In a first-of-its-kind operation in the United States, a team of doctors at Duke University Hospital helped create a bioengineered blood vessel and transplanted it into the arm of a patient with end-stage kidney disease.  

The procedure, the first U.S. clinical trial to test the safety and effectiveness of the bioengineered blood vessel, is a milestone in the field of tissue engineering. The new vein is an off-the-shelf, human cell-based product with no biological properties that would cause organ rejection.  

Unless you've been off the grid for the past few weeks, you've surely had at least one encounter with the movie trailer for "The Great Gatsby," Hollywood's latest attempt to wrap its head around the great American entrepreneurial dream.

In the U.S., the entrepreneurial spirit is associated with personality characteristics such as being socially engaging, responsible, creative, able to handle stress, and at times, uncompromising.

Some of us know from an early age exactly where we want to go in our careers. However, many job seekers don’t discover their professional calling until later in life. They always feel they’re trying to figure out “what they want to be when they grow up”.

And their resumes often reflect what, on the surface, may look like a scattered career that lacks focus.

For those who find Google Glass indiscreet, electronic contact lenses that outfit the user’s cornea with a display may one day provide an alternative. Built by researchers at several institutions, including two research arms of Samsung, the lenses use new nanomaterials to solve some of the problems that have made contact-lens displays less than practical.

A group led by Jang-Ung Park, a chemical engineer at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, mounted a light-emitting diode on an off-the-shelf soft contact lens, using a material the researchers developed: a transparent, highly conductive, and stretchy mix of graphene and silver nanowires. The researchers tested these lenses in rabbits—whose eyes are similar in size to humans’—and found no ill effects after five hours. The animals didn’t rub their eyes or grow bloodshot, and the electronics kept working. This work is described online in the journal Nano Letters.

Entrepreneurship teaches children plenty of things; so we have to make sure we encourage them to turn their hand at business from the very start.

Most kids show a bit of a want for business at some point in their lives. Whether spurred on by the age-old lemonade stand or Lucy’s Psychiatric Help booth, most of us at some point tried our hand at making a bit of money. 

The way we work is profoundly changing and it’s affecting everyone. There’s a lot that is exciting in this new Age of Entrepreneurship — an era in which both company and employee longevity, are shrinking and everyone wants to be his own boss. But what will be harder or worse because of it? 

There are some things we often give up as entrepreneurs, such as healthcare plans and a corporate safety net. But there is one thing in particular that we need to maintain: Mentoring, and by extension, coaching.

The city of Raleigh, N.C., recently hired Derrick Minor for a single purpose: to help entrepreneurs network. Although he sports a fancy title − innovation and entrepreneurship manager − his entire job consists of hanging out with entrepreneurs making introductions. You need to meet venture capitalists willing to support early-stage tech start-ups? Cheap office space? Accounting or legal advice? Mr. Minor is your man.

The very existence of such a municipal job is illustrative of the recent wave of innovation and entrepreneurship energizing the Triangle Region in North Carolina, an area where two million people and three universities are spread across Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. While Silicon Valley has long overshadowed the area when it comes to startups, the Triangle is beginning to be noticed. Last year Forbes named Raleigh the second-best place in the United States for business and careers, a ranking based on Moody’s data on cost of business, job growth and education attainment. The Daily Beast ranks Durham among the country’s smartest cities.

The unmanned aerial vehicle—the “drone,” the very emblem of American high-tech weaponry—started out as a toy, the fusion of a model airplane and a lawn-mower engine. While its original purpose was to bust up Soviet tanks in the first volleys of World War III, it has evolved into the favored technology for targeted assassinations in the global war on terror. Its use has sparked a great debate—at first within the most secret parts of the government, but in recent months among the general public—over the tactics, strategy, and morality not only of drone warfare but of modern warfare in general.

But before this debate can go much further—before Congress or other branches of government can lay down meaningful standards or ask pertinent questions—distinctions must be drawn, myths punctured, real issues teased out from misinformed or misleading distractions.

Leading venture capital group OneVentures has laid out what they look for in the companies they invest in.   Dr Michelle Deaker, one of the executive directors of OneVentures, spoke to StartupSmart about the role venture capital plays in Australia, and what makes businesses stand out, for both better and worse.

Development strategies for Montreal often refer to the crucial role that universities play in the local economy.

They are major employers and big purchasers of goods and services. They turn out thousands of well-trained graduates each year to meet the needs of the Montreal-area companies that require an educated workforce.

Academic researchers generate the bright ideas that sustain today’s knowledge-based economy. Their discoveries lead to the founding of new companies in areas like information technology, telecommunications, life sciences and environmental engineering.

A lot of emphasis gets put onto how to sell, when to sell, what to sell, to whom to sell, tactics, tips, lessons learned . . . and the list continues.

What is the most important thing startups should do when they’re selling?  Listen.

It was only a few years ago that I experienced some major personal growth that lead me to this epiphany.  I was 21, and my Internet marketing business had suddenly collapsed.  I found myself living on my uncle’s couch, driving a $500 car and making $11.50 an hour as a dispatcher at a roadside assistance company.  This is not where I had envisioned I would be!

Older, more established companies have the flexibility of deciding how to allocate their budgets and spend their available funds on the resources that make their businesses more comfortable and easier to run.  But as a young startup, you have no such luxury! Because it’s important to make every dollar count while your business is still growing, you’ll want to take a look at the following seven opportunities to save money on common business expenses:

Expense #1 – Office Space

First of all, with many of today’s alternative office space options, it’s entirely unnecessary to run out and sign a commercial lease to house your startup.  Instead, look into incubator spaces, co-working offices and executive office rentals – all of which can provide you with flexible office space options at a much lower cost.

On 10 June 10, 2013, the Startup Stock Exchange (SSX) will open its marketplace for startup investing and funding. On SSX, investors of any level can buy shares of vetted startup companies, and shares are traded freely — investors can buy or sell anytime and control their own account. For startups and small businesses, SSX is a compelling way to raise funds. SSX continues the trend of online angel investing, set by services such as Seedrs (UK), SeedInvest and AngelList (US).

Inspired by its success in high-tech electronics and software, Israel is hoping to pull off the same trick in life sciences.

Israel already boasts the world's biggest generic drug maker and a host of smaller research-oriented companies. Now it aims to build on that foundation, offering incentives to multinational businesses to invest in a biopharmaceutical incubator fund, set up research centers and collaborate with local firms.

The proceedings from the 12th Annual RE$EARCH MONEY Conference Budget 2013: Checking the Pulse of Canada's Innovation Policies are now available. You can download them using the link below, or by visiting  www.researchmoneyinc.com.

For those who were unable to attend the conference, the proceedings provide a comprehensive overview of all of the keynote presentations and panels, including any Q&A sessions. They provide important insights into the implications of Budget 2013 for Canada's innovation environment.

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson play Google interns in The Internship. But the film is hardly a documentary (reviewers say it’s more like an ad). So Co.Create spoke to two former Google interns, who are now working at the company, for advice.

Google is flooded with applications for its internship program--40,000 alone for this summer’s 1,500 slots. Still, Kyle Ewing, who oversees the hiring of interns as head of global staffing for Google, would be thrilled if the summer film The Internship inspires even more students to apply. “If we get more great people interested in and excited about computer science because of the movie, it’s a huge win,” Ewing says.

Investing in biotechnology is a riskier bet these days. The community of life sciences venture capital firms is contracting, despite scientific advances across many fields like genomics, immunology, and diagnostics. Many promising new enterprises fail to produce marketable drugs, and even successful therapies may struggle to gain markets in an environment of health care cost cutting.

That’s exactly why Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) chose to expand its programs that nurture very early stage biotechnology and device startups in the Bay area, J&J executives said as they opened the company’s California Innovation Center in Menlo Park, CA, this week.

BETWEEN WOOING POTENTIAL INVESTORS AND MEETING PEOPLE AT PARTIES, YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO TELL YOUR COMPANY'S STORY THOUSANDS OF TIMES. WORRY NOT--THERE ARE EXCELLENT WAYS TO PITCH YOUR HEART OUT EVERY TIME. BY: DRAKE BAER 

"Recently I was on the receiving end of a description from an entrepreneur, who has a great idea that I love, that had the emotional impact of a TSA inspection at the airport," writes Brad Feld, the VC and cofounder of the TechStars incubator.

Innovation funding has become a reality in Iowa. HF 615 was approved by the Iowa Legislature and signed by Governor Branstad today. HF 615, originally named the Iowa Innovation Fund, fills the critical gap between angel and venture capital funding for emerging Iowa businesses. It is often referred to as “next stage” funding because it provides capital for businesses to evolve and move forward. HF 615 will help strengthen early stage funding in Iowa’s financing continuum by leveraging up to $32 million per year in new seed stage capital investments for Iowa-based businesses with high-growth potential.

“HF 615 will help incent capital formation during the period of development often referred to as the ‘Valley of Death’ and is the last element needed for the funding continuum that starts with the current Demonstration Fund. Without HF 615, strong Iowa companies would continue to move out of state, not because their owners want to but because they need this type of capital,” said Karen Merrick, COO of the Iowa Innovation Corporation. “The Iowa Economic Development Authority will write the administrative rules for HF 615. Once that task is completed, Iowa will have another cost effective tool for helping ‘Grow Iowa’s Own’.”

Two leaders of the Wisconsin Technology Council issued the following statement on the Assembly’s 91-2 vote in support of Assembly Bill 181, the early stage capital bill:

“On behalf of the Wisconsin Technology Council’s board of directors, we applaud the Wisconsin Assembly for voting, 91-2, Thursday to approve Assembly Bill 181 and to send it on to the state Senate for further action,” said chairman Mark Bugher and president Tom Still.

If approved by the Senate and signed into law by the governor, the bill would:

 Make the state a partner in a larger “fund-of-funds” that would match the state’s $25 million investment with $50 million in private investment.  Create a process to select a private manager for the fund.  Set out requirements to invest state dollars in Wisconsin companies in the agriculture, advanced manufacturing, engineered products, information technology, medical devices and medical imaging sectors.