

How North Carolina built manufacturing boomtowns for biotech
The monolithic gray buildings that have popped up around Holly Springs may not outwardly stir excitement. But they’re signs of a once-in-a-generation boon for the former plantation town, once dubbed the “poverty pocket” of wealthy Wake County. The drugmaker Genentech is spending $700 million to build here, while Amgen has pledged $1.5 billion to construct a manufacturing plant. And in September, pharmaceutical contractor FUJIFILM Biotechnologies opened the first phase of a $3 billion project that will create 1,400 jobs.” (via Stat+).
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Since formalizing a partnership in May, Anduril and Meta have released their first hardware product together: an AI-powered mixed reality helmet named the EagleEye. The military helmet is part of a family of systems that includes a heads-up display, spatial audio, and radio frequency detection. EagleEye can display mission briefings and orders, overlay maps and other information during combat, and control drones and military robotics. Anduril already provides software for the Army’s existing mixed reality goggles, but the EagleEye has been under development since Anduril’s inception. (via The Verge).

- Breakthrough mirror-image nanopores open door to new biomedical applications
- New lab-grown human embryo model produces blood cells
- Light-driven reaction leads to advanced hybrid nanomaterial
- In a first, artificial neurons talk directly to living cells
- Microwave technique allows energy-efficient chemical reactions
- New Alzheimer’s treatment clears plaques from brains of mice within hours
- Self-improving LMs are becoming reality with MIT’s updated SEAL technique
- Scientists create nanofluidic chip with ‘brain-like’ memory pathways
- Scientists create ‘Superwood’ that’s 10 times stronger than steel
- Old-school material could power quantum computing and cut data center energy use
- Quantum radio antenna uses Rydberg states for sensitive, all-optical signal detection
- How protein coatings influence nanoparticles’ ability to avoid immune clearance and reach their destinations
- Atom-swapping blueprint could streamline synthesis of pharmaceutical building blocks
- Robotic platform uses AI to cut chemical process design time from months to days
- Time crystals could power future quantum computers
- Ultrasensitive sensor maps magnetization textures in rhombohedral graphene
- Machine learning helps identify ‘thermal switch’ for next-generation nanomaterials
- Foldable solar sails could help with aerobraking and atmospheric reentry
- Researchers pioneer fluid-based laser scanning for brain imaging
- 3D-printed metamaterials harness complex geometry to dampen mechanical vibrations
- Anomalous metal sheds light on ‘impossible’ state between superconductivity and insulation
- New catalyst turns greenhouse gas into energy carrier
- Lasers and gold nanoparticles enable on-demand crystal growth for new materials
- Researchers achieve atomic-scale control of quantum interference

- HavocAI obtains $85M to scale autonomous marine systems
- Expedition Therapeutics, a biotech company scouring China for drug candidates, raises $165M
- Corvus Energy raises $60M in Series E to accelerate maritime decarbonization
- Tethered drone maker Hoverfly Technologies raises $20M in Series B
- Biotech company Nilo Therapeutics raises $101M to advance a new class of medicines targeting neural circuits in immune disease
- Samsara BioCapital eyes $200M opportunity fund
- Vycarb raises $5M for ocean carbon tech
- Excellergy debuts with $70M in Series A and a radical plan to treat inflammation and allergies
- India’s Airbound bags $8.65M to build rocket-like drones for one-cent deliveries
- Prisma Photonics raises $30M to scale AI-driven fiber sensing platform for power grid and security infrastructure
- Amplifi Vascular raises $6.8M in Series A for its vein dilation system
- Pelage Pharma raises $120M Series B to untangle roots of hair loss with regenerative med
- MIT-spinout Vertical Semiconductor raises $11M in seed funding round led by Playground Global
- Starship Technologies lands $50M Series C with focus on US city autonomous deliveries
- Peter Thiel-backed Peptilogics raises $78M for prosthetic joint infection program
- MatrixSpace, a leader in portable AI-enhanced radar counter drone sensing technology, closed a $20M Series B
- Ascribe Bio raises $12M to advance sustainable crop protection
- Ecorobotix secures $150M to supercharge AI-powered crop protection
- Mission Therapeutics raises $13.3M to progress first-in-class Parkinson’s disease candidate MTX325 through clinical trials
- Smartlens raises $5.2M in funding to revolutionize glaucoma care with world’s first electronics-free smart contact lens
- EVerZom raises €10M to develop exosome-based biotherapies for inflammatory diseases
- Adcytherix raises €104M Series A to back new ADC drug
- Lipid nanoparticle startup, Liberate Bio, emerges with $31M from Khosla for in vivo cell therapies
- Bexorg raises $23M to test drugs on ‘rebooted’ human brains from organ donors
- Lila Sciences closes $350M Series A, bringing in Nvidia
- German biotech Tubulis raises $358M to advance cancer treatments
- Ex-Biofourmis CEO raises $10M for healthtech startup OutcomesAI
- Space Pioneer raises $350M as China’s commercial launch boom accelerates
- Town Hall Ventures raises $440M healthcare technology fund
- Sonic Fire Tech raises $3.5M to scale infrasound fire-suppression technology
- BridGene Biosciences, a leader in the discovery and development of small molecule drugs for traditionally “hard-to-drug” targets, closes $28M Series B+ round
- General Intuition lands $134M seed to teach agents spatial reasoning using video game clips
- Revolute Robotics brings in $1.9M to deploy its driving, flying robots
- Möbius Industries, pioneer in urban mining, completes $3.8M pre-seed round
- HyperBunker bags €800K to build impenetrable “data bunkers” as ransomware sweeps digital infrastructure

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