Biohealth Innovation
The DoD SBIR 17.1 & STTR 17.A Broad Agency Announcements are Now Open for Proposal Submission on January 10, 2017
You may now submit your Phase I and Direct to Phase II proposals for the open SBIR 17.1 and STTR 17.A Broad Agency Announcements (BAA) through the DOD SBIR/STTR proposal submission website at https://sbir.defensebusiness.org. All proposals for this Announcement must be received by 6:00 am. ET on Wednesday, February 8, 2017.
Prickly pear trees and the brown seaweed, commonly known as Peacocks tail, are a common sight in the Mediterranean. [Stephanie Ghio] It would seem that Juan Ponce de Leon’s trip to the New World in search of the fountain of youth may have been even more in vain, given that it may have been right in his “backyard.” Evidence from a new study by investigators at the University of Malta and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS/University of Bordeaux) shows that chemicals in ubiquitous Mediterranean plants could hold the key to delaying age-related diseases.
New East Baltimore Partnership ("FC-NEBP") and Toshiba Medical Research Institute USA, Inc. ("Toshiba Medical") announced today that they have executed a lease to construct a medical research center at 1812 Ashland Avenue, the newest building in the Science + Technology Park at Johns Hopkins. When it opens, the Toshiba Medical research center will showcase next-generation technology that will offer a unique opportunity at the Johns Hopkins East Baltimore Medical Campus to collaborate with researchers seeking the most advanced imaging capacity in the world.
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:
Requests for Applications:
Program Announcements:
The Pentagon’s research and development division, DARPA—the creative force behind the internet and GPS—retooled itself three years ago to create a new office dedicated to unraveling biology’s engineering secrets. The new Biological Technologies Office (BTO) has a mission to “harness the power of biological systems” and design new defense technology. Over the past year, with a budget of about $296 million, it has been exploring challenges including memory improvement, human–machine symbiosis and speeding up disease detection and response.
Ask anyone to identify Baltimore’s big anchors, and Under Armour and Johns Hopkins will likely appear in the same sentence.
Now the two are teaming up — brought together by tech.
Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC, New York State and the New York Genome Center today announced a collaboration to launch a new JLABS in New York City. Called JLABS @ NYC, the 30,000-square foot facility will be located at the New York Genome Center (NYGC) in SoHo and will open in 2018. The project is receiving $17 million in New York State funding. The site will be open to biotech, pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer health companies. A QuickFire Challenge seeking companies working in these areas, particularly startups working on cross-sector solutions to prevent, intercept or cure diseases, will be launched by Johnson & Johnson Innovation, with the winner(s) eligible for one year of residency at JLABS @ NYC.
IBM Watson Health and Illumina have officially joined forces, announcing a new partnership on Monday as the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference kicks off.
Watson Health is a serial collaborator, but it chose a pivotal agreement to spotlight at JPM. By integrating with Illumina’s platform, the two companies can create an end-to-end tumor sequencing workflow that could increase accessibility and scalability in the field. It could also address a major problem, said Watson Health Vice President Steve Harvey; a lack of standardization.
Below is 450+ pages of our most popular research reports from last year. As always, if you find these reports helpful, share with friends. If you think they're terrible, please send to your enemies.
Under Armour Inc. CEO Kevin Plank's keynote speech Friday at the Consumer Electronics Show stressed the importance of product innovation and provided another clear sign that this is not your mom and pop’s CES anymore.
From a brand new take on the electric breast pump to a discreet way to check sobriety during a night on the town, trust us, there's a lot of neat stuff on the horizon.
Dickson Data is back at it. On Thursday it released a new infographic [below] showing which drug patents are set to expire in 2017.
It follows the template of its popular 2016 infographic, which highlighted several major biopharma threats and trends. Times were tough for AstraZeneca, which had $7.4 billion in sales under threat as Crestor and Seroquel XR lose patent exclusivity.
Human Longevity, Inc. (HLI), the genomics-driven, health intelligence company, today announced Cynthia Collins as the new Chief Executive Officer effective January 9, 2017. Collins, who has a successful track record and extensive leadership experience in the life sciences sector, will lead HLI and be responsible for all functions of the company including commercialization of HLI key products and strategic operations. She will also join the Board of Directors.
Venter, who is a co-founder, will relinquish the CEO role but will continue to serve as Executive Chairman of the HLI Board of Directors and will remain in a daily role leading the scientific strategy and direction of HLI.
Vtesse, Inc., a company committed to developing medicines to benefit patients with ultra rare, life-threatening diseases, announced today the appointment of Jason Meyenburg as Chief Commercial Officer. Mr. Meyenburg joins the company from Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he most recently served as Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, The Americas.
“As we near completion of enrollment in our pivotal Phase 2b/3 clinical trial of our lead drug candidate, VTS-270, our primary goal is to advance regulatory submissions. Assuming we receive favorable responses from U.S. and European regulatory agencies, our next goal will be to rapidly provide access to VTS-270 for the children suffering from NPC and its debilitating symptoms,” said Ben Machielse, Drs., President and Chief Executive Officer of Vtesse, Inc. “As someone with deep experience supporting the roll out of rare disease medicines, Jason has the know-how, passion and dedication required to help us to quickly make VTS-270 available for patients in need, pending regulatory approvals.”
MaxCyte®, Inc., a developer and supplier of cell engineering products and technologies to biopharmaceutical firms engaged in cell therapy, drug discovery and development, biomanufacturing, gene editing and immuno-oncology, announces data to be presented at the Keystone Symposia on Precision Genome Engineering summarizing in vitro and long-term preclinical toxicity and engraftment studies following targeted gene correction aimed at reversing mutations to wild-type sequence at clinically relevant levels in CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) obtained from individuals with X-CGD. The oral and poster presentations will highlight use of MaxCyte’s proprietary, cGMP-compliant delivery platform in development of ex vivo gene-corrected cell therapies as a potential treatment for monogenic diseases. The Symposia is taking place January 8 to 12, 2017 in Breckenridge, Colorado.
Imagine that you found a drug at a government lab that others passed over which promises to cure, not just treat, certain blood cancers. You entered into a cooperative R&D agreement where your funding doubled the lab’s budget in a critical research area while they leverage the expertise of your company. You’re a small American company taking on the big boys, with a state of the art facility hoping to be first to market with a revolutionary therapy.
Blood cancer treatments may one day include special dietary restrictions: researchers have found that an essential amino acid plays a crucial role in the creation of blood stem cells—a discovery the scientists say could lead to a potential alternative to chemotherapy and radiation.
Formed in 1997, the Greater Rockville Partnership, now Rockville Economic Development, Inc. has evolved and grown to be an organization that has helped thousands of businesses and entrepreneurs in the City of Rockville. And we are so excited to hit 20 years of support and growth that we are going celebrate ALL YEAR LONG!
We have events and promotions planned throughout the year including our Business Appreciation Week, the REDI Commercial Broker Breakfast , the REDI Resource Meet up (R2M), as well as special 20th Anniversary events ---you won't want to miss any of them.
We are also offering 20th Anniversary sponsorship opportunities for companies looking for exposure by supporting our events throughout the year. If interested, you can contact Michael Steifvater via email or 301.315.8096.
Boston Scientific has made a name for itself with devices that are implanted into the body to prevent heart attacks. But through its Connected Patient Challenge, launched last month, the company is looking to get more involved in the kind of preventative medicine that’s based on the data generated by doctors, patients and the growth of wearable devices.
The healthcare industry’s transition toward value-based care is forcing providers to adopt new and emerging business models in lieu of traditional fee-for-service payment. At their core, these business models have the principle of value-based reimbursement, in which providers must meet certain quality care standards while controlling costs in order to get paid.
MdBio Foundation is hiring a team of enthusiastic individuals to operate the Verizon Innovative Learning explorer lab, a custom designed 45-foot bus that will travel to middle schools in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. In addition to providing instruction to middle school students aboard the bus, the team will also assist in the development of associated curriculum, coordinating school visits, and moving and placement of the vehicle.
The explorer lab is currently being built in Burbank, California and will travel across the United States for a “road show.” The road show will include a series of school visits and PR events between March and August 2017. In August 2017, the explorer lab will arrive in Washington, DC and will serve the DC Public School system for the 2017/2018 school year.
Cascadia Capital’s healthcare team contemplates the outlook for 2017, we believe the future of the industry will be affected by the agenda of the new administration. Where we believe this will have significant impact is on expense containment and prioritization of the wellness agenda.
The NHLBI's Strategic Vision rests on four mission-driven goals that will benefit from sustained Institute focus. Eight objectives organize the 132 Research Priorities.
Headquartered in Hayward, California, Intarcia Therapeutics is a force to be reckoned with in the biotech world. It has raised over $1 billion in total equity funding and recently acquired Phoundry Pharmaceuticals for an undisclosed amount.
It hasn’t gone public.
Facebook’s shadowy Building 8 research team needs help from academia to invent futuristic hardware. But today’s pace of innovation doesn’t allow for the standard 9-12 month turnaround time it takes universities to strike one-off research partnerships with private companies.
The year 2016 presented the world with a number of big surprises. Some positive, some negative, depending on whom one asks. Here at Medgadget, 2016 will be remembered for many amazing and pleasantly unexpected medical technology developments, many of which are foreshadowing cures for spinal cord injuries, effective treatment of diabetes, new ways to fight heart disease, and many other long sought-after medical solutions. Virtual and augmented reality systems, new imaging techniques, and innovative delivery approaches are changing the way doctors learn and take care of patients.
Superflex, a “powered” clothing startup that was spun out of SRI International, the well-known robotics nonprofit, announced earlier this week that it has raised $9.6 million in a Series A round of funding.
The Menlo Park, California-based company is developing a lightweight, connected apparel that can be worn underneath regular clothing. It’s called “powered” because integrated electric circuits throughout the apparel act as muscles providing strength and mobility to the body’s actual muscles and joints.
The University of Maryland will be a key partner in a new institute to advance U.S. leadership in pharmaceutical manufacturing that was announced by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker on Friday, December 16, 2016. The National Institute for Innovation of Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL) will be the 11th Manufacturing USA Institute, and includes the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore. A team of more than 150 companies, educational institutions, nonprofits and state governments will operate NIIMBL under a newly formed nonprofit.
New research suggests it is possible to slow or even reverse aging, at least in mice, by undoing changes in gene activity—the same kinds of changes that are caused by decades of life in humans. By tweaking genes that turn adult cells back into embryoniclike ones, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies reversed the aging of mouse and human cells in vitro, extended the life of a mouse with an accelerated-aging condition and successfully promoted recovery from an injury in a middle-aged mouse, according to a study published Thursday in Cell.
Sometimes lab research leads to a discovery that’s commercially viable enough to start a company. But for scientists with little business experience, making the jump to the private sector can be intimidating without support. In an effort to address this issue, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has partnered with the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) (link is external) to award a new round of N-STEP grants, which support early-stage entrepreneurs in ways that other grants do not.
Medigene AG (http://www.medigene.de) (FSE: MDG1, Prime Standard, TecDAX) announced today that it has granted an exclusive, worldwide license for the development and commercialization of its preclinical stage adeno-associated virus like particles (AAVLPs) technology to the Swedish biotech company 2A Pharma AB, located in Malmö, Sweden. Under the terms of the agreement, Medigene is eligible to receive clinical, regulatory and commercial milestone payments in addition to royalties on net sales of future AAVLP products by 2A Pharma AB. Further financial details were not disclosed.
MaxCyte, Inc. announced today a strategic collaboration with leading academic research institution, Washington University in St. Louis (“Washington University”) to advance next-generation Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)-based cell therapies for acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
MaxCyte and Washington University will develop unique immunotherapy drug candidates, based on MaxCyte’s proprietary cell engineering platform technology, CARMA.
This collaboration builds on MaxCyte’s efforts with The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center around pre-clinical development of CAR therapy for solid cancers.
Michael Lewis’s 2003 book, Moneyball -- later made into a movie starring Brad Pitt -- tells the story of how predictive analytics transformed the Oakland Athletics baseball team and, eventually, baseball itself. Data-based modeling has since transcended sport. It’s used in hiring investment bankers, for example. But is academe really ready for its own “moneyball moment” in terms of personnel decisions?
Astellas Pharma Inc. (President and CEO: Yoshihiko Hatanaka, "Astellas") and Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (Founder & CEO: William Hearl, Ph.D., "Immunomic Therapeutics") today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track designation for the drug candidate ASP0892 for the mitigation of severe hypersensitivity reactions due to peanut allergy. ASP0892 is a new DNA vaccine program based on the investigational LAMP-Vax platform. A Phase I clinical trial to evaluate the safety, tolerability and immune response of ASP0892 in adults allergic to peanuts has been initiated.
Cambridge Innovation Center has signed onto 127,000 square feet at UCity Square in Philadelphia.
Known as CIC, the Boston-based company will occupy space at 3675 Market St. in University City. It operates in a similar fashion as a co-working space and incubator, providing flexible space to entrepreneurial startups and other companies. Since its founding in 1999, companies that have been housed in CIC space have raised more than $2.5 billion and added an estimated 40,000 jobs to the economy, according to the company's website.