The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted “Breakthrough Device” designation to a digital therapy being developed by Portland startup MedRhythms Inc. MedRhythms’ medical device solutions use software, music and biosensors to help alleviate walking impairment in patients with neurologic disease or injury. The venture capital-backed company received the FDA designation for a solution treating stroke [...]
Bangor Teen Wins High Honors in International Science Competition (Portland) The Bioscience Association of Maine (BioME) is pleased to announce that Ijeoma Obi, a senior at Bangor High School, was recognized with High Honors for her research at the International BioGENEius Challenge, the premier competition for high school students that recognizes outstanding research and innovation [...]
Immortal cells that can generate new tissue and fix damaged organs? Sounds like a sci-fi movie. But researchers at Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor are now looking at “germ” cells as a source of potential medical treatments, the lab said Wednesday in a news release. The cells, precursors to human sperm and [...]
Jackson Laboratory, headquartered in Bar Harbor, is scaling up production of research mice designed to help scientists around the world develop vaccines and treatments for COVID-19. On a parallel track, the lab is ramping up its test capacity for COVID-19 infection from 550 tests per day to 20,000 tests per day by early July, for residents of Connecticut, [...]
Abbott Laboratories, which makes rapid-result COVID-19 test kits in Scarborough, is planning to expand and ramp up production in Westbrook. The company is renovating and expanding a building on Bradley Drive, which had been used as a distribution center for sporting goods retailer Olympia Sports, to convert it into a manufacturing facility for COVID-19 test [...]
BioME, the Bioscience Association of Maine, is bringing together representatives of businesses in Maine that have taken the lead in the medical aspect of fighting the COVID-19 virus in free webinar Thursday. “The Science of COVID-19," panel includes Edison Liu, president and CEO of Jackson Laboratory; Norman Moore, director of scientific affairs at Abbott Diagnostics, [...]
Covetrus Inc. (Nasdaq: CVET), the Portland-based provider of animal-health technology and services, reported that its net loss widened in the first quarter, although the company CEO spoke of "moderately improving" trends ahead. Covetrus also announced a new CFO and two other new leadership team members. The company on Thursday said that its net loss in [...]
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued emergency authorization for the use of human COVID-19 test kits produced by a subsidiary of Westbrook-based Idexx Laboratories Inc. The effectiveness of the test kits was previously validated by the Institut Pasteur of France, the company said Thursday in a news release. The test kits are being [...]
A new partnership with IDEXX Laboratories in Westbrook will triple Maine’s capacity to test for the coronavirus at its state laboratory in Augusta, state health officials and Gov. Janet Mills announced Thursday. The partnership with IDEXX comes on the heels of the federal Food and Drug Administration’s emergency approval of a testing system developed by IDEXX’s Georgia [...]
PITTSFIELD — A Guilford company that produces about 20 million coronavirus testing swabs monthly will be able to double that number and hire at least 150 workers as it expands the operation in a building Cianbro Corp. owns in Pittsfield and is retrofitting for that work. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Cianbro Chairman Peter Vigue, and officials [...]
