startup promising to preserve customers’ brains for the possibility of future digital upload. Co-founder Robert McIntyre described the procedure as “100 percent fatal” — it involves connecting terminally ill patients to a machine that pumps embalming fluids into their arteries. The company has collected (refundable) $10,000 […]
View More MIT cuts ties with brain preservation startup NectomePeer-reviewed study shows Cardiogram and Apple Watch can accurately determine atrial fibrillation
Over the past year, Cardiogram and UC San Francisco (UCSF) have presented a series of findings on how well consumer wearables like the Apple Watch and Android Wear can detect medical conditions in their users, including diabetes as well as hypertension and sleep apnea. Now, the startup is reaching a new milestone, this morning publishing […]
View More Peer-reviewed study shows Cardiogram and Apple Watch can accurately determine atrial fibrillationTradewind Bioscience attacks the physiology of tumors to treat cancer
Cancer remains the one counterpoint to the march of medical progress that has scored human history over the last 200 years. Last year 600,920 people in the U.S. died from cancer, and another 1.7 million received an initial diagnosis of the disease. Globally, one in six people die from cancer, according to the World Health Organization. […]
View More Tradewind Bioscience attacks the physiology of tumors to treat cancerHere are some real things people said about brain preservation startup Nectome
Regular TechCrunch readers have probably noticed an uptick in Y Combinator-related profiles over the last few days, as founders rush to get press coverage before next week’s Demo Day. Today, the MIT Technology Review gave us the details of one of the most ambitious and science fictional-sounding ones yet. The startup in question is Nectome, […]
Here are some real things people said about brain preservation startup Nectome
Regular TechCrunch readers have probably noticed an uptick in Y Combinator-related profiles over the last few days, as founders rush to get press coverage before next week’s Demo Day. Today, the MIT Technology Review gave us the details of one of the most ambitious and science fictional-sounding ones yet. The startup in question is Nectome, which promises to preserve people’s… Read More
Corporate bio VCs are backing more rounds and making bigger bets
Biotech is a lot like venture capital. Vast amounts of research, testing and marketing go into a wide range of therapies. But in the end, it’s just a tiny fraction that deliver most returns.
That similarity may be why most of the biggest biotech and pharmaceutical companies have a long history of engaging in the venture business as startup investors, spin-out creators and strategic partners. Read More
Life sciences startup Avro aims to deliver drugs to children and the elderly through skin patches
Avro, a life sciences startup in Y Combinator’s current batch, is banking on a method to deliver medications to populations unable to swallow or chew — It will administer them through the skin. Starting with allergy medications, the startup is developing skin patches that release drugs commonly used in seasonal allergies for children. The patches act much like nicotine patches,… Read More