Sometimes lab research leads to a discovery that’s commercially viable enough to start a company. But for scientists with little business experience, making the jump to the private sector can be intimidating without support. In an effort to address this issue, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has partnered with the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) (link is external) to award a new round of N-STEP grants, which support early-stage entrepreneurs in ways that other grants do not. 

Medigene AG (http://www.medigene.de) (FSE: MDG1, Prime Standard, TecDAX) announced today that it has granted an exclusive, worldwide license for the development and commercialization of its preclinical stage adeno-associated virus like particles (AAVLPs) technology to the Swedish biotech company 2A Pharma AB, located in Malmö, Sweden. Under the terms of the agreement, Medigene is eligible to receive clinical, regulatory and commercial milestone payments in addition to royalties on net sales of future AAVLP products by 2A Pharma AB. Further financial details were not disclosed.

MaxCyte, Inc. announced today a strategic collaboration with leading academic research institution, Washington University in St. Louis (“Washington University”) to advance next-generation Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)-based cell therapies for acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

MaxCyte and Washington University will develop unique immunotherapy drug candidates, based on MaxCyte’s proprietary cell engineering platform technology, CARMA.

This collaboration builds on MaxCyte’s efforts with The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center around pre-clinical development of CAR therapy for solid cancers.

Michael Lewis’s 2003 book, Moneyball -- later made into a movie starring Brad Pitt -- tells the story of how predictive analytics transformed the Oakland Athletics baseball team and, eventually, baseball itself. Data-based modeling has since transcended sport. It’s used in hiring investment bankers, for example. But is academe really ready for its own “moneyball moment” in terms of personnel decisions?

Astellas Pharma Inc. (President and CEO: Yoshihiko Hatanaka, "Astellas") and Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (Founder & CEO: William Hearl, Ph.D., "Immunomic Therapeutics") today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track designation for the drug candidate ASP0892 for the mitigation of severe hypersensitivity reactions due to peanut allergy. ASP0892 is a new DNA vaccine program based on the investigational LAMP-Vax platform. A Phase I clinical trial to evaluate the safety, tolerability and immune response of ASP0892 in adults allergic to peanuts has been initiated.

Cambridge Innovation Center has signed onto 127,000 square feet at UCity Square in Philadelphia.

Known as CIC, the Boston-based company will occupy space at 3675 Market St. in University City. It operates in a similar fashion as a co-working space and incubator, providing flexible space to entrepreneurial startups and other companies. Since its founding in 1999, companies that have been housed in CIC space have raised more than $2.5 billion and added an estimated 40,000 jobs to the economy, according to the company's website.

Students attending classes in the Paul Peck Academic and Innovation Building may not realize it, but just upstairs, researchers are changing—and saving—lives. Home to the Germantown Innovation Center (GIC), approximately 24 life science companies and more than 100 employees are hard at work on the second floor. One company—Zalgen Labs—played a key role in the development of a test to rapidly diagnose Ebola. Another firm created a pediatric anthrax vaccine.

The NIH has awarded MIMETAS and the University of Pittsburgh a prestigious SBIR grant to develop a Liver-on-a-Chip platform for high throughput discovery and development. Accurate prediction of hepatotoxicity is a major problem in the development of new drugs leading to high development costs.  Animal hepatotoxicity testing is expensive, unsuited to high throughput and overall has unreliable concordance with human hepatotoxicity.

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) announced today that 19 companies have received over $1.9 million in funding from the organization’s Seed Investment Fund in the last six months. The funding will be used to advance the companies’ technology and product commercialization efforts. “TEDCO’s Seed Investment Fund exists to support seed/early-stage, technology-based businesses in Maryland,” said John Wasilisin, president and chief operating officer of TEDCO. “We make investments in these companies to help them reach a critical milestone that will increase the company’s valuation and better position it for follow-on investment, sustainability, growth, and job creation.”

Root3 Labs, Inc. recently moved operations to their new prototyping and manufacturing facility in Randallstown, MD. This marks an exciting opportunity to increase engineering and manufacturing capabilities in the area.“With over 3,700 sq ft of combined offices and industrial space, we’ll have more room to support our customers growing engineering and product development projects,” said Chad Schneider, President and Founder of Root3 Labs. “The new facility provides office space for our growing staff, a comfortable meeting place for customers and suppliers, a high-tech fabrication and assembly workshop, and storage for prototype and low-volume production units. This expansion will help us better support the broad range of R&D activities needed by our customers.”

ConverGene has entered into an exclusive license agreement with the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), part of the National Institutes of Health.  Under this agreement, ConverGene has the rights to commercialize jointly developed small molecule BET bromodomain inhibitors that have a unique core structure as compared to other cancer therapeutics currently in clinical trials.

Since its inception, biotechnology has been preoccupied with virus filtration, the clearance of invasive and adventitious viruses from biopharmaceutical products. And now, far from waning, virus filtration is set to become even more important. Virus filtration, reports Markets and Markets, constitutes a global market that is growing 12% each year. At present, this market is valued at $1.8 billion. By 2020, it will reach $3.3 billion.

GSK will inaugurate its newest global vaccines research and development (R&D) center in Rockville, Maryland, further strengthening and expanding its vaccines presence in the USA. Up to 200 new jobs will be created at the Rockville facility, with GSK investing over $50 million in the next two years to continue to develop the site with latest state-of-the-art scientific research technology and equipment.

Inova Health System, the giant nonprofit hospital network serving Northern Virginia, is creating a new start-up incubator and investment program focusing on “personalized” medicine innovations.

Executives say they plan to invest at least $100 million over the next three to five years making $2 million to $5 million bets on promising young companies with products that have gained some traction in the marketplace.

Craig Sager II is a managing editor and sportswriter based in Atlanta covering high school sports as well as working with the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Atlanta Falcons. 'What I can do and what anyone can do is bring the same passion into each day that he did.'

Russ Ramsey, Peter Scher and Ted Leonsis have joined with 14 other CEOs to create the Greater Washington Partnership to boost the regional economy and tackle transportation issues. It joins several other business groups with similar goals, though its focus will be on the broader region from Baltimore to Richmond.

Major industries from retail to aeronautics are leveraging big data. But despite the abundance of data in healthcare, and the clear promise of big-data analytics, the sector has been slow to put it to work. Among the obstacles to adoption are laws aimed at protecting patient information, and a shortage of technical talent; hospitals and clinics compete for big data engineers whose technical skills can be agnostically applied across industries. Nonetheless, in 2015 Geisinger Health System implemented an IT system called a Unified Data Architecture (UDA) which allowed us to integrate big data into our existing data analytics and management systems.

Few people realize that the world's biggest early stage investment fund in the NIH. Unlike most investors, every penny you get, if you should be so lucky, is non-dilutive. That is not to say there are no strings attached and that the funding is not tranched, but scores of products we see day in and day out, from blockbuster drugs, vaccines, medical devices to health IT benefitted from your US tax dollars at work.

While technology is no silver bullet able to solve all that ails the healthcare industry, it has always been part and parcel of any revolution.

Think of the printing revolution and its influence of the Protestant Reformation that forever created a breach in the Catholic church.

Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (ITI), a privately-held, Maryland-based biotechnology company, announces that C. Eric Winzer, M.B.A., currently serving Immunomic as Chief Financial Officer, will join the Board of Directors.

“Mr. Winzer’s keen financial expertise and broad industry experience will be a valuable addition to the Immunomic Board of Directors,” announced Immunomic CEO, Dr. William Hearl. “The Board has appreciated his prior contribution to our meetings and we are pleased to formally add him to this important advisory team.”

The Inova Health System have launched Inova Strategic Investments and the Inova Personalized Health Accelerator. Inova Strategic Investments will invest in healthcare venture funds as well as make direct investments in companies. IPHA will accept six to eight companies per year, providing education and funding. Hooks Johnston and Peter Jobse have been named managing directors of these new Inova vehicles.

Nearly half of the U.S. states and the District of Columbia saw a 10 percent or greater increase in higher education R&D expenditures from FY 2010 to FY 2015 with five of those states (Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and Utah) seeing at least a 20 percent change, according to the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey for 2015. Between FY10-15 overall U.S. research and development (R&D) spending at U.S. universities grew 12.1 percent, from about $61.2 billion to $68.7 billion. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed a new initiative this week to grow the life science research cluster throughout the state, pledging $550 million through a variety of programs including tax incentives, state capital grants, and investment capital with an expected match of $100 million from private sector partnerships for operating support.

Looking for the world's best university startups! $1,500,000 in PRIZES 42 Startup Teams will be invited to compete in front of hundreds of investors, mentors, and partners to help launch their startups!

Competition Dates: April 6-8, 2017 – Rice University, Houston, Texas

Apply Now: Deadline: Friday, February 10, 2017

After a national search, Mike Psarouthakis has been selected as the new director of the U-M Tech Transfer Venture Center.  The Venture Center is responsible for helping to identify, develop and launch new startups based on U-M technologies, and works alongside licensing, legal and marketing specialists within U-M Tech Transfer.

Genomenon Inc., a DNA interpretation software company launched from the University of Michigan in FY 2015, recently announced the completion of its extended seed financing of $1.8 million. The financing will fuel the completion and launch of Genomenon’s initial product, Mastermind, a novel analytic and visualization tool for DNA variant interpretation. Investors included two University of Michigan funds, as well as the Michigan Angel Fund and an angel group formed by Rehmann owners.

Nineteen. That’s the number of new drugs approved by the FDA thus far in 2016. With just over two weeks to go, there is little hope for a stellar year like 2015, which yielded 45 approvals.

What gives?

In their bid to host the 2024 Olympics, Washington business leaders plotted a transformation of the region into a more accessible, economically powerful and inclusive place, one that would glisten on the world athletic stage.

State boundaries matter for all sorts of reasons. The state you live in determined how much your vote counted in the 2016 election. It shapes what kind of benefits your employer might offer you, what taxes you pay, what kind of schools you can attend, and much more.

A group of 17 high-powered CEOs led by Russ Ramsey, Ted Leonsis and Peter Scher are forming a new organization aimed at spurring economic growth in the often disconnected region spanning from Baltimore to D.C. to Richmond.

The Greater Washington Partnership will focus on improving infrastructure, transit and workforce development and better branding what has become known as a "megaregion” or “super region” as a hub for business and innovation.

The Inova Health System today announced the official launch of Inova Strategic Investments (ISI), and the Inova Personalized Health Accelerator (IPHA). Hooks Johnston and Pete Jobse have been named managing directors. The fund is designed to raise the standard for affordable, high quality health care at Inova and in our region in an industry undergoing dramatic transformation.

Seeking Emerging International Business Leaders to Join the EDGE Program

We are now accepting applications for the next class of the Emerging and Developing Global Executives (EDGE) Program. The inaugural program was a great success (hear from the Bowe Fellows in their own words), and this year's group is off to a great start.

Bowe Fellows are a diverse group of globally minded leaders from the Baltimore area who have had significant career trajectories, generally with 10+ years of business experience. They are currently in or transitioning to roles in international operations and possess future growth potential within their companies.

An update on the Cancer Moonshot Initiative and more at the 11th PMWC 2017 Silicon Valley with 250+ speakers and 50+ sessions

While its creation was only announced earlier this year, with Vice President Joe Biden at the helm instilling hope and calling for action, the Cancer Moonshot may shockingly be nearing its end, as we know it. Uncertainties overshadow the future of this initiative as the White House Cancer Task Force is expected to exist in its current configuration only until the end of the Obama Administration, January 20, 2017.

Inova Health System is launching a new venture capital arm, bringing on investment veterans Hooks Johnston and Pete Jobse to help expand the system's reach into health innovation while earning financial returns. Officials plan to make a formal announcement later on Tuesday.

A startup dream has been realized, while an old pharma company tries to turn a new leaf.

On Monday, 60-year-old Purdue Pharma announced a strategic partnership with Exicure, a 2009 startup that could pull as much as $790 million and royalties if its drug candidates succeed.