Tech Tidbits From Around NH

The University of New Hampshire will receive $1.8 million from the National Institutes of Health to further molecular research to help lead to the development of new targeted drugs to treat metabolic, growth, neurological and visual disorders, including diabetes and cancer. Harish Vashisth, associate professor of chemical engineering and integrated applied mathematics, and his team will use computational techniques combined with experimental data to explore new and more suitable stages in the signaling cycle of a cell protein to target drug interventions.

Manchester-based Acapella Technologiesis merging with Merrimack River Technologies, another Manchester firm, in a deal that Acapella’s owner says is the beginning of :a fast-growing network of local IT services for businesses throughout southern New Hampshire.”

Under the deal, the two companies will operate in one location under the Acapella name, and all Merrimack River employees will remains with the new firm. Both companies serve of small, medium and large businesses around the region.

“The Covid-19 pandemic forced businesses to double down on their own internet technologies in order to continue operating, and we saw an opportunity to merge our resources to better serve the state and the region in what has become an essential service to companies of all shapes and sizes,” said Matt Mercier, owner of Acapella.

A new study led by faculty at Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering shows promise for an engineered antibacterial agent that may enable safe, repeated dosing to treat life-threatening infections by MRSA, one of the most common bacterial pathogens and the single most deadly drug-resistant bacteria in the United States

The Dartmouth team has engineered and patented F12, a new lysin-based antibacterial agent that is a super-potent, super-effective anti-MRSA biotherapeutic, and we’ve done it in a way that renders it compatible with and largely invisible to the human immune system,” said Karl Griswold, associate professor of engineering at Dartmouth. Lysins are enzymes naturally produced by microbes and associated viruses that have shown potential to treat such bacteria because “they kill drug-sensitive and drug-resistant bacteria with equal efficacy, they can potentially suppress new resistance phenotypes, and they also have this laser-like precision,” said Griswold.

Consolidated Communications has partnered with Pax8, a cloud distribution company, to provide business customers with an enhanced suite of cloud services.

The partnership will simplify and streamline the order and fulfillment process for business customers, ultimately shortening the provisioning timeline, said Consolidated.