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.

Bioentrepreneurship is the process of creating customer defined value by creating, developing, deploying and harvesting biomedical and/or sick care or health and wellness innovation. The definition includes three key elements: process, value creation and innovation.

The hollow Cola tree growing in a remote area of southeastern Guinea was once home to thousands of bats routinely hunted and killed by the neighborhood children. It was also a popular spot to play. A year ago, one child in particular lived within fifty meters of the tree: a two-year-old boy who died in December 2013 and later was identified as the first person in west Africa known to have developed Ebola. The tree was one of the few that loomed over his home village of Meliandou, a hamlet of 31 houses. The question that now haunts researchers: were the tree’s occupants behind how that small boy contracted the virus in the first place?

Montgomery County Executive, Ike Leggett, has named Sally Sternbach Acting Director for the Department of Economic Development effective January 3, 2015.

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:

• Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Stipends, Tuition/Fees and Other Budgetary Levels Effective for Fiscal Year 2015
• (NOT-OD-15-048) National Institutes of Health
• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
• Health Resources and Services Administration
• Notice of Salary Limitation on Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and Contracts 
• (NOT-OD-15-049) National Institutes of Health
• NIH Fiscal Policy for Grant Awards - FY2015
• (NOT-OD-15-050) National Institutes of Health

Please note that most links to RFAs, PAs, and Guide Notices will take you to the NIH Web site. RFPs will take you to FedBizOpps. Links to RFPs will not work past their proposal receipt date. Archived versions of RFPs posted on FedBizOpps can be found on the FedBizOpps site using the FedBizOpps search function. Under “Document to Search,” select Archived Documents.

The National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2) is holding a Combined University Startups and Global 1000 Meet | Partner | Deal Conference in Washington, D.C., March 10-12. The event will bring together two dynamic conferences:

• to share best practices on creating and funding university startups,
• to showcase world-class startups from the portfolios of universities, angel investors, VCs, incubators and SBIRs,
• to find significant transactions for Fortune 500 corporates, and
• to provide great dealflow for angel investors and VCs.

GLOBAL 1000 TRANSACTION NETWORK COMPANY SHOWCASE

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: JANUARY 21

Submit your high-growth and innovative companies to individually meet with and showcase to an exclusive Global 1000 Transaction Network of Corporate Investors, Venture Capitalists, and Angel Investors at the Combined University Startups and Global 1000 Meet | Partner | Deal Conference in Washington, DC, on March 11 and 12, 2015. Know more about this powerful showcase program

Startups face huge challenges. But we can help.

We’ve helped scores of them grow by putting their CEOs in front of a live audience of investors, tech executives and media at our annual Emerging Companies Summits.

With 41 novel drug approvals under the regulators’ belts last year, 2014 represented an 18-year high for the Food and Drug Administration – including a record number of okayed meds for orphan diseases, the Associated Press says...

Finding funds for early stage companies has always been a great challenge. In past venture financing cycles, it's been the gap between the first venture financing (Series A) and the growth capital or mezzanine financing that many emerging companies were unable to bridge. This gap, called the "valley of death," was attributed to a number of factors, but that valley of death has shifted in important ways in the recent past.

Curator: Stephen J. Williams, Ph.D

I am intending to do a series of posts highlighting interviews with Philadelphia area biotech startup CEO’s and show how a vibrant biotech startup scene is evolving in the city as well as the Delaware Valley area. Philadelphia has been home to some of the nation’s oldest biotechs including Cephalon, Centocor, hundreds of spinouts from a multitude of universities as well as home of the first cloned animal (a frog), the first transgenic mouse, and Nobel laureates in the field of molecular biology and genetics. Although some recent disheartening news about the fall in rankings of Philadelphia as a biotech hub and recent remarks by CEO’s of former area companies has dominated the news, biotech incubators like the University City Science Center and Bucks County Biotechnology Center as well as a reinvigorated investment community (like PCCI and MABA) are bringing Philadelphia back.

Campus Technology is looking for innovative colleges and universities that have deployed unique technology solutions to campus challenges.

Nominations are now open for our tenth annual Campus Technology Innovators Awards, recognizing institutions, technology project leaders and vendor partners that have used technology in new ways to support teaching, learning, administration and operations. The deadline for entries is Feb. 17.

Health Canada has accepted US-based Sucampo Pharmaceuticals' New Drug Submission (NDS) for Amitiza (lubiprostone), 24mcg capsules, to treat chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC) in adults and opioid-induced constipation (OIC) in adults with chronic non-cancer pain.

The pharmaceutical giant Roche has paid an undisclosed price to acquire Bina Technologies, a bioinformatics company. The move sees Roche expand further into the life sciences sector.

For obvious reasons, hospitals are a hotspot for germ exposure, which can increase the risk of infection for those making a visit by up to 10 percent, according to a recent study. What might be surprising though, is that researchers found more bacteria colonization on the hospital elevator buttons than even on the facility’s toilets.

Imagine, a quick pinprick on the sidelines of a football game that could tell athletes whether they’ve concussed. Arizona startup BioDirection is developing a point-of-care device that diagnoses minor brain injury quickly – in 60 to 90 seconds – with just a single drop of blood.

Two-thirds of a wide variety of cancer kinds are largely rooted in undesirable genetic luck and not simply the benefits of traits passed down from parents or risk components like smoking or diet program, according to a new study. Random mutations in DNA are largely accountable for the majority of cancers in humans, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

On Thursday, January 15, 2015 from 4-6:30 pm there will be an open house for the spring courses in the "Advanced Studies in Technology Transfer" program at the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES) Graduate School at NIH in the new Classroom & Bookstore complex in NIH Building 10 / B1 level.  For the semester beginning on January 26, 2015 there will be 14 courses offered with details available in the new 2014-15 course catalog ( www.faes.org ). The Advanced Studies in Technology Transfer is an open enrollment program with class credits transferable into various university MBA & MS degree programs. The technology transfer classes will be held at the offices of the NIH Office of Technology Transfer in Rockville as well as the NIH main campus in Bethesda.

U.S. drug approvals in 2014 hit their highest level in 18 years and recommendations in Europe also came at a rapid rate, driven by expensive new treatments for cancer and rare diseases.

United Therapeutics Corporation (NASDAQ: UTHR) announced today the signing of an agreement with DEKA Research & Development Corp. for the development of a potential technology breakthrough in the subcutaneous delivery of Remodulin® (treprostinil) Injection to patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) via a pre-filled semi-disposable pump system.  

U.S. News & World Report is pleased to announce the 2014 STEM Leadership Hall of Fame, honored during the U.S. News STEM Solutions conference. In choosing the honorees, U.S. News sought out leaders who, among other things, have achieved measurable results in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields; challenged established processes and conventional wisdom; inspired a shared vision; and motivated legions of aspiring STEM professionals.

Outgoing D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray gave the city's tech scene some love as one of his final acts, signing a somewhat controversial tax cut into law. The capital gains tax on returns from investments in certain tech companies was lowered to 3 percent.

Here are a few thoughts on the cut from techs I spoke with...

Governmental agencies face a wide spectrum of challenges in creating mHealth apps, ranging from a changing development culture to potential litigious issues, revealed a new report published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.     

Anne Arundel County's economic development chief took to LinkedIn in search of a new executive director of the Chesapeake Innovation Center — and he's dangling a big carrot.

Robert L. Hannon, president and CEO of Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp., is spreading the word that he's looking for an executive director for the agency's technology incubator who has a background in small-business/technology development, technology commercialization, entrepreneurship and five years professional work experience. The position's salary will range from $110,000 to $130,000, with an estimated benefits

Last spring Laura Murphy, then 28 years old, went to a doctor to find out if a harmless flap of skin she had always had on the back of her neck was caused by a genetic mutation. Once upon a time, maybe five years ago, physicians would have focused on just that one question. But today doctors tend to run tests that pick up mutations underlying a range of hereditary conditions. Murphy learned not only that a genetic defect was indeed responsible for the flap but also that she had another inherited genetic mutation.

The CMS Innovation Center paid $2.6 billion through September to hospitals, doctors and others through nearly two dozen programs that tested new ways to deliver healthcare and pay for it.

SHUTTLE Pharmaceuticals, a privately held company, today announced it has been awarded a fast-track Phase I/II contract #HHSN261201400013C by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The $ 1.62 million contract will fund the initial development of IPdR (5-iodo-2-pyrimidinone-2-deoxyribose), a prodrug of the radiation sensitizer IUdR (5-iodo-2-deoxyuridine). The contract is to determine the scientific merit, feasibility and potential for commercialization of oral IPdR for use as a radiation sensitizer for the treatment of rectal cancers. The NIH contract provides funds to cover a portion of the costs for initiating a Phase I trial in GI cancers and development of companion diagnostics for analyzing clinical specimens from Phase I patients.

Ah, the elevator pitch. A favorite tool of the networking masses. A rite of passage of sorts. You’ve heard the scenario: you step into an elevator and go up one floor. The elevator doors open and in walks the client of your dreams. They start some small talk and ask, “What do you do?” and you’ve got the rest of the elevator ride to respond. How do you answer that in 20 seconds in such a way that gets them interested? The answer is simple. You need an elevator pitch for your elevator pitch.

Roche Holding AG said US health regulators have approved its Ebola test for emergency use in response to the world's worst outbreak of the disease in West Africa.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Roche’s LightMix Ebola Zaire rRT-PCR Test for use on patients with signs and symptoms of Ebola Zaire virus infection, the Swiss drugmaker said in a statement.

In 2014, wearable health tracking devices continued to get more creative, going far beyond simple fitness tracking. The K-Goal, a "Fitbit for your vagina," promised to help women do kegel exercises correctly, while the Emotiv EEG headset offered the prospect of mental acuity, measured by a device that tracks the brain's concentration.

The year in biotechnology began with a landmark event. A decade after the first human genome was decoded at a cost of about $3 billion, the sequencing-machine company Illumina, of San Diego, introduced a new model, the Hyseq X-10, that can do it for around $1,000 per genome.

A new business incubator in Baltimore's Inner Harbor will cater to startup companies launched through universities.

The Institute of Marine & Environmental Technology in January is opening a 4,300-square-foot incubator in its offices at the Christopher Columbus Center in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

Medical technology developer Medtronic, Inc. recently completed an application submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the pre-market approval of their SynchroMed II implantable drug infusion system, which includes a new catheter design. The system is intended to be used by pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients for the intravenous delivery of the drug Remodulin (treprostinil), which is being developed by the United Therapeutics Corporation.

Here are my 10 crucial pieces of advice for students who aspire to a career in pharmaceutical labs:

1. You need a solid foundation in science. Master the basics, and learn how to apply that knowledge.

Biotechnology will have a strong year in 2015, but it can’t get any better than 2014, biotech investor G. Steven Burrill says in his annual year-end report.

“The unprecedented IPO (initial public offering) and M&A (mergers and acquisitions) activity this year will make 2014 one for the record books and unlikely to ever be surpassed,” Burrill said.

Faced with diminishing returns on R&D investments, large pharmaceutical companies are searching for innovative ways to successfully identify, develop, and market products with financial viability. Yet small discovery companies and biotechs continue to outpace large pharma in the approval of NMEs (new molecular entities).