The NHLBI's Strategic Vision rests on four mission-driven goals that will benefit from sustained Institute focus. Eight objectives organize the 132 Research Priorities.

Headquartered in Hayward, California, Intarcia Therapeutics is a force to be reckoned with in the biotech world. It has raised over $1 billion in total equity funding and recently acquired Phoundry Pharmaceuticals for an undisclosed amount.

It hasn’t gone public.

Facebook’s shadowy Building 8 research team needs help from academia to invent futuristic hardware. But today’s pace of innovation doesn’t allow for the standard 9-12 month turnaround time it takes universities to strike one-off research partnerships with private companies.

The year 2016 presented the world with a number of big surprises. Some positive, some negative, depending on whom one asks. Here at Medgadget, 2016 will be remembered for many amazing and pleasantly unexpected medical technology developments, many of which are foreshadowing cures for spinal cord injuries, effective treatment of diabetes, new ways to fight heart disease, and many other long sought-after medical solutions. Virtual and augmented reality systems, new imaging techniques, and innovative delivery approaches are changing the way doctors learn and take care of patients.

Superflex, a “powered” clothing startup that was spun out of SRI International, the well-known robotics nonprofit, announced earlier this week that it has raised $9.6 million in a Series A round of funding.

The Menlo Park, California-based company is developing a lightweight, connected apparel that can be worn underneath regular clothing. It’s called “powered” because integrated electric circuits throughout the apparel act as muscles providing strength and mobility to the body’s actual muscles and joints.

The University of Maryland will be a key partner in a new institute to advance U.S. leadership in pharmaceutical manufacturing that was announced by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker on Friday, December 16, 2016. The National Institute for Innovation of Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL) will be the 11th Manufacturing USA Institute, and includes the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore.  A team of more than 150 companies, educational institutions, nonprofits and state governments will operate NIIMBL under a newly formed nonprofit.

New research suggests it is possible to slow or even reverse aging, at least in mice, by undoing changes in gene activity—the same kinds of changes that are caused by decades of life in humans. By tweaking genes that turn adult cells back into embryoniclike ones, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies reversed the aging of mouse and human cells in vitro, extended the life of a mouse with an accelerated-aging condition and successfully promoted recovery from an injury in a middle-aged mouse, according to a study published Thursday in Cell.

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.

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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.