In a laboratory first, Duke researchers have grown human skeletal muscle that contracts and responds just like native tissue to external stimuli such as electrical pulses, biochemical signals and pharmaceuticals.

It didn't take R. Michael Gill very long to come up with some priorities after Gov.-elect Larry Hogan named him the next Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development secretary last week.

Gill wants to keep McCormick & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MKC) in state. He wants to bring the FBI headquarters to Maryland. And he wants to emphasize customer service in dealing with businesses.

Lockheed Martin Corp. is normally known for big things – tanks, planes, ships, those kinds of projects.

But a new partnership the defense giant has formed with a San Diego company has Lockheed looking at something very, very small.

The ETC (Emerging Technology Centers) www.etcbaltimore.com, Baltimore City’s award-winning technology innovation centers, announced today that the following six companies have been accepted into the AccelerateBaltimore™ 2015 program:

Show me the money, I'm not seeing it here.

According to NVCA, U.S. VC firms raised $29.8B in 2014, making it the best fundraising year since 2007 ('13 was $17.7B). Overall this is good news, but there has not been local traction. Here is the data from NVCA on the D.C. located funds that raised capital in '14:

AstraZeneca today announced that MedImmune, its global biologics research and development arm, has entered into a licensing agreement with Omnis Pharmaceuticals (Omnis), a privately-held biotechnology company focused on the development of oncolytic viruses. This agreement will allow MedImmune to combine key agents from its investigational immunotherapy portfolio with Omnis' lead investigational oncolytic virus programme, a genetically engineered strain of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). The programme is currently being studied in a Phase I clinical trial as a monotherapy for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma and other cancers that have metastasised to the liver.

Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York — Maryland has a lot of competition for entrepreneurs' attention. Experts say a tax credit specifically for angel investors could sweeten the deal for entrepreneurs and investors who decide to do business in Maryland.

Establishing an angel investor tax credit will be a top priority for the Greater Baltimore Committee during the state's upcoming legislative session. GBC sees the tax credit as a way to boost the state's economy by supporting growing startups that will create jobs and bring new business to Maryland. Investors and adivsors of Baltimore-area startups say the tax credit would not only help startups grow in Maryland, but keep them — and their investors — from laying roots elsewhere.

Sample and assay technologies provider Qiagen NV recently announced the launch of its latest diagnostic TB test– QuantiFERON-TB Gold-Plus (QFT-Plus), subsequent to the product’s receipt of CE Mark in Europe.

QFT-Plus is the fourth generation of the most accurate test used in the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) infection. It involves Qiagen’s proprietary QuantiFERON technology which can uniquely identify presymptomatic infections that standard diagnostic technologies fail to detect.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, the real estate firm that helped transform Mission Bay into a thriving life-science hub, now wants to raise up to $20 million to build digital-health companies from scratch in San Francisco.

Alexandria, the nation’s largest owner and developer of real estate for the life-science industry, said in August that it would start three new accelerators nationwide to support startups in biotech, agriculture and digital health. The biotech space is up and running in New York City with $51 million in financing, and the agriculture space is expected to open within the next six months in North Carolina.

J. Craig Venter was one of the first scientists in 2001 to map the human genome. Now this trailblazer in genome sequencing research has his sights set on creating the world's largest database of human genomes. And he's calling in Baltimore startup Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc. to help.

BD Medical, a part of Becton, Dickinson and Company, announced receiving FDA clearance for its Intelliport Medication Management System. The product monitors manual IV bolus injections, automatically records how much of which medication a patient receives and warns of allergies by interfacing with the hospital’s electronic medical records.

The Beyond the Pill movement took an interesting turn this week when Qualcomm announced plans to open an investment business with Novartis, according to a company statement. Qualcomm will launch the investment company through its Qualcomm Ventures business. The news splash at the start of the JP Morgan Healthcare conference came about a week after the two companies said at the International CES in Las Vegas that they would collaborate on digital health as part of Novartis’ Trials of the Future program.

AstraZeneca today announced that MedImmune, its global biologics research and development arm, has entered into a licensing agreement with Omnis Pharmaceuticals (Omnis), a privately-held biotechnology company focused on the development of oncolytic viruses. This agreement will allow MedImmune to combine key agents from its investigational immunotherapy portfolio with Omnis’ lead investigational oncolytic virus programme, a genetically engineered strain of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). The programme is currently being studied in a Phase I clinical trial as a monotherapy for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma and other cancers that have metastasised to the liver.

Qiagen announced on Sunday that it has acquired the enzyme solutions unit of Enzymatics, a supplier of enzymes used in next-generation sequencing and other genetic analysis technologies in life sciences research and clinical applications, for an undisclosed amount.

The Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche said on Monday that it would acquire a majority stake in the tumor-testing company Foundation Medicine for more than $1 billion, in a deal aimed at improving both cancer treatment and drug development.

Foundation is the leader in the growing area of sequencing the genes of tumor samples, looking for mutations that can help predict which drug will be most effective for a particular patient.

Roche, the world’s largest maker of cancer drugs, is spending $1.03 billion to buy a 56.3% stake in Cambridge, Mass.-based Foundation Medicine, a company that uses genetics to help select drugs for cancer patients. Roche, based in Basel, Switzerland, will also market Foundation’s diagnostic tests outside the U.S., help educate doctors as to the value of the tests in the U.S., and provide another $150 million to support additional research on Foundation’s products.

The most significant announcement that Apple made in 2014 wasn’t a larger-sized iPhone. It was that Apple is entering the health-care industry. With HealthKit, it is building an iTunes-like platform for health; Apple Watch is its first medical device. Apple is, however, two steps behind Google, IBM and hundreds of startups. They realized much earlier that medicine is becoming an information technology and that the trillion-dollar health-care market is ripe for disruption.

The Tech Council of Maryland plans to outline its legislative priorities Monday as state lawmakers head to Annapolis next week, but lobbyists will have to contend with a new governor and constrained budget as they push their agenda.

Balitmore's PathSensors Inc. has received $500,000 from a Chinese investor to expand the bioscience company's footprint in China.

The private investor, Michael Song, is president of Shanghai Qi Fa Electronics Co. Ltd. in China. The money will allow PathSensors to grow sales of its surface and airborne detection systems in China. Funding will also go toward market expansion in the U.S.

Greater Baltimore Committee wants legislators to establish a state tax credit for angel investors who support early-stage companies.

Legislation to create the tax credit will be a top priority for the business advocacy group during the upcoming General Assembly session. The organization will also push for programs to create more on-the-job training opportunities for students. Priorities also include strengthening science and technology education in grade school and securing funding for transportation infrastructure.

Rockville-based contract research firm Optimal Research announced it will begin clinical trials this month for the Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) Ebola vaccine, considered one of the frontrunners in the race to address the Ebola crisis.

Optimal Research Chief Operating Officer E.B. McLindon said Friday the company is seeking individuals to participate in a Phase I Clinical trial for the vaccine. The company plans to administer the vaccine to 92 healthy volunteers in January and February to determine its safety.

US-based biotechnology firm Tetragenetics will enter into collaboration with AstraZeneca's global biologics research and development arm MedImmune, on multi-target ion channel drug discovery program.

The need to improve and increase research into dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases is widely recognised. In 2012, Prime Minister David Cameron launched his “Challenge on Dementia” and since then a number of initiatives have been announced which mean that the UK is a world-leader in this area. MedImmune, the biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, has built a team of neuroscientists focusing on neurodegenerative research and is deeply involved and committed to its work to discover and develop novel treatments for dementia.

Wednesday January 28, 2015 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM EST

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Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels is scrambling to track down funding for young researchers who are increasingly being passed up for federal grants.

Facebook generates about $8 a year in revenue from each of its users. But what if you offered a company not just your photos and updates, but your entire genome?

Then you could be worth as much as $20,000.

Hundreds of research papers are published every day worldwide. But which articles are most discussed and in which circles? To find out, Altmetric in London traced how often papers were noted in 14 digital channels, ranging from the serious (5,000 research blogs and Mendeley, an academic citation network) to the trendy (Twitter, Facebook) and everything in between (including 1,000 news outlets). Altmetric poured data for 2014 into an algorithm that created scores; the top 200 articles are mapped here.

A new $75 million investment fund has been created by Connecticut-based HealthInvest Equity Partners, according to a filing with the SEC.

The investment firm, formed in 2013, focuses on a wide range of areas within healthcare, from woman’s health companies to urgent care providers to medical imaging.

Blend Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company discovering new classes of medicines to treat cancer, announced today that it has secured $21 million in new funding. The new financing includes additional equity investment from a new investor and all of Blend’s existing venture investors in an expansion of the Series B round, as well as debt financing from an institutional investment firm.

The EAGB put together a year-end report on the regional economy for the second year, this time highlighting local universities and the innovation economy. Also in this report, the EAGB lists its most memorable achievements from the previous year. Take a look!

According to a recent article in The National Law Review, universities controlling and supporting the commercialization of their own research is not a new trend in the academic world. Recently, for example, the University of California created UC Ventures, “an independent fund to pursue investments in UC research-fueled enterprises” in September 2014, stated the school in a press release. 

The University of Maryland will be applying for status as a qualified institution to give tax breaks to businesses — particularly startups — located around some of College Park's higher-profile locales, such as the planned hotel-conference center and research park.

The "next generation of science" is at risk unless major changes are made to increase opportunities for young researchers, Johns Hopkins University President Ronald Daniels wrote in a scientific journal article published Tuesday.