Biohealth Innovation
Sarah Bergbreiter is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland, and she and her team build tiny robots.
Just how tiny? Bergbreiter calls it “ant-scale,” but said, “That’s really just a PR term. Our robots are built on the millimetre scale, less than 1 centimeter.”
Horizon Pharma, Inc. today announced the appointment of H. Thomas Watkins, former director, president and chief executive officer of Human Genome Sciences, to its board of directors. Additionally, Jean-Francois Formela, M.D. has resigned from the Horizon board of directors.
"Tom brings valuable industry experience to our board as a highly regarded biotechnology leader," said Timothy P. Walbert, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Horizon Pharma. "As we continue to grow our commercial business and build our organization through in-licensing and acquisitions, his strategic insights and pharmaceutical leadership experience will be important at this critical juncture for Horizon. Also, I would like to thank Jean-Francois for his years of service and counsel as a member of our board. Jean-Francois joined the Horizon board in 2010 in connection with our acquisition of Nitec and has been a valuable member of the board in helping us develop and implement the strategic direction of the Company."
The Executive Director supports the Senior Advisor for Enterprise Development to the University President in directing and managing the short and long term critical priorities, initiatives and activities that relate to current entrepreneurship, commercialization, innovation, and translational efforts at Johns Hopkins University. The Executive Director represents the Senior Advisor to the President and ensures effective communication, coordination, and integration across various initiatives and programs where appropriate.
The most fundamental way for a nation to build its strength in innovation is to invest in its research universities because this investment brings forth new knowledge and human capital – two key aspects that help accelerate innovation, according to Dr. L Rafael Reif, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“New knowledge is the foundation of all truly important innovation while human capital helps in transforming knowledge into new technologies, solutions, companies and jobs,” explained Dr. Reif, who was delivering a talk titled, ‘Science, Technology and Education: Research Universities as Engines of a Modern Economy’ at Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi. A large number of staff and faculty members with students and other stakeholders attended the event that was organized as part of the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology’s Distinguished Lecture Series program.
Qiagen has acquired an exclusive worldwide license to a promising biomarker that could aid the diagnosis of a group of blood disorders.
The biomarker calreticulin (CALR) has been found to present mutations in an estimated 15 percent of cases of myeloproliferative neoplasms, a group of blood disorders involving overproduction of blood cells that can cause severe complications.
For nearly a year and a half, there has been word that Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) — the Massachusetts-based coworking space and business incubator for early-stage startups — would expand and open an office in Baltimore.
As Technical.ly Baltimore reported in July 2013, current plans for CIC Baltimore situates the incubator at 873 W. Baltimore St. near the University of Maryland BioPark. At the time real estate consulting firm Cross Street Partners told Technical.ly Baltimore that the Baltimore-based innovation center — a development project of Wexford company — would be roughly 44,000 square feet when construction is completed in late 2014.
MidAmerica Healthcare Venture Forum, to take place April 22-23 in Chicago, unites active investors with corporate business development executives to facilitate investment opportunities with promising Mid-America based startups.
The event showcases emerging innovation and technology dealflow originating in the Midwest, and has earned the reputation as the premier healthcare investing conference.
The Montgomery County Department of Economic Development is looking for a senior level professional to formulate and implement the County's economic development strategy related to the growth of the life sciences and health IT industry sectors and to provide policy advice on technology issues in these strategic sectors. The position will foster partnerships and manage projects designed to attract new companies to the County, to enhance the presence of companies in these sectors within the County and to foster a pipeline of new companies in these sectors.
This position will evaluate and make recommendations on the technology policy issues relevant to Montgomery County, and implement creative programs that will expand the County's technological presence in the global marketplace. This position affects the County's economic well-being through the number of additional jobs created, number of companies established, capital raised, and commercial space occupied through new company attraction, retention and growth of existing companies, and a pipeline of startups. The candidate will work collaboratively with DED teammates to build the capabilities and competencies of the Department.
Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM (CCE STEM) funds research projects that identify factors that are effacacious in the formation of ethical STEM researchers in all the fields of science and engineering that NSF supports. CCE STEM solicits proposals for research that explores the following: ‘What constitutes ethical STEM research and practice? Which cultural and institutional contexts promote ethical STEM research and practice and why?' Factors one might consider include: honor codes, professional ethics codes and licensing requirements, an ethic of service and/or service learning, life-long learning requirements, curricula or memberships in organizations (e.g. Engineers without Borders) that stress social responsibility and humanitarian goals, institutions that serve under-represented groups, institutions where academic and research integrity are cultivated at multiple levels, institutions that cultivate ethics across the curriculum, or programs that promote group work, or do not grade. Do certain labs have a ‘culture of academic integrity'? What practices contribute to the establishment and maintenance of ethical cultures and how can these practices be transferred, extended to, and integrated into other research and learning settings?
When Kathleen Sebelius took the helm of one of the largest civilian departments in the federal government, the first thorny issue on her desk was responding to the H1N1 flu virus, a new pandemic flu strain that seemed to target otherwise healthy young people. After less than week on the job her first public speech focused on how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration, was responding to the public health emergency. She released millions of antiviral drugs from the national stockpile and warned against fake flu cures while calling for continual investment into research to stay ahead of future flu outbreaks. Talks about women’s and children’s health, obesity and AIDS soon followed.
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. today announced successful completion of the last licensure-enabling study in its BioThrax® (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed) Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) program. This clinical study, also known as the non-interference study, was designed to evaluate the pharmacokinetic profile of the antimicrobial ciprofloxacin when administered prior to and following the administration of a three-dose series of BioThrax. It was also designed to evaluate the immune response to BioThrax when administered with or without ciprofloxacin. The primary endpoints were the ratio of the maximum concentration (Cmax) and area under the curve (AUC) for ciprofloxacin and the secondary endpoint was the ratio of the geometric mean titer of the antibody response to BioThrax two weeks following the last dose. The study met the prospectively defined success criteria for both the primary and secondary endpoints. Data from this study show no interaction between ciprofloxacin and BioThrax.
Emergent has submitted the final clinical study report to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Results from this study will be used to support a supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) seeking licensure of a PEP indication for BioThrax to be used in combination with antibiotics in people with suspected or confirmed exposure to anthrax spores. BioThrax is currently licensed for a pre-exposure prophylaxis indication only.
Qiagen NV, the Dutch diagnostics technology company that bought Gaithersburg-based Digene for $1.6 billion in 2007, is preparing to clear out of Digene's old offices and move staff to an expanded Germantown headquarters.
The move has been in the works for years, but Qiagen can finally push forward following recent FDA clearance of its 270,000-square-foot Germantown site for manufacturing the company's human papillomavirus (HPV) test. That HPV test, developed by Digene, was the impetus for the 2007 acquisition.
The University of Maryland announced today that the 2014 University of Maryland Corporate Connector of the Year Award recipient will be Dr. Michael Pecht and the UMD Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE). The UMD Corporate Connect Council annually recognizes a University of Maryland researcher, staff or unit that has achieved significant engagement with the private sector in corporate research, philanthropy, or student support.
Pecht will receive his award as part of the University’s Celebration of Innovation and Partnerships on Tuesday, April 29, 2014 at University House in College Park, Maryland. Pecht’s engagement with the private sector has played a large role in making UMD CALCE, headquartered at the College Park campus, the world’s largest manufacturing consortium in electronic parts reliability engineering, accelerated testing, and supply chain management. Over 150 corporations, federal labs, universities and leading international research centers are members.
The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) announced today that nine finalists have been selected in the organization’s fourth annual ICE Awards. The awards program, which recognizes Innovation, Corporate Excellence and Entrepreneurship, will reward outstanding businesses and individuals from TEDCO’s diverse portfolio of more than 300 seed and early-stage companies. Winners will be announced on Thursday, May 15 from 8:30 am – 11:30 am during the awards ceremony at the Sheraton Columbia Town Center Hotel in Columbia, Md.
“TEDCO’s portfolio companies encompass an incredibly diverse range of industries, technologies and innovations,” said Rob Rosenbaum, president and executive director of TEDCO. “We are pleased to announce this year’s ICE Awards finalists and congratulate them on their continued success in some of the fastest-growing and most competitive fields out there. Most importantly, we look forward to continuing to support leading Maryland innovators.”
On Friday, March 28th, a contingent of Johns Hopkins University Department of Biomedical Engineering (JHU BME) undergraduate students and faculty visited the University of Maryland campus in College Park, Md. to participate in the second annual JHU–UMD Undergraduate Research Day with undergraduates from the University of Maryland’s Fischell Department of Bioengineering (UMD BioE).
This event is organized by the two universities’ student Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) chapters — under the leadership of chapter presidents Anvesh Annadanam (JHU BME), and Luke Peterken (UMD BioE).
Now that the Maryland General Assembly has adjourned for the year, it is time to take a quick review of significant accomplishments. Amid the hotly-contested debate on honoring soft shell crabs, kudos to the legislature for passing two little-noticed initiatives to create jobs and spur local economic development by leveraging the state's huge academic, federal and private research sectors.
The first initiative, the "E-nnovate" bill, creates a $100 million matching fund to recruit the world's best scholars to Maryland in areas as diverse as cyber security, biotechnology, STEM education, autonomous systems, language science and food safety. The fund will require these scholars to work with other Maryland universities, federal labs or with innovative startup companies, ensuring integration of research into economic development.
The University of Maryland, College Park, has announced a new master's degree program that will focus on technology entrepreneurship — and, appropriately, it will be offered online.
The program will be part of the university's Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech), and enrollees will have access to the institute's Technology Advancement and Venture Accelerator programs in addition to their online curriculum.
Governor Deval Patrick announced Thursday a plan to keep highly-skilled international students in Massachusetts post-graduation. Under his proposed Global Entrepreneur in Residence program, however, the "highly-skilled" appear to have one trait in common: technical talent. And now is not the time to be focusing solely on science, technology, engineering and math.
Patrick's proposed legislation exploits a loophole in federal immigration law, and could bolster the number of H-1B visas the state is allotted. Students eligible for a nonimmigrant visa but unable to obtain it due to a federal cap will be designated an "entrepreneur in residence" if they have plans to start or grow a business locally.
As early as February, analysts were saying that it would be a good year for healthcare IT companies looking for venture capital.
Communications and consulting firm Mercom Capital echoed that today with results from its first-quarter investment analysis which found that healthcare IT companies raised more VC money last quarter than in any quarter before.
The most extensive collaboration between the patient social network and a drug company to-date is likely to be just the first of its kind.
PatientsLikeMe, the largest online network for patients, has established its first broad partnership with a drug company. Genentech, the South San Francisco biotechnology company bought by Roche in 2009, now has access to PatientsLikeMe’s full database for five years.
If you have been around UMBC at all in the past few years and involved with the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship, you have heard about or met Greg Cangialosi. Some were even lucky enough to take the Digital Marketing class taught by him last Spring (2013).
Cangialosi is also the benefactor and namesake of the Cangialosi Business Innovation Competition getting ready to make it's debut in a just a few weeks.
GlycoMimetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:GLYC) announced today that data for its lead clinical drug candidate, rivipansel (GMI-1070), was highlighted via one oral presentation and one poster at the 8th Annual Sickle Cell Disease Research and Educational Symposium and 37th National Sickle Cell Disease Scientific Meeting, held April 11-14, 2014, at the InterContinental Miami.
Rivipansel is in clinical trials as a potential therapy for the treatment of vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC) in people with sickle cell disease. It has previously received both Orphan Drug and Fast Track status for the treatment of VOC from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), and Orphan Product status in the European Union. GlycoMimetics is developing rivipansel in collaboration with Pfizer, Inc.
Fifty-four weeks after it opened, 1776 serves as a packed and noisy hub for Washington’s startup community.
Evan Burfield and Donna Harris founded the business incubator in January 2013, and 1776 moved into its 12th-floor offices, which are a 10-minute walk north of the White House, on April 1, 2013.
In a bid to expand its pipeline of Personalized Healthcare assays, Qiagen NV (QGEN - Snapshot Report) acquired an exclusive worldwide license for the calreticulin (CALR) biomarker from CeMM Vienna, the Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Qiagen retains a strong pipeline of promising biomarkers under development for Personalized Healthcare tests pertaining to rheumatoid arthritis, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, glioblastoma, lymphoma and other cancers. Post acquisition of the license, Qiagen will develop a molecular diagnostic test for CALR mutations that will help healthcare providers to make more informed therapeutic decisions.
If you were to ask most early-stage companies what they’d consider to be a decent prize from a group of investors for a well pitched device or service, they’d probably say money. But at an entrepreneur forum at Penn Medicine, the rewards were as varied as the groups offering them. Venture capitalists, angel investors, accelerators and incubators each offered a different take on what a reward should look like.
Philadelphia has been working to build a better entrepreneur ecosystem to grow companies and stimulate job growth. As part of that trend, institutions are looking for ways to get more investors involved.
Today the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) released a report that outlines two potential growth trajectories for the U.S. biopharmaceutical sector and the top policy factors that enable the industry to innovate and, in turn, contribute to the U.S. economy.
Developed by the Battelle Technology Partnership Practice, the report finds that coverage and payment policies, a well-functioning, science-based regulatory system and strong intellectual property (IP) protections drive U.S. leadership in biopharmaceutical innovation, and if negative trends in these key policy areas continue, jobs supported by the industry would decrease over the next decade. However, if reasonable pro-innovation policies are pursued, the U.S. biopharmaceutical sector stands to retain and add well over 300,000 jobs to the U.S. economy by 2021.
QIAGEN N.V. today announced it has acquired an exclusive worldwide license to the biomarker calreticulin (CALR), whose recently discovered mutations are found in an estimated 15% of cases of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), a group of blood disorders. QIAGEN licensed the technology from CeMM Vienna, the Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, whose scientists led a team that discovered the presence of mutations of the CALR protein in MPNs. QIAGEN plans to develop a molecular diagnostic test for the CALR mutations to offer each patient a clearer prognostic profile and to guide disease management. Development of a CALR diagnostic test is expected to be highly complementary to QIAGEN's kits for a key mutation of the Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) gene.
Myeloproliferative neoplasms, a group of blood disorders involving overproduction of blood cells, are chronic diseases that can lead to several complications including thrombosis (blood clots) and in some cases difficult-to-treat acute leukemia. QIAGEN already has an exclusive license for the JAK2 V617F mutation, which is present in about 75% of patients with MPNs. According to an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine in December 2013 by the CeMM team led by Robert Kralovics, patients with CALR mutations suffer from a milder form of the disease than those with the JAK2V617F mutation, including a lower risk of thrombosis and a higher survival rate.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center announced its new collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline to advance development of cancer immunotherapies.
The collaboration will focus on the identification of new therapeutic approaches, evaluation of patient outcomes in clinical testing, and utilization of resulting information to develop drugs that recruit the body’s own immune system against cancer.
Health care is a misnomer for our medical system. It should be called sick care. Doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies only make money when we are in bad health. If we could instead prevent illness and disease, it would turn the entire medical system on its head and increase the quality of our lives.
The good news is that technology is on its way to letting us do this. It is now moving so rapidly that within a decade the small handheld medical reader used by Dr. Leonard McCoy in Star Trek — the tricorder — will look primitive. We are moving into an era of data-driven, crowdsourced, participatory, genomics-based medicine. Just as our bathroom scales give us instant readings of our weight, wearable devices will monitor our health and warn us when we are about to get sick. Our doctors—or their artificial intelligence replacements—will prescribe medicines or lifestyle changes based on our full medical history, holistic self, and genetic composition.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) seeks feedback from the small business community regarding the current state of the science and commercial feasibility of using in vitro human cellular models as an experimental tool for predicting in vivo drug responses to cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR)-directed therapeutics for Cystic Fibrosis (CF) lung disease at the individual level. Responses to this Request for Information (RFI) will assist NHLBI staff in assessing the value of the research in areas related to advancing precision medicine approaches to treatment.
New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA), a leading global venture capital firm, today announced the kickoff of a second installment of its design mentorship program, In the Studio. Building on NEA's successful 2013 program, In the Studio will be an intensive, two-week program for up to six design teams, developed and produced in collaboration with New York City-based product studio All Tomorrows, led by Albert Lee, and with Liz Danzico, founding chairperson of the Interaction Design program at New York City's School of Visual Arts. Applications are now being accepted for the program, which will take place June 2nd through 17th, 2014.
Led by NEA Partner Dayna Grayson, the program evolved in response to a growing community of entrepreneurially minded designers, particularly in the New York City tech ecosystem. With design increasingly central in building successful consumer and enterprise applications, the program recruits talented designers with entrepreneurial or startup aspirations and provides mentorship, resources and opportunities to collaborate.
This year has been charted with the unfolding of several White House technology initiatives that involve leveraging the groundbreaking work of the nation’s federal laboratories. In 1986, the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) was mandated to pursue these initiatives by facilitating the movement of technologies from labs to the marketplace, strengthening research and development by streamlining technology transfer (T2) procedures, and increasing industry partnerships and collaborations. And, given the theme of this year’s FLC national meeting, “Accelerating Innovation for Economic Impact,” coupled with its nearby capital setting at the North Bethesda Marriott in Rockville, Maryland, this year is no exception.
BVCF, a Shanghai-based life sciences investor, has closed its third fund with $188 million to back upstart biotechs on both sides of the Pacific focused on the booming Asian market. Dow Jones' VentureWire and other media outlets reported that the backers to this fund include Novartis ($NVS), BlackRock, NEA and International Finance, which is gambling $20 million on the fund at a when time drug development activities in China continue to heat up.
BVCF sits on the crossroads of a relatively small but fast-growing area in biotech. U.S. and European biopharma companies have been looking for new ways to enter the Chinese drug market as the Big Pharma giants build out large new R&D operations in Asia and start linking up with academic groups. And the trend is spawning new joint ventures and company startups with in-licensed development projects.
Drug research is a small world, where the main players often intersect repeatedly as they take on new roles at different institutions. And MD Anderson's new "moon shots" program on immuno-oncology is proving that maxim yet again as GlaxoSmithKline's immunotherapy team suits up for the last big slot in an ambitious alliance of industry giants aimed at discovering some new products in the red-hot cancer R&D field.
GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) is taking a berth next to teams from AstraZeneca ($AZN), Pfizer ($PFE) and Johnson & Johnson ($J&J). And the pact brings together two of the key players in the development of Yervoy, the pioneering anti-CTLA-4 immune checkpoint inhibitor which helped trigger one of the most frenetic development races the industry has seen.
Historic release of data gives consumers unprecedented transparency on the medical services physicians provide and how much they are paid
Today, as part of the Obama administration’s work to make our health care system more transparent, affordable, and accountable, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the release of new, privacy-protected data on services and procedures provided to Medicare beneficiaries by physicians and other health care professionals. The new data also show payment and submitted charges, or bills, for those services and procedures by provider.