Research

A West Chester partnership has received a $25,000 innovation grant from the Ben Franklin Partnership to study the practicality of a new electromagnetic system to generate electricity. MKH Partners of West Chester will use the grant to conduct a technical feasibility study for a high-efficiency generator based on the principles of energy resonance. The technology developed by MKH may initially be applied to small generators such as those used in homes for emergency backup of electricty, said James F. Murray, a process control programming consultant who is one of the MKH partners.

It's been a private home, a boarding house, a restaurant and catering facility. For the last 2 1/2 centuries, it has survived by adapting - with additions, new porches, a third floor. But until a study was released to the Fairmount Park Commission yesterday, no one realized how rare Belmont Mansion is, how magnificent it was in its early days. Under the hundreds of years of paint, researchers found a mansion dating to 1745 - 10 to 15 years earlier than believed. They uncovered evidence of wings, connected to the main house by covered passages, or piazzas.

Scientists at Thomas Jefferson University began four years ago to tout a hot new approach to AIDS - a way to stymie the virus using a sophisticated genetic technique. They were publishing papers, getting national press, and preparing to test it on people. But an investigation by a Jefferson committee has concluded that the federally funded gene therapy research was marred by "extraordinarily careless science," including some experiments that may never have been conducted. Federal officials are reviewing the conclusions of Jefferson's investigation, which was triggered after a researcher in the AIDS laboratory made a discovery that he said cast doubt on the fundamental premise on which the research was based.

Ever wonder how a development like Heaton's Mill got its name or a street like Hidden Pond Lane? Or why there are so many Chases and Chathams among new residential areas? It all boils down to marketing, which begins with choosing the right name - and the right image. That means developers are left with a slew of models and streets to name what they will. "We do a lot of research," said Jay Spaziano, vice president of real estate services for Heaton's Mill, a Gigliotti Corp.

Ellen Hyman-Browne, 59, of Center City, an attorney and research compliance officer at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, died of lung cancer Tuesday, March 29, at her home. Mrs. Hyman-Browne oversaw the hospital's program for assuring that hundreds of researchers adhere to regulatory standards and policies as they conduct clinical and laboratory research. "Ellen approached her work at CHOP with the highest standards of integrity and professionalism," said Jeffrey D. Kahn, the hospital's senior vice president for audit, compliance, and privacy.

Theodore W. Sery, 86, of Haddonfield, a longtime research scientist at the Wills Eye Institute who also helped create programs for mentally challenged adults in South Jersey, died Sunday, Jan. 2, at Cooper University Hospital after a heart attack. Throughout his more than 30 years as basic research director at Wills Eye Institute in Philadelphia, Dr. Sery focused primarily on corneal disease with an emphasis on the herpes virus. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Dr. Sery was one of the pioneers in developing an antiviral eye drop to use on eye ulcers caused by a herpes virus, said William Tasman, former ophthalmologist in chief at Wills Eye. A lot of Dr. Sery's published work, which included more than 30 journal entries, dealt with the effectiveness of the penetration of certain antibiotics into the eye, Tasman said.

For most of this century, it was the engine that made the United States the science and technology champion of the world. But now the great American research machine is sputtering. Private industry, the federal government and the universities - the three pillars supporting the nation's $180 billion scientific and engineering establishment - are pinching pennies, downsizing, and concentrating more on practical, short-term research projects than on discovering the underlying mysteries of nature.

Instead of wasting my holiday wish on something like world peace, I hope to see more start-up creation by the region's research institutions next year. That yearning was prompted by a review of licensing and start-up activity in fiscal year 2010 by 182 U.S. universities, hospitals, and research institutions as tallied by the Association of University Technology Managers . Forget yearning; it's envy I felt. For the second year in a row, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh was involved in the creation of 10 start-ups.

There is a big difference between being paid by a pharmaceutical company for speaking at a conference about a new treatment and conducting clinical studies on it. That was the message conveyed to me by one reader of my column Friday about the tens of millions of dollars in payments made by drug companies to health-care professionals in 2010 and being disclosed now. When a pharmaceutical company, such as Pfizer Inc. , pays a doctor $500...

Tonight, I will be presented with the Franklin Institute's 2003 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry for our research work at Penn using high-speed lasers to understand chemical reactions that enable life. This award brings me immeasurable pride. As one raised and educated in the United Kingdom who chose Philadelphia as his home, and who teaches at the university founded by Ben Franklin, it is even more special. Franklin clearly recognized the importance of science for improving peoples' lives.