GAINESVILLE, FL - They aren't the lost cities early explorers sought fruitlessly to discover.

LAKE OCONEE, GA - Overlooking the manicured golf greens and gardens of the Lake Oconee Ritz Carlton Lodge here, the limited partners who

Most technology companies do not qualify for bank loans or other institutional debt financings during the early years. Traditional lenders usually require that borrowers have cash flow or assets, or both.

WINSTON-SALEM, NC– When it comes to risk for a heart attack, having excess fat around the heart may be worse than having a high body mass index or a thick waist, according to researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues reporting in the August issue of the journal Obesity.

You can’t hold a programmer back. Once they get going, they’re like the machines they serve: aggressive, relentless, unstoppable.

DURHAM, N.C. – Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) reduce the risk of death from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) among patients with heart failure, and they do so without significantly altering a person's quality of life, say researchers from Duke University Medical Center.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA—DiaKine Therapeutics, a developer of drugs designed to cause diabetes to go into remission, has received an investment from BlueTree Allied Angels in an undisclosed amount.

WINTER PARK, FL—Highwinds Network Group Inc., a multi-platform IP services and content distribution provider, has closed a new round of financing in an undisclosed amount from European Founders Fund.

ATLANTA, GA--A family of biodegradable polymers called polyketals and their derivatives may improve treatment for such inflammatory illnesses as acute lung injury, acute liver failure and inflammatory bowel disease by delivering drugs, proteins and snips of ribonucleic acid to disease locations in the body.

CARY, NC—BrightDoor Systems Inc., creator of a real estate sales engine for builders and developers, has raised a $2 million A1 round led by California-based Comprehensive Financial Management. Series A investors WWC Captial of Reston, VA, and the IDEA Fund participated.

BALTIMORE, MD - People who walk on a treadmill even years after stroke damage can significantly improve their health and mobility, changes that reflect actual "rewiring" of their brains, according to research spearheaded at Johns Hopkins.

JUPITER, FL—While the life science industry in the Southeast has not yet matured as much as that of the Northeast and the West, it is thriving, says Victor Kleinman, managing director of the global life sciences practice of recruiting firm Nosal Partners. Major new initiatives aimed at boosting state life science industries are underway in Florida, Georgia, Maryland and North Carolina, but the jostling for top spots as biotech hubs “Is still a horserace,” he says.

GAINESVILLE, FL — Despite the popularity of spicy cuisine among Homo sapiens, the hotness in chili peppers has always been something of an evolutionary mystery.

MIAMI - Zapoint, which sells talent management softsware, says it has closed on a Series A round in an undisclosed amount led by HFF Investments .

DURHAM, N.C. – Knowing about financial relationships between medical researchers and the companies that sponsor their studies has little effect on most patients considering enrolling in a clinical trial, according to a new study from the Duke Clinical Research Institute.

CHARLOTTE, NC—The arrays of wide-screen TVs scrolling sales figures and Internet traffic information make Red Ventures’ office look like a NASA space mission control room, but the busy atmosphere is not just for show. The company, named the 17th fastest growing private firm in America on the latest Inc. magazine list, lands customers for its brand name clients using high-tech lead generation techniques, charging only when it succeeds.

NASHVILLE, TN—StudioNow, a company selling video production services, has raised an additional $2 million in Series A financing led by Clayton Associates with existing investors participating, bringing its total so far to $4.1 million.

COLUMBIA, SC—SC Launch!, an affiliate of SCRA, is investing $200,000 seed money in SensorTech, a company developing a contact sensing technology that may find initial uses in prothetics such as artificial joints.

BLACKSBURNG, VA – The typical American diet often lacks omega-3 fatty acids despite clinical research that shows their potential human health benefits. Zhiyou Wen, assistant professor of biological systems engineering in Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, found a way to grow these compounds using a byproduct of the emerging biodiesel industry.

BIRMINGHAM, AL--A small Birmingham, Alabama company, Vaxin, is testing a revolutionary new flu vaccine that could lessen or end flu vaccine shortages, getting the wrong mix of strains, and fears of deadly pandemic flu.

DURHAM, NC - Duke University chemists have patented an efficient technique for synthesizing a marine algae extract in sufficient quantities to now test its ability to inhibit the growth of cancerous cells while leaving normal cells unaffected.

ALEXANDRIA, VA—Agentrics, a company selling supply chain collaboration and other software and consulting services to large retailers and trading partners, has received new funding in an undisclosed amount from M. Abuhab Participaoes (MAP, a Brazilian private holding company.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA — Biologists at the University of Virginia have discovered a switching mechanism in the eye that plays a key role in regulating the sleep/wake cycles in mammals. The finding could lead to new treatments for sleep disorders.

It used to be said that to go into business you really only needed three things: an office, a desk and a phone. Today, prospects researching the viability of potential vendors first expect to find a website and a phone number…an office and desk have become secondary details.

RESTON, VA—After 9/11, governments worldwide increasingly sought ways to assure that a person using a passport or other ID documents was who he claims to be. That opened large government markets for Daon, which sells biometric security software. Now the industry is moving from fingerprints and iris scans to multimodal biometrics, says Cheryl Walker Waldrup, Daon director of global marketing.

Andrew is a founder of a start-up biotech company, BioTex. He has had the good fortune to find venture capital to fund the expansion of the company. BioTex will be one of several biotech portfolio companies included in a private equity fund formed as a limited liability company.

BALTIMORE, MD - You're about to leave work at the end of the day when your cell phone rings: it's your spouse, asking that you pick up a gallon of milk on the way home. Before you head out the door, though, your spouse calls again and asks you to stop by the hardware store too.

RALEIGH, NC—Many startups focus so intently on developing their product or raising money that they neglect sales and marketing. PlazaBridge, a new business management firm founded earlier this month through the merger of Robbie Hardy’s Silkroad Partners and Teresa Spangler-led CLAdventures, aims to boost startups over barriers that often stymie their growth, particularly, getting customers.

ATLANTA - Suniva Inc., a manufacturer of high value crystalline silicon solar cells, has entered into a long-term supply contract with Titan Energy Systems, one of India’s largest and longest-standing manufacturers of solar modules and specialty photovoltaic (PV) products in a deal worth more than $480 million.

ELKRIDGE, MD - Lotame, a company develping web tools to help advertisers target social network audiences, has raised a $13 million B round led by California-based Emergence Capital Partners.

CHARLOTTE, NC - M3 Technology Group, which designs and deploys email and directory systems, has raised $2.7 million in new funding. The company also named Tony Prince its new CEO.

ATLANTA—Idhasoft, an IT consulting and solutions company that soared from zero revenue to $100 million in a year, has closed on a $30 million raise from an Atlanta private equity bank.

CLEMSON,SC – Electronic devices get smaller and more complex every year. It turns out that fragility is the price for miniaturization, especially when it comes to small devices, such as cell phones, hitting the floor. Wouldn’t it be great if they bounced instead of cracked when dropped?

Last summer when faced with a traditional tech culture lull, a looming deadline, and an impending vacation, I cranked out a column highlighting the events of summer and inadvertently uncovered the near apocalypse of the uberverse. This accomplished two things. One: I was able to hit deadline and go on vacation right before the wheels came off and Two: The resultant piece got about five times more response than my regular column, while containing 98% fewer technical facts.

EXCLUSIVE: ATLANTA—Qualtré, a company working on advanced motion sensors, has closed a $5 million Series A round from Waltham, MA-based Matrix Partners and expects to double its staff in the next four months.

ATLANTA--A single breath of hydrogen sulfide, a gas best known for its rotten-egg smell, can kill. But at low concentrations, hydrogen sulfide could protect vital organs during surgery, research conducted by a new Emory University School of Medicine professor suggests.

FAIRFAX, VA – Razorsight has won a slew of fast-growth awards with its on demand software that automates back office functions such as payables and auditing. On the heels of its recent $9 million raise, the company plans to expand globally, says Charlie Thomas, CEO.

ATHENS, GA. – Herbs and spices are rich in antioxidants, and a new University of Georgia study suggests they are also potent inhibitors of tissue damage and inflammation caused by high levels of blood sugar.

GAINSVILLE, FL—We think of sharks as swift-moving, but actually, most of the time they move so slowly it is difficult to see any motion, yet they do not collect fouling organisms the way whales and the hulls of ships do. Now, the Gainsville-based startup Sharklet has developed an anti-microbial surface patterned on sharkskin that may help prevent often deadly hospital-derived infections.

STEVENSVILLE, MD—Fund-raising has been tougher for some biotech companies in the down economy, but the medical device space still attracts investors. Vapotherm Inc., a manufacturer of respiratory care devices, has raised a $20.5 million 6th round of funding led by GE Asset Management with Cross Creek Capital, Intergral Capital Partners, and return backers QuestMark Partners and Kaiser Permanente Ventures participating.

ATLANTA--Seeing disease-fighting white blood cells vanish from the blood usually signals a weakened immune system.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE, NC - Featured Internet Summit speakers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss will be competing for Olympic medal this weekend, as they represent the US rowing team in men’s pair rowing finals.

RALEIGH, NC –Mark Yusko, president and chief investment officer of Morgan Creek Capital, says the public markets may suffer through 2010, but that actually creates opportunities for investors. He recalls Warren Buffet’s comment, “Be greedy when others are fearful and be fearful when others are greedy.”

ATLANTA, GA – With more employees working in teams, it is critical to find ways to enable teams to be more creative in their work.

CHAPEL HILL, NC—TrueBridge Capital Partners has closed its inaugural CVE-Kauffman Fellows Endowment Fund. The Fund closed with over $310 million of capital commitments, well in excess of its stated $250 million target, and was completed in a short seven months.

NASHVILLE, TN—Healthcare software provider nTelagent has raised a $1.7 million Series E round. Investors include Burch Investment Group.

BALTIMORE, MD - Cells rely on calcium as a universal means of communication. For example, a sudden rush of calcium can trigger nerve cells to convey thoughts in the brain or cause a heart cell to beat. A longstanding mystery has been how cells and molecules manage to appropriately sense and respond to the variety of calcium fluctuations within cells.

WASHINGTON, DC—Although some tech firms feel the pinch of the current down economy, many continue to thrive because they help other companies compete effectively, says Christopher Hansen, president and CEO of the AEA, the nation’s largest technology trade association. “The industry is actually doing better than most and this sector will lead the way when the rest of the economy levels off,” he says.

COLLEGE PARK, MD - "Ye canna change the laws of physics!" Scotty warned Captain Kirk on "Star Trek."

RALEIGH, NC—When a company such as NanoVector--which is developing a plant virus as a nanoparticle drug delivery system--gets ready to go to market, its scientific founders turn to experienced entrepreneurial execs. “The key skill needed is the ability to raise money,” says NanoVector CEO Albert Bender.

RESTON, VA—Clarabridge, which sells text analysis software used to improve customer relationship management, has raised a $12 million Series C round led by Grotech Ventures with existing investors Harbert Venture Partners, Boulder Ventures, and Intersouth Partners participating.

DURHAM, NC - No one likes to be excluded from a group: exclusion can decrease mood, reduce self-esteem and feelings of belonging, and even ultimately lead to negative behavior (e.g., the shootings at Virginia Tech). As a result, we often try to fit in with others in both conscious and automatic ways.

RALEIGH, NC—North Carolina State University professor Stefan Franzen first learned about a distinctive plant virus when he met his colleague Steven Lommel over a beer in Poland several years ago. He did not immediately realize that the meeting would lead to a new approach to nanoparticle drug delivery.

GAINESVILLE, FL — University of Florida College of Pharmacy researchers have discovered a marine compound off the coast of Key Largo that inhibits cancer cell growth in laboratory tests, a finding they hope will fuel the development of new drugs to better battle the disease.

"We have a sales problem." There isn't a seasoned sales professional that hasn't heard this statement from their management team. In my experience, it’s a fairly typical reaction when sales revenues don't meet expectations.

ATLANTA—Today, 80 percent of major purchases start with Internet research, but marketers can snag more buyers if they pay attention to what visitors actually do on their sites. So says FirstWave CEO, Richard Brock, who compares success in business to good golf. “You can’t stare at the ball and expect to win. You’ve got to look where you’re going and hit it down the fairway with conviction,” he says.

DURHAM, NC - Durham-based RemedEase Inc. a life science company with patented advanced technology to stop nosebleeds has closed on its first round of $500,000. RemedEase will use the funds to support product development, begin the FDA 510K approval process and expand marketing initiatives.

MIAMI—Saftpay, a secure payment system designed to safeguard consumer financial information in online transactions, has raised a $6 million Series A round from Espirito Santo Ventures.

BEACH ISLAND, SC—Denham Capital says it will invest up to $60 million in VitAG Corp., which sells technology that converts municipal biosolids into a high-nitrogen fertilizer that can outperform conventional ones.

ATLANTA - Suniva Inc., a manufacturer of high value crystalline silicon solar cells, has signed a long-term customer agreement worth $500 million with Solon AG, Europe’s largest solar photovoltaic module manufacturer.

UPDATED DURHAM, NC—Nextreme, a company making miniature cooling devices for eletronics, has raised a $13 million B round led by New York-based Chart Venture Partners with Virginia’s Redshift Venture Partners, New York’s Harris & Harris Group, Virginia’s In-Q-Tel, and Japan’s Itochu Corp.