British biopharma startup NightstaRx, which develops gene therapy for inherited retinal dystrophies, just closed out a $35 million Series B led by New Enterprise Associates. The funding will help NightstaRx advance several gene therapies into human trials, as well as expand its existing clinical program for the treatment of choroideremia.

The company’s approach to gene therapy  involves harnessing an adeno-associated viral vector to deliver a corrective gene into patients with inherited progressive blindness. Specifically, to treat choroideremia, NightstaRx delivers a wild-type copy of the Rab-escort protein 1 (REP-1) gene (AAV2-REP1) straight into the retinal cells.

The University of Maryland BioPark is looking to add another building that would feature a biotech incubator as its anchor.

Real estate firm Wexford Science + Technology is seeking public financing for a future building at 873 W. Baltimore St., which would be key in attracting a new branch of the Massachusetts-based Cambridge Innovation Center to Baltimore, officials say.

GenArraytion, Inc., is pleased to announce the successful completion of a project for the optimization of five separate MultiFLEX™ molecular assay panels for the identification of over 65 infectious disease targets of world-wide US military concern.  The project was in support of the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense’s (JPEO CBD) Global Biosurveillance Technology Initiative (GBTI), which is working to improve the biosurveillance capacity for the Department of Defense to systematically deploy an infectious disease testing capability to improve detection capacity while connecting these labs to a networked analytics and communication hub, JPEO provides worldwide users with timely, actionable, and operationally valuable information enabling a more effective response to a health crisis anywhere in the world.  The MultiFLEX molecular assays are infectious disease panels with 12 to 20 individual molecular targets for fever causing and vector born microorganisms of military concern across the globe. The tests are designed to work on the Luminex MagPix instruments which have been distributed to the military area labs around the world.

Please join us on November 12, 2015 at 8:00 a.m. for our monthly WIB Meet-Up at the Institute for Genome Sciences, 801 West Baltimore St. Room 602. Drs. Linda Yaswen-Corkery and Julie Wu will continue our “Lean In” discussion using the “What Works for Women at Work” series.

Anyone is welcome – there is no charge and you don’t have to be a member of Women In Bio to attend. Please also feel free to circulate to friends & colleagues. For those off UMB campus, there is on street parking and a garage at Poppleton & Baltimore Streets.

Each year the Tech Council of Maryland recognizes three outstanding individuals in the fields of technology, life science, and education. These individuals have made outstanding contributions to the success of the community. Please mark your calendar and join us on March 21, 2016 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center for a celebratory dinner. The 2016 honorees are:

STEVE CASE Chairman and CEO, Revolution LLC; Co-Founder, America Online and Chairman, The Case Foundation

ROBERT FISCHELL Inventor/Physicist; Professor of Practice, Fischell Department of Bioengineering

MARTINE ROTHBLATT Chairman and Co‐CEO of United Therapeutics Corporation (UTHR); President and CEO of its Lung Biotechnology public benefit company

Mast Therapeutics, Inc. (NYSE MKT: MSTX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company leveraging its molecular adhesion and sealant technology (MAST) platform to develop novel therapies for sickle cell disease, heart failure, and stroke, today announced that Peter Greenleaf has been appointed to the Company's Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Mr. Greenleaf brings to Mast Therapeutics' Board of Directors over 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, including a track record of effective leadership through periods of significant growth and extensive global commercial operations, strategic planning, and product development expertise. 

An international drug giant and a La Jolla venture capital firm are expanding their partnership to create local biotech companies, a sign that the partnership -- and the promise of new disease therapies -- is progressing.

GSK will increase potential milestone payments to Avalon Ventures from $40 million to $50 million for each biotech formed. In return, the venture capital firm is assuming more risk by increasing its proportion of funding by an undisclosed amount.

Johns Hopkins University and Luminox-Health, an Israeli healthcare startup specializing in digital medicine, will collaborate with a new entity that will invest $30 million into Israeli digital medicine ventures, according to Globes. The cooperative agreement will be officially announced next Wednesday at the Peres Peace Center, at an event titled “Israel Launches its New Innovation Frontier.” Former Israeli Prime Minister and President Shimon Peres, Chief Scientist Hasson, and representatives of Johns Hopkins and Luminox-Health are expected to take part in the event. This agreement comes after the university signed a multi-year agreement with Israeli health startup Luminox in September to establish an accelerator for Israeli digital health startups.

ZS Pharma, a biotech firm that was launched out of the Tech Fort Worth business incubator, has agreed to be acquired by AstraZeneca Plc for $2.7 billion in cash.

ZS Pharma investors will get $90 per share, London-based AstraZeneca said in a statement. That’s a 42 percent premium to Thursday’s close. The board of San Mateo, California-based ZS Pharma agreed to the transaction.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s new rules for equity investing in crowdfunding sites are chock full o’ good and bad news for you.

In short, this could be a very good thing for investors—just know what you’re doing.

AstraZeneca entered into a definitive agreement Friday to buy ZS Pharma, a California biotechnology company, for $2.7 billion.

ZS Pharma (NASDAQ: ZSPH) of San Mateo, Calif., has an application seeking approval for ZS-9, its experimental treatment for hyperkalaemia, under review with the Food and Drug Administration. A European marketing application is expected before the end of the year.

The new venture is expected to make its first investments in the first quarter of 2016.

A new business entity will invest $30 million in Israeli digital medicine ventures, sources inform "Globes." Collaborating with the venture will be US hospital Johns Hopkins, one of the world's largest medical institutions,and Luminox-Health, an Israeli group dealing in digital medicine.

Johns Hopkins's annual budget is more than $7 billion, and the new venture is expected to make its first investments already in the first quarter of 2016.

QIAGEN N.V. has announced the start of commercialization activities for its GeneReader NGS System, the first complete Sample to Insight next-generation sequencing (NGS) solution designed for any laboratory to deliver actionable results.

With the introduction of the GeneReader NGS System, QIAGEN is offering the world’s first truly end-to-end NGS workflow from primary sample to a final report that provides a simpler, more cost-effective way for clinical testing to take advantage of NGS technology and improve outcomes.

Greenspring Associates has closed its seventh venture capital fund-of-funds at $430 million, the firm announced today.

Greenspring Global Partners VII, L.P will focus on established and emerging VC managers, expansion stage companies and secondary stakes in funds and companies.

Owings Mills venture firm Greenspring Associates has raised $430 million to invest in promising information technology companies.

Seventy percent of the fund, called Greenspring Global Partners VII, will be invested in about 25 venture capital managers that invest in early stage information technology companies. The remaining 30 percent of the fund will be invested directly into expansion stage IT companies with high growth potential.

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) announced today that it is hosting a local competition in the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) 2016 InnovateHER: Innovating for Women Challenge.  InnovateHER provides an opportunity for entrepreneurs throughout Maryland to compete for $70,000 in cash prizes by showcasing products and services that have a measurable impact on the lives of women and families, have the potential for commercialization, and fill a need in the marketplace.

“57% of working age women participate in the labor force, 74% of employed women work full-time, and 70% of working women have children under the age of 18,” said Rob Rosenbaum, President and Executive Director of TEDCO. “As demands on women and families grow, the need for products and services that address these unique challenges increases – we are hopeful that InnovateHER will identify some high potential solutions.”

A pair of SMU psychology professors working with University of Maryland engineers have been awarded a National Institutes of Health grant in October that will bring nearly $2 million to their joint project to create a wearable device for pediatric asthma patients that helps them avoid asthma triggers.

The asthma device will monitor air quality (including pollen levels and temperature), carbon dioxide levels in the blood, physical activity, breathing, emotional states and other stimuli to identify each patient's individual asthma triggers and alert them when conditions are ripe for an attack. The concept is similar to the glucose monitor that alerts diabetes patients when their blood sugar is low, but it also includes much more complex monitoring of the patients' environment.

Neurology research is one of those rare topics that immediately fascinates people outside the field. Any technology that makes healing brain ailments easier is a relief for people of all ages who fear what the future might bring for their health. But it’s also fascinating to see what new developments could do not just to protect our brains, but also augment them.

The new Tel Aviv accelerator Brainnovations will foster the very companies that will lead that development. It’s the brainchild of Israel Brain Technologies (IBT), a local non-profit that former President Shimon Peres launched in 2011. IBT is dedicated to “making Israel a leader in the international market” for braintech and has hosted two conferences and several industry meetups since 2013. But those events were only the beginning, according to Dr. Yael Fuchs Shlomai, Program Manager at Brainnovations.

GlaxoSmithKline could file up to 20 new drugs for regulatory approval before 2020 as it seeks to revitalize a portfolio hit by falling sales of best-selling inhaled lung treatment Advair, the company said on Tuesday.

Seven of them may reach the market before the end of decade, it added.

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) announced today that six new Maryland companies received funding from its Cybersecurity Investment Fund (CIF). Jedvice, Point 3 Security, Topaz Research, Efflux Systems, Bricata and QI Solutions were each awarded $100,000 through CIF. The Fund supports Maryland companies looking to develop and commercialize new cybersecurity products or services by providing investments of up to $225,000.

“As the State’s first dedicated cybersecurity fund, we have seen an increase in momentum around Maryland’s information security ecosystem,” said Rob Rosenbaum, president and executive director of TEDCO.  “CIF’s goal is to support innovative cybersecurity companies and accelerate their product development to help them get to commercial launch faster. With our funding and support, we are confident these six startups will successfully grow and create more jobs in Maryland. ”

PITCH. NETWORK. LEARN. BE INSPIRED.

The 2015 Entrepreneur Expo will be held on Tuesday, November 17th at the BWI Marriott in Linthicum, MD. This 5th Annual event is hosted by TEDCO and is the only large-scale event dedicated to promoting the key to Maryland's innovation economy, its entrepreneurs. The 2015 Entrepreneur Expo is expected to draw the region’s top entrepreneurs, business owners, investors, legislators and researchers. This year’s keynote speakers are Rent the Runway Co-Founder Jennifer Fleiss and Maryland-born NASA Astronaut & USAF Col Terry Virts. www.innovatemd.com.

The Baltimore Angels recently surpassed $5 million in overall investment, according to numbers released by the six-year-old early-stage investment group

The milestone comes as members of the group invested $4 million in startups over the last two and a half years. Since 2012, investor membership has grown from 30 to 50 members. The group meets once a month to hear pitches. Companies are usually after the “friends and family” round, and pre-seed stage.

The SEC has finally released rules for Title III of the JOBS Act, the equity crowdfunding law. Nearly three years and seven months after the potentially game-changing bill was first signed into law, equity crowdfunding will be available to startups and small companies in 180 days. Yes, we get to wait another half a year before anyone can actually use equity crowdfunding, but at least now we know it will happen.

For those who have run out of Ambien, the hundreds of pages of new rules will provide a welcome sleep aid. But for professionals who plan to use these rules to help companies raise new capital, it is required reading. Bring on the Red Bull.

BioHealth Innovation in partnership with ProductSavvy, Montgomery County Economic Development and Rockville Economic Development Inc. (REDI), recently launched the region's newest startup accelerator, called Relevant Health.

Now, armed with a fat rolodex of premium contacts—spanning all four organizations—complete with leaders from the regulatory, health, venture capital, government contractor and medical research communities, Relevant Health aims to "build the health tech capital."

The freshly launched Rockville, Md.-based accelerator will focus on fostering the development of health-tech startups, many of whom do not need to navigate the usually complicated and stringent regulatory standards that, for example, biotech firms must meet.

Former National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander’s startup IronNet Cybersecurity has raised $32.5 million.

The Series A round was led by Trident Capital Cybersecurity, along with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Fulton-based IronNet will use the money to continue development of the company’s private sector cyber defense technology.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted for new rules Friday that allow individuals at all levels to invest in startups — and that could give Washington-area startups a boost.

The rule, expected to take effect Jan. 29, 2016, allows companies to raise up to $1 million in a 12-month period through a crowdfunding campaign. In the past, only individual investors with higher net worth were able to obtain accreditation from the SEC. Now anyone can choose to invest.

By next summer, startups and small businesses will be able to raise up to $1 million in capital a year by using Internet portals to sell shares to anyone, not just accredited investors.

That’s because the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday finally adopted rules for securities-based crowdfunding. The rules implement a provision of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, which was signed into law more than three years ago.

Efforts to fight antibiotic-resistant infections — often dubbed superbugs — typically involve strategies of curbing overuse of the antibiotics we already have or finding alternatives.

But what if those pesky superbug infections could simply be prevented in the first place? It's the strategy Gaithersburg-based MedImmune is taking with two of its vaccine candidates aimed at bacterial infections.

Tuesday November 3, 2 pm ET

Congratulations - you just got a Notice of Award for an NIH SBIR/STTR grant - now what? How do you actually use those funds? This educational webinar about the Payment Management System will help you figure that out, with plenty of time for Q&A. This is highly recommended for new awardees.

Learn more about the Payment Management System: http://bit.ly/HHSpms

Presenter: Nicole Dunning Chief, University and Non-Profit Payment Section Payment Management Services Program Support Center U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

GlycoMimetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLYC) announced today that the first healthy participant has been dosed with a subcutaneous (SC) formulation of rivipansel in a Phase 1, single ascending-dose clinical study to evaluate its safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics. Rivipansel (GMI-1070) is an investigational compound being studied as a potential therapy for the treatment of vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC) in sickle cell disease and is being developed by Pfizer Inc. under a worldwide licensing agreement the two companies entered into in 2011.

The SC formulation of rivipansel utilizes Enhanze™ Technology, licensed by Pfizer from Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. This technology is based on a proprietary recombinant human hyaluronidase enzyme (rHuPH20) that temporarily modifies components of the extracellular matrix in order to aid in the dispersion and absorption of other SC injected therapeutic drugs.

Maybe healthcare is thinking about data from wearable devices in all the wrong ways.

Speaking Thursday at the 12th annual Connected Health Symposium in Boston, Dr. Robert Pearl, CEO of Kaiser Permanente‘s Permanente Medical Group, said that, from a physician’s perspective, Fitbits and other fitness trackers are good for one thing: “December.” In other words, they make great Christmas gifts, but don’t serve much purpose in medical practice.

Relevant Health, a health tech accelerator in Rockvillle, Maryland, has picked seven companies for its inaugural class. Among the participants in the five-month program are a wearables developer seeking to help people avoid injuries from heavy lifting and a speech therapy tool to make learning seem more like a game.

The accelerator got started this year through a partnership between BioHealth Innovation, Montgomery County’s Economic Development department and Product Savvy, which is managing day-to-day operations. Here’s a summary of the members.

The booming biotech sector is putting a premium on lab space, and fund managers are buying in.

One of their favorite targets is Pasadena, California-based Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc, which owns the largest collection of high-end lab space in such research clusters as San Diego, San Francisco and Cambridge, Massachusetts. A total of 64 mutual funds and hedge funds have reported adding shares of the company to their portfolios in the current quarter, a 56 percent jump from the quarter ending in September, according to Morningstar data.

Rockville-based health-tech incubator Relevant Health is out with its first seven companies that will begin co-working in the facility over the next five months.

“We didn’t want to just attract the best and brightest from around the region, we wanted the best and brightest from around the United States and elsewhere,” managing partner Rich Bendis told The Washington Post. “We have resources and assets that are one of a kind in our backyard that really aren’t present elsewhere.”

ATCC, the premier global biological materials resource and standards organization, announces today that it has been selected by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) to provide vital cell lines to academic, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology organizations committed to speed a cure for Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson's disease is a chronic, degenerative neurological disorder that affects one in 100 people over age 60. While the average age at onset is 60, people have been diagnosed as young as 18. Recent research indicates that at least 1 million people in the United States, and more than 5 million worldwide, have Parkinson's disease.