Paths to commercialization are uncertain in nutrigenomics, an emerging science which seeks to identify gene-food interactions that differ among subpopulations and between individuals and to personalize diets to prevent disease.

These days, consumers reach for calcium-fortified orange juice to keep bones healthy, whole-grain Cheerios that reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, and bags of walnuts that advertise Omega 3, for heart health. The founders of WellGen believe the time is right to push the frontier of food science into medicine. With a patent from Rutgers University, WellGen will screen food substances against genes implicated in diseases.

Even as ischemic stroke researchers debate what went wrong following a string of high-profile, expensive clinical trial failures, they're optimistic that advances in understanding of the disease and application of lessons learned from past mistakes will yield more effective therapies.

At the top of the industry, consolidation has frozen out much additional M&A; horizontal mergers among large companies have become much more difficult to get through regulatory authorities as the industries themselves have consolidated. In medical devices, M&A is at a 10-year low, reflecting a paucity of high-value small-company opportunities. Perhaps as important, some successful big-company development programs undermine a basic assumption of medical device investing: that big companies must source innovation from small ones, usually through acquisitions. Meanwhile In biotech, the number and value of M&A is down, despite the apparent logic of consolidation and the unprecedented willingness of sellers to accept low valuations. The key problem is that there are few buyers: those without extremely strong balance sheets aren't willing to take on additional burn rates, having seen some acquirers come to grief as their new, apparently stronger companies are unable to raise money in this bear market.