The move to open an accelerator is part of the health system's goal to create a place for personalized health ideas to "percolate," says CEO Todd Stottlemyer.

Lockheed Martin wants to inspire the next generation of American space innovators with a major Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) education project.

Launched last month, Generation Beyond aims to bring the science of space into homes and classrooms. Geared toward middle school students, the program harnesses Lockheed Martin’s experience in deep space exploration.

Harbor Designs and Manufacturing (HDM) will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony at Tuesday, May 17th to mark the opening of its new 45,000 sq. ft. engineering and manufacturing facility in the heart of a Baltimore City Economic Empowerment Zone. The new HDM facility is dedicated to the production and engineering of cutting-edge technologies built with local labor. Link to the invite.

Speaking at the annual Health Datapalooza conference today, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced a challenge to encourage health care organizations, designers, developers, digital tech companies and other innovators to design a medical bill that’s simpler, cleaner, and easier for patients to understand, and to improve patients’ experience of the overall medical billing process. The "A Bill You Can Understand" design and innovation challenge is intended to solicit new approaches and draw national attention to a common complaint with the health care system: that medical billing is a source of confusion for patients and families.

As I take part in panel discussions on the investor’s perspective on startup financing and growth, it strikes me how formulaic these events tend to be. A group of investors provides insight to a room full of rapt entrepreneur attendees. Sometimes the entrepreneurs get to ask questions, and sometimes they don’t.

Emergent BioSolutions announced April 15 that it has begun the formal process of separating some of its assets to form a separate entity, which will be known as Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. Aptevo will specifically focus on immuno-oncology technology, while Emergent will consolidate its focus on public health.

English-speaking universities continue to dominate the world, according to a new ranking from the Times Higher Education supplement released Thursday.

Of the top 24, 16 were American and six were British.

A new accelerator devoted to agricultural technology startups is launching in Research Triangle Park with $11.5 million in initial funding.

The AgTech Accelerator, which officially opened for business Thursday, anticipates raising a total of $25 million to $30 million from investors by the end of this year, said John Dombrosky, a former Syngenta executive who is CEO of the new venture.

Construction on the Universities at Shady Grove’s new biomedical sciences and engineering building is scheduled to begin this fall after local leaders persuaded Gov. Larry Hogan to reinstate funding for the project during this year’s General Assembly session.

Two biotech companies in the United States have been given the green light to see if it is possible to regenerate the brains of dead people. © Shutterstock Bioquark Inc., in collaboration with Revita Life Sciences, has been given ethical permission by US health authorities to recruit 20 patients who have been declared clinically dead from a traumatic brain injury to test whether parts of their central nervous system (CNS) can be brought back to life.

This week, MdBioLab was featured on ABC7 (WJLA) and Montgomery Community Media (MCM). In the ABC7 piece, MdBioLab was on location at Dr. Henry A. Wise Jr. High School in Upper Marlboro. Students were engaged in one of MdBioLab’s more popular activities, Mystery of the Crooked Cell in which they learn how to diagnose sickle cell disease at the molecular level. Working to achieve MdBio Foundation's mission, MdBioLab brought the students access to laboratory equipment that many had never used before.

And the Winners are…

Innovation

• Cobrain
• MFFire
• Sisu Global Health

Corporate Excellence

• Immunomic

Entrepreneur

• Jess Gartner CEO and Founder, Allovue

Please join TEDCO at our annual ICE Awards, as we honor some of our "coolest" portfolio companies and recognize the best and brightest that are developing cutting-edge technologies and enriching our community.

Meet with 20 of TEDCO's recently funded startup companies that will be exhibiting.

Network with the hottest tech startups, investors and entrepreneurship community in Maryland.

Investment firm Heritage Group has closed its second innovation fund and now counts 15 healthcare organizations as limited partners.

The $220 million fund is the latest example of how health systems and other industry players are taking an active role in piloting, investing in and mentoring young digital health companies as technology continues to reshape healthcare delivery. It is among the largest pools of funds for healthcare technology investments, and the combined approach allows the group to make larger investments in later-stage companies than they might otherwise do on their own.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian government has shown that it understands the need to develop innovation in the country’s health care sector.

Baltimore was a major site in the effort to develop an Ebola vaccine. Two years later, a leading Johns Hopkins researcher is looking to apply a major discovery to the Zika virus.

J. Thomas August, a JHU pharmacology and molecular sciences professor, formed Pharos Biologicals in December. The company received a license to develop DNA vaccine technology called the LAMP for influenza and flaviviruses from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

GlaxoSmithKline CEO Andrew Witty attributes the company's success to sticking to the tried-and-true business model of investing in research and development and not transitioning to an acquisition model.

Witty told CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Monday that the key is to be patient and to see the value of investing in innovation.

Lita Nelsen is one of the most influential power brokers in the drug industry — and yet there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of her.

That’s because she ran one of the country’s largest and most successful technology transfer offices, an unglamorous yet essential go-between for universities and startups. And any time a venture capitalist, a pharmaceutical company, or a tech titan wanted to cash in on an invention at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, each had to go through her.

Orthopedic surgeons are relying more and more on 3-D printing to build replacements for their patients’ defective or worn out bones.

This year surgeons around the world will implant tens of thousands of 3-D printed replacements parts for hips, knees, ankles, parts of the spine, and even sections of the skull.

As we await the decision from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on the petition backed by Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and others urging that the march in provision of the Bayh-Dole Act be used to control drug prices, it’s worthwhile to recall the time the agency followed similar advice. That resulted in a smack down by Congress and the courts after a band of universities, an innovative small company and a conscientious federal employee refused to be bullied, altering the course of government.

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Please join us for the award ceremony where we announce the three winners of the Innovation into Action Challenge—a new initiative to support innovations with the potential to make a difference in the lives of people in emerging nations. At stake is a tailored package of support designed to accelerate the winning innovations’ deployment in the field, including $100,000 in funding, market testing on DAI’s overseas projects, access to a network of accelerator professionals, and technical mentoring to refine the innovator’s pitch, product, or service.

Today, Stewart Edelstein, executive director of the Universities at Shady Grove, released the following statement:

“On behalf of the entire Universities at Shady Grove (USG) community, I want to thank the Maryland General Assembly and Governor Hogan for reinstating $36.7 million in funding for the construction of our Biomedical Sciences and Engineering Education (BSE) facility. With this secured funding, the Universities at Shady Grove plans to break ground later this year on the new facility.

WIN $5,000 IN THE BIOHEALTH CAPITAL REGION LOGO COMPETITION

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO JUNE 20

The biohealth industry in Maryland, Virginia and DC needs a strong identity and brand that will help it grow and attract the best talent in the world. We have a new name, tagline and wordmark…

…but we need an icon that captures the spirit of the industry and the region.

Anyone from an organization (college, company, PR firm, etc.) based in Maryland, Virginia or DC may submit an entry.

More information and submission instructions are at http://www.competition.regionalbiotechforum.com/

Maryland got an infusion of West Coast tech money recently. It’s going toward a new spot for College Park students to study the latest in digital technology.

Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe provided $31 million to the University of Maryland College Park. The 36-year-old’s name is now on the school’s new Center for Computer Science and Innovation. Iribe’s fellow cofounders are also included in the naming of the center, who gave a combined $7 million. It will include the 300-seat Michael Antonov Auditorium and a rooftop garden called Andrew Reisse Park.

Funding and Research Opportunities

The following funding opportunity announcements from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest:

Notices:

• Notice of Changes in Expiration Date of Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (Parent K24)
• (NOT-OD-16-085) National Institutes of Health
• Notice of Correction of the Funding Opportunity Announcement Number for RFA-OD-16-007 "Improving Physical Infrastructure to Enhance Animal Model Research: Revisions of Center Grants (P51)"
• (NOT-OD-16-086) Division of Program Coordination, Planning and Strategic 
• Initiatives, Office of Research Infrastructure ProgramsImproving Physical Infrastructure to Enhance Animal Model Research: Revisions of Center Grants (P51) 
• (RFA-OD-16-007)
• Division of Program Coordination, Planning and Strategic Initiatives, Office of Research Infrastructure Programs
• Application Receipt Date(s): August 1, 2016, by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization. All types of non-AIDS applications allowed for this funding opportunity announcement are due on this date.
• Improving Physical Infrastructure to Enhance Animal Model Research: Revisionsof Research Project Grants (R01)
• (RFA-OD-16-008)
• Division of Program Coordination, Planning and Strategic Initiatives, Office of 
• Research Infrastructure Programs
• Application Receipt Date(s): August 1, 2016, by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization. All types of non-AIDS applications allowed for this funding opportunity announcement are due on this date.
• Improving Physical Infrastructure to Enhance Animal Model Research: Revisions of Research Project Grants (R24)
• (RFA-OD-16-009)
• Division of Program Coordination, Planning and Strategic Initiatives, Office of Research Infrastructure Programs
• Application Receipt Date(s): August 1, 2016, by 5:00 PM local time of applicant  organization. All types of non-AIDS applications allowed for this funding  opportunity announcement are due on this date.

The old adage that money doesn’t change everything could well be said of this year’s Top 10 U.S. biopharma clusters as listed by GEN. Nearly all regions saw significant increases in NIH funding (thanks to the $2 billion boost agreed upon by Congress for the current fiscal year) and in venture capital or “VC” funding (thanks to a market that was bullish on biopharma until this fall).

The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) today announced an agreement to feature Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)-funded early-stage biomedical companies in an expanded Innovation Zone at the 2016 BIO International Convention. The Innovation Zone companies, focused on drug discovery, diagnostics and other therapeutic platform technologies, will have dedicated exhibit space and participate in BIO’s One-on-One Partnering™. Select companies will make 15-minute company presentations in the BIO Business Forum.

VividCortex, the database performance monitoring company that helps enterprises understand and optimize workloads across hybrid, distributed databases, today announced it has raised an additional $4.5 million in a Series A funding. The fast-growing company, which is profitable and grew revenues 8x last year, will use the funds to accelerate product development and sales.

Read more ...

AbbVie will buy venture-backed startup Stemcentrx  for $5.8 billion, beefing up the biopharma giant’s portfolio of cancer drugs.

The sale could be worth $4 billion more if  San Francisco-based Stemcentrx meets development milestones. Plus, as Business Insider reported, the startup has $400 million in the bank, potentially making the entire deal worth $10.2 billion.

The Energetics Technology Center, Inc. (ETC) and the Army Research Labs (ARL), under its recent Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA), are pleased to announce the opening of a new incubator , TechFire ARL, in Silver Spring, MD.  This new facility, located in the former National Labor College at 10000 New Hampshire Avenue, will focus on providing start-up and joint collaborative workspace for entrepreneurs, ARL researchers and university faculty.

Roger Jeffs will step down as president and co-CEO at United Therapeutics Corp. as part of an executive shakeup at one of Greater Washington’s largest bioscience firms.

Biopharmaceutical research has never been for the faint of heart. For small biotech companies working on the absolute edge of innovation, one clinical trial can literally mean the difference between closing up shop or commercializing a breakthrough, life-saving medicine. And even for big pharmaceutical companies, setbacks have always been inevitable – the nature of discovery means that success comes only after years of trial and error.

How can we detect ovarian cancer before it’s too late? Can we make wounds heal faster? What are the alternatives to bariatric surgery for people with type 2 diabetes? Is there a way to reduce complications and cost in reconstructive surgery?

The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) held a grand opening for its Community Engagement Center in West Baltimore at 1 N. Poppleton St. on Saturday, April 16, including a spring community festival to introduce the neighborhood to the center and its valuable services. Maryland’s First Lady Yumi Hogan was a guest at the grand opening, assisted with the ribbon-cutting, and spent the day with community members at the spring festival.

Baltimore is in line to have two schools that offer a career pathway program developed by IBM.

Gov. Larry Hogan signed a bill into law on Tuesday that provides framework and funding for P-TECH in the state. The Pathways in Technology Early College High School program follows a model of partnering with companies to provide students with STEM skills so they are immediately ready for a job. Starting the program in 9th grade, the students receive a high school diploma, associate’s degree and additional workforce training.