Roche Holding AG, the world’s largest producer of cancer drugs, is opening the door to more external partnerships as its latest and most promising tumor-fighting treatment heads for approval this year.

The Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) was officially designated as the County’s Economic Development Organization by the County Council, marking a big and bold step toward achieving greater economic competitiveness and prosperity in Montgomery County. As the County’s new lead economic development organization, MCEDC is replacing both the County Department of Economic Development (DED) and the Montgomery Business Development Corporation (MBDC) effective July 1, 2016, as the primary point of contact for the local, regional, national and international business community.

An investment firm targeting seed stage investment in health IT and other software startups is raising a $50 million fund, according to a report by Fortune.

Two of the investors behind Refactor Capital’s fund have worked for Google:  David Lee, who also co-founded SV Angel and Zal Bilimoria, who has worked for Andreessen Horowitz.

The Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships (IIP), within the Directorate for Engineering at the National Science Foundation, announces a nationwide search to fill multiple Program Director positions for the Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) program.

Formal consideration of interested applications will continue until these positions are filled.

Intralytix, Inc., announced today that the company has received a SBIR Phase II grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), to develop a bacteriophage (or phage) cocktail effective against the larval shellfish pathogens Vibrio tubiashii and Vibrio coralliilyticus. This research will be a continuation of collaborative efforts between Intralytix and Dr. Gary Richards, the Lead Scientist at the USDA, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) laboratory in Dover, Delaware, where these phages were originally isolated and characterized. A spokesperson for the company noted that, in developing this proposed technology, Intralytix will be working closely with Dr. Chris Langdon at the Hatfield Marine Station, Oregon State University, in Newport, Oregon, and Dr. Claudia Hӓse at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Oregon State University, in Corvallis, Oregon. In addition, the company will receive continuing research support from Dr. Richards' group at the ARS USDA.

Attempting to free people with diabetes from frequent finger-pricks and drug injections, researchers have created an electronic skin patch that senses excess glucose in sweat and automatically administers drugs by heating up microneedles that penetrate the skin.

The White House on Friday appointed an executive director of its Cancer Moonshot Task Force: Gregory C. Simon, a leukemia survivor with experience in government, nonprofits, and the corporate world.

Entrepreneur Vivek Garipalli has a dim view of the way health insurance companies treat providers and patients. Patients develop trust with doctors and hospitals, and he thought insurers should be the “glue” between them instead of creating friction.

Medical device company Senseonics Holdings Inc. raised about $45 million last week in the first Greater Washington IPO of the year.

Senseonics (NYSE: SENS) originally planned to raise about $60 million by offering 18.2 million shares at a range of $3.10 to $3.50, but ultimately lowered the proposed deal size for the IPO.

While most agencies try to imitate advances in the private sector, the Department of Health and Human Services instead is emulating the process that fuels many recent innovations: startup accelerators.

Venture capitalists had a big year in Maryland in 2015.

In the fourth quarter of last year, they invested more than $451 million in 14 different Maryland companies — the largest quarter ever in the state since 2006.

Microscopic robots, powered by bacterial flagellation, are a curious branch of robotics research, potentially leading to devices that can deliver drugs, perform surgical tasks, and help out with diagnostics. While bacteria has been harnessed in the past to power small devices, having those devices actually navigate to a desired target has been a challenge. At Drexel University researchers are now using electric fields to help their bacterial biobots detect obstacles and float around them on their way to the final destination.

Looks like ARCH Venture Partners is gearing up for its ninth fund, with aims to raise $400 million, according to a regulatory filing. The Chicago-based early stage venture firm has a deep history in tech and life sciences investments – with some notable recent plays like Illumina offshoot Grail, Harvard 3D printing spinout Voxel 8, and Doug Williams’ brainchild Codiak Biosciences.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Miltenyi Biotech said they will partner to develop new cell and gene therapies through a collaboration whose value was not disclosed.

The collaboration is designed to combine GSK’s expertise in developing cell- and gene therapy–based treatments with Miltenyi Biotec’s global leadership in cell processing and related technologies in cell therapy, the companies said.

The biotech investment climate sank into deep insecurity by the close of 2015, as shown in EP Vantage‘s new “Pharma & Biotech 2015 in Review” report. The  flutterings around companies raising capital, via venture capital or IPO, diminished – which invites a retrospective on the investment environment in years past. Perhaps this will help inform how cash-hungry companies will fare this year.

Montgomery County’s Bethesda Hyatt will be the venue for the CONNECTpreneur XVIII Forum on April 28. The event, which will be held 7:00 to 11:00 am, features a “fireside chat” with serial entrepreneur and CEO Mark Walsh.

With more than 250 CXO's and investors, along with a strong lineup of speakers and presenters, the Big Idea CONNECTpreneur XVIII Forum is shaping up to be a record-setting event.

Virginia Bio, the premier statewide non-profit association representing life science industry in the Commonwealth of Virginia, elected Dr. Reg Seeto, Vice President, Head of Partnering and Strategy at MedImmune, the biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, as a new member of their Board of Directors for a term of three years.

Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore CEO Thomas Sadowski has taken a high-ranking economic development position with the state's public university system.

Sadowski, who has headed the business advocacy group known as the EAGB since 2008, is becoming the vice chancellor for economic development at the University System of Maryland. He'll start May 2 at the public education system, which is made up of a dozen institutions with 163,000 students.

Whether you are talking to peers, competitors or investors, you as an active entrepreneur will be judged on your familiarity with today’s startup and funding jargon. I’m not recommending that you saturate your discussions with lingo, but responding with a blank stare once-too-often won’t convince anyone that you can build the next world-changing business or outpace the market.

Blueprint Medicines is collaborating with Roche on the discovery, development and commercialisation of up to five targeted cancer immunotherapies, in a deal potentially worth more than $1 billion.

Johns Hopkins University graduate programs in nursing, education, medicine, and biomedical engineering remain among the best in the nation, according to the newest U.S. News & World Report rankings of "Best Graduate Schools."

The list, released on Wednesday, moves the university's School of Nursing master's degree program up from a tie for second place last year to the No. 1 spot this year.

Baltimore health IT startup Tissue Analytics has raised $1.9 million in debt to scale up its wound analysis business.

The funding comes from unnamed investors.

Every year TEDCO makes dozens of investments in the State’s most promising tech startups – this volume of deal flow makes TEDCO the “go to” seed stage funding source for Maryland entrepreneurs.

You may have heard about TEDCO’s TCF (Technology Commercialization Fund) and CIF (Cybersecurity Investment Fund) Programs and found yourself wondering “What are they?”, “What is TEDCO looking for?”, and “How can I maximize my chance of getting funded? – well…now help is on the way!!

Join us for an “entrepreneur only” workshop to learn how you can prepare a powerful application for these two TEDCO flagship funding programs. The first part of the workshop will cover the TCF/CIF process, application requirements and the key points every reviewer is looking for in an application. In the second half, entrepreneurs will have the chance to discuss their specific situations & questions with experienced TEDCO review committee members.

Every year in March, Women In Bio celebrates Women’s History Month (WHM) with events highlighting the most pressing issues for women in the biosciences/technology field. This year’s theme is “Expanding the 50-50 Challenge,” and our WIB-DC/Baltimore chapter WHM event will identify opportunities, barriers, and challenges for women who are becoming investors in their own right, as well as challenges for women entrepreneurs to access investment. On a broader note, our panel will discuss how women can identify and tackle with gender disparities in the professional environment through “investing” in their own and their female colleague’s professional goals.

For the last few years, the spotlight in start-up investing has largely shone on those who poured money into a company when it was already well along on a growth path. It turns out that spotlight may have been misdirected.

As venture capitalists focus more on bigger deals, a growing demand is developing for business accelerators and incubators to fund startups, Dreamit Ventures LLC CEO Avi Savar said Saturday at South By Southwest.

Who has the hot hand in venture capital?

To identify today’s top venture investors, CB Insights, a research firm that tracks the venture capital industry, created a data-driven list. The firm based its report on factors like connectedness, since people with access to the best information hear about hot companies first, and exits, meaning the returns generated when a start-up is sold or goes public. For exits, the firm considered the valuation and when the investor first put money into the company.

Health Wildcatters got recognized for the first time in an annual report ranking seed accelerators. It scored a Silver ranking while Healthbox attained a Gold in the Seed Accelerator Rankings Project.

Hubert Zajicek is the head of the Dallas-based Wildcatters accelerator, which has been around since 2012. It has 32 portfolio companies and is currently looking for applicants for its Fall class later this year.

Maryland-based biotechnology firm MaxCyte Inc Thursday said it plans to list on London's AIM market later this month.

The company expects to be admitted to AIM March 29, and plans to raise GBP10 million on admission. It expects to have a GBP30.4 million market capitalisation.

South Korean venture capital companies turn their eyes to promising biotech firms overseas, looking for a vehicle to accelerate their investment goals.

KTB Network recently joined hands with three Chinese venture capital companies to invest a total of 36 billion won ($30.1 million) in the country’s biopharma company CARsgen Therapeutics. The biotech company is highly praised for its immune cell therapy platform. It is working on a new method to treat patients with glioblastoma and hepatocellular carcinoma with a goal to conduct a clinical trial next year.

Becton Dickinson’s (NYSE:BDX) decision to spin off its respiratory devices into a joint venture with Apax Partners will allow it to offload an underperforming segment and concentrate on its core business of diagnostics. And the agreement also highlights the growing involvement of private equity in the medtech industry.

J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., is regarded as one of the leading scientists of the 21st century for his numerous contributions to genomic research. In addition to his past key positions, he is founder, current chairman, and CEO of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), a not-for-profit, research organization dedicated to human, microbial, plant, synthetic, and environmental genomic research, and the exploration of social and ethical issues in genomics.

Pittsburgh-area entrepreneurs will soon have another funding option for growing early phase startup companies.

Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has thrown its support behind the creation of a $100 million venture capital fund, which will help meet a need for early stage business startup capital in the Pittsburgh area. Philadelphia-based SG3 Ventures anticipates awarding its first round of funding in about a year, according to Brian McVeigh, vice president of worldwide business development transactions and investment management at GSK.

MedImmune has secured orphan drug designation from the the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its MEDI-551 neuromyelitis optica drug.

MEDI-551 is an anti-CD19 monoclonal antibody indicated to treat neuromyelitis optica and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders.

Inner Harbor is the latest site of a new Baltimore incubator.

With Harbor Launch, the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) has designated areas of office and lab space specifically for biotech and environmental startups at Columbus Center (the big building with the sails on it near Pier Five).