Europe’s biotech industry continues on a trajectory of growth fueled by innovations from cell and gene therapies to antisense, messenger RNA (mRNA), and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR-T), with more emerging technologies and techniques on the horizon. The industry has made considerable progress in improving access to capital and talent gaps in the past few years. However, its future growth will depend on whether it can continue to scale up innovation and keep up with the pace of change in other regions. Biotechs, investors, and other stakeholders will need to play their part in the industry’s next act if the promise of a golden age of biotech is to become a reality.

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--5G is powering new innovations that help us live healthier lives. T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) has kicked off its Fall 2021 T-Mobile Accelerator Wellness Technology Program. For the next few months, the following handpicked startups will work directly with technologists and business leaders at T-Mobile to build the next big thing in 5G technologies that promote wellness and improve quality of life. These participants are building breakthrough innovations in personal health wearables and applications, from smart glasses for Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals, to fitness devices and smart apparel that enhance athletic performance.

Two years ago, Yale University psychologist Laurie Santos began to wonder why students seemed so detached from their classmates. Like a good academic, she connected her observations to data — and found it troubling. The National College Health Assessment (pdf) showed that 42 percent of college students reported being too depressed to function well in the previous year. A range of other surveys and indicators have suggested that older people are also having difficulty finding happiness and connection in our 24/7, hyperconnected world.

Image: Photograph by Aaron Kotowski

There is a hydraulic relationship between domestic happiness and exposure to social media content opposite to our views.

In developed economies such as the United States, the current era is marked by political divisions so deep that not even pandemic response can avoid being drawn in. Science-backed mitigation and prevention measures such as masking, lockdowns and vaccines have become dangerously ideological.

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Ever had one of those tension nightmares where you’re getting chased by bad guys and desperate to run away, but somehow your legs won’t work? It’s like running in slow motion, through a thick syrup. As the villains get closer, your tension soars. You know you need to move, but just can’t find the momentum.

Every entrepreneur and every business I meet in my consulting and mentoring role has great intentions of bringing real innovation to the market, yet I find that most ideas are merely small extensions to existing solutions. I believe we need more non-linear “out of the box” thinking, to come up with the next step beyond the iPhone, or the next big step in transportation technology.

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The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022 include more than 1,600 universities across 99 countries and territories, making them the largest and most diverse university rankings to date.

The table is based on 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across four areas: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

This year’s ranking analysed more than 108 million citations across over 14.4 million research publications and included survey responses from almost 22,000 scholars globally. Overall, we collected over 430,000 datapoints from more than 2,100 institutions that submitted data.

200+ of the foremost global leaders in our community of innovation will converge at Innovation Elevated, our 2021 International Conference in Salt Lake City. Designed to advance new ideas at interactive sessions with C-suite executives, AURP IC2021 features a diverse range of learning content such as collaborative sessions, intensive discussions, learning tours and more, covering topics that will build competencies ELEVATE INNOVATION. You'll gain exposure to thought leaders, surface new concepts, and leave inspired. #BuildTheAURPNetwork #AURPIC2021

With the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic putting immense pressure on hospitals, temporary medical sites are needed more than ever to ward off the extra challenges. Of course, with the new sites comes the urgent necessity for more hospital beds, staff, and equipment, which involves additional expenditure that can place excessive strain on department budgets in the medical sector. The overflow of patients during the pandemic has emphasised the need for additional equipment, as resources have been stretched thinly across the globe. 

Marketers cannot fake it until they make it in the video game industry, explains Satori Kawamura, the director of brand partnerships at Mana Partners. If they do, she says, sophisticated players will see straight through any attempts to exploit them, and communities will respond accordingly.

In our increasingly digital world, video games are generating more revenue than movies and music combined. As the gaming industry grows up, the cost to acquire players is dramatically increasing. But unlocking true engagement requires much more than marketing dollars. The quest to build stronger and more creative branded gaming collaborations involves daring to step outside of our comfort zone and look beyond traditional agency thinking.

I am pleased to announce that BARDA and its HHS partners have launched a data challenge competition to develop algorithms that could help healthcare providers predict which among their pediatric patients with COVID-19 are likely to develop severe COVID-19 complications.

The challenge is sponsored by BARDA DRIVe, and includes partnerships with two National Institutes of Health institutes (National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)), and the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) Maternal & Child Health Bureau (MCHB).

The total cash prize purse is $200,000, split among up to three winners. Winners may also be eligible to apply for follow-on support from BARDA for further technology development and clinical evaluation.

If you have innovators in your network that are interested in developing computational models to help determine which pediatric COVID-19 patients are likely to develop severe illness and complications, such as multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), please have them check out this new challenge competition.

Peeking into the inner theatre of the seriously wealthy.

Reading about Jeff Bezos, I cannot help but wonder how it feels to be the richest man in the world. When your net worth is estimated at nearly US$200 billion, you arguably deserve a superyacht that is almost as big as the Great Pyramid of Giza (if the vessel was laid out vertically). In fact, owning such a vessel is cheaper than shooting rockets in the air, another popular billionaire hobby.

On Monday, the European Union removed the United States from its “safe list” of countries whose residents can travel to its 27 member states without requirements such as quarantine and testing. This generated confusion, with some people writing on social media that Americans have been banned from visiting Europe. That’s not actually what the recommendation means. Americans have not been explicitly prohibited from going anywhere in Europe. But as of Tuesday, at least one country had put new restrictions on travelers depending on their vaccination status: Italy said it would require unvaccinated travelers to quarantine for five days; vaccinated travelers must take a test for the coronavirus before entering. Here’s a look at what the new developments mean for vaccinated and unvaccinated people:

On August 23, 2021, BARDA's Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures (DRIVe) opened a new area of interest (AOI) under the EZ Broad Agency Announcement (EZ-BAA) solicitation to expand the capabilities of existing next-generation sequencing diagnostics to agnostically detect any pathogenic respiratory RNA virus including new, emerging and existing viruses.

Next-generation sequencing diagnostics have been established for oncology and some genetic disorders, and such technology also is needed for infectious diseases due to growing health security challenges and threats. In a viral outbreak or pandemic, having agnostic tests – especially those which can detect any respiratory RNA virus and can be implemented rapidly without the need for additional regulatory approvals – is crucial.

If you're looking for work, finding a job this year is a very different ballgame from what it was pre-pandemic.

A lot has changed — digitization has accelerated, tech is more advanced than ever, and remote work has become the norm for many.

All these changes mean new skills are needed to work efficiently with remote teams and to be as productive as possible.

Most cyberattacks target people, not systems. In fact, the vast majority of attacks can be traced back to human failures. So, when you’re thinking about your company’s cybersecurity, you should really be thinking about your company culture. The authors developed six strategies to help leaders counteract information security risks, based on human psychology. First, asking employees to demonstrate commitment — say, by signing a formal commitment — makes it more likely they’ll follow through. Second, when senior leadership sets a good example, employees are likely to follow their lead. Third, reciprocity (or giving something to someone with seemingly no obligation for requited behavior) is one of the best ways to elicit return favor-giving. Fourth, people want what is rare or seemingly scarce and will make extra efforts to get these things. Fifth, people are influenced by those who are like them or those they find likeable. And lastly, people are more likely to comply with requests when these requests are issued by someone in an authority role, so when bosses show expertise, their teams are likely to listen.

There’s a cost to making supply chains sustainable — but there are big opportunities for profit as well.

Just ask any of the numerous venture capital firms that have sprung up in recent years to support startups dedicated to creating “green” supply chains and address the threat of climate change.

A particular area of focus for investors today is the so-called circular economy — a system designed to generate zero waste in production and distribution, and dedicated to the recycling and regeneration of materials.

You know what has never crossed my mind? Living in Silicon Valley. Even when it may have been affordable. Sure, I get it — the prestige, the atmosphere, big things happen there and bragging rights abound. However, is that the only place where real tech growth happens?

In my career, I have found ideas, talent, growth and humility with no coast in sight. For example, I live in the middle of America’s heartland — Wichita, Kansas. If you’re not familiar with Wichita, you’re not alone. Yet just this year, Wichita ranked high on Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities Index. Familiar with it or not, Wichita is in the midst of significant industry growth.

Making the decision to start your own business is a major commitment, with huge implications for skills and lifestyle. Yet there is no standardized testing or certification required or available anywhere to help you decide if you are a good fit for entrepreneurship, or founding a business is right for you. An MBA or other academic credentials just don’t do it.

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What would you say about a technology commercialization system that kept on performing even through the worst pandemic in over a century? How about if it improved its performance over the previous year and was a critical factor in developing desperately needed therapies to protect people around the world? Would it seem reasonable that this was something that all of us should highly value and want to protect? You might think so, but some in Washington apparently don’t agree.