Scientists have developed a way to grow miniature versions of human organs; some of the weirdest organoids are the mini brains.

The majority of healthcare organizations — 63 percent — say they are planning to invest more than $1 million into blockchain in 2019, according to a Deloitte report.

Deloitte conducted an online survey of 1,053 senior executives from companies with at least $500 million in annual revenue from seven countries — Canada, China, France, Germany, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States — between March 26 and April 5 for its global blockchain report.

Francis Collins did not take off his pants.

To the contrary, he could sense something wasn’t quite right — perhaps immediately, when his heavyset and dubiously bearded interviewer, sitting in a motorized scooter, began by asking: “Why are big agriculture putting chemicals into our food to make people transgender?”

In 2019, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) will present the seventh annual Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences, a $100,000 award recognizing outstanding achievement by a promising young scientist in biomedical research. The Prize is made possible by a generous gift from philanthropist Ann Lurie.

The awardee will be selected by a jury of six distinguished biomedical researchers, chaired by Solomon H. Snyder, M.D., Distinguished Service Professor of Neuroscience, Pharmacology & Psychiatry, The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The Award will be presented at the FNIH Award Ceremony on Wednesday, May 22, 2019 in Washington, D.C.

One of Maryland’s best-funded biotech companies took a milestone first step Monday, announcing it has begun clinical trials of a medication it is developing. Gaithersburg-based Viela Bio was spun out of MedImmune, a subsidiary of AstraZeneca, last month with $250 million in financing and a promise of creating 100 jobs within five years.

AAVogen Inc., a biotech company that is developing gene therapeutics for muscle wasting disease, welcomes Lawson Macartney, DVM/PhD as the newest member of its Science Advisory Board.

Dr. Macartney is a 25-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry and currently chairs the Board of Directors for Viking Therapeutics. He has also held senior leadership positions at Ambrx, ScoutBio, Shire, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraMerck.

MedImmune is one of the 300+ BioHealth success stories in Montgomery County. Meet JoAnn Suzich, Ph.D., VP of Research and Microbial Sciences, who shares the incredible health innovation happening on MedImmune’s campus in Montgomery County.

Are you seeking funding or about to launch a fundraising campaign? Sign up today to attend Life Science Nation’s Fundraising Bootcamp.  Pre-registration is required but there is no charge to attend (lunch for RESI attendees only).  Your choice of two locations:

Monday, 8/27 - Frederick Innovative Technology Center, Inc.

4539 Metropolitan Court, Frederick, MD 21704

(register: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

OR

Tuesday, 8/28 at bwtech@UMBC – Tech South

1450 South Rolling Road

Halethorpe, MD 21227

(register:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

BOTH WORKSHOPS HAVE THE SAME CONTENT – Register for the one that is most convenient for you. Workshop: Fundraising Boot Camp for Life Science Startups – 10-11:30 a.m.

Presenter: Dennis Ford, Founder and CEO, Life Science Nation; Creator of the RESI Conference Series; Author of The Life Science Executive's Fundraising Manifesto

• About Life Science Nation (LSN)
• Raising Capital: The 3 Most Important Questions
• The Changing Investor Landscape
• Debunking the Top 10 Old Myths in Fundraising
• Planning & Infrastructure for an Outbound Fundraising Campaign
• Building Your Brand Through Consistent Messaging
• Key Components of Fundraising Marketing Collateral

Networking:  11:30am - 12pm

Interactive Lunch: Upcoming RESI Prep (RESI registrants only) 12-2 p.m.

When:Thursday, December 13, 20187:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. EST

Where:VisArts Rockville155 Gibbs StreetRockville, MD  20850United States

The HERstory Gala is the premier event for our chapter and supporters. This elegant event attracts men and women from industry, government, non-profits, and academia from across the Capital Region Metro Area and provides unique opportunities to meet with some of the region’s most successful women. This event is focused on highlighting women trailblazers in the life sciences who have made a significant impact in the region during the year. Ticket price includes open bar, cocktail reception, seated 3-course dinner, and access to biotech industry leaders in the Capital Region.

Only 7 percent of patients live five years after diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, the lowest rate for any cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. Elliot K. Fishman, MD, a researcher and radiologist at Johns Hopkins, is on the forefront of trying to change this statistic, and he's using artificial intelligence to do it.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the first-ever generic version of EpiPen Thursday — a move the agency says could help lower costs for the drug, which can carry a price tag of more than $600.

Does your small business need assistance in commercializing its HHS SBIR/STTR-funded technology? Was that technology developed with a Phase II HHS SBIR/STTR award that was active at any time between August 2013 and August 2018? (Your company does not need to have a currently active award as any HHS Phase II SBIR/STTR award active in the last 5 years would qualify.)

If your answers to both these questions is “Yes,” then your company should consider applying to the NIH Commercialization Accelerator Program (CAP).

Companies are invited to apply online exit disclaimer icon . Due to popular demand, the deadline for submissions has now been extended to August 23, 2018 11:59pm (PDT). Selected companies will be notified in early September 2018.

Maryland biotechnology firms Profectus BioSciences Inc. and Emergent BioSolutions Inc. will receive up to $36 million to develop and manufacture a new vaccine against a type of virus that causes hemorrhagic fever.

This networking event is for BioTech Professionals in the BioHealth Capital Region. We encourage all professionals, post-docs and scientist to attend - it is a great opportunity to get to know others who are working in science in our region.

This free industry wide event will include music, games, hors d'oeuvres, drinks.

Listen to, network with the hottest startup CXOs in the biohealth capital region at our first in a series of four annual meetups around the Capital Beltway on “OMICS, Digital Health and Precision Medicine Data Science” Panel discussion with refreshments, drinks and networking

Meetup #1: Digital OMICS Innovators Meetup. September 20, 2018, Thursday; 5:00-8:00PM

Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus 9605 Medical Center Dr, Rm 121, Rockville, MD 20850

A Harvard scientist thinks he's reached a new milestone: a genetic test that helps identify people who are at high risk of having a heart attack. Can he convince doctors to use it?

PROGRAMS AND INCENTIVES TO SPUR BUSINESS GROWTH

We help you navigate available programs, grants and incentives to identify immediate opportunities and plan for long-term success. Check out the very successful MOVE program, small business programs and incentives geared to specific industries.

GlycoMimetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLYC), a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel small-molecule drug candidates to treat rare diseases, announced today that the Japan Patent Office (JPO) has issued Patent No. 6366150, for uproleselan (GMI-1271). The newly issued patent covers uproleselan’s composition of matter as well as pharmaceutical formulations, and expires in December 2032.

Popper and Co., a strategy consulting and transaction advisory firm serving the needs of the medical technology and life sciences industries, announced today that Co-Founder and President Caroline Popper, M.D., will speak at the 10th Annual Next Generation Dx Summit on August 22 at 5 pm ET at the Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington, DC.

Calling all pediatric cardiovascular devices $100K competition now accepting proposals

We are now accepting proposals for our annual pediatric medical device pitch competition! New this year, the competition is focused on pediatric cardiovascular devices – a significant unmet need for children. The competition will be held on Sunday, Sept. 23, 2018 in Philadelphia, Penn. at our 6th Annual Pediatric Device Innovation Symposium. The deadline to apply is Monday, Sept. 10. For additional competition details and to apply, click here.

The Emmes Corporation today announced that it was selected as one of the best places to work in the greater Washington area. The Washington Post’s 2017 Top Workplaces list ranked private, public, nonprofit and government agencies based on the highest engagement ratings from their employees. The Washington Post used Workplace Dynamics to conduct the survey, with 3,000 area companies invited to participate and 150 organizations selected as Top Workplaces. Emmes was ranked 15th out of 25 in the large company category and was one of only two biotechnology organizations to make the list.

RegenxBio Inc. (NASDAQ:RGNX) raised $175.5 million through the sale of 2.7 million shares at $65 in a follow-on underwritten by Morgan Stanley, BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays and Raymond James.

Venture investor Krishna Yeshwant uses a healthy amount of skepticism when vetting potential companies to invest in. His favorite time to invest is when one of his partners at the fund is excited about a particular company, even if nobody else is.

To better understand one of the most heated U.S. policy debates, we created a tournament to judge which of these nations has the best health system: Canada, Britain, Singapore, Germany, Switzerland, France, Australia and the U.S.

In the first such clinical trial in the United States, physician-scientists with the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) are investigating the use of MRI-guided focused ultrasound to open the blood-brain barrier. The trial will be conducted with patients undergoing brain cancer surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC).

Recently, ClearMask received $25,000 in grant funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support ClearMask's commercialization efforts. The funding is part of the NSF's National Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program that helps scientists and engineers move their technologies toward commercialization.

In last week’s Amplified column, I discussed how the traditional wisdom that small business pursues disruptive innovation and big business pursues sustaining innovation may no longer hold. This is especially likely in industries consisting of only a few large players that both have the resources to engage in disruptive innovation themselves and to raise the costs of entry to would-be competitors.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE: EBS) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire PaxVax, a company focused on specialty vaccines that protect against existing and emerging infectious diseases, for an all-cash consideration of $270 million. PaxVax is majority owned by an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P.

Maryland’s health tech startup ecosystem is at it again. Silver Spring-based startup which is named as Aziyo Biologics Inc. has raised an amount of $10 million from seven leading investors in a funding round which has been disclosed yesterday night in SEC filings.

After a week of persistent rain throughout Maryland, it was blue skies and a perfect 85-degree summer afternoon that marked an important day for Paragon Bioservices and their 250+ employees.  Dozens of those employees stepped off a charter bus from Baltimore to see the brand new 151,000 sq/ft GMP biomanufacturing facility near BWI for the first time. The wide-open parking lots and 200 yards between the nearest building presented a much different landscape than they were used to at their current UM BioPark location in the city.  An afternoon picnic and site tour was organized as a celebration for their employees, who got to enjoy some delicious ole’ fashioned BBQ, music and games outside before a short welcome ceremony.

We want to offer you the best possible experience when using the OrganoPlate® for your experiments. This page contains training videos and protocols to get you started. For optimal user experience, we recommend you to follow these 5 steps before your first experiment:

Paragon Bioservices, the leading private equity-backed biologics contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) with proven expertise in gene therapy and next-generation vaccines, announces today two key leadership promotions. Deborah Wild has been promoted from Vice President, Quality, Validation and Regulatory Affairs to Senior Vice President, Quality, Validation and Regulatory Affairs, and Ruby Hofmann has been promoted from Vice President, Human Resources and Organizational Development to Senior Vice President, Human Resources, and Organizational Development.

Senseonics Holdings, Inc. (NYSE-American: SENS), a medical technology company focused on the development and commercialization of a long-term, implantable continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system for people with diabetes, today announced that the Eversense® CGM System is now available at trained clinics across the U.S. and physicians have begun sensor placements with patients. Concurrently, the company reported that its first commercial payer, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and Horizon Healthcare of New Jersey, has added coverage of the Eversense System to its Medical Policy.

Johns Hopkins University has been awarded up to $30 million to lead a consortium of three Mid-Atlantic universities that will work together on research projects with the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Venture Capital - Generating Opportunity in Montgomery County