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What's next for Montgomery County? The potential for livable work, live and play environments on Metro abound. But what about the business community? What is it going to take to build an innovation economy? Is Montgomery County going to become the next tech hub?

Join us for a very special morning event featuring some of the brightest and most influential business and real estate leaders as they discuss some of the most dramatic decisions that this region will face in the upcoming year. Panelists include County Executive Isiah Leggett, Steve Silverman, and BHI's Rich Bendis. Sign up now to join leaders of the Maryland business region for an important morning of discussion and networking!

We are looking forward to this event, and hope you'll be able to attend. As a special offer to our friends and clients, we have partnered with Bisnow to provide you with a 20% discount. Enter discount code MCBEND at checkout.

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Top5 Speaker

Each year, Speakers Platform recognizes five speakers within ten popular topic areas. Excellence in speaking is based on: expertise, professionalism, client testimonials, presentation skills and original contribution to the field. The only substantive requirement is that the candidates' standard keynote presentation fee be under $30,000USD. Once the nominees are chosen, online voters determine the final Top5 honorees. Women secured more honoree slots this year than any year in the past - almost sweeping some categories such as "Communication / Diversity". Job well done!

Over 12,000 votes were received at Speaking.com for the initial 165 nominees- from business leaders, educators, association members and others from around the world. Many voters praised the nominees for having a profoundly positive impact on their lives; a living testament to the far reach and valuable work of all the nominees. Please join us in congratulating your 2014 honorees!

Richard Bendis was listed in the top 5 in the Innovation / Creativity category.  Thanks to all those who voted and helped spread the word!   —Ed.

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Defense and government contracting giant Northrop Grumman is making a bet on young start-ups by supporting a business accelerator for healthcare-related ventures.

The Falls Church-based company partnered with Johns Hopkins University, Rockville-based nonprofit BioHealth Innovation, which helps bioscience research projects in Maryland find funding, and Philadelphia venture capital firm DreamIt Ventures to start the new accelerator, to be based in Baltimore. DreamIt has operated similar programs for start-ups across other industries in several cities nationwide.

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From Sept. 15-25, Montgomery County executive Ike Leggett led a trip for four cities in China: Shanghai, Xi’an, Benxi, and the Gu’an County right outside of Beijing. The trip included over 80 business, education, and government leaders from Montgomery County and the DC metropolitan area including Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) superintendent Joshua Starr, county council member Hans Riemer, and Michael Goldman of the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA).

This marked the first trade trip to china in five years by the county Executive’s office – the last one was in 2008.

The purpose of this mission was to encourage Chinese investors to consider Montgomery County as an attractive location for their investments, open doors for MoCo businesses there, as well as establish a “Sister City” relationship with the city of Xi’an, said a press release put out by the Montgomery County Office of Public Information.

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SAVE THE DATE: DreamIt Health Baltimore 2014
Kickoff Weekend: January 17th and 18th, 2014
Baltimore, MD

DreamIt Health Baltimore - powered by The Johns Hopkins University, BioHealth Innovation, and Northrop Grumman - is ramping up for the Winter 2014 accelerator class in Baltimore, MD and we want to make sure the kickoff events are on your calendar. More information below.

DreamIt Health Baltimore Kickoff Reception: January 17, 2013
On the evening of Friday, January 17th, 2014 DreamIt Ventures and our partners are hosting a kickoff party to meet the DreamIt Health Baltimore 2014 companies and other members of the Baltimore entrepreneurial community. Location is TBD and the event will begin around 5:30/6:00pm eastern time. We will be sending formal invitations to the event in the near future but wanted to get this on your calendar now. Please ink us in!

The kickoff reception will include light snacks and beverages, in addition to networking and your first opportunity to meet the DreamIt Health Baltimore 2014 companies.

Sponsored by:

Kickoff Weekend Working Session: Saturday, January 18, 2014 - 9:00am - 5:00pm (INVITE ONLY)
We are in the process of identifying potential mentors for the companies as well as pairing them up with their law firm & accounting firm partners. Members of this community should please save the date for our working session that Saturday with the companies. We'll send out a detailed RSVP for the event soon.

If you have any questions about either of these events or the DreamIt Health Baltimore program please contact Dana Rygwelski (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

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Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has joined DreamIt Health Baltimore, a collaborative startup business accelerator program with the goal of identifying, validating and developing innovative solutions to healthcare challenges.

Northrop Grumman joins The Johns Hopkins University and BioHealth Innovation Inc. in the Baltimore-based accelerator, which was launched in September by DreamIt Ventures, a seed-stage accelerator based out of Philadelphia.

Startups selected for the four-month program receive $50,000 in seed funding; access to potential beta customers, pilot partners, data and systems; accounting and legal support; and expert guidance and mentoring from the accelerator and its partners.

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Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett returned recently from a 10-day, 4-city trip to China aimed at advancing Chinese jobs and investment in the County and opening doors for County businesses there, as well as establishing a “Sister City” relationship with the city of Xi’an, with eight million residents and home to the famous Terra Cotta Army.

Packed with visits to businesses and high-tech centers, educational institutions and hospitals, as well as government meetings, the delegation’s itinerary reflected the mission’s strong focus on education and business development. Multi-level partnerships were developed on education, healthcare, and business fronts.

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Our Entrepreneur-in-Residence Ram Aiyar participated in a tech transfer series featured on BioCentury This Week discussing the need for accelerated innovations and the current lack of commercialization focus on commercially relevant technologies. The program was divided into 3 parts, Stuck in the Lab, Fresh Approaches, and Validation and also featured Dr. Alicia Loeffler and Rosemarie Truman.

The three-part program can be watched by following the link below.

 

Stuck in the Lab
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Johns Hopkins University and BioHealth Innovation are partnering with Philadelphia-based DreamIt Ventures to bring a new health IT accelerator to Baltimore. The accelerator, called DreamIt Health Baltimore, is being supported by a portion of a $520,000 federal grant awarded to BioHealth Innovation and the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore.

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By Alissa Gulin, Daily Record Business Writer

A sizeable portion of a federal grant will go toward launching an intensive, 16-week accelerator program for health information technology entrepreneurs in Maryland.

Rich Bendis, president and CEO of BioHealth Innovation, said participants in the competitive program will come to Baltimore, meet with potential investors and partners and access the resources of Johns Hopkins Medicine, one of the partners in the accelerator. Officials will unveil more details of the program within a couple of weeks.

BioHealth Innovation, a Rockville-based group that acts as an intermediary between research institutions and the private sector, was one of two Maryland organizations that received a combined $520,000 grant, announced Wednesday, to help grow the state’s burgeoning biotechnology industry. The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore, an economic development group, was the other recipient.

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The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore has received a $520,000 federal grant to bolster the state's biotechnology industry.

The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore (EAGB) will work with BioHealth Innovation in Montgomery County to develop a “Healthcare Regional Innovation Cluster” with the grant. The grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration.

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), Chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced that the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore, Inc. and BioHealth Innovation, Inc. of Montgomery County have been awarded a combined $520,000 grant through the U.S. Department of Commerce's (DOC) Economic Development Administration (EDA). The federal funding will be used to establish the Healthcare Regional Innovation Cluster (H-RIC) initiative which will combine the strengths of Maryland's cutting-edge health research institutions and unique federal assets to speed the development of new treatments and cures, supporting Maryland jobs and keeping families healthy.

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This workshop on Oct 9th. had been cancelled due to the Government Shutdown and will be rescheduled at a later date.

With Fall approaching, everyone is preparing for their favorite things whether that's football season, pumpkin carving, or more reasonable temperatures in Central Maryland. Fall is also a great time for the Small Business Innovation Research grant program throughout National Institutes of Health. In partnership with the NIH, BioHealth Innovation is sponsoring a fall gathering to talk about SBIR awards.

It's useful to hear directly from NIH program officials on the current funding priorities per Institute. We have assembled program leads from NHLBI, NIAID, and NCI who can provide small businesses with more insight into their SBIR programs. They will also be available for one-on-one consultations at the conclusion of the event.

Event Details:
Wednesday, October 9th, 1:00pm – 4:00pm (EDT)
VisArts
155 Gibbs Street, 6th Floor
Rockville, MD 20850
(Overlooking Rockville Town Center)

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On Wednesday August 21st, 80+ people filled the BHI parking lot for an evening of networking, eating crabs, and enjoying a relaxed, stress-free atmosphere. Represented was a who's who of the Montgomery County biohealth community and the local county government.

Thank you to everyone who made it out and we hope to see you again next time!

Do you want to help change the face of the Maryland Biohealth Community? Are you an experienced entrepreneur itching to work with disruptive technologies and innovative individuals to push them towards being the next big startup?

BioHealth Innovation, Maryland's youngest innovation intermediary wants to put you in the right place to make this happen. We need an experienced individual to to lead our Health IT initiative as our Health IT Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR).

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Through a career spanning three decades and counting, Douglas Liu has managed various operations for life sciences companies in Boston, Chicago, Europe and Montgomery County. He has been involved with numerous organizations in the field, including the Tech Council of Maryland and the Governor's International Advisory Council.

Such wide experience is a key reason he was recently chosen as board chairman of BioHealth Innovation, a Rockville-based public-private nonprofit that helps commercialize innovative ideas in the field and expand those companies. The partnership formed about two years ago after it was among the recommendations of the Montgomery County Biosciences Task Force.

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BHI CEO Rich Bendis recently served as an expert panelist contributing to a special report from the "White House Lab-to-Market Inter-Agency Summit." Panelists examined the U.S. federal government's investment in drug R&D and the resulting private sector commercialization. According to the Summit report:

Federal research has done exceedingly well at accomplishing its original intent, which is to increase human knowledge, meet mission needs, and undertake high-risk research of long-term importance to the U.S. economy that is beyond the reach of the private sector. But commercialization of resulting discoveries from agency research has largely been an after-thought, despite clear Congressional and Presidential intent expressed through a series of legislative mandates and Executive Orders. While research to meet agency missions is critical, the members of the Panel believe that if the U.S. is to remain globally competitive in the 21st century, it must accelerate the translation of federally-funded R&D into commercial outcomes that create economic and public value, thus maximizing the return on the public dollars invested.

Read more at:
Increasing the Impact of Federally-Funded R&D

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National Brain Tumor Society’s inaugural event draws over 100 brain tumor researchers, biopharma executives, government officials, and venture capital investors

National Brain Tumor Society, the largest nonprofit in the United States dedicated to the brain tumor community, recently hosted the inaugural Advancing Research to Therapies (ART) for Brain Tumors Conference in Washington, D.C. The ART Conference brought together more than 100 leading experts from academic research labs, government agencies, biotech and pharmaceutical companies, and venture capital firms to increase communication and collaboration, as well as discuss licensing and investment criteria for new drug candidates to speed the discovery of new treatments for brain tumor patients.

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BioHealth Innovation, Inc., (BHI) a non-profit organization which strives to facilitate the development of commercially viable health IT products and companies by connecting market relevant research assets to appropriate funding, management and markets, is seeking interns as part of the BHI Internship Program.

POSITION DESCRIPTION – BHI Intern

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a regional private-public partnership focusing on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Central Maryland, is seeking highly motivated and dynamic individuals to fill internship positions at the Rockville, MD headquarters.  The BHI Internship Program offers essential experience for IT, Business, and Biohealth students in the region.  By offering a variety of projects and responsibilities to students, BHI aims to prepare interns for professional careers in the business, life sciences, healthcare and IT industries.

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BioHealth Innovation is working to assist relevant SBIR projects through its Commercial Relevance Program for the August 5th, 2013 NIH SBIR Deadline.

If your company is planning a submission for the August 5 deadline, BioHealth Innovation can assist with your submission. Through the BHI Commercial Relevance Program for SBIR/STTR projects select companies submit their federal funding concepts and receive pre-proposal feedback to help strengthen your application. Further support from BHI’s network of professional consultants and service providers is available to assist in improving your application. If you’re are planning a submission for the August 5 deadline contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for details on possible support from BHI.

NIH SBIR Phase I Program

  1. Companies to complete brief application describing the proposed SBIR project apply by June 18th
  2. All companies notified of SBIR assistance by June 26th
  3. Guidance, writing strategy, direction, and review sessions to be schedule to enable you through grant submission
  4. Feedback and redlined comments on written drafts and proposals materials as well as final submission assistance
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ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, June 4, 2013 – BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a regional private-public partnership focusing on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Central Maryland, is proud to announce the publication of the Central Maryland BioHealth Entrepreneur's Resource and Finance Guide 2013. The Guide was developed by BHI, the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore and the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development, in collaboration with the Baltimore Business Journal.

The Guide serves as a compendium of resources to biohealth innovators and entrepreneurs working to start and grow new companies and technologies in the region. This essential entrepreneurial resource includes a compilation of information on financial resources, university facilities and programs, economic development programs, and existing federal laboratory facilities and programs, as well as how to work with these assets. The Guide is one of the many projects BHI is developing to successfully transform the regional environment for biohealth startups through harnessing Central Maryland's biohealth assets and establishing an entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The Guide has been distributed through the Baltimore and Washington business journal subscribers, and is being distributed to all regional partners. For your copy of the guide please download here or contact BioHealth Innovation for details on how to receive a hard copy.

Download the Central Maryland BioHealth Entrepreneur's Resource and Finance Guide

 

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BioHeaIth Innovation aims to transform Central Maryland into a commercialization hub by building an entrepreneurial ecosystem using the research, funding, networks and business development resources available in the region.

The market for Health Information Technology concepts and new products are moving at a rapid pace. Since the signing of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) by President Obama in 2009 that allocated $36 billion to aid investments in healthcare IT and spurring new initiatives like the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) the environment and funding available to test new products significantly escalated.

Fast forward four years—there remains to be enormous untapped market opportunity with many new products being brought to fruition and highly innovative new concepts under development by the private and public sectors.

Maryland, a significant center of the health care industry nationally and home to the National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, Johns Hopkins University, the University System of Maryland, and a robust private sector has emerging opportunities within the Health IT industry sector from telemedicine and remote monitoring to electronic medical records and mobile health.

As part of the University of Maryland's 26th Annual Invention of the Year Awards ceremony held at the University of Maryland Golf Course on April 16, BioHealth Innovation sweetened the pot for this year's three award winners. BHI offered each award winner strategic consulting services on federal grants or SBIR awards – valued at $2,500 per company. The BHI Commercial Relevance Program is designed to support small businesses in commercializing their technological research efforts.

The three winning inventions were:
INFORMATION SCIENCE CATEGORY:
Winner:
Time-Reversal Division Multiple Access for Wireless Broadband Communications
Feng Han, Yu-Han Yang, Beibei Wang, Yongle Wu and K. J. Ray Liu

LIFE SCIENCE CATEGORY:
Winner:
A Method for Early Diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
Eva Chin and Dapeng Chen

PHYSICAL SCIENCE CATEGORY:
Winner:
A Method for Rapid, Inexpensive Prototyping of Microfluidic Devices
Omid Rahmanian, Donald DeVoe

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The Montgomery County Department of Economic Development and our partner, BioHealth Innovation, Inc., invite you to visit us at Booth 1423, the Maryland Pavilion, during the BIO International Convention in Chicago, April 22 - 25.

Nearly 50 Montgomery County biotech companies, organizations, or public sector entities will attend. Twenty-six Maryland organizations, companies or public-sector entities will be represented in the Maryland Pavilion, Booth 1423, including the following from Montgomery County:

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Time-reversal techniques for optimizing broadband communication networks and rapid prototyping of microfluidics devices were among the Clark School of Engineering inventions recognized as the most promising new technologies at the University of Maryland Invention of the Year Awards.

The University of Maryland’s Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) hosted the 26th Annual Invention of the Year Awards reception on Tuesday, April 16, 2013 from 4:30-6:00 pm at the University of Maryland Golf Course Club House.

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On the evening of April 15 as part of the InvestMaryland Challenge Award ceremony held at MICA in Baltimore, BHI presented three awards to local companies. Boss Medical LLC of Baltimore, ConverGene LLC of Gaithersburg, and Vasoptic Medical LLC of Columbia were selected for the awards based upon their high quality products under development, which have good possibility for securing federal funding with support and assistance. Each award – valued at $2,500 – consists of consulting services from BHI on Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or federal funding proposals. The SBIR program is designed to support small businesses in commercializing their technological research efforts.

For more information contact Ethan Byler.

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Date: Wednesday, May 8th, 2013 9:30am-5:00pm

Location: Morgan, Lewis & Bockius Conference Center, 1111 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20004-2541

National Brain Tumor Society is bringing together brain tumor researchers and industry executives to discuss how to move research from bench to bedside.

  • Biophrama executives and VC investors will share their criteria for investment and licensing of academic research.
  • Panelists include:
    • Lauren Abrey
      Global Development Team Lead, Genetech/Roche
    • Neil Exter
      Partner, Third Rock
    • Brian Gallagher
      Partner, SROne
    • Michael Glutch
      Managing Director, Medimmune Ventures
    • Perry Nisen
      Senior VP of Science Transactions, Pfizer
  • Nation Brain Tumor Society-funded researchers will present brain tumor drug candidates ready for early stage investment and/or licensing.

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On April 2, BHI invited a team of NIH Office of Technology Transfer interns working with BHI EIR Todd Chappell for a Social Meeting. Also in attendance were two guest speakers. Bart Kus, Senior Manager of Portfolio Management MedImmune, spoke about his career track from the lab into business development. Errol Levy, EU Diplomat (Research and Innovation Counsellor) for the European Commission talked about opportunities in Europe and the upcoming Destination Europe Conference on April 11 in DC. It was a great event for all who attended.

Bart Kus  Errol Levy

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Pictured: Rich Bendis, BHI; Arkesh Mehta, Chikujee Therapeutics; Stephen Yoder, Pieras AG; Rick Soni, Rexahn Pharmaceuticals

Growlers was “abuzz” on March 20 with a large and diverse gathering of biotech professionals attending the monthly BioBuzz networking event. BHI CEO Rich Bendis welcomed the crowd and talked about the latest happenings at BHI. According to Andrew Eckert, “We received a lot of positive feedback on the location and found a number of folks were interested in speaking to somebody from BHI. I’m pretty confident this was one of the largest, if not THE largest turnout ever for a BioBuzz event.”

BioBuzz is working to build a stronger community by bringing the biotech workforce out of the labs to culture relationships, instead of just cells.

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Biopharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced today it plans to create a research and development center in Gaithersburg, adding 300 jobs at MedImmune’s current location.

MedImmune’s director of corporate public relations, Tracy Rossin, said no new buildings are planned at this point. Biotech company MedImmune, which is owned by AstraZeneca, currently houses AstraZeneca’s biologics programs, geared toward the creation of vaccines and medications.

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Aronson’s Technology Industry Services Group is partnering with Rich Bendis and BioHealth Innovation (BHI) to help transform Central Maryland into a leading biohealth entrepreneurial and commercialization region.

“The central Maryland region is home to research organizations, government agencies, universities and companies with extensive biohealth experience and capabilities,” remarked Alan Langelli, Senior Manager in Aronson’s Technology Industry Services Group.  He continued, “Aronson is very excited about the opportunity to partner with BHI and support its goal of helping Central Maryland become a leading biohealth entrepreneurial and commercialization region.”

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The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore (EAGB) and BioHealth Innovation (BHI) in collaboration with the Baltimore Business Journal are proud to announce the publication of the Central Maryland BioHealth Entrepreneur’s Resource and Financing Guide.

This Guide will be a compendium of resources to BioHealth innovators and entrepreneurs working to start and grow new companies in the region. A wealth of resources exists in Maryland to support emerging BioHealth companies, however, they are not always readily accessible or captured in one place. The Guide will compile information on financial resources, university facilities and programs, economic development programs, and existing federal laboratory facilities and programs and how to work with them.

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BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a regional private-public partnership focusing on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Central Maryland, announced today the formation of its Commercial Relevance Advisory Board (CRAB). Members of the CRAB represent diverse business and academic organizations from throughout the region, such as venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates, Ernst & Young, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the University of Maryland (UMD), Johns Hopkins University, and leading biotechnology companies.

The CRAB will assist BHI in evaluating market-relevant research and product development opportunities as well as help determine the commercial applicability of emerging entrepreneurs, companies and their science or technology. BHI will utilize feedback from CRAB members as part of its due diligence process for establishing formal client relationships and potentially future investments.