Silatronix is working on an electrolyte that could make lightweight lithium ion batteries used in cellphones, power tools, electric cars and even Navy ships last longer and maintain their stability in high temperatures.

Overheated lithium ion batteries were blamed for grounding the fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets a year ago, a problem that recurred in January involving a Japan Airlines plane. At least two electronics manufacturers recalled lithium ion batteries in 2007 because of concerns about overheating and possible explosions.

Silatronix, armed with $700,000 in new investment and a $2 million contract with the U.S. Navy, could have its solution in products on store shelves in 2016, said chief executive officer Mark Zager.

Read more at the Wisconsin State Journal.

Venture Investors LLC led the funding round. Investors included the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Venture Management LLC, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board and others.

Madison Vaccines will use the money to develop its therapies and complete the second phase of a clinical trial for a DNA vaccine that would be used on patients with prostate cancer that has not spread whose prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, level is rising. The vaccine would be given to men to delay the progression of prostate cancer and put off androgen deprivation therapy.

Read more at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Chromatin, Inc., an agriculture technology company, today announced the first closing of its Series E financing round, expected to total $36 million. Wood Creek Capital Management, an investment manager focused on investing in real assets and intellectual property, including agricultural resources, led the round. Other participants included GE Capital, Equity, as well as funds that had participated in earlier rounds of financing: BP Alternative Energy, IllinoisVentures, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, and Adventures IV, LLC. With its Series E round, Chromatin has successfully raised over $70 million of equity in aggregate.

Read more here.

If Dave Grandin has his way, recovery from a sports injury or other orthopedic problem will be tracked, through digital records, every step of the way. Grandin is CEO of KayO Technologies, which is developing a wireless, hand-held device that he hopes will give the Fitchburg company a handle on the physical and occupational therapy market.

The kiio device is the size of the palm of your hand. It is a wireless, force-sensing device that attaches to a rope, cable or exercise band. When a patient pulls on the cord, the kiio device will transmit the exact force readings in a digital stream and transmit them to a computer so the physical or occupational therapist can read the information and analyze it. We use LifelineUSA’s rubber cords and detachable handles; KayO invented the analytical hardware and software.

These devices are not designed to replace therapists; they’re designed to help therapists.

Using exercise cables is better than using free weights, but one of the barriers to broader use of exercise cables is that you can’t tell what you’re doing, how much force you are exerting. That’s where the concept of building an inline force sensor came from.

Read more at the Wisconsin State Journal.

Medical device manufacturing is nothing new to the Madison area.

The former Datex-Ohmeda, now GE Healthcare Life Support Systems, has been making anesthesia machines since 1904 and Nicolet Biomedical, now Natus Medical, has produced brain and nerve-related instruments since the mid-1960s.

In the late 1990s, TomoTherapy joined the ranks, with its radiation systems for treating cancer patients.

But a different version of the medical device industry is starting to take shape here, with companies working on compact, specialized products aimed at updating and improving on past medical equipment and procedures.

More than a dozen young companies have emerged in the past five to 10 years that could be the nexus of a new medical device cluster in the Madison area, some say, with products ranging from surgical tools to tongue exercisers, newfangled wheelchairs to prosthetic hands.

Read more at the Wisconsin State Journal.

OptiMine Software, provider of the measurement and optimization platform that transcends third-party cookies to maximize financial performance for digital advertisers, announced today that the company has nearly doubled the advertising spend under management in the first half of 2013, as compared to the same period in 2012. Likewise, year-over-year revenue has doubled, and the company is poised for continued revenue growth, having at least doubled the incremental value of new contracts signed in each of the last two quarters. Reflective of OptiMine’s expanded customer base, the company’s daily bid changes grew by 2,400 percent as compared to the first half of 2012.

Read more at MarketWire.com.

Two-time U.S. Open winner Andy North is among several new investors in Kayo Technology Inc., a Madison company that aims to modernize the practice of physical therapy.

Kayo has raised $355,000, an add-on to the $1.3 million the company pulled in late last year, said Dave Grandin, chief executive officer.

Read more at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Venture Management, LLC and Don Layden co-led a $1.7 million investment round for Madison’s SOLOMO Technology, Inc.

Solomo Technology Inc., a Madison company that provides retailers and other businesses with mobile technology tools, has raised $1.7 million of venture capital funding.  The company will use the money to accelerate product development and increase its sales and marketing activities.

The company is releasing its patent-pending Solomo Exchange web services platform, which allows retailers to offer products, promotions and other services to customers in exchange for their personal data. Customers store and control their data on the platform. Retailers can use the platform to do things like deliver special offers to customers based on which aisle they are shopping in, or collect data about traffic patterns and hot or cold sales spots in the store.

Read more at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

SHINE Medical Technologies and Phoenix Nuclear Labs, both of Monona, say they’ve reached an important achievement on the road to manufacturing a critical medical isotope.

Phoenix says its neutron generators have created the appropriate level of fusion reactions to work with SHINE’s technology.

“We need to produce a certain number of neutrons per second in order to generate the quantity of molybdenum-99 that our customer, SHINE Medical, will be producing at the facility they’re building in Janesville,” said Evan Sengbusch, Phoenix’s vice president of business development.

Whenmolybdenum-99 decays, it produces technetium-99m, used in imaging procedures performed on 55,000 patients a day to diagnose heart disease and cancer, and to study brain and kidney function.

“This milestone is a big step forward in proving that SHINE has a viable solution for securing a reliable supply of Mo-99 for millions of patients in the U.S.,” said SHINE chief executive Greg Piefer, in a written statement.

Read more at the Wisconsin State Journal.

“Virent Inc. has shipped bio-based jet fuel to a military research lab for testing from a new demonstration plant it has opened in Madison.

The delivery of 100 gallon of the jet fuel to the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory marks another step in the Madison renewable energy firm’s quest to produce renewable fuels at a commercial scale.

Virent commissioned its new demonstration plant in January, under a $1.5 million grant it received from the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation.”

Read more at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.