Edico Genome (San Diego), a young company developing a bioinformatics chip to speed data analysis and lower costs of genome sequencing, has raised $10 million in Series A financing to commercialize its Dragen Bio-IT processor. The financing was led by Qualcomm through its venture investment group, Qualcomm Ventures, and included Axon Ventures and Greg Lucier, who made his first investment following his role as CEO/chairman of Life Technologies.

Covidien (Dublin, Ireland) said it has overcame a significant roadblock to predictable ablation of soft tissue with its new advanced ablation system. According to the company, the system offers physicians predictable results regardless of the target location or tissue type. The Emprint ablation system with Thermosphere technology is designed to precisely heat and destroy diseased soft tissue (including liver, lung and kidney), and non-resectable liver tumors.

The U.S. obesity epidemic is a source of frustration in the medical community because despite current treatment options there is still a rather sizable gap of patients who are eligible for bariatric surgery but refuse to consider that option out of fear and social stigmas.

In 2004 my hometown lost its largest employer to corporate greed. I was a young reporter for the local newspaper, The Register-Mail, when Maytag closed its doors in 2004, forcing roughly 1,600 workers in Galesburg, Illinois and surrounding towns out of their jobs. Most hurtful to the community was the factory’s reason for shutting down: Maytag moved to Mexico to take advantage of cheap labor. Galesburg has never been the same and a lot of people there are still struggling financially and they feel betrayed...

The ability to create three-dimensional replicas of real-world objects from a digital file is rapidly becoming the future of medical technology, and in many ways that future is already taking shape today. Medical Device Daily recently explored many of the opportunities and challenges of using 3-D printing in the medical space in a three-part series (Medical Device Daily, June 30-July 2, 2014).

Cartiva (Alpharetta, Georgia), a company developing solutions to treat cartilage damage and osteoarthritis, has published a study demonstrating what it calls "significant clinical improvement" using its synthetic cartilage implant (SCI) in patients with osteoarthritis of the first carpometacarpal (CMC) joint at the base of the thumb, also known as basal thumb arthritis. Cartiva SCI is a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel that was designed to mimic natural cartilage, the company said.