Manufacturing news briefs – stories you may have missed

Manufacturing news briefs – stories you may have missed

Sparc signs distribution agreement for graphene additive

Sparc Technologies has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with CLP Group subsidiary Chin Leong Construction Systems Pte Ltd. The parties will collaborate to market Sparc's Ecosparc additive to CLC's coatings customers in Southeast Asia. Sparc managing director Nick O'Loughlin said: “Sparc… hopes to establish this partnership as a means to accelerate the commercial rollout of its market-leading graphene-based additive in the South East Asian region, which is a significant market for marine and protective coatings.”

Cyclopharm's Technegas is used in French imaging trials

Radiopharmaceutical developer Cyclopharm has announced that the first patients have been imaged in a multicenter clinical trial at 13 nuclear medicine centers in France. The PRONOSPECT study is a physician-led study integrating Cyclopharm's Technegas with advanced imaging modalities in recurrent pulmonary embolism (PE).
The study will explore the potential of nuclear medicine imaging using Technegas to provide improved detection of residual pulmonary vascular obstruction (RPVO) as a predictor of venous thromboembolism (VTE), a clinical area currently dominated by CT pulmonary angiograms (CTPA). .

A QUT research team has drawn inspiration from the brains of insects and animals for more energy-efficient robotic navigation, the university said on Monday. Led by postdoctoral researcher Somayeh Hussaini as well as Professor Michael Milford and Dr. Tobias Fischer's research work was published in the renowned magazine IEEE Transactions on Robotics The journal, supported by chipmaker Intel, proposes a novel location recognition algorithm using spiking neural networks (SNNs). Modern robots still struggle to navigate and operate in complex, unfamiliar environments and also often rely on AI-based navigation systems, whose training programs require significant computing and energy requirements. The system developed by the QUT team uses small neural network modules to recognize specific locations based on images. According to the university, these modules were combined into an ensemble, a group of multiple spike networks, to create a scalable navigation system capable of learning to navigate large environments.

AusBiotech welcomes new board director

Life sciences industry group AusBiotech last week welcomed the appointment of Dr. Dell Kingsford Smith to its board. Kingsford Smith joins the board with more than 20 years of clinical and commercial strategy experience in medical devices, pharmaceuticals and vaccines, with expertise from discovery to full commercialization. Prior to joining Cochlear, Dell spent more than a decade at Janssen, the pharmaceutical company owned by Johnson & Johnson (J&J), in local and global leadership roles in market access, pricing and business strategy. “I am honored to have the trust and support of AusBiotech members in my election to the board,” said Kingsford Smith. “I look forward to working with the broad range of Australian biotech and medical device stakeholders to further strengthen and grow this important, innovative sector of our economy.”

Pacific Green is expanding into NSW