The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded Emergent BioSolutions Inc. a $26 million contract to continue to supply a medical treatment to the government.

Across the globe, a collection of healthcare professionals gather around their computer screens in their respective offices in Beijing, Brussels, London, and Los Angeles. A skilled U.S.-based oncologist leads this virtual board in discussing a 38-year-old British patient with advanced lung cancer. Using virtual reality technology, the team is able to simultaneously review the patient’s entire disease profile, including her medical history and lifestyle, and see high-resolution pathology images and all sorts of other biological data.

The Maryland Tech Council (MTC) has announced the finalists for its 30th Anniversary Industry Awards Celebration. Winners will be revealed at a celebration on May 17, 2018 at The Hotel at The University of Maryland. The event, which draws more than 600 executives from the technology and life science communities, celebrates individuals and companies that have made a significant impact in their sectors.

Senti Biosciences, a startup that's looking to make a new treatment that's upending how we treat cancer, just raised $53 million.

"The first opportunity we have to delight or to upset a client is when they walk through the door either physically or virtually."

Sounds like a tech executive, right? Jeff Bezos even? The Amazon boss often talks about delighting customers, after all, although until recently the ecommerce giant didn't really have doors to physically walk through.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) and Valneva SE (Euronext Paris:VLA) today announced the initiation of a Phase 1 clinical trial in the U.S. to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of VLA1601, their vaccine candidate against Zika virus.  

Apple is launching medical clinics for its employees in the latest attempt by a large tech company to address the U.S.’s growing healthcare problem. The new project, called AC Wellness, is launching sometime in the spring, according to its new website.

AstraZeneca has carved off six inflammation and autoimmune assets to create a new biotech, Viela Bio. The startup put together a $250 million series A round and a management team from its parent company to guide the mix of clinical and preclinical programs forward.

A Maryland bill that would make the state a national test case for controlling prescription drug costs has garnered broad legislative support in Annapolis but could put the state on a legal collision course with the pharmaceutical industry.

The Inova Personalized Health Accelerator (IPHA) announced today that it will expand its free educational program designed to teach first-time healthcare technology entrepreneurs how to grow successful companies. The spring 2018 session will build on the curriculum provided during the fall 2017 program. Inova’s fall program supported 57 enrolled participants over a 14-week training period.  Entrepreneurs interested in participating in the program are encouraged to apply via the IPHA web site (http://www.inovapha.org/for-entrepreneurs/training-program/ )

Researchers from theUniversity of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and the University of Maryland A. James Clark School of Engineering have developed a new military vehicle shock absorbing device that may protect troops from traumatic brain injury (TBI) after a land mine blast. Over the past 18 years of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than 250,000 troops have suffered such injuries.

When: Wednesday, March 14, 2018 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM

Where: Bar Louie 150 Gibbs St Rockville, MD 20850

Join BioBuzz and founding sponsor The Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus at Bar Louie on March 14th. The Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus offers part-time graduate courses in biotechnology fields. Students attend classes in the evenings and on Saturdays, enabling them to hold full-time jobs during the day. Depending on the degree area, students can fully complete their coursework in Montgomery County. Other students take some courses in Baltimore and/ or online.

MIMETAS, the market leader in Organ-on-a-chip products, announced that the National Cancer Institute recently awarded them a phase 1 SBIR grant totally $300,000 to develop personalized prostate cancer-on-a-chip models that can more accurately reproduce the tumor micro-environment. MIMETAS has built a consortium with the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSC) and MD Anderson to build the next generation platform for cancer drug screening and personal therapy prediction.

The University of Maryland's SGA will send a letter to Amazon supporting Montgomery County for the company's second headquarters, called HQ2.

MedImmune Inc., the research and development arm of global drug giant AstraZeneca PLC, is spinning out a new company named Viela Bio with plans to create 100 jobs within the next three to five years.

New BioHealth event free to attend with excellent speakers and no registration required

Sponsored by Montgomery County Councilmember George Leventhal

Wednesday, February 28, 7-9pm at Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus

Moderator:

Richard A. Bendis, President and CEO BioHealth Innovation Inc.

Panelists:

Jarrod Borkat, Senior Director, External Partnerships & Collaborations, MedImmune

Dr. Chris Austin, Director National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), Nation Institutes of Health

Anthony Saleh, PhD, Founder & CEO, Mirecule

150 post docs from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and other institutes at NIH had the opportunity to meet BioHealth Capital Region industry leaders and discuss possible career paths in the private sector at two different events this month. The events, co-hosted by BioHealth Innovation, WorkSource Montgomery, SciPhd and BioBuzz, were held in conjunction with SciPhd workshops hosted at NIH’s main campus and at the NCI campus in Rockville which are focused on training scientists for professional careers. BioHealth Innovation is working with local partners to support the growth of the region’s biohealth industry talent pool with entrepreneurial and commercially relevant experience.

Tell us about the impact your research may make on the world. You could win a free pre-clinical research study valued up to $20,000 and $1,000 in cash, or additional cash prizes.  

SoBran and the Maryland Tech Council are celebrating the transformational science coming out of the Maryland and surrounding area by establishing the Innovation for Impact Prize.

emocha, a mobile health company whose video-based technology improves medication adherence, was named among Fast Company’s 2018 Most Innovative Companies. The Baltimore-based startup ranked number 9 out of 10 in the health category.

PitchMasters™, a recently launched event for entrepreneurs preparing to raise their first institutional or ‘A’ round of capital, has announced dates for 2018. The event series aims to bring together four early-stage or start-up companies and experienced entrepreneurs, investors and industry influencers to hone pitching skills, provide practical insights and guidance, and form new network connections. For 2018, PitchMasters seeks participants for its March 7, June 6, September 12 and December 6 events.

The National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) announced today that the 2018 Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research will be awarded to Douglas R. Lowy, M.D., and John T. Schiller, Ph.D., for development of vaccines for human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes 99% of cervical cancer cases. Collaborators for over 30 years at the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Lowy and Schiller developed the first Food and Drug Administration approved vaccines specifically targeting cancer.

Today, KeyGene announces that its European Patent EP 2813141 entitled ”Directed strategies for improving phenotypic traits”, was upheld after oral proceedings at the European Patent Office. The patent, granted August 5, 2015, is part of KeyGene’s accelerated molecular breeding estate and protects methods for improving phenotypic traits of interest in crops or animals.

Margot Connor has global ambitions for her company, RoosterBio Inc. But she expects that it will stay connected to its Frederick roots.

TEDCO and the Abell Foundation are the might and money behind local startups.

“If an 1890s physicist time-travelled to a physics laboratory today, he would be totally flummoxed. But, if Louis Pasteur were transported to a microbiology laboratory just a few years ago, he very likely would have rolled up his sleeves and gone to work. That’s because, compared to physics labs, not much has changed regarding microbial systematics. Microbial systematics—the identification and characterization of microorganisms—simply had to be modernized,” says Rita Colwell, Ph.D., founder of CosmosID.

DATE AND TIME: Thu, March 8, 2018, 8:15 AM – 12:30 PM EST

LOCATION: Germantown Innovation Center, 20271 Goldenrod Lane, 2nd Floor, Germantown, MD 20876

Did you know you that, by law, you are required to file for and receive a Hazardous Use Permit* every year if you are storing, handling or using any hazardous substance in excess of 5 gallons or 50 pounds? Failure to do so could result in civil and criminal penalties.

The Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices is bringing together skilled scientists, medical doctors, health practitioners, and bioengineers who are working to research, design, and build biomedical devices to benefit humanity, while simultaneously training the next generation of innovators.

Four world-renowned universities are eyeing Hong Kong as a stronghold in Asia for developing cutting-edge stem cell research as the city’s financial chief is expected to announce incentives to make it easier for foreign research institutions to invest in innovation and technology locally, the Post has learned.

FluMist Quadrivalent has returned to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommended list of flu vaccines, drugmaker AstraZeneca announced.

With federal spending on Medicaid experiments soaring in recent years, a congressional watchdog said state and federal governments fail to adequately evaluate if the efforts improve care and save money.

Tell us about the impact your research may make on the world. You could win a free pre-clinical research study valued up to $20,000 and $1,000 in cash, or additional cash prizes.  

SoBran and the Maryland Tech Council are celebrating the transformational science coming out of the Maryland and surrounding area by establishing the Innovation for Impact Prize.

A key federal committee gave its OK for pediatricians to make MedImmune's FluMist available to patients in the next flu season — a big win for parent company AstraZeneca which saw its flu vaccine's U.S. sales decimated in the last two flu seasons because of previous negative recommendations.

The Maryland Tech Council's Industry Awards Celebration will take place on May 17, 2018 at The Hotel at the University of Maryland. This is our 30th year recognizing the high achievers in the regional technology, life science and government contracting industries.

A group of 100 public universities will work with the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities to produce hundreds of thousands of additional degrees while also reducing achievement gaps for underrepresented student groups.

Prior research has found that drinking a glass of red wine a day may protect against cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and neurodegenerative disorders. The latest laboratory studies by researchers in Spain now suggest that the polyphenols in red wine could also protect against the bacteria that cause tooth cavities and gum disease.