Business Announcement

This week the European University Alliance FORTHEM gathered in Mainz, Germany, for its first on-site meeting. Alongside the seven university partners from all over Europe, representatives of the FORTHEM partner cities and their chambers of commerce and industry were invited so that they could meet one another in person and exchange ideas. Furthermore, the FORTHEM Alliance invited two new members, the University of Agder in Norway and the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu in Romania, and signed a letter of intent with both universities as part of the preparations for their full membership.

The scholarly publisher and technology provider Pensoft and its self-developed publishing platform ARPHA welcome Biosystematics and Ecology - a journal by the Austrian Academy of Sciences - to its growing open-access scholarly portfolio. By moving to ARPHA, Biosystematics and Ecology now enjoys a long list of high-tech perks, which dramatically enhance the entire publishing process, from submission to publication, distribution and archiving.

A cardiothoracic surgical team with UofL Health – Jewish Hospital and the University of Louisville has performed the world’s first Aeson® bioprosthetic total artificial heart implantation in a female patient. The investigational device, currently intended as a bridge to heart transplant, is part of an Early Feasibility Study (EFS) sponsored by CARMAT, a French medical device company, in partnership with UofL, UofL Health – Jewish Hospital and the UofL Health – Trager Transplant Center.

Some premature babies need the help of life-saving machines in a neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, to provide oxygen that eases the struggle to take their first breaths. However, small, personalized adjustments — to either raise or lower the level of oxygen provided — must be made by hand under the careful attention of nurses and respiratory therapists. Now, a clinical trial will test a new device, designed by a researcher at the University of Missouri College of Engineering, that could make those needed adjustments for premature babies in a NICU — automatically.

The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) has launched the Quantum Biology Center at UCLA, with the goal to train students and early-career scientists and engineers, to foster interdisciplinary research collaborations and to promote scientific networking. The center will be led by Clarice D. Aiello, a CNSI member and UCLA assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering in the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. Initial financial support for the center comes from the National Science Foundation, the Kavli Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the D’Or Institute for Research and Education.