QIAGEN N.V. has announced the start of commercialization activities for its GeneReader NGS System, the first complete Sample to Insight next-generation sequencing (NGS) solution designed for any laboratory to deliver actionable results.

With the introduction of the GeneReader NGS System, QIAGEN is offering the world’s first truly end-to-end NGS workflow from primary sample to a final report that provides a simpler, more cost-effective way for clinical testing to take advantage of NGS technology and improve outcomes.

Greenspring Associates has closed its seventh venture capital fund-of-funds at $430 million, the firm announced today.

Greenspring Global Partners VII, L.P will focus on established and emerging VC managers, expansion stage companies and secondary stakes in funds and companies.

Owings Mills venture firm Greenspring Associates has raised $430 million to invest in promising information technology companies.

Seventy percent of the fund, called Greenspring Global Partners VII, will be invested in about 25 venture capital managers that invest in early stage information technology companies. The remaining 30 percent of the fund will be invested directly into expansion stage IT companies with high growth potential.

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) announced today that it is hosting a local competition in the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) 2016 InnovateHER: Innovating for Women Challenge.  InnovateHER provides an opportunity for entrepreneurs throughout Maryland to compete for $70,000 in cash prizes by showcasing products and services that have a measurable impact on the lives of women and families, have the potential for commercialization, and fill a need in the marketplace.

“57% of working age women participate in the labor force, 74% of employed women work full-time, and 70% of working women have children under the age of 18,” said Rob Rosenbaum, President and Executive Director of TEDCO. “As demands on women and families grow, the need for products and services that address these unique challenges increases – we are hopeful that InnovateHER will identify some high potential solutions.”

A pair of SMU psychology professors working with University of Maryland engineers have been awarded a National Institutes of Health grant in October that will bring nearly $2 million to their joint project to create a wearable device for pediatric asthma patients that helps them avoid asthma triggers.

The asthma device will monitor air quality (including pollen levels and temperature), carbon dioxide levels in the blood, physical activity, breathing, emotional states and other stimuli to identify each patient's individual asthma triggers and alert them when conditions are ripe for an attack. The concept is similar to the glucose monitor that alerts diabetes patients when their blood sugar is low, but it also includes much more complex monitoring of the patients' environment.

Neurology research is one of those rare topics that immediately fascinates people outside the field. Any technology that makes healing brain ailments easier is a relief for people of all ages who fear what the future might bring for their health. But it’s also fascinating to see what new developments could do not just to protect our brains, but also augment them.

The new Tel Aviv accelerator Brainnovations will foster the very companies that will lead that development. It’s the brainchild of Israel Brain Technologies (IBT), a local non-profit that former President Shimon Peres launched in 2011. IBT is dedicated to “making Israel a leader in the international market” for braintech and has hosted two conferences and several industry meetups since 2013. But those events were only the beginning, according to Dr. Yael Fuchs Shlomai, Program Manager at Brainnovations.

GlaxoSmithKline could file up to 20 new drugs for regulatory approval before 2020 as it seeks to revitalize a portfolio hit by falling sales of best-selling inhaled lung treatment Advair, the company said on Tuesday.

Seven of them may reach the market before the end of decade, it added.

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) announced today that six new Maryland companies received funding from its Cybersecurity Investment Fund (CIF). Jedvice, Point 3 Security, Topaz Research, Efflux Systems, Bricata and QI Solutions were each awarded $100,000 through CIF. The Fund supports Maryland companies looking to develop and commercialize new cybersecurity products or services by providing investments of up to $225,000.

“As the State’s first dedicated cybersecurity fund, we have seen an increase in momentum around Maryland’s information security ecosystem,” said Rob Rosenbaum, president and executive director of TEDCO.  “CIF’s goal is to support innovative cybersecurity companies and accelerate their product development to help them get to commercial launch faster. With our funding and support, we are confident these six startups will successfully grow and create more jobs in Maryland. ”

PITCH. NETWORK. LEARN. BE INSPIRED.

The 2015 Entrepreneur Expo will be held on Tuesday, November 17th at the BWI Marriott in Linthicum, MD. This 5th Annual event is hosted by TEDCO and is the only large-scale event dedicated to promoting the key to Maryland's innovation economy, its entrepreneurs. The 2015 Entrepreneur Expo is expected to draw the region’s top entrepreneurs, business owners, investors, legislators and researchers. This year’s keynote speakers are Rent the Runway Co-Founder Jennifer Fleiss and Maryland-born NASA Astronaut & USAF Col Terry Virts. www.innovatemd.com.

The Baltimore Angels recently surpassed $5 million in overall investment, according to numbers released by the six-year-old early-stage investment group

The milestone comes as members of the group invested $4 million in startups over the last two and a half years. Since 2012, investor membership has grown from 30 to 50 members. The group meets once a month to hear pitches. Companies are usually after the “friends and family” round, and pre-seed stage.

The SEC has finally released rules for Title III of the JOBS Act, the equity crowdfunding law. Nearly three years and seven months after the potentially game-changing bill was first signed into law, equity crowdfunding will be available to startups and small companies in 180 days. Yes, we get to wait another half a year before anyone can actually use equity crowdfunding, but at least now we know it will happen.

For those who have run out of Ambien, the hundreds of pages of new rules will provide a welcome sleep aid. But for professionals who plan to use these rules to help companies raise new capital, it is required reading. Bring on the Red Bull.

BioHealth Innovation in partnership with ProductSavvy, Montgomery County Economic Development and Rockville Economic Development Inc. (REDI), recently launched the region's newest startup accelerator, called Relevant Health.

Now, armed with a fat rolodex of premium contacts—spanning all four organizations—complete with leaders from the regulatory, health, venture capital, government contractor and medical research communities, Relevant Health aims to "build the health tech capital."

The freshly launched Rockville, Md.-based accelerator will focus on fostering the development of health-tech startups, many of whom do not need to navigate the usually complicated and stringent regulatory standards that, for example, biotech firms must meet.

Former National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander’s startup IronNet Cybersecurity has raised $32.5 million.

The Series A round was led by Trident Capital Cybersecurity, along with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Fulton-based IronNet will use the money to continue development of the company’s private sector cyber defense technology.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted for new rules Friday that allow individuals at all levels to invest in startups — and that could give Washington-area startups a boost.

The rule, expected to take effect Jan. 29, 2016, allows companies to raise up to $1 million in a 12-month period through a crowdfunding campaign. In the past, only individual investors with higher net worth were able to obtain accreditation from the SEC. Now anyone can choose to invest.

By next summer, startups and small businesses will be able to raise up to $1 million in capital a year by using Internet portals to sell shares to anyone, not just accredited investors.

That’s because the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday finally adopted rules for securities-based crowdfunding. The rules implement a provision of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, which was signed into law more than three years ago.

Efforts to fight antibiotic-resistant infections — often dubbed superbugs — typically involve strategies of curbing overuse of the antibiotics we already have or finding alternatives.

But what if those pesky superbug infections could simply be prevented in the first place? It's the strategy Gaithersburg-based MedImmune is taking with two of its vaccine candidates aimed at bacterial infections.

Tuesday November 3, 2 pm ET

Congratulations - you just got a Notice of Award for an NIH SBIR/STTR grant - now what? How do you actually use those funds? This educational webinar about the Payment Management System will help you figure that out, with plenty of time for Q&A. This is highly recommended for new awardees.

Learn more about the Payment Management System: http://bit.ly/HHSpms

Presenter: Nicole Dunning Chief, University and Non-Profit Payment Section Payment Management Services Program Support Center U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

GlycoMimetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLYC) announced today that the first healthy participant has been dosed with a subcutaneous (SC) formulation of rivipansel in a Phase 1, single ascending-dose clinical study to evaluate its safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics. Rivipansel (GMI-1070) is an investigational compound being studied as a potential therapy for the treatment of vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC) in sickle cell disease and is being developed by Pfizer Inc. under a worldwide licensing agreement the two companies entered into in 2011.

The SC formulation of rivipansel utilizes Enhanze™ Technology, licensed by Pfizer from Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. This technology is based on a proprietary recombinant human hyaluronidase enzyme (rHuPH20) that temporarily modifies components of the extracellular matrix in order to aid in the dispersion and absorption of other SC injected therapeutic drugs.

Maybe healthcare is thinking about data from wearable devices in all the wrong ways.

Speaking Thursday at the 12th annual Connected Health Symposium in Boston, Dr. Robert Pearl, CEO of Kaiser Permanente‘s Permanente Medical Group, said that, from a physician’s perspective, Fitbits and other fitness trackers are good for one thing: “December.” In other words, they make great Christmas gifts, but don’t serve much purpose in medical practice.

Relevant Health, a health tech accelerator in Rockvillle, Maryland, has picked seven companies for its inaugural class. Among the participants in the five-month program are a wearables developer seeking to help people avoid injuries from heavy lifting and a speech therapy tool to make learning seem more like a game.

The accelerator got started this year through a partnership between BioHealth Innovation, Montgomery County’s Economic Development department and Product Savvy, which is managing day-to-day operations. Here’s a summary of the members.

The booming biotech sector is putting a premium on lab space, and fund managers are buying in.

One of their favorite targets is Pasadena, California-based Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc, which owns the largest collection of high-end lab space in such research clusters as San Diego, San Francisco and Cambridge, Massachusetts. A total of 64 mutual funds and hedge funds have reported adding shares of the company to their portfolios in the current quarter, a 56 percent jump from the quarter ending in September, according to Morningstar data.

Rockville-based health-tech incubator Relevant Health is out with its first seven companies that will begin co-working in the facility over the next five months.

“We didn’t want to just attract the best and brightest from around the region, we wanted the best and brightest from around the United States and elsewhere,” managing partner Rich Bendis told The Washington Post. “We have resources and assets that are one of a kind in our backyard that really aren’t present elsewhere.”

ATCC, the premier global biological materials resource and standards organization, announces today that it has been selected by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) to provide vital cell lines to academic, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology organizations committed to speed a cure for Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson's disease is a chronic, degenerative neurological disorder that affects one in 100 people over age 60. While the average age at onset is 60, people have been diagnosed as young as 18. Recent research indicates that at least 1 million people in the United States, and more than 5 million worldwide, have Parkinson's disease.

MacroGenics said today it has regained full global rights to the Phase I cancer compound enoblituzumab (MGA271), after Servier opted not to exercise its option to develop and commercialize the B7-H3-targeting monoclonal antibody in Europe and other countries under a four-year-old collaboration.

That collaboration generated a $20 million upfront payment from Servier and could have resulted in up to $450 million for MacroGenics.

Personal Genome Diagnostics, a Baltimore company that analyzes cancer patients' genes to improve treatment and diagnosis, has received a $21.4 million venture capital investment led by New Enterprise Associates.

The company plans to use the money to sell more of its technology to sequence and analyze genes in biopsy samples.

When the demand for hospital beds exceeds the supply, doctors might have to turn patients away. But a computer model developed by University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University researchers might help doctors better determine how many patients will be discharged and how many beds will be available on any given day.

“Hospitals tend to be highly utilized,” said Sean Barnes, an operations management professor involved with the model, “which means it can be hard to bring in new patients.”

Relevant Health, a health-tech accelerator based in Rockville, announced and welcomed its inaugural cohort Tuesday.

The seven selected startups will begin their five-month program this week. According to the press release, the program will involve “intensive product development focus,” with the aim of “enabling [the startups] to improve their skills to define, develop, position and launch a viable health tech product.”

Are you planning your career path or currently transitioning between careers? If you attended last January’s webinar on “Career Development,” and would like to have in-person insights from career coaches and recruiters perspective, join us at the Montgomery College (Germantown Campus) where we will host:

• Rosemary Sisco, Principal Recruiter at Kelly Government Solutions
• Ashley Bowman Clouser, Executive Recruiter at Search Solution Group
• Cecilia Matthews, Director of Human Resources at MedImmune

These professionals will provide career advice on such skills as elevator pitches and making successful presentations. They will also present tips, methods, and resources for conducting a job search.

Recently, at the annual Dreamforce Conference in San Francisco, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella declared a new era in computing defined by wearable devices. “People keep asking the question what’s next after the smartphone? There are early signs of it, things you wear on your wrists, in your ear and on your eyes,” he said. 

ClearPath Development Company (ClearPath) announced today the launch of its second vaccine company, NVC (Nosocomial Vaccine Corporation), with the support of its partner, Astellas Pharma Inc.  The partnership between ClearPath and Astellas was established to support the goal of building a global vaccine franchise and launched its first company, RSV Corporation (RSVC), in December 2013.  NVC has initiated research collaborations with two partners to develop a nosocomial vaccine; Affinivax Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.); and the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (Baltimore).  The research collaboration will utilize Affinivax's proprietary vaccine platform, Multiple Antigen Presentation System (MAPS), to develop vaccines that prevent bacterial nosocomial infections, also referred to as healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).

Mid-Atlantic Bio Angels (MABA) announces today that Sisu Global Health (http://www.sisuglobalhealth.com) was voted as "Best in Show" at MABA's 1st Pitch Life Science event, which took place at the Cira Center on September 30, 2015. Sisu is a medical device developer with a pipeline of products designed to address challenges unique to emerging markets. Hemafuse, the Company's first product, is an alternative to donor blood and could benefit 20 million cases in Africa ($600 million) each year.

According to Carolyn Yarina, CEO of Sisu, Healthcare systems in emerging markets struggle because 80% of medical technology is designed for 10% of the world's population. Our products solve that problem by commercializing surgical devices that can effectively lower costs and can be used in countries where both urban and rural medicine must be supported by effective design, logistics and available medical infrastructure.

D.C. tech accelerator 1776’s new Crystal City location is designed to be a mixture of old and new — everything from the reclaimed wooden furniture and reused light fixtures to the brand new industrial kitchen and tech-heavy collaboration spaces.

Even the 27,000-square-foot space was recycled, thanks to 1776’s acquisition of the Disruption Corp. incubator, but the space has since undergone significant renovations. Co-founder Donna Harris took me on a tour of the new spot, which she said has been reimagined and rebuilt since June to foster a sense of community among 1776’s nearly 300 members in the D.C. area.

Global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) today announced the promotion of Sara Nayeem, M.D., to Partner. Dr. Nayeem joined NEA's healthcare team in 2009 and is focused on investments in biopharma.

"This promotion recognizes Sara's acumen as an investor and her deep commitment to the entrepreneurs and founders with whom she partners," said David Mott, General Partner and head of NEA's healthcare investing practice. "We are pleased to acknowledge her many contributions to NEA's biopharma practice and to our firm, and look forward to her continued success in this new role."  

Personal Genome Diagnostics, Inc. (PGDx), a provider of advanced cancer genome testing products and services, today announced that it has raised $21.4 million in a Series A funding round led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA).  Other new and existing investors, including Windham Venture Partners and Nanjing Kaiyuan Growth Capital Investments, also participated in the financing.

PGDx was founded in 2010 by cancer researchers from Johns Hopkins University (JHU), who are pioneers in cancer genome sequencing and liquid biopsy technologies.  Under the leadership of co-founders and JHU researchers Luis A. Diaz, MD, and Victor Velculescu, MD, PhD, the company has achieved consistent growth by successfully commercializing novel clinical and investigational products and services for researchers, drug developers, physicians and patients. PGDx's service offerings for researchers are complemented by the clinical services it provides through its CLIA-certified laboratory. 

University of Maryland (UM) Ventures and Glycocept, Inc. announced today that the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) has granted Glycocept worldwide, exclusive licensing rights to a UMB patent and technology to modify monoclonal antibodies to alter their effector functions. Eric J. Sundberg, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), and Co-Director, Division of Basic Science, Institute of Human Virology (IHV), and Beatriz Trastoy, Ph.D., post-doctoral fellow at Dr. Sundberg’s laboratory at the IHV/UMSOM are the patent inventors. Biopharmaceutical industry veteran Ronald P. Dudek, who most recently served as Vice President of Commercial Strategy at Juno Therapeutics, Inc., is Glycocept’s President and Chief Executive Officer.