This is the latest in my “superstar effect” series. Richard Florida posted an interesting analysis of venture capital investments over at City Lab.

Drug accelerator Cydan has gained a $34 million injection as it eyes deeper inroads into rare diseases for its second fund.

Germantown-based bioengineering company Intrexon Corp. will have access to up to $100 million of new capital through a deal with an affiliate company controlled by its founder and chairman, Randal "RJ" Kirk.

The operating partner for 1313 Innovation’s co-working space in Wilmington is merging with a Washington, DC organization.

1313 operates from the Hercules Plaza building in downtown Wilmington, with Benjamin’s desk serving as its partner.

Illumina Ventures, a San Francisco-based early-stage venture capital firm, closed its maiden fund, at $230m.

Launched with an initial $100m investment from Illumina, Illumina Ventures has then been supported by a mix of corporate, institutional, sovereign, and individual investors.

VLP Therapeutics, LLC (“VLP”), a biotechnology company focusing on the research and development of therapeutic and preventative vaccines announced today the receipt of a Phase I grant from the National Cancer Institute under auspices of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the National Institutes of Health. The $298,729 grant under the Award Number R43CA217445 is focused on “the development of a novel Virus-Like Particle vaccine-based cancer immunotherapy targeting PD-L1” and will also explore broader immune checkpoint inhibition mechanisms.

Brian Smith joined BHI in October of 2017 as a digital marketing and IT specialist. Brian manages BHI’s information technology assets in addition to serving as a marketing specialist for BHI and its client companies. Brian comes from a background in health science having earned his bachelor of science degree in human biology from Towson University. Before joining BHI, Brian was the principal of a small business that provided web information services and IT support to businesses in and around the metropolitan Washington DC area. Brian has an enthusiasm for entrepreneurialism and draws from experience working in both clinical research and biomanufacturing.

As the leaves settle on the ground, so do the newest Venture for America fellows into the place they’ll call home for the next two years. The food hall R. House, which was spearheaded by two VFA Fellows, hosted the full group last week, giving new fellows had the chance to mingle and chow down on gourmet hors d’oeuvres with the current cohort and local community of supporters.

What began as a kind of business experiment in innovation has acquired a life of its own.

The idea in 2011 was to create a space at what was then Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical research and development facility in San Diego for an “innovation center,” a place where 18 to 20 life sciences startups could incubate, replete with lab space and equipment. J&J would screen applicants and charge them to lease the space, but would not require an ownership stake or impose licensing requirements on the startups. It would be a “no strings attached” deal.

Infosecurity Group, the founders of Europe’s no.1 information security event, is pleased to announce Inky as the Infosecurity North America Cyber Start-up Company of the Year 2017. Four start-ups competed today during Infosecurity North America 2017 Expo and Conference, presenting their elevator pitches to a judging panel of venture capitalists. 

Dreamit has teamed with Accenture, one of the world’s leading professional services companies, to connect Accenture’s strategy and innovation leadership to the startup founders at Dreamit working on transformational products in health tech and urban tech.

This semester, FastForward U (FFU) will begin offering entrepreneurial advising to students looking to start a company or business venture. FFU is an initiative from Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures (JHTV), an office that facilitates licensing and patents for Hopkins researchers and supports technology startups.

The Association of University Research Parks (AURP) today announced the recipients of the Awards of Excellence recognized during its 2017 International Conference hosted by Cummings Research Park in Huntsville, AL. Additionally, AURP announced the results of the election for its 2018 Board of Directors.

Monday, December 11, 2017

Apella, Alexandria Center for Life Science 6:00 - 7:30 PM

Brick by brick, and startup by startup, the New York biotech scene is slowly being built up. More startup incubators are either up, or in development, than ever before. Several pieces necessary to a functional life sciences ecosystem are now in place, and many other milestones will simply take time to develop and succeed. Yet industry and government leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs can’t get complacent—there is much more that New York can do, right now, to gain ground on other hubs and further establish the region as a top center for life science. If the right progress is made, 2018 could be a signature year for the city—or, if progress proves elusive, the momentum could slip away.

The National Institutes of Health and 11 leading biopharmaceutical companies today launched the Partnership for Accelerating Cancer Therapies (PACT), a five-year public-private research collaboration totaling $215 million as part of the Cancer Moonshot.  PACT will initially focus on efforts to identify, develop and validate robust biomarkers — standardized biological markers of disease and treatment response — to advance new immunotherapy treatments that harness the immune system to attack cancer. The partnership will be managed by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), with the Food and Drug Administration serving in an advisory role. 

When someone’s body parts are donated, it’s a life-or-death race against the clock as hearts, lungs, livers and hands rapidly deteriorate outside the body.

The partnership will see GamaMabs use MedImmune’s proprietary pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) toxin and linker technology in the research and production of the ADC for targeted cancer therapy. GamaMabs will have exclusive rights to use the proprietary PBD technology in this work and MedImmune will receive an upfront payment, development and commercial milestone payments as well as royalties on net sales.

Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (ITI), a privately held, Maryland-based biotechnology company is proud to announce a travel fund for patients enrolled in a Phase II clinical study that employs their investigational LAMP-Vax™ technology to treat glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).

We invite you to participate in the East County Regional Job Fair to be held on Thursday, November 2, 2017 from 3:00 –7:00pm at the East County Community Recreation Center, 3310 Gateshead Manor Way, Silver Spring, MD 20904. We ask that you complete this form by October 25th. We encourage all employers to set-up between 1:00 - 2:30 since the event will start at 3pm prompt!

Lupin said today it has acquired Symbiomix Therapeutics for $150 million cash, in a deal designed to expand the buyer’s branded women’s health specialty drug business.

In acquiring Symbiomix through its U.S. subsidiary, Lupin has exercised an option it retained earlier this year to buy the privately held developer of treatments for gynecologic infections.

For years, proponents of increased downtown development and innovation districts have spoken of the important interplay between universities, startups, and local jobs. Cities such as Pittsburgh, which has seen its stock rise as a center for technology and innovation, found that local universities such as Carnegie Mellon served as catalysts for commercial and creative growth.

Maryland companies raised $181.4 million from venture capitalists in the third quarter, a 435 percent increase from the year before.

There were 13 deals involving Maryland companies in the period, according to the PwC/CB Insights MoneyTree Report released Wednesday. That's two more deals than in the third quarter last year and three fewer than in the second quarter.

Diabetics who have been pricking their fingers for years finally have another option. Freestyle Libre is a small patch that can be easily applied to the upper-arm. With a simple scan, the sensor can read your glucose levels, no needles or blood necessary.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. EBS announced that it completed the acquisition of FDA-licensed smallpox vaccine's business of Sanofi SNY - ACAM2000.  The company paid an upfront payment of $97.5 million and $20 million in milestone payments. The deal also includes a potential milestone payment of up to $7.5 million, tied to the achievement of remaining regulatory

Emma started work as a massage therapist at NovaHealth TCM Clinic yesterday.

Emma - short for Expert Manipulative Massage Automation - is a robotic massager, developed by a team of researchers, engineers and programmers at AiTreat, a start-up incubated by Nanyang Technological University (NTU). It is particularly good for neck and knee massages.

Academic research is often full of ideas that can form the foundation of startups.

So institutions like the University of Maryland, Baltimore and Johns Hopkins are putting considerable effort to help launch young companies that license that research in a way that can bring acclaim and dollars. But just about everyone still thinks we need more CEOs and scientists working together.

The Northern Virginia health giant's new partnership will give consumers a glimpse into their DNA.

Global demand for fish is growing quickly, but many species are already severely overfished, leaving scientists and industry experts searching for ways to more safely and efficiently farm fish. In response, two UMBC research teams are developing revolutionary innovations for off-shore fish farming, to help mitigate the risks of disease and escapes in captive fish populations. Both recently received extremely competitive awards from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to pursue their work further.

The Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission (Commission) approved funding for four awards totaling $1,060,000. With the robust activity in stem cell research in Maryland, the Commission approved the first of two rounds of applications this year for the Validation and Commercialization Programs to accelerate getting solutions to patients.

Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. (Pink Sheets: OSIR), a leading regenerative medicine company focused on developing and marketing products for wound care, orthopedics, and sports medicine, announced today that a new peer reviewed manuscript entitled “Placental Membranes for Management of Refractory Cutaneous Sinus Tracts of Surgical Origin: A Pilot Study” has been published in The Journal of the American College of Clinical Wound Specialists and is available online.

The Richard A. Henson Foundation, Inc. today reaffirmed its commitment to Salisbury University, announcing a $2.5 million gift for SU’s Richard A. Henson School of Science and Technology.

A pioneer in the commuter aviation industry, Henson endowed the school bearing his name with another multi-million-dollar donation in 1987. This latest marks the 30th anniversary of that initial commitment.

The credibility of stem cell research is at risk because of charlatans and dodgy clinics peddling unproven cures for diseases, according to a group of eminent scientists in the field.

Circulomics, a Baltimore, MD-based biotechnology startup, received two SBIR grants totaling over $1.7M.

The company will use the funds to develop new applications of its Nanobind DNA/RNA extraction technology.

[THE INVESTOR] In the age of “digital health care,” high-tech wearables, cutting-edge medical devices and integrated apps combined with major breakthroughs in data computing and analytics capabilities are set to pave new frontiers in the health care sector.

A new academic enterprise, born of a partnership between the University of Washington and China’s Tsinghua University -- and seeded with $40 million in funding from Microsoft -- welcomed its first class of master’s students this fall.