The wisdom of Warren Buffett reflects a value-based philosophy about investing that says investors are buying shares in a business, and encourages strategic thinking about investment time horizon. Before placing a buy order for a stock, a great question we can ask is whether we would still be comfortable making the investment if we couldn’t sell it for many years?

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AUPH / TSX: AUP) (“Aurinia” or the “Company”), a late clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the global immunology market, today announced the appointment of Mr. Peter Greenleaf as Chief Executive Officer and as a Director on the Aurinia Board. The Company also announced the elevation of George M. Milne, Jr., Ph.D. to Chairman of the Board of Directors. Dr. Richard M. Glickman, who previously announced his plans to retire on November 6, 2018, will step down from his role as Chairman and CEO concurrent with Mr. Greenleaf’s appointment on April 29, 2019, and will remain an advisor to the Company for a period of 12 months.

The American Cancer Society has awarded three new grants to support and further cancer research in Maryland.

Each grant is funded for multiple years and together total nearly $2 million in cancer research funding. Since 1946, the society has awarded more than 1,091 grants to researchers in Maryland.

April 17, 2019 @ 4:30 PM – 7:00 PM

Join Mtech’s Biotechnology Research and Education Program (BREP) for a special launch event at the University of Maryland IBBR Building in Rockville on April 17th, 2019. Learn about this new industry-relevant new course and enjoy an evening of traditional BioBuzz networking with others in the regional biotech ecosystem.

The 5th annual Biohealth Capital Region (BHCR) Forum was held on April 8th and 9th at AstraZeneca in Gaithersburg, MD. Biotech and life science executives and expert speakers from industry, academia, healthcare, government, finance and real estate development, among others, converged to discuss the BHCR’s path forward to becoming a top three U.S. biotech cluster by 2023.

Rich Bendis, CEO of BioHealth Innovation, and host of the forum welcomed the 1,200 registered attendees (double the number of the first forum) with the annual update on the region’s progress towards that goal.  After moving up one spot in 2018 to number four, according to GEN Biotechnology’s annual rankings, the BHCR is building momentum fueled by record VC investment, new lab space and multiple new companies moving into the region.

Baltimore is brimming with entrepreneurial talent. A new generation of CEOs and inventors are emerging right here in Baltimore with companies that are revolutionizing the life science & healthcare industries. The local community of universities and investors, coupled with the broader assets of the BioHealth Capital Region, has provided a lush ecosystem for innovators to take their ideas to the next level.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE:  ARE), an urban office REIT uniquely focused on collaborative life science and technology campuses in AAA innovation clusters, today celebrates the inaugural member class of seed- and early-stage life science companies at the Alexandria LaunchLabs® – Cambridge with a highly curated Grand Opening event. The 20,000 RSF space, located at the Alexandria Center® at One Kendall Square, is now home to 13 new member companies rigorously selected from a deep pool of applicants based on the quality of their science, leadership teams and business strategies. Alexandria also offers a unique opportunity to access capital through the Alexandria Seed Capital Platform, which is led by Alexandria Venture Investments and supported by a preeminent group of member biopharmaceutical and venture entities. The Alexandria Seed Capital Platform recently closed on its first investment in a Cambridge‑based company.

Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE American: RNN), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapies to improve patient outcomes in cancers that are difficult to treat, today announced that its Board of Directors has approved a one-for-twelve (1-for-12) reverse stock split of its common stock that will become effective Friday, April 12, 2019, upon the filing of a Certificate of Amendment to its Certificate of Incorporation with the Secretary of the State of Delaware. Beginning on April 12, 2019, Rexahn’s common stock will trade on NYSE American on a reverse split-adjusted basis under the new CUSIP number 761640309.

– Winning company focused on learning solutions for those with Autism.

Other finalists presented innovative technologies related to Multiple Sclerosis, Spine Alignment, TBI and Oncolytic Immunotherapeutics 

Competition sponsored by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati held during 2019 BioHealth Capital Region Forum –

Judges of the 2019 Crab Trap competition present Floreo Inc. CEO and Co-Founder, Vijay Ravindran their award 

ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, April 9, 2018 – Floreo Inc., an early stage startup founded in 2016 which is leveraging the power of virtual reality to deliver immersive, fun, and affordable lessons for children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), was chosen from five finalists as the firm with the most commercial potential at the 4^th Annual Crab Trap Competition. This year’s judges included industry leaders John Rubin of JP Morgan Private Bank, Charles J. Andres of Wilson Sonsino Goodrich & Rosati’s, Raghav Bhargava  of New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Ethel Rubin of NIH/BHI, John Trainer of AstraZeneca, and Norm Marcus, MD. Of Sanderling Ventures.

The Judges were impressed with Floreo’s CEO and Co-Founder, Vijay Ravindran, presentation of his company’s technology which was inspired by his autistic son’s reaction to virtual reality. Floreo’s library of lessions are currently used in schools, therapy, and homes while providing a supervising adult the opportunity to monitor and track the learner’s progress. Floreo joins previous Crab Trap winners Galen Robotics (2018), LifeSprout (2017) and Sonavex (2016).

View Rich Bendis' Welcome Presentation from the 2019 BioHealth Capital Region Forum

UMBC’s underdog basketball team did not pull off another stunning upset this year, but the school’s scientists continue to conquer the STEM world.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, just announced that they will put part of their enormous wealth behind an effort to spread the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s successful STEM honors program to two University of California colleges.

Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC and Children’s National Health System (Children’s National) today announced a collaboration to launch JLABS @ Washington, DC, a 32,000-square foot facility to be located at the new Children’s National Research and Innovation Campus in Washington, D.C. This Children’s National expansion is set on a nearly 12-acre portion of the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center campus in the nation’s capital. The co-location of the Research and Innovation Campus with key partners in the areas of public health research, innovation and incubator space is critical to accelerating the translation of potential breakthrough discoveries into new treatments and technologies. The JLABS @ Washington, DC site will be open to pharmaceutical, medical device, consumer and health technology companies that are aiming to advance the development of new drugs, medical devices, precision diagnostics and health technologies, including applications in pediatrics.

You’re about to go under the knife and the anesthesia is taking hold. Is it better to look up and see a robot surgeon with autonomous capabilities looming over you, or an old-fashioned human doctor?

When: Wednesday, April 10, 2019 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. EST

Where: Hosick Lecture Hall655 West Baltimore StreetBressler Research Bldg.Baltimore, MD  21201United States

This Baltimore Meetup is free for members and students, and members may bring up to two guests at the member price (free). If you're new to WIB and interested in checking it out before becoming a member, please reach out via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Program:

Six panelists share their expertise on social media and personal interactions, with a facilitator 

Applied Biosciences Corp. (OTCQB: APPB), a diversified cannabinoid therapeutics company focused on the medical, bioceutical, testing and pet health industries, announced that is has retained the Emmes Group to assist with the development and execution of the Company’s partnership and technology licensing initiatives and strategies.

The Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine announced on Thursday that it has been awarded $17.5 million from the National Institutes of Health to fund omics-based infectious disease research.

MIMETAS announces the opening of a brand-new office and laboratory in Gaithersburg, MD, USA. The new location provides MIMETAS with capacity for further growth in the USA and to strengthen local customer support, product development and sales of the OrganoPlate®, a versatile, high-throughput 3D microfluidic cell culture device.

Date And Time: Tue, April 16, 2019, 1:00 PM – 5:30 PM EDT

Location: Science and Engineering Hall, Lehman Auditorium, 800 22nd Street NW, Lower Level, Washington, DC 20052

The George Washington University and the Technology Commercialization Office are pleased to invite you to the 2019 Innovation Competition!

The Technology Commercialization Office (TCO) is showcasing promising and impactful GW research with commercial potential. This event provides a forum for idea sharing between GW researchers, entrepreneurs, and members of the venture community, as well as the opportunity to present technologies available for licensing to a panel of experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and industry professionals. Finalists will pitch their technologies for a chance to win $30,000 in prizes!

As head of the FDA, Scott Gottlieb has been outspoken about drug pricing, chiming in on an area that is typically tangential to the agency commissioner’s purview. In the first announcement of his next steps — made one day before he’s scheduled to officially end his shorter-than-expected tenure — Gottlieb says he’s returning to the American Enterprise Institute as a resident fellow focused on these exact issues.

Scientists, engineers, life science executives, academics, government officials and other constituents recently gathered to discuss the state of the BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR) at the annual Mid Atlantic Science & Technology (MAST) Showcase, hosted by the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering – Chesapeake Bay Area Chapter’s (ISPE-CBA).

The announcement comes from LinkedIn, who compiled a list of the organisations Brits would most like to work for.

GSK came in at number four beating the likes of Marks & Spencer, BP and Johnson & Johnson.

The 2019 MAST Showcase, hosted by the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering – Chesapeake Bay Area Chapter (ISPE-CBA), kicked off this year’s event with an inspiring keynote address by Aaron Vernon, VP Engineering & Supply Chain at Autolus Therapeutics, a leading CAR T-cell therapeutics company.

June 2 - 3, 2019

Held in advance of the BIO International Convention, at AURP’s BIO Health Caucus, we will explore trends in life science research, funding resources, the marriage of life science and engineering in global partnership opportunities. Discover the unique roles that biomedical innovation districts and research parks play in innovation ecosystems in the U.S. and around the globe. Translating discoveries from the laboratory to the market has never been more important.

The move is intended to position the business for growth with a stronger focus on health care.

Pharm-Olam, a global, midsized CRO offering full-service clinical development solutions for oncology, infectious diseases and vaccines, and rare and orphan diseases, has been named a winner in Life Science Leader magazine’s 2019 CRO Leadership Awards.

Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. will present late-breaking preclinical data which shows that its’ investigational nucleic acid platform, UNITE, may enhance antitumor immunity when used in connection with its investigational DNA vaccine, ITI-7000. In preclinical studies, ITI-7000, an investigational DNA vaccine targeting ErbB2/HER2, demonstrated robust activation of known anti-tumor CD4 and CD8 cells in vivo and promoted tumor infiltration with activated CD8 T cells. These data will be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2019 meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

A sampling of recent reports shows just how much immuno-oncology continues to grow. Last month, GrandView Research projected a more than doubling of the global cancer immunotherapy market, from the $58.1 billion it tallied in 2018, to $126.9 billion by 2026. As GEN noted when it ranked the top immuno-oncology startups in February, market projections range from $124.88 billion (Transparency Market Research) to $173 billion (Market Research Engine) by 2024.

Emmes today announced that it provided the data management support for a study, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to safely use Acyclovir to treat infants infected with the Herpes Simplex Virus. Acyclovir, known by the brand name Zovirax, now includes recommended usage and dosage for newborns and infants up to three months of age on its label.

CASI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: CASI), a U.S. pharmaceutical company with a platform to develop and accelerate the launch of pharmaceutical products and innovative therapeutics in China, the U.S., and throughout the world, announced that Wei-Wu He, Ph.D., Executive Chairman of CASI, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer. Dr. He will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Dr. He succeeds Ken K. Ren, Ph.D. who for personal reasons is stepping down from his role as Chief Executive Officer but will remain on the Company’s Board of Directors.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE:  ARE), an urban office REIT uniquely focused on collaborative life science and technology campuses in AAA innovation clusters, today announced the launch of new strategic agtech business initiatives to provide much-needed infrastructure and capital to the rapidly growing agricultural technology (agtech) industry and address the challenge of advancing human health by improving nutrition. Alexandria's timely launch includes the opening of the Alexandria Center® for AgTech – Research Triangle, the country's first and only integrated multi-tenant, amenity-rich agtech R&D and greenhouse campus, located in North Carolina. The campus opens with a fully leased first phase, a 175,000 RSF redevelopment at 5 Laboratory Drive in the heart of the Research Triangle, the most important, dense and diverse agtech cluster in the United States. The company has already initiated development of the campus's second phase, a 160,000 RSF property at 9 Laboratory Drive, further expanding the office/laboratory and greenhouse space at the Alexandria Center for AgTech. Construction and pre-leasing of this future value-creation development project are underway with expected delivery in 2020.

Autolus Therapeutics plc (Nasdaq: AUTL), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation programmed T cell therapies for the treatment of cancer, announced that Claire Roddie MB, PhD, FRCPath, honorary senior lecturer, Cancer Institute, University College London (UCL), presented today initial data from the ongoing Phase 1/2 ALLCAR19 trial of AUTO1 in adult acute lymphoblastic B cell leukemia (ALL) as a late-breaking poster presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia.

April 4, 2019 3pm-6:30pmUniv. Shady Grove Convention Center 9630 Gudelsky Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850

Welcome to the Spring 2019 Meeting of the Metro DC Chapter of the Laboratory Research Interest Group! Although we have deep roots in Laboratory Automation, we also invite you to learn about other research technologies, new tools, and projects that are available and ongoing in the Capitol Bioscience hub!

This years theme is Emerging Technologies at the Forefront of Bioscience, with emphasis on 3D Cell Printing, Organoids, Tissue-On-Chip models, and Artificial Intelligence in Bioscience.

Attendance is free with your Eventbrite reservation, and we encourage you to register early.

– Winner to be announced during 2019 BioHealth Capital Region Forum –

Five innovative companies focused on the diagnosis or treatment of Multiple Sclerosis, TBI, Autism, Spinal misalignment, and Metastatic Cancer will present their innovative technologies to a panel of judges and industry leaders on April 9^th during the 2019 BioHealth Capital Region Forum, at the AstraZeneca campus in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Founded by BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) and AstraZeneca in 2016, the annual Crab Trap Competition highlights biohealth companies with strong commercial potential. The five finalists were selected from a competitive field of almost fifty entries. The 4^th Annual Crab Trap Competition is sponsored by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The grand prize this year is $10,000.

In 2016, the initial prize was awarded to Sonavex, a commercial stage Johns Hopkins spin-out focused on Empowered Patient Care.  The company’s first technology is a dual-component system comprising an FDA-cleared bioabsorbable implant (EchoMark) and an FDA-cleared custom automated ultrasound (EchoSure) to detect post-operative vascular complications prior to catastrophic surgical failures that represent a $3B annual market and cost hospitals up to $577,000 per instance. The company closed a $4.5M Series A in 2018, recently secured a $3M NIH grant and is currently raising its Series B. In 2017, the winner was another Johns Hopkins (JH*) spinout, LifeSprout, developer of a suite of products to address soft tissue needs in the aesthetic and reconstructive markets. Last year’s winner, Galen Robotics, is developing, in partnership with JHU, a surgical robot to make minimally invasive surgeries faster, safer and more precise. The company plans a 510k submission next year, is raising Series A financing, and will be relocating the HQ team in CA to join their engineering experts in Baltimore.

The 2019 BioHealth Capital Region Crab Trap Finalists presenting at the forum at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, April 9^th, are:

BeCareLink - Predictive Artificial Intelligence Digital Therapeutic Mobile Platform for Multiple Sclerosis and other neurological conditions.

BRAINBox Solutions - Multi-Modality capability to diagnose and provide prognostic information for mild Traumatic Brain Injury. 

Floreo Inc. - Leveraging the power of virtual reality to develop a subscription platform that delivers immersive, fun, and affordable lessons for children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). 

Spine Align - Spine Align is a medical device company developing technologies that enable spine surgeons to make real-time intraoperative measurements of spinal alignment.

Unleash Immuno Oncolytics - Developing armed, oncolytic viruses to treat metastatic cancers.  Our platform combines tissue-specific control of both viral replication and the expression of human cytokines to provide a dual punch in cancer cells.

AstraZeneca is spearheading the creation of a new life sciences park, in Wuxi, China, that aims to nurture innovation by bringing together local and international companies, government, and medical and academic institutions to help create a world-class healthcare innovation ecosystem.

AstraZeneca signed a global development and commercialization deal with Daiichi Sankyo for trastuzumab deruxtecan (DS-8201), an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC).

An ADC is a chemotherapy agent attached by a molecular linker to an antibody focused on a specific cancer marker. This way, the antibody delivers the toxic chemical directly to the tumors, minimizing the effects of the chemotherapy on healthy cells.