MedImmune has joined the NIH’s Centers for Accelerated Innovations (NCAI) program as its first biopharma corporate partner.
The global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca said it will team up with NCAI awardees and help shape the program’s strategic direction. MedImmune said it may also review prospective NCAI technologies in collaboration with the awardees, and provide feedback regarding their commercial potential and early-stage development.
BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a public-private partnership and innovation intermediary is seeking an energetic and motivated life science professional for the role of an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) with product development experience and subject matter expertise in the fields of neurology and neuroscience. The EIR will reside within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and will also support intramural and extramural initiatives on an as needed basis.
The EIR program was established at BioHealth Innovation to:
- Retain and bring entrepreneurial talent to the Maryland ecosystem
- Connect resources including institutions, technology assets, people and capital within Maryland that include federal institutions, labs, academic institutions, small businesses, disease foundations and the investor community
- Build/support sustainable life science startups that will add value within the healthcare system and also build upon the existing infrastructure
The EIR will work with BHI leadership to ensure that the activities and outcomes are aligned with BHIs strategic focus.
A coalition of 13 leading life science and diagnostics organizations today announced the formation of the Allele Frequency Community, a landmark initiative that is creating an extensive, high-quality and ethnically diverse collection of human genomes to address a key challenge in interpreting sequencing data for research and clinical applications. The announcement coincides with the start of the 16th annual Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) scientific meeting in Marco Island, Florida.
Five Maryland life science companies and a medical institution will share a total of $865,000 in grants from the BioMaryland Center. The awards — up to $200,000 per recipient — are part of the center's Biotechnology Development Awards program, which is designed to help accelerate commercialization of medical treatments and technologies.
Smart Asset names Rockville and Bethesda as having the best paying STEM jobs in the nation
Looking for a job in STEM-related fields (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics)? Look no further than Montgomery County.
A recent report by Smart Asset (smartasset.com) lists Rockville and Bethesda as the top spots in the nation for well-paying STEM jobs. The area (which included Frederick, MD) beat out Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Boston and New York in offering the most financially rewarding opportunities.
The Cambridge Biomedical Campus will become a new UK home for biologics research and protein engineering next year, as pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca opens its new headquarters.
Baltimore health technology startup Protenus Inc. hopes a partnership with health care consulting firm Sage Growth Partners will speed up the company's development and lead to top-notch clients for the fledgling company.
Protenus is developing a cyber security tool that helps hospitals protect patient information by identifying and thwarting insider threats to hospitals' electronic medical records. Since launching in 2014 the company has been focused on fine tuning its technology, which is already in use at Johns Hopkins Hospital. As part of Sage's venture management program, Sage will help Protenus strengthen the business strategy side of the company. Protenus will be based at Sage's office at the Broom Factory in Canton.
It's a Rubik's Cube.
That's what New Enterprise Associates general partner Harry Weller told me about the monster venture capital firm's philosophy regarding the management of its giant funds. The firm has raised more than $13 billion across 14 funds since its inception in 1977, the last three of which have been between $2.3 billion and $2.6 billion.
Funding and Research Opportunities
The following funding opportunity announcements from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest:
Notices:
- Reinforcing Service to the Biomedical Research Community
- Notice of Extension of the Public Comment Period for NOT-OD-15-019 "NIH Request for Public Comments on the Draft NIH Policy on Dissemination of NIH-Funded Clinical Trial Information”
- Announcement of Anticipated Availability of Funds for Research and Research Conferences on Research Integrity
- The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is now the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative HealthNotice of Availability of Administrative Supplements to Extend the Scope and Reach of LINCS Datasets
Please note that most links to RFAs, PAs, and Guide Notices will take you to the NIH Web site. RFPs will take you to FedBizOpps. Links to RFPs will not work past their proposal receipt date. Archived versions of RFPs posted on FedBizOpps can be found on the FedBizOpps site using the FedBizOpps search function. Under “Document to Search,” select Archived Documents.
U.S. Small Business Administration leader Maria Contreras-Sweet drew parallels Friday between Baltimore and the rust-belt city of Detroit — but she actually meant it in a positive way.
Contreras-Sweet, the SBA's administrator, was in Baltimore and took questions about the administration's work in the city and its overall direction. Baltimore has many highly skilled workers who can pivot to new startup businesses, much like Detroit has automobile-industry employees who can put their expertise to work elsewhere, she said.
Paul Palmieri thinks Maryland's entrepreneurs and innovators need a boost — especially after supporters of a state angel investor tax credit turned out in force to a Senate hearing Wednesday and faced some tough questions.
"We need to, as much as possible, support new entrepreneurs," said Palmieri, the founder and former CEO of Millennial Media who's now venture adviser at Chevy Chase-based New Enterprise Associates Inc. and an angel investor.
California-based companies received about 56 percent of all U.S. venture capital dollars in 2014, the state's highest share of venture activity since the dot com boom of the early 2000s. Over the past 15 years, investment activity has steadily become more concentrated in California and a few other states. In 2009, about 67 percent of all deals and 74 percent of venture capital dollars flowed to the top five states. By 2014, those states' share of venture dollars grew to 80 percent, according to NVCA/Pricewaterhouse Coopers data. A recent Harvard Business Review article, however, suggests that startups are receiving first-round funding in more metropolitan areas than ever.
Vaccination may be the most effective public health intervention of all time. This is especially true in developing countries, where many families can’t find or afford health care when they get sick. The prevention offered by vaccines can be life-saving.
Venture capital investment in U.S. life sciences companies soared 29 percent in 2014 from the year before, reaching $8.6 billion, the highest level since 2007. And there is reason to think 2015 will also be a big year for a sector having its third boom of the last two decades.
Did you see the recent news that the FDA has approved the first direct-to-consumer genetic test in the U.S.? Can you say game-changer? Talk about personalized medicine, what’s more personal than our own genetic blueprint? In a health care era defined by patients taking more personal responsibility for their own health and well being, including the costs, it’s about time that we enabled consumers directly with access to their own health care data and the tools to interpret and act on it. Access to our own genetic data gives new meaning to the buzzword, patient-centered care.
The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) will be hosting its 2015 national meeting in Denver, Colorado, from April 28 – 30 at the Embassy Suites Denver – Downtown/Convention Center. Each year, the national meeting is highly anticipated by the FLC and the technology transfer (T2) community, serving as the premier event for advancing T2 strategies and providing important connections.
There’s a hushed quiet in the waiting room at a midtown Manhattan fertilization clinic called Reproductive Medical Associates as a dozen women flip through magazines, the glossies a welcome distraction from their scheduled treatments and consultations. But just down the hall, in a window-rimmed corner office with views of Central Park, conversation ping-pongs back and forth as Piraye Yurttas Beim, a scientist and entrepreneur, updates the clinic's co-director on her startup's progress.
Noah is a six-year-old suffering from a disorder without a name. This year, his physicians will begin sending his genetic information across the Internet to see if there’s anyone, anywhere, in the world like him.
Springboard’s Health Innovation Hub is a collaboration platform advancing the growth of digital health and life science companies led by women with significant potential for investment and partnerships.
About the Program
We seek women-led companies with a track record of milestone achievement. We are location- and stage-agnostic but seek solutions within several themes:
There’s been a flurry of news related to telemedicine this week, with several notable developments in Mississippi and Silicon Valley.
One of the more interesting aspects of telemedicine is that much of the innovation and focus of late has come from startups and vendors, while health systems have shown a bit of reluctance to deploy it on their own.
As the landscape of the biopharmaceutical industry expands into growing regions, an exciting transformation is beginning to transfer commercialization “recipes” to emerging markets. All eyes are on small, specialty, and midsize players emerging at the forefront of innovation in the mature regions of Europe and the United States.
At the global level, the BRICK countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Korea are aggressively investing in R&D, facilities, and scientist training, and vying for bigger roles not only as markets for medicines, but also as rich breeding grounds for R&D and manufacturing.
Everything about China is big, including its cancer problem. In some wealthier cities, like Beijing, cancer is now believed to be the most frequent killer. Air pollution, high rates of smoking, and notorious “cancer villages” scarred by industrial pollution are increasing death rates around the country. Liver cancer in particular is four times as prevalent as it is in the West, in part because one in 14 people in China carry hepatitis B, which puts them at risk. Of all the people worldwide who die of cancer each year, some 27 percent are Chinese.
