A round-up of deals and trends in early-stage intellectual property - licensing, spin-off investment, research partnerships and development contracts. From the editors of Science|Business.

Top Stories

Biotech / Exit

Roche buys Zürich spin-off

Blazing the path from incubation to acquisition by a large company in a remarkably short time, GlycArt Biotechnology, a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, has been acquired by the Roche Group for 235 million Swiss francs.

"And my wife said…" Inside Glycart, an interview.

Funding

Cambridge forms 'club' for seed investing

In an unusual move to help local start-ups, the University of Cambridge has obtained pledges from a group of venture capitalists to provide more than £500,000 in early-stage funding through a new investment club, Cambridge Venture Partners.

Biotech / Partnership

Faster DNA sequencing hope from EU-backed project

A Swedish biotech start-up, Quiatech, is leading an EU-subsidized effort to develop a faster, more accurate system to sequence DNA - and change a $7.8 billion market.

Materials/ Funding

VCs pile into hologram start-up

Smart Holograms, a Cambridge University spin-off developing a new kind of "instant" sensor technology based on holograms, has won an extra £1.5 million in VC funding - and given the university's own spin-off investment fund a £500,000 windfall.

Healthcare / Funding

New asthma tests coming from Sweden

A Karolinska Institutet spin-out, Aerocrine, raised 160 million Swedish kronor (€17M) from investors to finance the launch of its flagship asthma-test product in Europe.

Instrumentation / Funding

UV tester Paraytec gets £170,000

Paraytec, a spin-out from the chemistry department of the University of York, said it raised £170,000 to help develop its first products. Investors were the government-backed Viking Fund and a related business-angel network, the Viking Club.