Biohealth Innovation
ZURICH (Reuters) - Drugmaker Roche on Friday said it had received Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a test to quickly detect whether a patient has SARS-CoV-2 or one of two forms of influenza
Maryland is the epicenter of biotech and life science innovation in the BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR). The state is home to a burgeoning life science ecosystem, including a rapidly growing cell and gene therapy industry, a robust and growing advanced biomanufacturing environment, and a deep network of leading research universities and critical government life science research entities.
“5 Questions With……” is a weekly BioBuzz series where we reach out to interesting people in the BioHealth Capital Region to share a little about themselves, their work, and maybe something completely unrelated. This edition features 5 Questions with Tammi Thomas, Vice President, Marketing & Communications at TEDCO.
Image: https://biobuzz.io
TENANT AMENITIES • Up to 21,400 RSF of office/lab suite available
• Divisible to 9,529 RSF and 11,871 RSF
• Conveniently located between Route 28 and Route 355 in Rockville, MD
• Proximate to other life science companies
• The proposed plans (attached) include heavily improved laboratory space • Emergency back-up power
• Ample surface parking
• Close proximity to Rockville Town Square, containing restaurants, retail, and more
SR One, a venture capital firm focused on the biotech space, is looking to raised up to $400m for its new fund.
The firm has yet to register any capital for SR One Capital Fund I, according to the latest US Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
It is unclear whether the $400m figure on the document is just a target or will also be a hardcap for the fundraise.
Interactive remarks with the world's top leaders in innovation and inspiration Plan for up-to-the-moment discussions on global issues including projected outcomes from the U.S. 2020 Presidential election.
A special BioTalk with former Crab Trap winners from the BioHealth Capital Region Forum. David Narrow, CEO of Sonavex, Bruce Lichorowic, President & CEO, Dave Saunders, CTO & Co-Founder of Galen Robotics, and Vijay Ravindran, Co-Founder & CEO of Floreo, Inc. give updates on their companies since winning the Crab Trap competition in previous years.
Listen now via Apple https://apple.co/3iHuNPv, Google https://bit.ly/2DXClOI, Spotify https://spoti.fi/3bXhgAx, TuneIn https://bit.ly/3iuENvc, or YouTube Audio https://bit.ly/33smGzz
Are you and early stage company with innovative biohealth technology? Have you considered non-dilutive funding to advance your technology? Learn more about whether or not federal or state non-dilutive funding makes sense for you. Discuss potential strategies for success. Sign up for a free 1:1 advice and feedback regarding non-dilutive funding strategy and applications with BHI staff who have helped companies secured SBIR, STTR and other awards—at twice the national average win rate. This program is open to anyone, though scheduling priority is given to Montgomery County companies, courtesy support from MCEDC.
Click here to schedule a time.
Don't miss your change to be named the BioHealth Startup with the Most Commectial Potential at the BHCR Forum, win $10,000 and more!
Applications due: 9/24
Finalists notified by: 10/2
Mandatory presenter coaching for finalists: 10/7
A 2016 decision to link the research labs at the University of Maryland College Park with those at the University of Maryland at Baltimore is paying dividends in the competition for federal COVID-19 research dollars, a top education official told a science advisory panel on Wednesday.
The decision was a spinoff of the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership Act, said Laurie Ellen Locasio, vice president for research at the two institutions.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Governor Larry Hogan today announced the acquisition of 250,000 rapid point-of-care antigen tests, which will be deployed to nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, and correctional and juvenile detention centers across the state. The purchase makes Maryland, the founding member of the bipartisan interstate testing compact with the Rockefeller Foundation, the first state in the compact to move forward with an order for rapid antigen tests.
Image: https://www.thebaynet.com
Are you a start-up in Maryland, DC or Virginia seeking feedback on your biohealth business idea, pitch deck, or commercialization plan? Schedule your complimentary virtual feedback session with BHI Entrepreneurs-in-Residence and Analysts on one of the following dates: 8/26. (45 minute blocks of time beginning at 9:00 in the morning. Pre-registration is required; sign up www.tinyurl.com/EIRFeedback. For questions/more information, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Seoul Office Will Be Opening to Develop Immunomic Therapeutics Investigational Cell Therapy for Brain Cancer
September 10, 2020 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time SEOUL–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc., (“ITI”), a privately-held clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the study of nucleic acid immunotherapy platforms, originating in the United States recently opened its first office in South Korea. This continues to build on ITI’s overall strategy to be the partner-of-choice for innovative biotechnology companies in emerging centers of excellence worldwide.
The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) announced in July 2020 that it had completed the executive search for a new leader with the hiring of Troy LeMaile-Stovall, a seasoned leader with deep ties to the BioHealth Capital Region (BCHR).
LeMaile-Stovall just recently officially took the helm of TEDCO and we thought it a great time to catch up with him for a wide-ranging and insightful conversation about his background and vision for TEDCO and the BHCR biotech and life science ecosystem.
Image: https://biobuzz.io
Richmond, VA, Sept. 11, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) Board of Directors today announced Bob Stolle as the organization’s Chief Executive Officer and President of CIT. Stolle previously served as CIT’s Senior Vice President of Policy and Regional Initiatives as well as the head of CIT’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Division.
“Virginia’s entrepreneurship community has grown tremendously during Ed Albrigo’s tenure at CIT, and we are grateful for his dedicated service to our Commonwealth,” said Governor Ralph Northam. “I am pleased to welcome Bob Stolle to lead the agency and its efforts to advance our innovation economy.”
Image: The Center for Innovative Technology Announces Bob Stolle as Chief Executive Officer and President - https://www.globenewswire.com
We’re dedicated to helping cutting-edge innovators and leading investors connect. VSVC3 will be an engaging and immersive [live] interactive virtual summit providing startups the opportunity to gain the visibility they need and investors access to vetted deal flow.
This invitation-only event is free for executive level biotech leaders and is presented by the Association of University Research Parks, AstraZeneca, BioHealth Innovation, Children’s National Health System, Emergent BioSolutions, George Mason University, J.P. Morgan, Johns Hopkins University, Maryland Department of Commerce, Virginia Bio, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C.
Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC set the bar high for biotech innovation. So please join us for our 6th Annual BioHealth Capital Region Forum that will highlight the accomplishments of today and chart our successes of tomorrow.
We are excited to bring you an exceptional line up of speakers to this virtual event!
*Please note that attendees’ name might be recorded if participating in the chat function during the event.
TED Talks began in 1984 as a conference originating in Silicon Valley where powerful voices in Technology, Entertainment, and Design came together to spread potent ideas with broad relevance. Today there are thousands of talks of 18 minutes or less, in more than 100 languages, covering topics ranging from science to global issues. Despite this diversity, all TED talks share a devotion to Ideas Worth Spreading.
Image: https://www.americangene.com
The morning after the world learned that a closely watched clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine had been halted last week over safety concerns, the company’s chief executive disclosed that a person given the vaccine had experienced serious neurological symptoms.
Image: Pascal Soriot, chief executive of the drug company AstraZeneca, in Washington in February.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times
The cleverest of enemies thrive on surprise attacks. Viruses—and coronaviruses in particular—know this well. Remaining hidden in animal hosts for decades, they mutate steadily, sometimes serendipitously morphing into more effective and efficient infectious agents. When a strain with just the right combination of genetic codes that spell trouble for people makes the leap from animal to human, the ambush begins.
Image: Illustration by Peter Greenwood for TIME - https://time.com
The National Institutes of Health today announced $129.3 million in scale-up and manufacturing support for a new set of COVID-19 testing technologies as part of its Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative. NIH is awarding contracts to nine companies for technologies that include portable point-of-care tests for immediate results and high-throughput laboratories that can return results within 24 hours. These tests add to initial awards made to seven companies on July 31, 2020.
Image: MatMaCorp’s Solas 8 portable detection system for SARS-CoV-2 is designed to improve on-site testing capabilities of CLIA labs in rural communities.MatMaCorp
Virginia Tech’s research expenditures are up, in addition to an increase in sponsored awards by 15 percent, building upon the last fiscal year’s expenditure total of $542 million, despite the impact of COVID-19 felt nationally by higher education institutes, according to preliminary fiscal year end reports.
Image: Researchers Nisha Duggal (left) and James Weger-Lucarelli from the Fralin Life Sciences Institute and Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine are establishing a reverse genetics system for SARS-CoV-2 that will serve as the basis for vaccine design. Photo: Ray Meese, Virginia Tech. - https://theroanokestar.com
Pasadena, California-based Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. is planning a six-story, 169,812 sq. ft. lab and office building in Port Covington. The project is a collaboration between Alexandria and The Port Covington Development Team.
This building is proposed for lot E8 on the Chapter 1B Master Plan of the Port Covington project. This lot fronts a newly-aligned Cromwell St. and is adjacent to the northeast of the Rye Street Market complex. Rye Street Market is three connected buildings that make up 275,000 sq. ft. with 185,000 sq. ft. of office space, a 13,000 sq. ft. open-air market and food hall, 50,000 sq. ft. of pedestrian-oriented retail, a 12,000 sq. ft. meeting facility, and a 15,000 sq. ft. rooftop event space.
2020 has shown us the demands that are made on tech to keep our society running. Whether it’s teams pivoting from in-office meetings to 100+ person Zoom chats or state governments having trouble processing unemployment because of overloaded systems, good tech, especially good civic tech is needed now more than ever.
Baltimore, Md. (Sept. 14, 2020) – Dr. Anne Khademian, a Presidential Fellow and professor at Virginia Tech, has been appointed executive director of the Universities at Shady Grove, the University System of Maryland (USM) regional higher education center offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs from nine USM institutions at its campus in Rockville, Md.
Sally Allain, MSc., MBA, Head of JLABS @ Washington, D.C. joins Rich Bendis on BioTalk to discuss her career, the decision to open a BioHealth Capital Region location, and their new BLUE KNIGHT™ collaboration.
Listen now via Apple https://apple.co/35ivWc3, Google https://bit.ly/3k0vOlA, Spotify https://spoti.fi/2R84fuh, TuneIn https://bit.ly/2F0a0rN, and YouTube Audio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efHvb42ohtc.
WASHINGTON — A group of prominent biotech CEOs are calling on their peers and the federal government to hold themselves to the highest standards when it comes to developing and reviewing Covid-19 treatments.
Among their demands: That biotech companies don’t simply release clinical trial data in press releases, and that federal regulators make it clear to the public that any vaccines or treatments will be approved strictly based on science.
Image: Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (purple) infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow), isolated from a patient sample. NIAID
PASADENA, Calif., Sept. 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Alexandria Venture Investments, the strategic venture capital platform of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), an urban office REIT and the first, longest-tenured and pioneering owner, operator and developer uniquely focused on collaborative life science, technology and agtech campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, was recognized by Silicon Valley Bank in its "Mid-Year 2020 Healthcare Investments and Exits Report" as the #1 most active biopharma investor by new deal volume from 2019 to 1H20. As a testament to Alexandria's position at the heart of the life science ecosystem, this marks the third consecutive year the company's venture capital platform has earned this distinguished and impactful recognition. Since its founding in 1996, Alexandria Venture Investments has strategically invested in some of the most disruptive and promising seed-, early- and growth-stage technologies and companies, and it stands today as an integral component of the company's uniquely differentiated and multifaceted business strategy.
The 170,000-square-foot building would be located near Rye Street Tavern.
Are you seeking an opportunity to engage your firm in a fun community-building activity? Register one or more teams for the FRAXA Biotech Games. The BioHealth Capital Region has been challenged by other clusters to demonstrate the greatest knowledge of biotech trivia. Proceeds benefit FRAXA Research Foundation, supporting Fragile X research projects at institutions around the world, including MIT, Harvard, Stanford and UCSD. Fragile X is the most common inherited cause of autism and intellectual disabilities. BioHealth Innovation (BHI) is hosting the BioHealth Capital Region (Maryland, DC, and Virginia)’s participation in this exciting new event.
Register one team or multiple teams this month to compete for the Cup in September!
Pharmaceutical giants Sanofi and Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) on Thursday started a clinical trial for their jointly developed COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
A total of 440 healthy adults are being enrolled in the trial across 11 investigational sites in the US, the two drugmakers said.
The vaccine candidate uses the same recombinant protein-based technology as one of Sanofi's seasonal influenza vaccines with GSK's pandemic adjuvant technology.
The Phase 1/2 clinical trial is a randomised, double blind and placebo-controlled trial designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability and immune response of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
AstraZeneca said today it has launched a 30,000-patient Phase III trial in the U.S. of AZD1222, the COVID-19 vaccine it is co-developing with the University of Oxford and a spinout—a study that will account for most of the 50,000 participants on which the company intends to assess the vaccine.
The Phase III D8110C00001 trial (NCT04516746) is intended to evaluate the safety, efficacy, and immunogenicity of AZD1222 (formerly ChadOx1 nCoV-19) for the prevention of COVID-19. Participants will be randomized to receive two doses of either AZD1222 or a saline control, four weeks apart, with twice as many participants receiving the potential vaccine than the saline control.
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 27, 2020 - Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC today announced the first companies to be part of its medical countermeasure innovation collaboration called Blue Knight, a joint initiative dedicated to anticipating potential health security threats, activating the global innovation community, and amplifying scientific and technological advancements with the aim to prepare for and respond to our rapidly evolving global health environment. Blue Knight has been developed in collaboration with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a component of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS (JLABS), a global network of life science incubators empowering and enabling innovators to deliver potential life-enhancing health and wellness solutions to people around the globe.
MANASSAS, Va. — September 2, 2020 — Ceres Nanosciences, a privately held company that makes innovative products to improve diagnostic testing, announced it has been awarded a contract from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADxSM) initiative. The contract, for $6.5 million, will support an expansion to increase the manufacturing capacity of Ceres’ Nanotrap® Virus Particles for COVID-19 tests.
Gaithersburg, MD, September 1, 2020 – Cartesian Therapeutics, a fully integrated, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing cell and gene therapies for cancer, autoimmune diseases and respiratory diseases, today announced that it has initiated a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of its lead RNA-engineered mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy, Descartes-30, in patients with moderate-to-severe ARDS, including that caused by COVID-19. Based upon the company’s research and analysis, this program is understood to be the first RNA-engineered cell therapy to enter clinical development for ARDS and COVID-19. It is also the first cell therapy to specifically degrade NETs, webs of extracellular DNA and histones that entrap inflammatory cells, block alveoli and vessels, and drive the pathogenesis of ARDS and COVID-19.