Category: MENA

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Synchronoss Finalizes Agreement with iQmetrix to Divest Digital Experience Platform and Activation Solutions

BRIDGEWATER, N.J., May 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. (“Synchronoss” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: SNCR), a global leader and innovator in cloud, messaging and digital products and platforms, today announced the successful completion of the sale of its Digital Experience Platform (“DXP”) and Activation Solutions (“Activation”) to iQmetrix, a leading provider of telecom retail management software. The divestiture was formally announced on March 8, 2022.

“The sale of DXP and Activation is part of our strategic plan to create a leaner business model that focuses on our core growth areas for the future,” said Jeff Miller, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Synchronoss. “Closing this deal is favorable for Synchronoss’s long-term product focus areas. It provides us with operating flexibility to improve our capital structure and to accelerate the development of new product offerings in our key areas such as our cloud portfolio.”

“As a trusted provider of intelligent retail management software, iQmetrix is the natural acquirer of choice for the Digital Experience Platform and Activation Solutions,” said Ryan Volberg, President and Chief Executive Officer of iQmetrix. “We’re very excited as this supports our plans to be the number one enabler of personal connected devices globally. In such a relentlessly changing industry, this is the next big step of many that we’re excited to take to help us create great experiences in the telecom space.”

The DXP and Activation offerings enable telecom operators and retailers around the globe to create, orchestrate and manage digital experiences across all channels. Following the sale, the Synchronoss digital business portfolio includes its Financial Analytics and spatialSUITE products as well as the iNow Platform.

About Synchronoss
Synchronoss Technologies (Nasdaq: SNCR) builds software that empowers companies around the world to connect with their subscribers in trusted and meaningful ways. The company’s collection of products helps streamline networks, simplify onboarding, and engage subscribers to unleash new revenue streams, reduce costs and increase speed to market. Hundreds of millions of subscribers trust Synchronoss products to stay in sync with the people, services, and content they love. That’s why more than 1,500 talented Synchronoss employees worldwide strive each day to reimagine a world in sync. Learn more at www.synchronoss.com.

Media Relations Contact:
Domenick Cilea
Springboard
dcilea@springboardpr.com

Investor Relations Contact:
Matt Glover / Tom Colton
Gateway Group, Inc.
SNCR@gatewayir.com

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Bridging Technology and Education: UNESCO and Huawei Deliver Campus UNESCO for Young People in 20 countries

SHENZHEN, China, May 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — UNESCO and Huawei have to date run ten Campus UNESCO sessions, focusing on technology and education and reaching students from 39 schools in 21 countries.

Campus UNESCO is an ongoing program that gives young people aged 14 to 18 the chance to share views with experts from UNESCO and civil society. The topics discussed in each 90-minute session in either English or French are linked to major UNESCO themes such as education, artificial intelligence, sustainable development, gender equality, and citizenship.

One of the campus real-time screenshot

Huawei has been partnering with UNESCO on the program since June 2021. The sessions have covered a wide variety of topics, including the relationship between technology and education, new technologies for today and tomorrow, and how technology can be used for good. Topics relevant to current issues that rose on the global agenda when the pandemic closed school doors in 2020 were especially welcomed by the students, including the changes brought to schools that either have or lack technology, and the necessity of physical schools when everything can be found on the Internet.

“We believe the SDG and COVID challenges are incredible ingredients for innovation,” said Dr. Valtencir Mendes, Senior Programme Specialist, UNESCO at one of the campuses.

Other issues of focus during campus sessions have been the value of digital skills and new behaviors to prevent cyberbullying, a threat that is on the rise for many teenagers in an increasingly digital world where social media is prevalent and when young people are outside the classroom.

Sharing their experiences and views with expert speakers can raise awareness among young people, not just about how new technologies will impact today and tomorrow, but the role that today’s teenagers can have in shaping the future.

The campus in French language real-time screenshot

As well as UNESCO experts, other speakers include inspirational people from the organization’s networks, such as NGOs, IGOs, startups, spanning a wide range of roles, including scientists, researchers, and local development project managers.

Aligned with the aims of Campus UNESCO, Huawei and UNESCO are also partnering on the “Technology-enabled Open Schools for All” project, the implementation phase of which was launched in 2021 in Ghana, Egypt, and Ethiopia. The three-year project is supporting the construction of resilient education systems that can withstand global disruptions such as COVID-19. In addition to connecting schools, the project is providing training for teachers and students in the use of digital tools, establishing online platforms to link school and home learning, and developing digital curricula that can be accessed remotely.

The “Technology-enabled Open Schools for All” project is aligned with the Tech4Education domain of Huawei’s digital inclusion initiative TECH4ALL, which aims to drive education equity and quality with technology under the major aim of TECH4ALL: to leave no one behind in the digital world.

View the series on the Huawei TECH4ALL official website:

https://www.huawei.com/en/tech4all/stories/bridging-technology-education-campus-unesco

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1815498/image_1.jpg

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SOLVE FSHD Announces Appointment of Executive Director Dr. Eva Chin and Venture-Philanthropic Funding Structure

SOLVE FSHD’s Venture Philanthropy Model

The model will enable SOLVE FSHD to be financially self-sustainable through return on investments.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Following SOLVE FSHD’s recent acclaimed launch, the organization is pleased to formally announce the appointment of Dr. Eva Chin as the Executive Director. SOLVE FSHD’s Founder, Chip Wilson, has personally committed USD100 million to find a cure for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), a rare disease he was diagnosed with at the age of 32. As the inaugural Executive Director for SOLVE FSHD, Dr. Chin will be responsible for aligning the organization’s goals with the expertise of researchers, scientists and companies to promote and fund the discovery and development of new therapies for FSHD.

“Dr. Chin’s experience and specialization in rare neuromuscular diseases add immense value to our organization. We are excited to gain her expertise and guidance to achieve the organization’s goal of finding a cure for FSHD by December 2027,” says Chip Wilson, SOLVE FSHD Founder. He added, “Within just a few weeks of the organization’s launch, SOLVE FSHD has received a tremendous response to the call for qualified grant applications and new therapeutic technologies, which will be reviewed under Dr. Chin’s leadership. In addition, she has worked tirelessly to build strong industry alliances for SOLVE FSHD, closely assessed the exciting projects to fund and facilitated collaborative funding opportunities across the academic and industry sectors in FSHD research and drug development.”

Dr. Chin obtained her Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Waterloo in Canada and completed post-doctoral training at the University of Sydney, Australia and U.T. Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, focusing on intracellular calcium in muscle fatigue and transcriptional regulation of gene expression in muscle fibre type determination and muscle plasticity.

“I am honoured to join the Solve FSHD team, supporting Chip and the Wilson Family in our mission to improve the quality of life for those affected by rare neuromuscular diseases by funding qualified research projects and pre-clinical and clinical research that will accelerate finding a cure for FSHD,” says Dr. Eva Chin, Solve FSHD Executive Director.

Dr. Chin’s career has spanned the academic and pharmaceutical industries, with previous positions at Pfizer, the University of Maryland, MyoTherapeutics, Cytokinetics and NMD Pharma. While at Pfizer, Eva shifted her career from academic research focusing on cellular and molecular mechanisms of muscle function to discovering and developing muscle-targeted therapies. Over the past five years, she has led the nonclinical development of numerous drug candidates in clinical trials for ALS, SMA, myasthenia gravis and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Under Dr. Chin’s guidance, Solve FSHD’s venture-philanthropic funding model will strategically utilize Wilson’s monetary commitment to support the initial grants, investments in early-stage companies focused on FSHD and to incentivize pharmaceutical companies in the neuromuscular disease space to increase their focus on FSHD. The venture philanthropy model will enable the organization to be financially self-sustainable through return on investments. The investments in viable, albeit high-risk, research opportunities may generate a continued re-investment stream into the organization to further support grant funding initiatives.

“To take advantage of recent advances in genetic therapeutics, SOLVE FSHD constructed a creative funding platform to facilitate the development of treatments that rapidly slow, stop or even reverse weakness in FSHD,” said Dr. John Day, MD, Ph.D., Director of Stanford University’s Neuromuscular Medicine program. “Having someone with Dr. Eva Chin’s experience and capabilities join SOLVE FSHD is critical to establishing the scientifically rigorous program needed to define and validate safe and effective treatments as quickly as possible,” says Dr. John Day, MD, Ph.D., Neuromuscular Medicine, Stanford Neuroscience Health Center.

About Solve FSHD
Solve FSHD is funding innovative biotech and biopharma research and development activities that accelerate novel treatments of Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) treatment. It is fully funded and created by Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist Chip Wilson. The founder of yoga-inspired athletic apparel company Lululemon Athletica inc. has been living with FSHD for the last three decades of his life. He has committed $100 million of his own money to create SOLVE FSHD and kick-start funding into projects that fit the organization’s mission: accelerate research into new therapies and find a cure for the disorder by 2027.

Future announcements for grant funding will be issued on SOLVE FSHD’s website – https://solvefshd.com/. For early-stage companies, contact SOLVE FSHD at info@solvefshd.com.

If you have FSHD and want to find out about clinical trials or be included in the FSHD registry, please see SOLVE FSHD’s website – https://solvefshd.com/

For media inquiries or to request a media interview, please contact:
Kamran Shaikh, Account Director
PR Associates
kshaikh@prassociates.com
778-846-5406

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0e87aacb-92f4-4723-9e7e-e24021cff5f7

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Amid Blood Supply Emergency, New Heaven New Earth Shincheonji Church Steps Up to Donate

NEW YORK, May 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Dozens of New York-based members of New Heaven New Earth, Shincheonji Church of Jesus (SCJ), participated in a group blood donation expected to run May 6th through May 13th. Donations were made through the New York Blood Center (NYBC), one of the world’s largest independent blood centers.

The church members’ donations come amid a blood supply emergency announced by the NYBC. As of May 9th, the organization reported that inventory is low across all blood types. Ideally, the center would have a 5-7-day blood supply. Currently, however, blood types O and B have fallen to a 1-2-day level.

“This time of the year always tends to be difficult for the blood supply, with school spring breaks and increased travel making blood donations less of a priority,” said Andrea Cefarelli, senior executive director at NYBC. “These factors are now coinciding with increasing COVID cases and a potential fifth wave of the pandemic.”

The latest news comes during a national blood supply shortage that has made headlines since early 2022. Pix 11 reported that the NYBC previously collected 50 pints of blood on a typical day. By January 2022, it was only collecting seven or eight pints per day.

Inspired to save lives and raise awareness, members of SCJ in New York leaped at the chance to donate blood. The church hopes that others will be encouraged to do the same.

Donations made in New York follow the group blood donation of more than 18,478 members of SCJ in South Korea. All certificates and tickets collected within the two-week donation period will be given to the Korean Red Cross. So far, donation tickets worth nearly $100,000 have been gathered.

SCJ members have stepped up to donate blood since 2020. Following a request made by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, members donated plasma at a time when Covid-19 treatments were not yet available.

“I was deeply moved when 6,000 members of the church donated plasma for the development of a treatment for COVID-19 in 2020,” said an official from Green Cross Korea. “Once again, I would like to express my gratitude to Shincheonji Church of Jesus, which has stepped forward in times of national crisis.”

For more information: www.scjamericas.org

MEDIA CONTACT: Gina Del Gigante, 16466287365, info@scjamericas.com

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Sphera Tackles Scope 3 Emissions Reporting with Launch of its Automated Life Cycle Assessment Solution

New solution will allow businesses to aggregate and calculate life cycle assessments quickly and at scale

CHICAGO, May 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sphera®, a leading global provider of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance and risk management software, data and consulting services, today announced the launch of its new Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Automation software, building upon the company’s existing LCA solutions. The move comes as investor and regulatory pressures surrounding the standardization and digitalization of end-to-end sustainability data measurement continue to mount, necessitating increasingly sophisticated and granular reporting and compliance tools.

Sphera’s next-generation solution integrates seamlessly with customers’ existing systems for rapid deployment, allowing customers to quickly receive holistic, real-time analysis and insights into the environmental footprint of their product portfolios. It also features extensive managed content that enables customers to instantaneously calculate their carbon footprint at scale and model how adjustments to specific variables—such as leveraging a cleaner power source or altering production processes—may affect emissions outputs.

The LCA Automation solution serves as an extension of Sphera’s existing Product Sustainability capabilities which include life cycle assessment software and content. The service allows a company to increase the number of LCAs by a factor of 1,000, in turn enabling the experienced LCA professional to focus on analyzing and improving results, versus creating them.

The overarching goal of Sphera’s LCA Automation tool is to help businesses—especially those in sectors with complex supply chains, such as manufacturing, consumer goods, paints and chemicals—to more effectively reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at every step of production, from design to disassembly. Improved forecasting will facilitate holistic corporate decisions with sustainability incorporated at each stage, allowing teams to proactively predict and control environmental impact.

Paul Marushka, Sphera’s CEO and president, says: “Historically, LCAs have been viewed as voluntary, ad-hoc add-ons to broader corporate sustainability efforts. However, with consumer awareness growing in-step with regulatory mandates to mitigate the effects of climate change, LCA Automation feeds into the highest needs of decarbonization. As recent moves from the EU, SEC and the latest IPCC report have shown, financial and reputational fallout from a failure to act are very much a ‘when’, not an ‘if’.”

Continues Marushka, “From helping engineers create more sustainable products to enabling procurement professionals to establish lower carbon emission supply chains, LCA Automation will transform decision-making, for the benefit of both businesses and our planet.”

About Sphera
Sphera is the leading provider of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance and risk management software, data and consulting services focusing on Environment, Health, Safety & Sustainability (EHS&S), Operational Risk Management and Product Stewardship. For more than 30 years, we have served over 3,000 customers and a million-plus users in 80 countries to help companies keep their people safe, their products sustainable and their operations productive. Learn more about Sphera at www.sphera.com. Follow Sphera on LinkedIn.

Contact Information:
Astrid Dickinson
sphera@aspectusgroup.com

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Reuters Partners with The Globe and Mail’s Sophi.io Automation Platform

TORONTO, May 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sophi.io, an AI-powered automation, optimization and prediction platform developed by The Globe and Mail, is now working with Reuters – the news and media division of Thomson Reuters – as it continues to invest in the latest AI solutions for its newsroom. Sophi is helping to automate content curation on select sections on Reuters.com, which was relaunched in April 2021.

Sophi Site Automation is an AI system that autonomously curates digital content to find and promote an organization’s most engaging content. Sophi looks at all content as it’s published, and all traffic, to find the hidden gems that an organization’s customers value the most.

In order to automate content curation, Sophi’s algorithm has been learning from Reuters editors. The newsroom has been able to work with some of the latest AI solutions, which has resulted in giving time back to editors to focus on finding the next story and creating the journalism that makes Reuters such a trusted brand.

Josh London, Head of Reuters Professional and Chief Marketing Officer of Reuters, said: “Sophi’s cutting-edge AI platform is one of the next steps in the evolution of our digital properties. Sophi will help us further our mission of bringing AI-based technology and tools to more corners of the workforce, whilst helping to bring our readers the stories they both want and need to know.”

Michael Young, Chief Technology Officer for Reuters, said: “Our partnership with Sophi.io is another example of how a newsroom like ours can successfully deploy some of the latest AI solutions for effective content discovery. Our team worked closely with the Sophi team to ensure our Sophi Score reflected our business goals and we are pleased with the resulting site automation.”

Mike O’Neill, Co-Founder and CEO of Sophi.io, added “We are delighted to have Reuters as a customer. They put their trust in Sophi and we are excited to automate curation across all of their article pages to start and expand the relationship to include more solutions down the road.”

“It’s wonderful to work with Reuters in this capacity,” said Phillip Crawley, Publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail. “They have a strong mission and Sophi.io is helping them continue to demonstrate how editorial integrity can be supported by AI.”

About Reuters
Reuters is the world’s leading provider of trusted news, insight and analysis, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Founded in 1851, it brings together world-class journalism, industry expertise and cutting-edge technology with unparalleled speed, reliability and accuracy to enable people to make better decisions. Reuters is committed to the Trust Principles of independence, integrity and freedom from bias, and is the essential source of business, financial and world news delivered to financial professionals exclusively via Refinitiv services, and to the world’s media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers.

About Sophi.io
Sophi.io (https://www.sophi.io) was developed by The Globe and Mail to help content publishers make important strategic and tactical decisions. It is a suite of AI and ML-powered automation, optimization and prediction solutions that include Sophi Site Automation, Sophi for Paywalls and Sophi for First Party Data. Sophi also powers one-click automated laydown of template-free print publishing. Sophi is designed to improve the metrics that matter most to your business, such as subscriber retention and acquisition, engagement, recency, frequency and volume.

Contact us
Kayley Rogers
Communications Manager
Reuters
Kayley.rogers@thomsonreuters.com

Jamie Rubenovitch
Head of Marketing, Sophi.io
The Globe and Mail        
jrubenovitch@globeandmail.com
416-585-3355
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Taconic Biosciences Appoints Nomura Siam as Distributor in India for All Taconic Animal Models

Improves Access to Critical Rodent Models for Researchers in India

RENSSELAER, N.Y., May 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Taconic Biosciences, a global leader in providing drug discovery animal model solutions, has appointed Nomura Siam International Co., Ltd (NSI), an established distributor of laboratory animals and related products, as its preferred distributor in India.

India makes a significant contribution to global pharmaceutical and vaccine production, and its pharmaceutical and biotechnology research and development is expected to grow over the next decade. To support this growth, scientists in India need advanced mouse and rat models for pharmacology studies and toxicology and drug safety assessment. Research across all therapeutic areas requires genetically engineered models (GEMs). Additionally, mice with humanized immune systems are critical for immuno-oncology and other applications.

Taconic’s portfolio comprises nearly 4,700 mouse and rat models, including widely used standard strains, immunodeficient models, and exclusive GEMs. Taconic is also a global leader in humanized immune system mouse generation. Taconic’s industry-leading quality systems, genetic integrity, and globally harmonized animal health standards promote research reproducibility while its flexible approach to licensing reduces barriers to accessing valuable GEMs.

Based in Thailand, NSI is known for its focus on quality and customer service. The company’s new agreement with Taconic significantly increases preclinical researchers’ access to GEMs in India and allows NSI to offer this market a full spectrum of solutions.

“To date, rodent model selection and availability has been somewhat limited in India. We believe this partnership will provide India’s growing pharmaceutical industry access to the most sophisticated and high-quality animal models available globally,” said Dr. Michael Seiler, vice president of commercial products at Taconic. “We truly believe this partnership will support Taconic’s desire to accelerate new life-saving therapeutics for the global community.”

“Taconic’s portfolio of sophisticated mouse models fills a major gap in the Indian market,” said Taiichiro Kamiya, president of NSI. “By our frequent information sharing, and the improvement of logistic process, we will provide faster and easier access to GEMs for Indian users.”

To learn more about Taconic’s full line of animal model solutions, please call 1-888-TACONIC (888-822-6642) in the US, +45 70 23 04 05 in Europe, or email info@taconic.com.

About Taconic Biosciences, Inc.

Taconic Biosciences is a fully licensed, global leader in genetically engineered rodent models and services. Founded in 1952, Taconic provides the best animal solutions so that customers can acquire, custom-generate, breed, precondition, test, and distribute valuable research models worldwide. Specialists in genetically engineered mouse and rat models, microbiome, immuno-oncology mouse models, and integrated model design and breeding services, Taconic operates service laboratories and breeding facilities in the US and Europe, maintains distributor relationships in Asia, and has global shipping capabilities to provide animal models almost anywhere in the world.

About Nomura Siam International Co. Ltd. (NSI)

Nomura Siam International Co. Ltd., based in Bangkok, Thailand, was jointly established in 2012 by CLEA Japan, Inc. and Nomura Jimusho, Inc. as a comprehensive provider for the laboratory animal field. As a one-stop service supplier, NSI not only sells laboratory animals but also handles a wide range of related products, including equipment for breeding, conducting experiments, and environmental enrichment, as well as consulting services for preclinical research and laboratory animal facility design.

Media Contact:

Aidan Bouchelle
Associate Director, Marketing Operations
518-949-7598
Aidan.Bouchelle@taconic.com