The University of Utah is working on deals with four Indian companies for commercialisation of cutting edge anti-HIV and contraceptive delivery products including a molecular condom developed by an Indian student.
Developed by Kavita Madanlal Gupta, an international student from India currently working toward a PhD in bioengineering, and Patrick Kiser, an assistant professor of bioengineering at the university, the condom will be commercialised through a partnership with India's Pregna International.
Microbicides, such as the microbicidal molecular condom developed by Gupta, are seen as a way for women to gain power by protecting themselves from HIV, the university said on Tuesday. Pregna and the university will together work on this and a variety of other technologies, which have the potential to provide humanitarian aid to the people of India.
The dynamic partnership between the University of Utah and Pregna International, a world leader in contraceptive manufacturing located in Mumbai, will focus on the commercialisation of cutting edge anti-HIV and contraceptive delivery products for the Indian marketplace, it said.
"There are over two-million individuals living with HIV/AIDS in India today with 84 per cent of the infections resulting from sexual transmission of the virus," said Kiser.
"The university's portfolio of innovative technologies coupled with the product development experience of Pregna could help control the spread of this devastating disease."
"This partnership will give the university a chance to place their technologies in the hands of people that need them most and will enhance the value of our technologies in the developed world," he said.
Apart from Pregna, the university's vice president of technology venture development, Jack Brittain will also sign memoranda of understanding with Globerian, Global Health Private Ltd MediCity and Manipal AcuNova Ltd.
The memoranda to be signed in the presence of Utah Governor Jon Huntsman who is currently leading a trade delegation to India, in Mumbai and New Delhi will initiate a long-term international collaboration between the University and India.
The university will work with each of the four companies to create a progressive alliance to accelerate commercialisation of university-invented technologies, expand educational and research opportunities, as well as aid in humanitarian efforts.
"These Indian companies are unique partners for the University of Utah," Brittain said. "Their leaders are innovative and eager to bring new medical technologies to their community."
"Partnering with Indian companies will allow the university to benefit from their expertise and willingness to engage in collaborative research and development. Through this alliance we will be able to accelerate commercialisation of University technologies and provide economic benefits to both the United States and India."
"The University of Utah is continually contributing to the strength of Utah' s economy through the commercialisation of their cutting-edge research and technologies," said Huntsman.
"As the home of Nobel Prize winner Mario Capecchi, the University of Utah has been appropriately recognised as an international leader in research. Working collaboratively with India through these four international partnerships, the University of Utah will open up opportunities for existing businesses and aid in the start-up of new companies which will create meaningful jobs through a strong humanitarian focus," he said.
Globerian, headquartered in New Delhi, is a world leader in health information technology, research and healthcare practice management. It will help medical and bio-informatics researchers and students at the University of Utah identify emerging opportunities for the development and commercialisation of its medical informatics expertise.
Future collaborative efforts may include advancing health information research and data management technologies to provide individuals and institutions global access to health information.
Manipal AcuNova Ltd, a global clinical research organisation based in Bangalore, will help university researchers more efficiently conduct clinical trials in India, accelerate collaborative medical technology commercialisation, and offer students a practical experience in an international business-research setting.
Global Health Private Ltd, MediCity, is currently developing a four-million-square-foot, 40-acre facility in Gurgaon.
Backed by clinical and biotechnology research, it will provide medical care to the growing middle class in India. Their partnership will facilitate collaborative efforts to enhance healthcare delivery while providing international experience for students, the university said.
http://hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=c389798a-7a09-44e4-be77-59b335e2b8ba&&Headline=Indian+develops+molecular+condom
Students who frequently use cell phones to send e-mail are more likely to have sex, a survey by the Japanese Association for Sex Education has found.
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First of all, let’s quash the urban legend of the ‘thumbs-up/thumbs-down’ being used by the audience in the Roman coliseum to vote on the life or death of a defeated gladiator, as furthered by such movies as Gladiator and Spartacus. There’s no evidence for this, and it’s just massively unlikely. Sorry.
Opening your palm to your target and stretching out your fingers seems harmless enough to most Westerners. Most of us would think you’re waving. In Greece, however, the gesture is known as a moutza, and is one of their most traditional manual insults. With fingers slightly apart, you thrust your hand into your target’s face, usually coupling the gesture with a brash “na!”, meaning “here you go!”. The basic suggestion is something like “eat shit”, implying that you’re not particularly impressed and would rather the target of the moutza leave you alone – comparable to the American interpretation of the same signal as “talk to the hand, because the face isn’t listening”.
Beware, however, of using this gesture in the Philippines – it’s a method of communication considered worthy only to use on dogs, and is actually punishable by arrest. Worst of all, they’ll break your index finger in order to prevent you from committing the same crime again!
Not so, however, in a few countries in Europe, where the numerical interpretation gives the signal an insulting overtone – essentially you’re telling them that you think they’re a ‘zero’.
While there isn’t really an equivalent in Western culture, the cutis in Indian and Pakistani culture is basically a thumbs-up, except you push the nail on your thumb against your front teeth and flick, while saying “cutta!”. It basically amounts to “screw you”, and famously appeared in the media when Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar made the gesture in Melbourne as he left the field for a rain delay during the 2004 test series against Australia.
However, if the outside of your hand is facing your target, you’re giving somebody a long-established insult in Great Britain and many English-speaking countries such as Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. Winston Churchill famously used the ‘incorrect’ version of the V sign during the early years of the war, switching round later when he’d been told by his advisors that he wasn’t exactly giving the lower social orders a positive message. The V sign is also considered rude in Italy, especially if you place your nose between the two fingers, making the gesture resemble a crude vagina.
Nothing more than a fist with the thumb poking out from between the index and middle fingers, the mano fico (literally ‘fig hand’) is a gesture of Roman origin, used as a positive gesture to encourage good luck and fertility, and ward away the ‘evil eye’. The sexual nuance comes from from the hand’s resemblance to the female private parts (fica is actually Italian slang for “vulva”), with the nub of the thumb representing the clitoris.
Occasionally used by baseball players to indicate “two outs”, the corna is actually a positive hand gesture in Buddhism and Hinduism, known as the Karana Mudra in such circles, and is used to dispel evil – an interestingly opposite meaning to its contemporary significance.
Most likely derived from Ancient Greece, ‘the finger’ is one of the most widespread obscene gestures throughout the Western world. In a handful of Mediterranean and Arab countries the index finger is preferred to the middle, but the meaning remains crystal clear. There are a myriad of different stories for the origin of the finger (going back as far as 2500 years), making mention of Greek tragedies, phallic representation, perverse Roman emperors, English longbowmen, and annoyed deaf people - but we just don’t know.
