Baltimore, Md. (Dec. 11, 2020) – The University System of Maryland (USM) COVID Research and Innovation Task Force is bringing together people, expertise, and resources from its 12 universities to rapidly advance solutions to challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the generous support of several local organizations, the Task Force is inviting members of the USM community to take part in a multimedia, Public Health Challenge seeking creative submissions that highlight ways for USM students, members of the broader university community, and all Marylanders to stay safe and healthy while waiting for a vaccine to become available.

Scott Gazelle, MD, PhD, MPH, FACR Appointed to Board of Directors and Damon Kuehl, MD, FACEP Joins Scientific Advisory Board

RICHMOND, Va. (December 8, 2020) ‐ BRAINBox Solutions today announced the initial closing on a $23 million Series A financing to support the clinical development of the company’s BRAINBox TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) Test to aid both in the diagnosis and prognosis of mild TBI (concussion).  BioVentures Investors led the financing round and was joined by the Tauber Foundation, the Virginia Tech Carilion Innovation and Seed Funds, Genoa VC, Pharmakon Holdings LLC, Astia Angels and additional qualified investors, including Kevin Love, professional basketball player and mental health advocate.  

“The BRAINBox TBI test has enormous potential to significantly improve patient care as an aid to objectively diagnosing and managing the treatment of concussion patients,” said Marc Goldberg, BioVentures Investors Co-Founder and Managing Partner. “The company has made great progress, particularly in this challenging COVID-19 environment, in advancing the development of the BRAINBox TBI testing system, including laying the groundwork for the pivotal, HeadSMART II clinical trial and securing ‘Breakthrough Designation’ from the FDA.”  He noted there are more than five million patients evaluated in emergency rooms annually for mild TBI as well as additional patients in urgent care settings.

Stu Solomon, President & CEO, Connected DMV joins BioTalk to discuss formation of the Strategic Renewal Task Force, their Covid-19 Pandemic Pivot, the Global Pandemic Prevention and Bioterrorism Center, and much more.

Listen now on Apple https://apple.co/3gqmJlB, Google https://bit.ly/3mVtled, Spotify https://spoti.fi/3mO0j05, and TuneIn https://bit.ly/37FMf2t.

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Are you a biohealth start-up in Maryland, DC or Virginia seeking feedback on your biohealth business idea, pitch deck, or commercialization plan? Schedule your feedback session with BHI EIRs on one of the following dates. Pre-registration is required; Sign up here tinyurl.com/EIRfeedback

For questions/more information, contact BHI.

Are you a biohealth start-up in Maryland, DC or Virginia seeking feedback on your biohealth business idea, pitch deck, or commercialization plan? Schedule your feedback session with BHI EIRs on one of the following dates. Pre-registration is required; Sign up here tinyurl.com/EIRfeedback

For questions/more information, contact BHI.

Are you and early stage company with innovative biohealth technology? Have you considered non-dilutive funding to advance your technology? Learn more about whether or not federal or state non-dilutive funding makes sense for you. Discuss potential strategies for success. Sign up for a free 1:1 advice and feedback regarding non-dilutive funding strategy and applications with BHI staff who have helped companies secured SBIR, STTR and other awards—at twice the national average win rate.

Click here to schedule a time.

Children’s National Hospital today performed the first surgical use of breakthrough medical imaging technology designed specifically for kids. The innovation, insta-3D™ imaging from company nView medical, is designed to make 3D images available in the operating room quickly and safely. The 3D images provide surgeons with better visualization, allowing them to continue improving patient care and outcomes.

Matthew Oetgen, M.D., division chief of Orthopaedic Surgery at Children’s National, is overseeing the first use of this 3D imaging technology in orthopaedic procedures.

ROCKVILLE, Md., Dec. 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- REGENXBIO Inc. (Nasdaq: RGNX), a leading clinical-stage biotechnology company seeking to improve lives through the curative potential of gene therapy based on its proprietary NAV® Technology Platform, today announced that the first patient has been dosed in the Phase I/II trial of RGX-111 for the treatment of Mucopolysaccharidosis Type I (MPS I). RGX-111 is an investigational one-time gene therapy designed to deliver the α-l-iduronidase (IDUA) gene directly to the central nervous system (CNS) using the NAV AAV9 vector.

MPS I is a rare, autosomal recessive genetic disease caused by deficiency of IDUA, an enzyme required for the breakdown of the polysaccharides in lysosomes. These polysaccharides, called glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), accumulate in tissues of MPS I patients, resulting in characteristic storage lesions and diverse clinical signs and symptoms including in the central nervous system (CNS), which can include excessive accumulation of fluid in the brain, spinal cord compression, and cognitive impairment.

VIENNA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CEL-SCI Corporation (NYSE American: CVM) announced today its LEAPS COV-19 peptides, delivered as a therapeutic treatment following SARS-CoV-2 virus challenge, achieved a 40% survival rate in transgenic mouse models as compared to 0% survival in the two control groups in studies conducted at the University of Georgia Center for Vaccines and Immunology.

Scientists at the University of Georgia working in conjunction with CEL-SCI’s scientific team conducted a challenge study in human(h) ACE2 receptor transgenic mice infected with a dose of SARS-CoV-2 (the causative agent of COVID-19 disease) virus sufficient to cause death in all animals within 8 days. This transgenic animal model is useful to study COVID-19 disease because the mice express the molecule that provides entry for the SARS-CoV-2 virus into human cells. Virus infection is optimized in this animal model providing an ideal system to determine vaccine induced immune protection or therapy against a SARS-CoV-2 infection of humans.

The effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine is continuing to create new demand for life sciences space in Montgomery County, with one of the leading vaccine developers taking over a former industrial building and land previously planned for mixed-use development. 

Novavax, a biotech company that has received $2B in funding for its COVID-19 work, announced Monday it signed a 122K SF lease at 700 Quince Orchard Road in Gaithersburg. 

The Pinkney Innovation Complex for Science and Technology at Montgomery College (PIC MC) Combines Innovation and Education – a smart choice for co-location.

The BioHealth Capital Region has come to be known for its unique blend of Industry, Government, and Academia from Baltimore to Charlottesville. Unlike many of the other Biotech Hubs across the United States, the geographic spacing, which at times has been seen as a challenge in the region, has created new opportunities.

Image: https://biobuzz.io/

PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), an urban office REIT and the first, longest-tenured and pioneering owner, operator and developer uniquely focused on collaborative life science, technology and agtech campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, today announced that it has been recognized as the #1 real estate company in the world in the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) 2020 Science & Technology sector for its leadership in championing sustainability initiatives that promote the health and well-being of its tenants and employees and enhance local communities. Alexandria also earned the #1 global ranking and a 5 Star Rating—the highest GRESB Rating—in its Diversified Listed Peer Group for its highly sustainable development work and green building initiatives, as well as an "A" disclosure score for the third consecutive year. GRESB is one of the leading global environmental, social and governance (ESG) benchmarks for real estate and infrastructure investments across the globe.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) strives to support the entrepreneurial talents of its students, faculty, staff, and alumni as it works to improve the human condition and serve the public good.

To this end, the University System of Maryland (USM) continues to aid entrepreneurs at UMB and throughout the state with the $10 million Maryland Momentum Fund (MMF).

When it comes to virtual reality, truly immersing someone in another space requires a lot of things to be just right. For one, there’s a question of visuals. The objects have to be three-dimensional enough to look like they’re in front of a player, and a character has to be able to move around to see those objects to the right or left.

Image: VR on the RMI Manufacturing Day demo floor in 2017. (Courtesy photo)

Pitch Perfect: The Art and Science of Communicating with Investors Before AND After Funding Communicating with investors before AND after funding is both an art and science. Learn best strategies at this truly informative webinar.

This free webinar is brought to you by the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs and the George Washington University Technology Commercialization Office.

Among the front-runners racing to deliver a Covid-19 shot, AstraZeneca PLC has the least vaccine experience. But it has promised the world the most doses—more than three billion.

The company has assembled an unprecedented network of manufacturing and distribution partners spanning the globe, complementing a series of deals with governments that have sought to lock in vaccine supplies for their countries.

Seven start-up companies and university research projects across a range of therapeutic areas and geographical locations form latest intake for life science incubator BioInnovation Institute

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, 2nd December – BioInnovation Institute (BII), a Novo Nordisk Foundation initiative incubating and accelerating world-class life science research, today identifies its latest cohort of program participants.  Comprising a pan-European spread of start-up companies and university research projects in countries including Denmark, Sweden and the UK, the seven ventures are developing revolutionary science across BII’s three sector specialised areas – therapeutics, bioindustrial and health tech.

Chevy Chase, MD – May 22, 2019 – New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA), a leading global venture capital firm, today announced the appointment of Scott Gottlieb, M.D., as a Special Partner on the firm’s healthcare investment team. Dr. Gottlieb was a Venture Partner at NEA from 2007 to 2017 before being appointed the 23rd Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where he served from 2017 to 2019.

Under Dr. Gottlieb’s leadership, the FDA advanced new policies for the safe and effective oversight of gene therapies, cell-based regenerative medicines, targeted drugs, and digital health devices; implemented new reforms to standardize drug and medical device reviews; and promoted policies to reduce death and disease from tobacco, improve food innovation and safety, promote better nutrition, and aggressively confront addiction crises.

TEDCO's 2019 Entrepreneur Expo took place on October 29, 2019, at The Hotel At The University of Maryland! See what Maryland has to offer entrepreneurs.

Image: https://www.tedcomd.com

Hilden, Germany and Germantown, Maryland, December 7, 2020 – QIAGEN N.V. (NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) announced today the launch of its QuantiFERON SARS-CoV-2 RUO solution that can detect T-cell responses of the human immune system to the pathogen that causes COVID-19, which could help researchers find out more about immunity levels and disease progression.

Studies suggest that T-cell response to SARS-CoV-2 declines much more slowly than antibody response, which presents several benefits to researchers who want to push beyond the existing detection of active infections to screen for potential courses of the illness and long-term immune responses to it. QIAGEN’s QuantiFERON SARS-CoV-2 Research Use Only (RUO) solution  could be a valuable tool in this research.

The agency's decision is expected to drop Dec. 18.

Image: MacroGenics is led by CEO and co-founder Scott Koenig. JOANNE S. LAWTON

Jennifer Doudna PhD, the UC Berkeley biochemist who shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Emmanuelle Charpentier PhD, was the recent guest of honor for the final episode in the “Women in Science” web series, co-organized by GEN and the Rosalind Franklin Society. 

In 2012, the Doudna and Charpentier labs teamed up to publish a landmark paper in which they adapted the CRISPR microbial anti-viral defense system to create a programmable method for genome targeting. The work laid the foundation for CRISPR genome editing, which has become not only a ubiquitous research tool but also applied in clinical gene therapy, diagnostics, agriculture, and many other applications.

Image: https://www.genengnews.com

Join Rich Bendis, Pete Briskman and Ann Rutledge as they Discuss Securitization, Covid-19 and Political Analysis related to the BioHealth industry.

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Nov. 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX), a late-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, today provided an update on its COVID-19 vaccine program. NVX‑CoV2373 is a stable, prefusion protein antigen derived from the genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus spike (S) protein and adjuvanted with Novavax’ proprietary Matrix‑M™.

“Novavax is in a leading position to significantly contribute to the need for safe and efficacious vaccines that will ultimately end the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic,” said Stanley C. Erck, President and Chief Executive Officer, Novavax. “We continue to make meaningful progress as we work to test, manufacture and ultimately deliver NVX-CoV2373 with unprecedented speed, as well as put partnerships in place that would ensure widespread and equitable access worldwide.”

Four weeks after receiving monitored doses of psilocybin, researchers reported more than half of the study's 24 participants had achieved remission from their depression.

Late-stage trials showed that AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine, which is being manufactured for the United States in Baltimore, was up to 90% effective, the English pharmaceutical company said Monday.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine candidate gives public health officials hope they may soon have access to a vaccine that is cheaper and easier to distribute than those of some of its rivals.

Even though the vaccine still needs regulatory approval, it’s already being made at Emergent BioSolutions’ plant in East Baltimore. The Gaithersburg-based contract drug manufacturer was named AstraZeneca’s U.S. manufacturing partner in June. The partnership was expanded in July and is now valued at $261 million.

Rockville, Maryland’s Maxim Biomedical (MaximBio) is on the cusp of bringing 3 million of its new and effective point-of-care COVID-19 tests to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in early 2021, with a scale up to 15 million tests per month expected by Q2 2021. 

The company’s brand new point-of-care (POC), ready out-of-the-box antigen test is based on a Lateral Flow Assay technology (LFA) that produces visually interpreted results within 15 minutes. 

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Nov. 25, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Altimmune, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALT), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company advancing proprietary intranasal vaccines and peptide therapeutics, today announced that it has submitted an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to commence a Phase 1 clinical study of its single-dose intranasal COVID-19 vaccine candidate, AdCOVID. AdCOVID is designed to stimulate a broad immune response including both systemic immunity (neutralizing antibody) and local immunity (mucosal IgA and resident memory T cells) in the nasal cavity and respiratory tract.

BALTIMORE, United States of America, October 29, 2020/APO Group/ -- Sisu Global’s (SisuGlobal.health) flagship medical device is Hemafuse, a surgical autotransfusion device that is revolutionizing blood access across Africa. There is a global shortage of 100 millions units of donor blood worldwide, and only 40% of the demand for blood transfusions is met across Africa. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically worsened the global blood shortage as blood drives and large gatherings have been cancelled. Autotransfusion is the process of salvaging and retransfusing the patient's own blood in cases of internal bleeding. Studies show that autotransfusion reduces a patient’s recovery time and risk of infection and removes the potential for rejection when compared to donor blood. Notably, autotransfusion is viable for cases of ruptured ectopic pregnancy. Other viable cases include blunt trauma, traffic accidents, and cardiac and orthopedic surgeries.

Happy Thanksgiving from the BHI team!

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Dr. Nacy co-founded our Sequella in 1997 and has served as our CEO and Chairman of the Board since 1999. Prior to Sequella, Dr. Nacy served during 1997 and 1998 as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) for Anergen, Inc., a California company acquired by Corixa Corporation in December 1998. From 1993 through 1997, Dr. Nacy was Executive Vice President and CSO at EntreMed, Inc. and participated in its successful initial public offering in June 1996. Previously, Dr. Nacy was Career Scientist (GS-15) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC. Dr. Nacy currently serves on the board of directors of companies and non-profit agencies.

Click here for the Transcript

Listen now via Apple https://apple.co/374aOFI, Google https://bit.ly/3pTGqqj, Spotify https://bit.ly/3nIl7WO, and TuneIn https://bit.ly/3nIl7WO

Dr. Nacy co-founded our Sequella in 1997 and has served as our CEO and Chairman of the Board since 1999. Prior to Sequella, Dr. Nacy served during 1997 and 1998 as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) for Anergen, Inc., a California company acquired by Corixa Corporation in December 1998. From 1993 through 1997, Dr. Nacy was Executive Vice President and CSO at EntreMed, Inc. and participated in its successful initial public offering in June 1996. Previously, Dr. Nacy was Career Scientist (GS-15) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC. Dr. Nacy currently serves on the board of directors of companies and non-profit agencies.

Click here for the Transcript

The race to develop vaccine candidates to prevent COVID-19 represents an unprecedented national and global effort. President Trump and some public health experts say encouraging early results from Pfizer and Moderna suggest the approach is working. But there are also questions about the risks of ramping up vaccine research and development at this scale and on this timeline. Miles O’Brien reports.

Image: https://www.pbs.org

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. -- The U.S. Army signed a new cooperative agreement with Johns Hopkins University Sept. 30, 2020, to advance materials research using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Researchers from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory will collaborate with Johns Hopkins faculty and students on four focused projects:

• Using artificial intelligence to accelerate the iterative materials design cycle by high-throughput microstructural characterization and rapid processing 
• Acoustic signature and reconstruction of defect avalanches in metals 
• Real-time monitoring of laser-material interactions 
• Toward self-repairing devices: Data-directed design of active, hierarchical colloidal assembly and reconfiguration

Image: https://www.army.mil/article/240874/army_teams_with_johns_hopkins_to_advance_materials_research

PASADENA, Calif., Nov. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), an urban office REIT and the first, longest-tenured and pioneering owner, operator and developer uniquely focused on collaborative life science, technology and agtech campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, today announced that Alexandria LaunchLabs® at the Alexandria Center® for Life Science in New York City is the first laboratory space in the world to achieve the WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management. Building on its prior recognition as the world's first laboratory space to receive a WELL Certification for excellence in improving human health and well-being through building design, this latest evidence-based, third-party verified rating for the flagship location of Alexandria LaunchLabs—the premier startup platform accelerating the growth of early-stage life science companies—further affirms Alexandria's longstanding, robust and meticulous initiatives to help keep its tenants, employees, visitors, service providers and key industry stakeholders healthy and safe.

Image: Alexandria LaunchLabs® – New York City. Courtesy of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.