Officials from local and state government as well as business and education attended a virtual ribbon cutting on Wednesday to celebrate the opening of the new $71 million Center for Communications and Information Technology at Maryland's Frostburg State University.

“This is one of the most technologically advanced learning centers in the United States. Every inch of this building fosters learning,” said Jonathan Gibralter, FSU president.

Medimmune, the global biologics research and development arm of Anglo-Swedish drug major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN), has entered into a collaboration to establish a joint lab in Cambridge, UK, with Cancer Research Technology, the commercial arm of Cancer Research UK.

The new laboratory will be the first partnership of its kind of both organizations, and will focus on the discovery and development of biologic cancer treatments over an initial five-year period.

American University’s Kogod School of Business on Friday plans to show off its new on-campus start-up incubator, the latest in a string of co-working spaces to pop up in and around the nation’s capital.

The incubator, one of the key components of the school’s recently announced Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation Initiative, aims to provide current students and recent graduates with work space and pair them with a business mentor to help get their fledgling ventures off the ground. In addition, each business team will received a $1,500 grant to cover some initial start-up costs, such as the legal work necessary to incorporate a company.

Ever since D-Wave Systems unveiled what it called the world’s first quantum computer in 2007, the small Canadian company has attracted controversy.

Computers capable of exploiting quantum physics for computation on a large scale promise to solve in mere seconds problems that would take conventional machines millions of years. But whether D-Wave’s machine uses quantum tricks to process data more efficiently is still an open question. Nonetheless, the company has attracted significant investment funding, and it has struck deals to supply its hardware to companies including Google and Lockheed Martin for research (see “The CIA and Jeff Bezos Bet on Quantum Computing”).

The National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will receive a top national award for the year’s most outstanding intellectual property licensing deal, for technology transfer of a pioneering, low-cost meningitis vaccine launched in sub-Saharan Africa. The 2014 Deals of Distinction Award will be presented to the two federal agencies and their collaborators by the Licensing Executives Society at the society’s 50th annual meeting, Oct. 5-8 in San Francisco.

Recognizing the continuing evolution of New Jersey’s life sciences industry, BioNJ today released a comprehensive report that documents the ongoing growth of the biotechnology sector in the State and combines and assesses the contributions of the entirety of the life sciences sector to New Jersey’s economy, including employment and economic impact.

BioNJ conducted the study in partnership with EY (formerly known as Ernst & Young) the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy (Bloustein School) and the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s (LWD) Office of Research and Information. To access the study go to: http://www.bionj.org/wp- content/uploads/2014/09/Industry-Study-9-19-14-Final-Final.pdf.

More than 300 entrepreneurs are expected to vie for between 150 and 175 spots on the Startup Maryland bus to film a pitch video of their idea.

Now in its third year, the Startup Maryland’s Pitch Across Maryland tour will make 27 stops where entrepreneurs can film a short pitch video about their business. A panel of judges selects eight finalists, of which a winner and runner up are entered into a finalist round of the state’s InvestMaryland Challenge business competition.

The ever-shrinking number of biotech venture capital firms was a common refrain during the 2008-2012 period; it’s true that a large number of firms went under, closed their doors for new investments, or moved into zombie status. I wrote on the subject back in July 2012 (here). The biotech investing environment then, with a relatively bleak IPO landscape and venture funding off some 40% from the prior year, was very different from the past two years with an “open” IPO window and steady pace of venture funding.

Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe first began working with computers in the 1980s, just as personal computers were entering homes. “I always said that it was the most exciting, amazing time,” he says. “We had no idea that in some number of years, a personal computer would within two physical taps, revolutionize, say, the entire taxi service industry.”

He has since revised his definition of the most exciting time to be in computer science to “now.”

The 2014 NIH Research Festival, the annual showcase of the NIH Intramural Research Program, will be held Sept. 22-24. This year's theme is "The Era of the Brain." The festival kicks off with an opening plenary session at 10 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 22 in Masur Auditorium, Bldg. 10. The plenary session will include remarks by NIH director Dr. Francis Collins, followed by the FARE awards ceremony and scientific talks by Drs. Antonello Bonci (NIDA) and Mark Hallett (NINDS).

Tasly Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a global leader in pharmaceuticals, biologics, and nutraceuticals, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on September 3, 2014, at Tasly's corporate offices in Rockville, MD.

The ceremony marked the official launch of Tasly's Rockville location as the North American headquarters of Tasly Holding Group, a twenty year old global technology company established in China.

More than 100 distinguished guests and dignitaries were in attendance, including the Chairman and the President of Tasly Holding Group, China's Embassy Counselor, Maryland state officials, Maryland biotechnology and pharmaceutical executives, and high-level regional media representatives, among others.

FasterCures, part of the Milken Institute dedicated to improving drug development by encouraging greater patient involvement is searching for digital health entrepreneurs to pitch at its upcoming conference, Partnering for Cures. The group is looking for collaboration opportunities between biotech and digital health, partly to find more effective ways to improve clinical trial recruitment.

Entrepreneurs for Cures  will spotlight entrepreneurs who are developing digital and mobile health technology that boost patient participation in biomedical research and development and those looking for partnerships with patient communities to demonstrate their product’s capabilities. It’s particularly interested in companies pursuing solutions geared to chronic conditions,  acute and infectious diseases, mental illness, genetic conditions.

OpGen, Inc., a whole-genome analysis company developing and commercializing a complete suite of break-through products and services based on its proprietary Whole Genome Mapping technology, announced today the appointment of Vadim Sapiro as chief information officer. In addition, the company announced the promotion and appointments of several key members of the executive committee. The organizational changes have been made to strengthen the management team and accelerate OpGen’s development and commercialization strategy. The company’s products enable rapid, accurate, high resolution whole genome analysis of microbes as well as more cost effective and accurate sequence assembly and finishing of human, animal, plant and microbial genomes.

An entrepreneurial and innovative spirit filled the conference room Tuesday, Sept. 16, at the Talbot County Free Library in Easton.

As part of Innovation Week, the third annual Startup Maryland Pitch Bus tour made a stop at the library. Business representatives from the additive manufacturing industry, commonly known as 3-D printing, also had 3-D printers and products on display.

The pitch bus offered an opportunity for area entrepreneurs to make a video for public viewing on YouTube to compete for venture investment.

AS a former physician, I shivered a bit when I heard Dr. Vivek Wadhwa say he would rather have an artificial-intelligence doctor than a human one. “I would trust an A.I. over a doctor any day,” he proclaimed at a recent health innovation conference in San Francisco, noting that artificial intelligence provided “perfect knowledge.” When asked to vote, probably a third of those in attendance agreed.

But it made sense: Dr. Wadhwa is a professor, entrepreneur and technology visionary. What’s more, the conference took place in San Francisco, where faith in the power of technology and data to solve problems holds unshakable sway.

A competition by Washington, D.C.-based incubator 1776 in a global search for the finest startup has set down the groundwork for its annual Challenge Cup in search of technology and healthcare startups. It is working with incubators in 16 cities around the world to identify early-stage companies across education, energy health and environment in a new twist to the competition called ChallengeX.

It begins in Washington, D.C. on October 21 and in Chicago on October 28, according to a company statement. In addition to those cities, it is working with incubators in Sydney, New York City, Tel Aviv, Amman, Santiago, Nairobi, Mumbai, Austin, Toronto, Boston, Berlin, Dublin, San Francisco and China. Each city will have four winners in each of the categories and advance to a week long festival in May when entrepreneurs for these companies have a chance to pitch investors, receive mentoring and meet policymakers. The intention of the Challenge Cup is to search for meaningful technology that’s also scalable.

Earlier this year, both Apple and Google presented competing visions for how we'll use apps and wearables to gather data about our bodies and share it via our phones. Apple called its software HealthKit, while Google presented Google Fit.

If things had gone according to plan on Wednesday, Apple would be enjoying a head start over Google, with HealthKit released along with iOS 8, its new mobile software for iPhones and iPads. (Google Fit is still unreleased beyond a "developer preview.") 

The 2014 Innovation2Commercialization Conference will be held on October 23rd at the Universities at Shady Grove in Rockville. This is our third year and we would like to ask you participate again to support and encourage the innovators, scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs in our area.

The conference will be held from 7:30am-3:30pm, with three panels: Innovation, Commercialization and Financing, and a special Keynote Speaker – Rachel King, CEO, GlycoMimetics. The program will spotlight serial entrepreneurs and successful tech transfer to product from the Naval Research Laboratory and The Johns Hopkins University – including a full panel discussion on the successful development to exit for Amplimmune.

As Partners in the past, we hope you found participation in the I2C Conference productive and plan to join us again this year.

DC I-Corps, a new, NSF-supported program designed to foster, grow and nurture an innovation ecosystem in the Mid-Atlantic Region, is now accepting applications for its fall cohort, beginning on October 9. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis up until that date. Apply here.

Open to research teams and technology entrepreneurs from universities, federal laboratories, agencies and the general community, the free program guides researchers in exploring the commercial potential of their inventions.

Since its passage more than two years ago, the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, which was designed to decrease regulatory burdens for raising capital, has spurred more than 110 IPOs among biotechnology companies alone. These are companies working to find cures for cancer, cardiovascular disease, blood disorders, and infectious diseases, among other conditions. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is now in the process of finalizing another important provision of the law that could further encourage biotech capital formation and investment.

Some of the trends in American health care are obvious: Managing costs in the age of Obamacare, patients using online information to take charge of their own health and wellness, and finding ways to deliver care in settings other than hospitals and clinics. 

Those trends become specific, sometimes knotty, challenges for people engaged in building the tools needed to effectively, efficiently and safely deliver health care.

Envisioning, designing and manufacturing medical devices – which range from robots to sensors, and from surgical instruments to software that allows devices to communicate with one another – was the topic of a conference Thursday and Friday in Chicago. 

This editor attended TEDMED 2014 in DC and had a chance to speak with some of the innovative start ups in the Hive, a showcase of new medical technologies.

BeneVir has developed an impressive immunotherapy for cancer that has the potential to become a lasting, durable cure to the disease. While other existing immunotherapy treatments exist, these solutions only help the immune system scour the body for known cancer cells afflicting a patient. These solutions fail to educate the immune system on how to predict, recognize, and kill cancer mutations that avoid the immune system and lead to a recurrence of the disease. BeneVir’s solution uses a natural human virus whose genes have been altered to allow the virus to target both the original cancer cells and their mutations. Prior to becoming a company, BeneVir’s founders originally developed their immunotherapy concept and licensed the solution to T-Vec, which was acquired by Amgen for $1B in 2011. This original concept recently completed a Phase 3 clinical trial showing a 16% durable cure for melanoma. With this success, BeneVir was formed to expand on the original innovation with what the founder calls version 2.0 plus. With deep technical knowledge, BeneVir is refining their original immunotherapy solution to become an even more potent cancer therapy.

Dutch venture capitalist Aglaia has announced the launch of Aglaia Oncology Fund II. Investors contribute a total of $65 million to the fund, whose target size is $80 to $100 million. Like its predecessor Aglaia Oncology Fund I, the fund is backed by high-net-worth families. The group of investors has now been expanded to include several institutional investors, including the European Investment Fund (EIF), which has made a substantial commitment. Aglaia is also one of the funds selected under the Dutch Venture Initiative, an investment fund recently launched by the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Through the new fund, Aglaia will be investing in an estimated ten to fifteen biotechnology start-ups which are in the process of developing groundbreaking technologies aimed at preventing and curing cancer.

AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly and Company have reached an agreement for the development and commercialization of the oral beta secretes cleaving enzyme (BACE) inhibitor, AZD3293, which might become a viable treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. The oral therapy is expected to prevent the formation of amyloid plaque, which is comprised of peptides called amyloid beta, and slow the disease progression.

The agreement established stipulates that AstraZeneca will pay up to $500 million in development and regulatory milestone payments. Lilly announced that it is planning on receiving the first milestone payment of $50 million in the first half of 2015. Future costs will be equally shared by both companies, including net global revenues post-launch.

The intersection of health and big data is getting more crowded. San Mateo, Calif.-based Lumiata is the latest company to get venture backing for technology that crunches data with the aim of improving medical care, Yuliya Chernova reports for Dow Jones VentureWire.

The company has already run an analysis of some 100,000 BlueCross BlueShield patients that found about 10,000 people who were very likely to have congestive heart failure, even though they were undiagnosed. Now the insurance provider, which is also an investor in the company, is alerting doctors who have those patients about this potential missed diagnosis.

Washington state’s Providence Health & Services today said it is launching a $150 million venture capital fund to help spur innovation across the healthcare system that lowers costs and leads to better outcomes.

Coincidentally, it’s the second VC fund announced in as many days on the West Coast, following yesterday’s announcement from the University of California.

On September 16, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences released a report entitled Restoring the Foundation: The Vital Role of Research in Preserving the American Dream. The report addresses the link between scientific research and advancing innovation and prosperity, and contains recommendations for strengthening its role to address challenges in the 21st Century. The recommendations fall under three overarching objectives: securing America's leadership in science and engineering research; ensuring that the American people receive the maximum benefit from federal investments in research; and regaining America's standing as an innovation leader by establishing a more robust national government-university-industry research partnership.

Accepting Applications for InvestMaryland Challenge!

Could $100,000 help jumpstart your startup? Well, Maryland’s national business competition is back for the third year!

Since 2013, InvestMaryland Challenge has awarded nearly $1.5M in prizes to innovative startup companies. Prizes have included cash grants, incubator space, marketing and legal services, and opportunities to pitch investors.

Start an application today and your business could be on its way to accepting the $100,000 Grand Prize!

AstraZeneca will jointly develop and commercialize its high-risk, Phase II/III-bound Alzheimer’s disease drug candidate AZD3293 with Eli Lilly, in a deal that could net AZ up to $500 million in development and regulatory milestone payments.

AZD3293 is an oral beta secretase cleaving enzyme (BACE) inhibitor designed to prevent the formation of amyloid plaque and eventually slow the progression of Alzheimer’s. The company cites Phase I studies that showed AZD3293 significantly and dose-dependently reduced levels of amyloid beta in the cerebro-spinal fluid of Alzheimer’s patients and healthy volunteers.

The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and other research institutions closer to Greater Washington have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the ALS Association in the past few years.

Early indications are that some are likely to see even more in the future as contributions to the viral "Ice Bucket Challenge" have surpassed $113 million.

As of 2014, Deloitte is the largest professional services firm in the world by revenue. What began in the 19th century as stand-alone accounting offices has merged and evolved into a partnership that encompasses 200,000 employees in more than 150 countries around the globe.

But size alone doesn't make a company great, of course. Things like satisfying clients, increasing opportunities for personnel, and performing a vital function for society make a company great. When employees, customers, investors, and the community benefit from a company's services, that's what makes it stand out from the rest.

Please plan to attend and also help spread the word about some exciting technology transfer programs planned for the NIH Research Festival next week:

Monday, September 22nd from 12-2pm

“Careers for scientists in technology transfer & business development” Poster Session I Building 10 – FAES Academic Center Presenter: Steve Ferguson (NIH/OTT)

Monday, September 22nd from 12-2pm

“NIH and the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer” Poster Session I Building 10 – FAES Academic Center Presenters: Steve Ferguson (NIH/OTT) and Gary Jones (Federal Laboratory Consortium)

Monday, September 22nd from 2-4pm

“Commercial Development of my Research: Still More Personal Stories from former NIH Intramural Scientists” Concurrent Symposium Session I Building 10 – FAES Academic Center – Classroom 3

Co-chairs: Steve Ferguson (NIH/OTT) and Todd Chappell (BioHealth Innovation)

Medical investors once spent a disproportionate amount of their money on diseases affecting the brain, heart and skeleton. Now market pressures and technological advances are driving them to invest across the human body more broadly.

A VentureWire analysis of U.S. venture financings shows how investors have spread their dollars across a widening range of disease treatments in recent years. From 2002 to 2007 the body part that attracted the most capital–nearly always the heart–often represented 5% to 7% or more of the total venture capital deployed into all U.S. companies, according to data from Dow Jones VentureSource.

A new upcoming report from Thomson Reuters unit CMR International declares that several positive trends are buoying the pharmaceutical industry to an all-time high in sales, which are projected to hit $1 trillion this year.

The CMR Factbook 2014 stated that global pharmaceutical sales reached a record of an estimated $980 billion last year and is expected to climb to a trillion dollars in 2014. On the other hand, the growth rate declined last year compared to previous years due to the patent expiration of several blockbuster drugs. The decline in growth was also attributed to cheaper generic drugs’ domination in the market.

Brendan Iribe dropped out of the University of Maryland here, but before he did he amassed 227 parking tickets. And he managed to meet two business partners who would help him build the virtual-reality company Oculus VR, which Facebook bought this year for about $2-billion.

One of those parking tickets remains unpaid, but the university is likely to forgive it after Friday, when he gave $31-million to erect a computer-science building. That makes Mr. Iribe, who is 35 years old, the institution’s most generous donor ever.