Ding, Senior Investigator at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease and a professor at University of California San Francisco, is one of the scientists aiming to solve this problem by generating stem cells using chemical methods.

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In an effort to stick to its locals-know-best philosophy, sometimes Spark even funds projects that it has misgivings about, like a potato cultivation effort in the northern Rwandan village of Nyabageni, where a group of 80 families wanted to use insecticides instead of organic farming methods (chemical insecticides are common in Rwanda, says Lesh).

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To try to extend the lives of a pill, a company may patent it multiple times, protecting not only a chemical compound but also manufacturing methods or uses for the drug.

FORBES: The Generic Onslaught

The result, if all goes well, will be a mixture of hydrocarbons that can be fed into the stage of the oil-refining process just before petrol and diesel emerge from the stills, and at a price that competes with the equivalent chemical mixture produced by traditional methods.

ECONOMIST: Biofuels from algae: Craig's twist | The

The four patents-in-suit claim chemical compounds used to fight insomnia, methods for improving sleep by administering the compounds, and methods of inducing tranquilizing or hypnotic effects from the compounds, according to court documents.

FORBES: Wockhardt Fails To Nix Sepracor's Lunesta Patents