The University of Maryland and Georgetown University are two of the world’s leading academic institutions for the number of utility patents they were awarded last year.

Americans are identifying the need for more healthcare innovation, according to a recent survey.

A Klick Health consumer survey, conducted by Maru/Matchbox, found that only 17% of people rank health-related sectors as most innovative, but 40% think they should be.

Big data analytics are entirely transforming business paradigms. Automated databases are enabling businesses to perform mundane tasks more efficiently. And, the commercial sector isn’t the only area to benefit from data analytics. Its impact is widespread and is being seen across many different sectors, including healthcare.

Silver Spring regenerative medicine company Aziyo Biologics Inc. raised $12 million in a recent funding round, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows.

TEDCO is known for providing seed funding for early stage companies.

“We want to help the incubation industry raise their bar, too, and keep pace with acceleration and innovation in Maryland,” said Neil Davis, Director of Entrepreneurial Development at the quasi-public agency that backs early stage companies.

A few years ago, multinational pharma companies seeking growth and respite from market uncertainty in Europe and the United States found a haven in emerging markets. Their rapid economic growth triggered an expansion in healthcare coverage and the emergence of a new cohort of consumers able to afford larger out-of-pocket spending on drugs. But early euphoria was soon replaced by a more somber outlook.

Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx) received a new contract from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to provide a test for cancer that does not require tissue samples.

The Canton-based company makes a liquid biopsy, which tests for cancer by evaluating 64 genes that are associated with cancer.

Researchers in the University of Maryland (UMD) Fischell Department of Bioengineering (BIOE) Jewell Laboratory are using quantum dots - tiny semiconductor particles commonly used in nanotechnology - to decipher the features needed to design specific and effective therapies for multiple sclerosis (MS) and other autoimmune diseases. Their findings were published this week as the cover story of Advanced Functional Materials.

A transformative cancer therapy based on modified immune cells has lured doctors, companies, and patients alike, but many are hitting a frustrating roadblock: generating enough of these chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells to meet surging demand. The situation is fluid, with shortages cropping up in some places and easing in others. Doctors, meanwhile, are grappling with how best to distribute the experimental therapy among very sick patients in clinical trials.

MassChallenge marked the end of its first digital health cohort PULSE@MassChallenge with assurances from Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker that the Commonwealth would back a second class of digital health businesses and provide funding for health technology innovation center TechSpring. Health technology businesses with eye tracking technology for concussion detection, virtual reality to reduce social isolation for nursing home residents and a telehealth alternative to ambulance radios were among the 31 participants in the inaugural class to be singled out at the Boston event.

The Omnibus solicitation of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have been released with submission dates of September 5, 2017 and January 5, 2018. The solicitation is for both SBIR and STTR applications for NIH, and SBIR proposals for CDC and the FDA.

To fill a pair of life-sciences buildings on the East Side it built during the past decade, Alexandria Real Estate Equities recruited big pharmaceutical companies, like Eli Lilly and Roche, as anchor tenants. Now the firm is focusing on startups it hopes will spur the next wave of growth at its Alexandria Center for Life Science campus.

The firm today announced lease deals for roughly half its year-old, 15,000-square-foot LaunchLabs incubator. Most of the 13 tenants emerged from local academic and research institutions including New York University, Columbia, and the New York Genome Center. The products being explored include tissue implants from 3-D printers, drugs to heal scar tissue and genetically engineered organisms augmented with synthetic chromosomes.

The contractor must have experience and expertise coordinating entrepreneurial training programs for biomedical innovators over a minimum of three (3) years.

The contractor must have an understanding of concepts in medical device innovation and design, as well as commercialization processes and strategies.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and the University of Maryland, College Park have granted Cellth Systems exclusive licensing rights for the commercial development of cell-tethering technology that allows real-time analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), which has important applications in cancer treatment. In addition, Cellth announced today that TEDCO, an independent organization assisting and funding Maryland’s startup community, has awarded the company $150,000 through its Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII) program.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a University System of Maryland institute a $6 million grant to develop a vaccine for the hepatitis C virus.

The Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research will conduct the grant-funded research over a five-year period. The institute is a joint research enterprise between the University of Maryland, College Park, the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors on Friday approved an academic affiliation with the Inova Health System Foundation that includes a research institute and a UVA School of Medicine regional campus.

Global Genomics and Bioinformatics Research Institute UVA and Inova, along with partner George Mason University, will recruit investigators to work in collaborative teams on genetics and genomics, bioengineering, systems biology of disease, developmental biology and computational biology. The goal: make scientific discoveries that can be turned into new treatments, drugs and devices that improve the health of patients across Virginia and beyond.

Few issues are more foundational to driving improvements in human health than creating productive, progressive relationships between clinical medicine and the biopharmaceutical industry. The big public health problems that humanity faces today — including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and metabolic and infectious disease — will not be solved by either sector working in a silo. But the interface between the two has never been more tense. Legitimate concerns over conflict of interest that have resulted in overly extreme preventative policies are a central cause. It is time for all parties to revisit those policies and replace them with rules that recognize both true conflicts and true confluences of interest. They are essential to forging the strong collaborations that are worthy of society’s trust.

Crowdfunding platforms such as GoFundMe and YouCaring have turned sympathy for Americans drowning in medical expenses into a cottage industry. Now Republican efforts in Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare could swell the ranks of the uninsured and spur the business of helping people raise donations online to pay for health care.

But medical crowdfunding doesn't have to wait for Congress to act. Business is already booming, and its leaders expect the rapid growth to continue no matter what happens on the Hill.

President Trump has named Norman “Ned” Sharpless, the director of the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, to lead the National Cancer Institute.

The oncologist and geneticist will succeed Doug Lowy, who has been acting director of NCI since early 2015. Lowy is expected to remain at the institute as deputy director and a researcher.

Johns Hopkins University is among the top ten institutions worldwide to receive U.S. utility patents in 2016, according to a rankings report published by the National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association. The report ranks JHU at No. 7, with the university listed as the first assignee on 167 patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last year.

A program at the University of Virginia's College at Wise aimed to bolster economic development in the region has received millions to help more students and the community get involved.

The Wise County school announced Friday that their parent school in Charlottesville has allocated $3.5 million from its Strategic Fund for the Wise Innovation Ecosystem.

German research company Qiagen has announced its expansion in Thailand and has opened an office in Bangkok to enhance relationships with life-science researchers and healthcare providers in this growing market.

Qiagen also announced two new collaborations in Thailand: a molecular techniques centre established with the faculty of tropical medicine at Mahidol University, and a collaboration with Ramathibodi Hospital to study genomic insights from next-generation sequencing (NGS).

Johns Hopkins University has been ranked among the top 2 percent of universities in the world by the 2018 QS World University Rankings released today.

Out of 950 universities from more than 80 countries, Johns Hopkins came in at No. 17—the same ranking as last year—and was the ninth-highest ranked U.S. school. QS has ranked JHU among the world's top 20 universities for the past ten years, and among the top 30 since the rankings list debuted in 2004.

There’s no shame in getting a little bit of help, particularly when it comes to running a business. Sure, you can bootstrap a one-man company with no advice from seasoned entrepreneurs and a notable lack of experience yourself, but you know what’s going to happen? You’re probably going to fail. And all you had to do was ask for a little bit of guidance for your friendly neighborhood startup accelerator.

Can they do whatever a spider can? Definitely not. But what they can do is provide you with capital, mentorship, and perhaps most importantly, a little structure to your budding business. A startup accelerator is designed to make life as an entrepreneur easier. Well, the good ones are anyway.

Ty Alston is helping microfunding website Kiva.org find its place in Baltimore’s startup scene.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) today announced it will continue to serve as a catalyst for identifying and engaging with emerging innovators and disruptors with the second annual Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge. Building on the success of the inaugural program in which 500 startups participated, the Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge brings together leading-edge startups with prominent health and life sciences companies to tackle some of the world’s greatest health challenges including access, affordability and transparency.

UMBC officials are planning to add new space at the research and technology park adjacent to the Catonsville campus over the next two to five years.

Up to 100,000 additional square feet for tech companies could be added at the south campus of bwtech@UMBC, said Gregory Simmons, UMBC’s VP of Institutional Advancement.

Honoring those who see past the present to create the future. The future is not granted. It is born from the initiative of entrepreneurs. Now in its 31st year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year® program celebrates these future-makers whose drive propels growth in our economies and our world.

We invite you to join us in celebrating the remarkable achievements of this year’s Maryland finalists at the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2017 Maryland Awards gala.

On May 15, MdBio Foundation hosted the first STEM Leadership Experience, an afterschool workshop for high school girls, onboard the Mobile eXploration Lab. Designed in collaboration with MdBio’s longtime partner, MedImmune/AstraZeneca, the program is an immersive, hands-on activity designed to teach laboratory practices while building relationships between high school students and STEM professionals.

TEDCO named George Davis as its new CEO on Wednesday. He will start in the leadership role of the quasi-public agency that backs early stage companies on June 26.

The organization provides investment funding as well support for entrepreneurs. Davis has experience both in leading and funding companies in Maryland.

Bruce Booth, D.Phil., a partner at Atlas Venture, astutely observed earlier this year that two key resources fueling the growth of biopharma were until recently somewhat geographically spread among the 10 or so regions of the nation where the industry began to arise a generation ago.

“In recent years, this has changed—Boston and San Francisco are now the preeminent biotech clusters.  And their gravity in the ecosystem is only getting stronger,” Dr. Booth concluded in a March 21 post on his Life Sci VC blog. “Beyond having great science and the right ‘pixie dust’ in the local environment, two fundamentally important ingredients to the success of any cluster are capital and talent—and both are aggregating into the two key clusters.”

President Trump announced Tuesday that he will keep Francis S. Collins as director of the National Institutes of Health.

Collins was first nominated for the position in 2009 by President Obama. Shortly after he took office, Trump announced that Collins would stay on in an interim role, and many scientists have wondered if Collins would be offered the position or would accept it on a permanent basis in the new administration. Trump surprised many this year by proposing cuts of nearly 20 percent in the budget of the NIH, which normally has support from Democrats and Republicans alike.

The 2017 Omnibus Grant Solicitations of the NIH, CDC, and FDA are now available for the SBIR and STTR (NIH only) programs.

The 2017 SBIR/STTR Omnibus solicitations and accompanying resources can be found below:

• SBIR: PA-17-302
• STTR: PA-17-303
• 2017 Program Descriptions and Research Topics and Appendix A (SBA approved topics for budget waivers)
• SF 424 (R&R) Online HTML Application Guide
• SF 424 (R&R) PDF Guide Application Guide for SBIR/STTR Grant Applications
• Annotated SF424 SBIR/STTR Form Set  

Standard Application Due Dates: September 5, 2017 and January 5, 2018.

The Maryland Tech Council (MTC), Maryland’s largest technology trade association, announced the winners of its 29th Annual Industry Awards during a celebration and ceremony at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center attended by more than 550 business leaders from around the state.

“MTC was honored to recognize the Industry Award winners this year whose innovations are improving and saving lives,” said Tami Howie, CEO, Maryland Tech Council. “This year’s winners gave inspiring and heart-felt messages on their advancements and how they are changing the world.”

The Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) has been awarded two $115,000 grants to commercialize technologies based on improving protein-based therapeutics utilizing a novel biopolymer and an alternate way to treat Niemann-Pick disease patients. The grants are funded by the Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII) as part of the Technology Council of Maryland's (TEDCO) effort to support commercialization of academic-based scientific research and the state's efforts to foster economic development in Maryland. The MII program is a collaboration between the State of Maryland and five Maryland institutions: University of Maryland, Baltimore; University of Maryland, College Park; Morgan State University; UMBC; and Johns Hopkins University.