The National Science Foundation-funded "Center for Quantum Information and Computation for Chemistry" will focus on the role of quantum information in chemical systems and on developing algorithms for chemical problems that can be solved efficiently using quantum computers.

Purdue University has been awarded $1.5 million to study quantum information science, a new field paving the way for quantum computing — a novel method to process information that is faster, more powerful and more efficient than classical computing.

Sabre Kais, the project's principal investigator, said quantum information science draws on physical science, mathematics, computer science, and engineering to understand how certain fundamental laws of physics can be harnessed to improve the acquisition, transmission and processing of information.

Scientists from the University of Southampton have secured funding to develop an ultra-rapid sexually transmitted infection (STI) detection system for clinics that can detect STIs in under 15 minutes.

The Client (Clinic-based Infection Examination through Nucleic acid Technologies) detection system will use short fluorescently-labelled DNA sequences, called HyBeacons®, that are able to detect sections of DNA sequence with a genetic variation that identify the presence of an STIs.

The technologies are being developed by scientists from LGC, a leading chemical and biological analytical services and reference materials company, working in collaboration with the University of Southampton and OptiGene, who will refine and manufacture the desktop amplification device and assay (a test to find and measure the amount of a specific substance) for rapidly testing genetic markers for detection of STIs.

SYBR Ventures for Bu$ine$$ of Central Florida kicks-off 2010 with a bang! Happy New Year to all of our friends in the Orlando-area and Central Florida region!