Biohealth Innovation
Celebrate Your Organization’s Excellence in 2017!
Each year, UEDA members compete for our prestigious Awards of Excellence, which recognize outstanding, leading-edge higher education projects and initiatives promoting economic development and engagement. Never content to rest on our laurels, however, last year saw a significant revamping of the Awards program to reflect UEDA’s ongoing research on economic development and engagement in higher education. We hope you will join us!
Of all five scenarios proposed by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker for the way forward after Brexit, the real scenario is Number 3: “Those who want more do more,” which is another way of saying that the EU will be multi-speed, EURACTIV.com was told.
The Commission published today its White Paper (1 March) on the future of the EU-post-Brexit.
The NHS has been a godsend to the British people since its introduction in 1948 – with the free healthcare it has provided ensuring hundreds of millions of people have been able to live longer and healthier lives.
Such is the impact of the scheme, a tribute was paid to it during the opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympic Games – an honour reserved for only the most impactful and important moments in a host nation’s history through the ages.
A prototype online platform that uses real-time visualization and viral genome data to track the spread of global pathogens such as Zika and Ebola is the grand prize winner of the Open Science Prize (link is external). The international team competition is an initiative by the National Institutes of Health, in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). The winning team, Real-time Evolutionary Tracking for Pathogen Surveillance and Epidemiological Investigation (link is external), created its nextstrain.org (link is external) prototype to pool data from researchers across the globe, perform rapid phylogenetic analysis, and post the results on the platform’s website. The winning team will receive $230,000 to fully develop their prototype with NIH awarding $115,000 to the U.S. members of the winning team, and the Wellcome Trust and HHMI also contributing $115,000 to the winning team.
Imagine you are a local technology startup looking to manufacture a tiny air quality sensor that can be incorporated into an iPhone to dramatically improve public health. This is a potential billion-dollar market, but you need access to specialized and expensive semiconductor testing and evaluation labs to scale up the technology.
Large semiconductor manufacturers aren’t located in Maryland, so where do you go? California’s Silicon Valley? New York and its semiconductor cluster in Albany?
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), an urban office REIT uniquely focused on collaborative life science and technology campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, today announced that Alexandria LaunchLabs® has selected a leading-edge group of life science startups as its first member companies. Alexandria LaunchLabs is New York City's first-in-class, highly affordable, full-service wet laboratory and office co-working space, which provides unique access to Alexandria's early-stage investment capital. Alexandria LaunchLabs' member companies will also have full access to Alexandria's world-class network and a highly amenitized campus, including a state-of-the-art conference, event and meeting space; two farm-to-table restaurants and a fully equipped fitness center.
In addition, Alexandria Venture Investments, its strategic venture capital arm and one of New York City's largest providers of early-stage life science venture capital, made its first New York City-based investment of 2017, leading the Series A financing for Applied Therapeutics Inc. Applied Therapeutics, a biotech company with technology licensed from Columbia University, is focused on developing transformative drugs in areas of high unmet medical need.
April 12-May 24
The Angel Venture Forum is changing the way we meet and screen companies!
Over the past few years, angel investors have been placing more capital into fewer companies. Only the top 5%-7% of companies that pitch investors actually receive the funds they’re looking for. Entrepreneurs educated in the capital formation process have the best chance of success. The Angel Venture Forum is one of the top educational series on the topic.
For the first time ever, the World Health Organization has drawn up a list of the highest priority needs for new antibiotics — marching orders, it hopes, for the pharmaceutical industry.
The list, which was released Monday, enumerates 12 bacterial threats, grouping them into three categories: critical, high, and medium.
On March 1, FastForward 1812 will welcome its first lab tenants. The 15,000-square-foot space boasts BSL2 wet labs; cell culture microscopy and cold storage rooms; shared scientific instruments and more.
Innovative solutions to wound care, technologies to relieve a strained health care system, a pill that could reverse type 2 diabetes. The path to developing and bringing these and other discoveries and innovations to market runs through the FastForward 1812 innovation hub.
Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures opened the 23,000-square-foot flagship space shortly after New Year’s Day. The first tenants began occupying office and co-working spaces the third week of January, and lab tenants will move in March 1. Startups have leased much of the available space already, and what remains has been strategically left empty to accommodate growth among the 18 startup tenants and the arrival of new startups.
INNOVA-CON 4.0 is bringing its members another great opportunity to meet in person and connect with luminaries in the innovation profession. The meeting, at Booz Allen Hamilton's awesome Innovation center in Washington D.C. is this years location. Content will focus on how to use strategies and methods of innovation to create value. In addition, for the first time this year, we will be live-streaming the event for those who do not have a budget to get to Washington.
The titans of the tech industry are known for their confidence that they can solve any problem--even, as it turns out, the one that's defeated every other attempt so far. That's why the most far-out strategies to cheat death are being tested in America's playground for the young, deep-pocketed and brilliant: Silicon Valley.
SSTI submitted a letter to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) in response to a request for information on the Institute’s investments in early translational research. The letter recommends partnerships and initiatives NHLBI could develop to improve identification of commercializable discoveries, strengthen business and technical development, and facilitate the scaling of innovations and spin-outs. These suggestions are grounded in examples of work by SSTI members. Read the full letter on ssti.org.
The Maryland Department of Commerce; the University of Maryland, Baltimore; Hood College; Washington College; and Stevenson University have endowed a total of $8.3 million in four new research professorships. The endowments were made through the Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative (MEI), a state program created to spur basic and applied research in scientific and technical fields at the colleges and universities. The schools raised $4.3 million in private funding for each chair and Maryland Commerce approved matching grants of $4 million to support the endowments.
“The groundbreaking research coming out of these colleges and universities is addressing key issues impacting our communities today, from cancer research to sustainable food systems and biofuels,” said Maryland Commerce Secretary Mike Gill. “We are proud to partner with these world-class institutions to keep our state on the cutting edge of technology and discovery.”
Some big ideas seem to appear out of nowhere, but in 2008 Chuan He deliberately went looking for one. The US National Institutes of Health had just launched grants to support high-risk, high-impact projects, and He, a chemist at the University of Chicago in Illinois, wanted to apply. But he needed a good pitch.
He had been studying a family of proteins that repair damaged DNA, and he began to suspect that these enzymes might also act on RNA. By a stroke of luck, he ran into molecular biologist Tao Pan, who had been investigating specific chemical marks, called methyl groups, that are present on RNAs. The pair worked in the same building at the University of Chicago, and began meeting regularly. From those conversations, their big idea took shape.
Just Confirmed: Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to Present Keynote April 19th
This invitation-only event is free for executive level biotech leaders and is presented by BioHealth Innovation, VirginiaBio, Paragon Bioservices, Inova, University System of Maryland and MedImmune/AstraZeneca. Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC set the bar high for biotech innovation. So please join us for our 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. The program will feature sessions that focus on Advancing Science and Accelerating Innovation.
Symbiomix today announced it has hired David L. Stern, MBA, a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive with over 20 years of experience leading the commercialization of treatments in women’s health and fertility, as Chief Executive Officer of the company.
Mr. Stern joins Symbiomix on the heels of the company’s recent submission of a New Drug Application (NDA) with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its drug candidate Solosec™, an innovative antibiotic designed to treat BV. The company hired Taunia Markvicka, PharmD, MBA, as Chief Commercial Officer in 2016 and has been rapidly preparing for the commercialization of Solosec™.
Wednesday, March 15, 2017 3pm to 5pm Salisbury University - Academic Commons
How do you know if you've created something unique? What's the best way to protect your ideas? These questions and more will be answered during a free Intellectual Property Workshop. Meet IP professionals and entrepreneurs. Learn the latest intellectual property and innovation protection strategies as well as tips on everything from trademarks and copyrights to patents and trade secrets.
Get a sneak peek of the country's largest, most advanced mobile STEM lab. Please join us for an Open House onboard MdBio's new mobile laboratory, the Mobile eXploration Lab.
Tuesday, March 7, 2017 | 4 - 6 PM
Johns Hopkins University Montgomery Parking Lot
9601 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850
Corner of Key West Avenue & Broschart Road. Ample free parking available.
If you’re learning how to develop CRADAs or have ever wished for an easy guide, take our newest free e-course! “The CRADA Developer’s Guide” is now available to take at your own pace in our Learning Center!
The CRADA is one of federal tech transfer’s most powerful tools. This course helps you understand the process and considerations for developing and managing a good CRADA, including:
When to choose a CRADA How to craft a CRADA Managing a CRADA Troubleshooting strategies.
The Baltimore Ravens Innovation Challenge at Light City is a live pitch competition where six startup companies will present in front of a panel of judges to win a year-long marketing package with a value of $200,000 from the Baltimore Ravens.
The Competition will take place during the SocialLab@LightCity - April 6, 2017. Labs@LightCity will bring together national and local thought leaders and engaged, inspired citizens from diverse backgrounds to explore cutting edge concepts for sparking social change.
A discounted ticket for friends of Light City is now available for $99 (a discount of $50). Use the code LCFriends50 when checking out and your discount will be automatically applied to your registration. You may also share the code with friends who you believe would want to join the conversation, vote during the Pitch Competition, learn and have a real impact on the Labs, Baltimore, and beyond!
Immunomic Therapeutics’ is pleased to announce five finalists for the Cancer Discovery Incubator Award.
Immunomic’s unique incubator award offers the selected innovator an opportunity to develop a proof-of-concept experiment in their laboratories. Additionally, the winner will be gifted funding, lab equipment and a unique mentorship with the Immunomic executive team for one year. The goal is to empower the innovator to conduct proof-of-concept experiments and ultimately, help the winner attract funding, partnerships, and fuel growth.
Niche-specific content is usually not readily available through regular generic search engines. One example is the academic and scholarly content. While running a search query about an academic topic through a generic search engine such as Google would probably render fairly decent results, it, however, usually takes digging into so much fluff before finally landing on relevant results. This is where having access to topic-specific search engines comes in handy. Such search engines do not only provide specific content tailored to the topic under study but their content is more likely to be reliable and authoritative. To this end, we have compiled this list of excellent academic search engines that teachers, student researchers and academics can use to quickly locate and access scholarly works and publications. We have only included what we believe are the most relevant and popular titles out there. If you have other suggestions to add to the list please share with us on our Facebook page.
MagBio Genomics, Inc. announces the launch of its new Blood STASIS™ 21- ccfDNA tube for venous whole blood collection and room temperature stabilization of circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA).
The Blood STASIS 21-ccfDNA is a direct draw whole blood collection system that contains a proprietary reagent that prevents post-collection release of genomic DNA from white blood cells, resulting in efficient and accurate recovery of ccfDNA with minimal genomic DNA (gDNA) contamination leading to more informative and quality data.
Join Sinai Hospital BioIncubator on Thursday, February 23, 2017, for the second seminar of our Distinguished Speaker Series, sponsored by TEDCO. Keynote speaker Jeff Gibbs, a member of our Innovation Council, will be speaking about the FDA and regulatory affairs.
Event information: When: Thursday, February 23, 2017 from 4:00-5:30pm Location: 2401 W. Belvedere Ave., Baltimore, MD 21215 Room: Phyllis and Leonard J. Attman Board Room (Sinai Hospital Board Room) Parking: Please park in the general hospital parking visitor's lot, located outside the main entrance of the hospital. This will give you the easiest access to the Phyllis and Leonard J. Attman Board Room.
About The Speaker
Mr. Gibbs is a Director at Hyman, Phelps & McNamara, P.C., Washington, DC, the largest law firm specializing in Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issues. Prior to entering private practice, he served as Associate Chief Counsel for Enforcement at FDA. Mr. Gibbs is currently the chairman of the Food and Drug Law Institute, and he previously served as a member of the George Mason University Human Subjects Review Board. He has written and spoken extensively on FDA issues. Mr. Gibbs graduated from Princeton University and New York University School of Law.
March 14-15, 2017, Washington, DC
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), in collaboration with the Chamber of Digital Commerce announces a health standards and data innovation Code-a-Thon. Code-a-Thon contestants will use open source distributed ledger technology and health-specific standards to address one of the following health IT Tracks:
The Washington DC/Baltimore Chapter of Women In Bio is presenting a program to learn about how bioscience discoveries move from the bench to the market. The route from discovery to market is not linear. Our panelists will relay their experiences with clinical trials, manufacturing, and marketing and will discuss how each of these aspects interacts along the way. Whether you are looking to enter the world of bench to market or are just curious about the process, this will be an informative and fun event. Moderated by Lynn Johnson Langer, Program Director, Sr. Lecturer, Johns Hopkins University, our panel includes the following individuals:
Date/Time: Thursday, February 23, 2017 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. EST
Venue: Johns Hopkins University – Montgomery Campus 106-110 A&R Building 9601 Medical Center Drive Rockville, MD 20850
Thursday, Feb 23 Vigilant Bioservices Open House (UMB Biopark) Come explore our Biorepository then join us for the UMB BioPark Holiday Happy Hour! Tours are from 1:00-5:00pm
Vigilant Bioservices provides GMP storage solutions for Biotech organizations, including outsourced temperature controlled storage and risk mitigation/business continuity services.
If you demand a return on the cost of quality, we offer peace of mind knowing your biomaterials are safe.
A group of scientists and their supporters are set to march Sunday in Boston’s Copley Square in an event they’ve dubbed “a rally to stand up for science” in the Trump years.
Inside a large nearby convention center, meanwhile, the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the United States’ largest general scientific society, has featured speeches and panel sessions further underscoring the sense that under President Trump, scientists could face wide-ranging political conflicts and challenges, and will have to decide how to meet them.
The products that make cities "smart" will be developed, tested and perhaps scaled in our backyard.
A partnership of the Herndon-based Center for Innovative Technology, D.C.-based Smart City Works and 22 CityLink, the master developer of the Gramercy District smart city planned for Ashburn, is accepting applications for its initial cohort of companies in Smart City Works @ Herndon.
OncoImmune, Inc. today announced that is has closed on a $15.0 million Series A round of fundraising led by 3E Bioventures Capital (“3E”).
The new capital will be used primarily to develop a novel clinical stage asset targeting the CD24-Siglec pathway that regulates host inflammatory response to tissue injuries, which has broad implications in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, cancer and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). OncoImmune will continue clinical testing of its lead clinical product, CD24Fc, in a Phase II trial for the prevention of acute GvHD following myeloablative allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant. CD24Fc has received orphan drug designation for GvHD in both the US and Europe. The funding will also support development of other immuno-oncology (IO) assets with a focus on solid tumor targeting monoclonal antibodies, cancer vaccines, and immunotherapy-related adverse events.
Host: UM BioPark & Wexford + Technology
Location: UM BioPark Life Sciences Conference Center 801 W. Baltimore Street Baltimore Maryland 21201
Time: 5:00pm to 6:30pm
Please join the BioPark's Monthly Networking Event along with Colleagues from UMBC. Mingle with UM Venture program managers, BioPark tenants, and UMB faculty and staff.
A record number of biotechnology, life sciences and other tech-related companies with a presence in New Jersey stand to benefit from private investments spurred in part by tax credits approved by state officials last year — a sign the Garden State continues to serve as the nation’s medicine chest.
The New Jersey Economic Development Authority announced Tuesday it has approved 251 applications from “angel investors” who are eligible for state income-tax credits to help offset the more than $96 million in private funding they funneled to Garden State tech firms during 2016 — the highest annual total since the program launched three years ago.
What’s the best way to build a startup? Bootstrap it, raise little or no VC funding, and (ideally) sell it for hundreds of millions—or billions—of dollars, according to two venture capitalists.
That’s what they did at least. Andrew Farquharson, now the managing director of InCube Ventures in San Jose, CA, was the chief operating officer of Almeda, CA-based Operon Technologies when it sold to European nucleic acid company Qiagen in an all-stock deal worth around $110 million in 2000. Farquharson and his co-founders tried, but failed, to raise venture funding and instead were able to bootstrap.
Gaithersburg-based NexImmune, a biotech developing immunotherapy treatments for cancer, has been acquired by a consortium of big-name biotech veterans and investors.