Software that read tens of thousands of research papers and then predicted new discoveries about the workings of a protein that’s key to cancer could herald a faster approach to developing new drugs.

The software, developed in collaboration between IBM and Baylor College of Medicine, was set loose on more than 60,000 research papers that focused on p53, a protein involved in cell growth implicated in most cancers. By parsing sentences in the documents, the software could build an understanding of what is known about enzymes called kinases that act on p53 and regulate its behavior; these enzymes are common targets for cancer treatments. It then generated a list of other proteins mentioned in the literature that were probably undiscovered kinases, based on what it knew about those already identified. Most of its predictions tested so far have turned out to be correct.

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“Domain specificity is important.” It is so refreshing to hear a tech entrepreneur like Steve Blank say this. Blank has been worked with researchers and clinicians for almost three years to bring the lean startup philosophy to healthcare. This is one of his conclusions about the industry.

Many people trying to get healthcare into the 21st century – doctors, nurses, entrepreneurs, investors – have been frustrated by the obnoxious attitude that technology is the solution to everything. A few too many tech entrepreneurs have breezed into the health world with “the solution.”

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To say an IT project like HealthCare.gov was a large-scale, complex behemoth undertaking is an understatement, to say the least. All the myriad elements of the project must be successfully interconnected for it to function properly, which clearly did not occur.    Neglect any one of these elements and it can lead to "outright failure," says Richard Spires a consultant who formerly served as the Department of Homeland Security's chief information officer.

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Epicenter – a national hub for entrepreneurship and engineering education funded by the National Science Foundation – is training young undergraduate engineering students to become entrepreneurial leaders.  Epicenter is accomplishing this goal in part through its University Innovation Fellows program, which unites student leaders from schools across the country to work with their peers to catalyze innovation and startup activity on their own campuses. Epicenter teaches students to conduct analyses of their campus ecosystems; provides them with resources and mentorship; and connects them with one another digitally and at live events to promote creative collaboration.

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Vaclav Smil, a professor at the University of Manitoba, gave a great interview to Wired recently. Smil isn’t widely known, but should be. “I’m trying to read everything he writes. Why? He understands a phenomenal range of subjects,” Gates has written.

Immigration reform has been a quagmire, largely because of demands by Democrats for all or nothing. They would not agree to increase the numbers of visas for skilled workers unless the Republicans agreed to legalize the more than 10 million immigrants who are in the country without documentation — and did it on their terms. Democrats also allowed special-interest groups such as Big Labor to craft a complex immigration bill that is riddled with imperfections.

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QUESTION: NAME ONE CHARACTERISTIC ABOUT THIS GENERATION OR TIME IN HISTORY THAT MAKES BECOMING AN ENTREPRENEUR EASIER OR MORE REWARDING THAN EVER BEFORE.

What does it take to be successful starting your own small business? Here are the 8 skills every successful entrepreneur has in common:

Resiliency. The ability to weather the ups and downs of any business since it never goes exactly the way the business plan described it. This skill enables the entrepreneur to keep going when the outlook is bleak.

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Last year, the Vietnamese government asked me to organize a seminar in Hanoi on how to support the growth of entrepreneurial ecosystems while I was teaching there as a Fulbright Scholar. Vietnam is one of the most entrepreneurial countries I have visited. Every very inch of street in Hanoi is crammed with mom-and-pop vendors selling everything from homemade chicken soup (pho) to batteries to nail clippers to toys. Vietnam's government is now searching for innovative new ways to tap that spirit. The goal is to boost technology-based entrepreneurship that could lead to significant job growth and wealth creation.

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Cheryl Lofton had never intended to be a small business owner. Her grandfather, J.C. Lofton, was the first African American to own a tailoring school and related business in Washington, D.C. She spent her summers working with him, learning the craft. She was able to earn money while enrolled at Howard University by ironing, mending, and tailoring her classmates’ clothes.

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Great partners often make great companies. But just as often, bad partnerships destroy good companies.

Yet, many aspiring small-business owners rush into partnerships with little thought. They may feel uneasy about starting a business on their own.

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Last year, in my junior-level management class, I showed Sheryl Sandberg’s TED talk, in which she presents the main ideas from her book Lean In. Aside from the fact that very few of my business undergrads knew who she was (seriously? Grrr), it was a great class experience. We had an in-depth discussion about gender and career choices.

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Does anyone dispute that 2013 has been the year of the tech company? LinkedIn has surged over 100%. Twitter and Zulily popped more than 70% and 80% respectively on the day of their recent IPOs. Even Facebook’s stock, once completely out of favor, has doubled in value over the past six months.

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About one billion people in the world are chronically hungry, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.  This problem persists, despite giant technological advances in agriculture, investments of billions of dollars by institutions and foundations, and the good intentions of countless people.  Why should such a conundrum be so difficult to solve?  According to Howard G. Buffett and Howard W. Buffett, the son and grandson of Warren Buffett, the answers are not the traditional ones.

UK-based crowdfunding platform Seedrs is listing itself on its own site to crowd-raise GBP500,000 to fund its international expansion. This was according to a report published by TechCrunch.

Armchair investors who will participate in the round will get a total of 8.81% stake. This gives the equity-based company a pre-money valuation of GBP5.175 million, the report said.

It’s probably a distinction without a significant difference, but I try to distinguish very carefully between entrepreneurs, inventors and corporate innovators. While there are some significant overlaps in goals, purpose and intent, there are also some very significant differences which I’d like to explore.

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If there was a tipping point, a moment that crystallized the anger building here toward the so-called technorati for driving up housing prices and threatening the city’s bohemian identity, it came in response to a diatribe posted online in August by a young Internet entrepreneur.

The author, a start-up founder named Peter Shih, listed 10 things he hated about San Francisco. Homeless people, for example. And the “constantly PMSing” weather. And “girls who are obviously 4s and behave like they’re 9s.”

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Global cities are undergoing unprecedented historical growth. For the first time ever, over half of the world's population lives in metropolitan areas, with the number of residents increasing by nearly 60 million each year. By 2050, seven out of every ten people will live in cities. To accommodate this rapid urban expansion, the city of the future must meet enormous challenges posed by globalization, climate change, and demographic shifts.

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Ready to test your idea's real-world functionality and appeal? Creating a prototype is a must. Mark T. Reyland, a serial entrepreneur and executive director of the United Inventors Association of America (UIA), offers up some tips on working with a manufacturer to get your startup ready to launch.

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It has been almost a year since President Park Geun-hye declared that she would deal with the stagnation of the national economy by means of the concept of the creative economy. The government and the people expected that the information technology (IT) industry, the core of the concept, would result in a greater number of startups to revitalize the national economy. 

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