A study conducted by the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore Foundation (EAGB) to estimate Baltimore Gas and Electric’s (BGE) economic contributions to the region in 2013 found that its operations generated a total economic impact of $3.81 billion of output and supported 8,686 jobs. This resulted from the company’s direct effect, the effect of companies that provide services to BGE and the effect of employees of both BGE and the service companies.  BGE’s activities contribute more than 2 percent of the entire economic output of the BGE service area in central Maryland.

“We are proud to be able to support our partners in their goal of measuring and understanding their importance to the region’s workforce and economy,” said Tom Sadowski, President and CEO of the EAGB. “Our Chief Market Analyst, Patrick Dougherty, did a tremendous job of assessing and articulating the impact of BGE’s economic contributions to the region.”

Public health officials have just one tactic to battle the unrelenting Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa — quarantine — but as the disease continues to spread, scientists in Maryland are among those close to discovering other weapons.

Baltimore companies Profectus BioSciences and Paragon Bioservices, as well as researchers at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Frederick and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, have been part of efforts that have shown a handful of Ebola vaccine candidates are effective in monkeys.

A new collaboration between the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) and the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) encourages SBIR applicants to license ARS technologies and be considered for a SBIR grant.

The relevant language in the SBIR’s “Request for Application” states: "Additional factors that will be considered in the review process include whether an application involves a CRADA with a USDA laboratory, or a license to a USDA technology, or is a resubmission. In the event that two or more applications are of approximately equal merit, the existence of a CRADA with a USDA laboratory or a license to a USDA technology will be an important consideration. If one application is a resubmission, this will also be an important consideration.” The SBIR Website can be found at: http://www.nifa.usda.gov/fo/sbir.

Accelerator Corporation, a US-based biotech investment and management company, has attracted a total of $51.1m for its Accelerator IV fund. The three major investors’ cash, Eli Lilly, Pfizer Venture Investments and Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, make up $50m of the investment.

The three pharmaceutical companies and other existing investors Alexandria Venture Investments, WRF Capital and Arch Venture Partners, are joined by two new strategic investors. These are Harris & Harris, a venture capital firm, and The Partnership Fund for New York City, an evergreen fund by the city’s business and finance leaders.

Today, most healthcare organizations operate in ways that are antithetical to innovation. The trend in patient-centered healthcare is to focus on stability, predictability, standardization and the avoidance of risk. Process engineers are deployed to help hospitals and healthcare systems eliminate waste and improve their organizations using Lean and Six-Sigma principles. Few operators develop an effective focus on innovation. Therefore, few reap the rewards that innovative breakthroughs in patient care can bring.

In a recent Boston Consulting survey across different industries, 76% of executives ranked innovation as a “top-three” strategic priority for their company. Among CEOs specifically, that number rose to 85%, with nearly half of them ranking it as their #1 priority.

Orgenesis Inc. (OTCQB: ORGS), a leader in the emerging fields of cellular therapy and re-generative medicine, today announced the appointment of industry veteran Scott Carmer as CEO of the company's North American subsidiary. Carmer has more than 25 years of diverse industry experience within both pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Orgenesis is a pioneer in the field of "cellular trans-differentiation," a technology that has potential to regenerate glucose-responsive insulin production and restore glycemic homeostasis for patients suffering from various insulin-dependent disorders. By transforming a patient's own liver cells into new insulin producing cells, Orgenesis hopes to develop a breakthrough therapy for people living with Type 1 Diabetes. In his new role, Carmer will oversee the Orgenesis drug development and commercialization strategy in North America, focusing on the near-term initiation of Phase I and Phase II clinical trials in the United States.

Aspiring entrepreneurs in Maryland have two great options for higher education, according to ranking website College Choice.

The University of Maryland, College Park snagged the No. 20 spot on website’s list of the 50 best U.S. colleges for entrepreneurs, while Johns Hopkins University came in a bit lower, at No. 36.

The latest outbreak of Ebola virus in west Africa is the worst ever—as of Monday, it had infected more than 1,200 people and claimed at least 672 victims since this spring. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone all have confirmed cases. An official at Doctors Without Borders has declared the outbreak as “totally out of control,” according to NBC News. Unfortunately, doctors have no effective vaccines or therapies. Health care workers can only attempt to support patients’ immune systems (regulating fluids, oxygen levels, blood pressure and treating other infections) to help the afflicted fight off the virus as best they can.

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:

NIH Guide Notices:

• Notice on Annual Reporting Requirements and Revised Financial Closeout Requirements for NIH Administrative Supplements Awarded to Recover Losses Due to Hurricane Sandy under the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act
  (NOT-OD-14-112) National Institutes of Health
• Notice of NHLBI Discontinuation of Grant Program "Ancillary Studies in Clinical Trials (R01)"
  (NOT-HL-14-232)National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice to Extend the Response Date for the NOT-HL-14-030 "Request for Information (RFI): NHLBI Whole Genome Sequencing Project (NHLBI-WGS)"
  (NOT-HL-14-233)National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Program Announcements (PA):

• NHLBI Career Transition Award for Intramural Fellows (K22)
  (PAR-14-302)
  National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
  Application Receipt/Submission Date(s): Multiple dates, see announcement.

10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20

Join us for an open house to learn more about the Master of Liberal Arts program, which is expanding in January 2015 to the Montgomery County Campus. Classes will be available on evenings, Saturdays and online.

The Johns Hopkins Master of Liberal Arts (MLA) is a unique, non-traditional graduate degree. Whereas most graduate programs ask you to become more and more specialized, the MLA expects you to both broaden and deepen your educational experience. Established in 1962 and administered by the Center for Liberal Arts at Johns Hopkins University, the program has gained national recognition for the quality of its teaching and the breadth of its course offerings. The MLA thrives on the curiosity, passion and diversity of its students. Our community of scholars eagerly embraces the Master of Liberal Arts interdisciplinary approach and flexible curriculum to better understand more about the world—and in so doing, learn and understand more about themselves.

At the Sept. 20th open house, you will have the opportunity to meet the program directors and ask questions about the MLA degree.

The 2014 UEDA Awards of Excellence finalists have been chosen and the competition this year is at an all time high. Each year, universities and organizations across North America submit nominations for innovative programs that focus on developing economic prosperity in their communities and beyond. A panel university and economic development professionals have chosen 19 finalists from the group of nominated projects.

The UEDA awards are designed to help accelerate these programs by recognizing cutting edge initiatives, and to promote their adoption by other universities and communities. Program categories include: Community Connected Campuses, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Collaboration, Research and Analysis, Talent Development.

Opticul Diagnostics has won a BioMaryland Center grant to work on a medical device with a France-based company that would immediately identify microorganisms in a wound at a point-of-care setting, such as a hospital.

The device would be used on burn injuries and cutaneous wounds. The rapid identification of the bacteria in the wound would allow for quicker patient treatment.

Opitcul Diagnostics, based at Johns Hopkins University’s Montgomery County Campus, is collaborating with Diafir of Rennes, France. The two companies have received funding through a partnership between BioMaryland Center and Medicen Paris Region.

Image: http://mcc.jhu.edu

Montgomery County, MD DED Tech Transfer Programs Monthly Event - Second Wednesday of every month: 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM (EDT) Germantown, MD

Innovators and startups pride themselves on being creators of disruptive technologies. We expect them to introduce game-changing solutions that improve our quality of life and enable administrations to govern better.

But the journey from innovative solution to government adoption is far from easy and can seem impossible for smaller companies with cutting-edge technologies.

Image: http://www.statetechmagazine.com

Qiagen has agreed to partner with AstraZeneca to develop a liquid biopsy-based companion diagnostic test to accompany one of the pharmaceutical company's lung cancer drugs.

Building on a master framework agreement signed by both companies in 2013, the partnership will involve the creation of a diagnostic test that analyses plasma samples to assess EGFR mutation status in non-small cell lung cancer patients.

The healthcare system in the U.S. is a slow-moving, slow-changing beast, but it’s also riddled with inefficient parts that beg for data-driven reinvention. That’s created huge opportunities for startups — and some of them are already seeing the payoff. The Affordable Care Act and accompanying legislation like the HITECH Act have lit a fire under the movement to rethink they way we deliver and pay for healthcare. Accordingly, investment in the digital health space has accelerated in 2014; at the end of June it totaled $2.2 billion, already exceeding 2013’s total funding just halfway through the year.

According to the latest research out of Johns Hopkins, a new blood test could predict a person’s risk for suicide through their DNA. The blood test would rely on genetics and offer many who are afflicted with mental illness and their doctors a new option in detecting suicidal behavior.

Johns Hopkins researchers Aleksander Popel and Jordan Green knew their research could serve a greater purpose outside their laboratory. But without any business experience, they knew they couldn’t do it alone.

With help from Hopkins’ tech transfer office and the Maryland Innovation Initiative, a state grant fund that invests in research projects with commercialization promise, the pair’s biomedical research is now a company — AsclepiX Therapeutics. The company is developing a better way to treat eye conditions caused by blood vessel abnormalities. Macular edema, which is common among people with diabetes and can lead to blindness, is an example.

Image: Jaclyn Borowski - At left, Niranjan Pandey, senior director of research and development, and Eric Bressler, research specialist, work in the lab at AsclepiX Therapeutics. 

Report: “Safe Science: Promoting a Culture of Safety in Academic Chemical Research”

Author: Committee on Establishing and Promoting a Culture of Safety in Academic Laboratory Research

Organization: National Research Council

Summary: The National Research Council formed a panel of university lab-safety experts after a series of campus accidents, including several deaths, emphasized that academic labs have a far worse safety record than their corporate counterparts do.

Regardless of your stance on Obamacare and Maryland’s Medicare waiver, you can’t ignore that health reform and technology are creating many opportunities for innovation. The BBJ is looking for those innovators. Please click below for contest information.

For years the standard operating procedure for the medical device world has been: Bring good tech to patients and be rewarded by the market. Healthcare reform and particularly the consolidation of doctor practices is making this model obsolete. Now the challenge is more along the lines of “Justify your existence.”

Device companies have to revamp the traditional business model to show how their products save money and help patients in the long term.

Image: http://medcitynews.com 

Genome scientist and entrepreneur J. Craig Venter is best known for being the first person to sequence his own genome, back in 2001.

This year, he started a new company, Human Longevity, which intends to sequence one million human genomes by 2020, and ultimately offer Web-based programs to help people store and understand their genetic data (see “Microbes and Metabolites Fuel an Ambitious Aging Project”).

Image: http://www.technologyreview.com - J. Craig Venter 

SBA Awards Montgomery County Chamber Community Foundation grant
to conduct veteran small business training course

ROCKVILLE, MD - The Montgomery County Chamber Community Foundation (MCCCF) is pleased to announce that the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) will support MCCCF in providing technical training to veteran-owned businesses seeking federal procurement opportunities. Through a Cooperative Agreement with SBA, the Foundation's National Center for Veteran Institute for Procurement (VIP) will expand and host three training sessions a year (over a twelve month period) to support up to 150 service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB) and veteran-owned small businesses (VOSB) to attend the program.

Education technology, or ed-tech, is getting big in Baltimore and local experts think Maryland has a shot at being a leader in this technology niche.

But it won’t happen overnight.

“I think we have a unique opportunity to build an ecosystem,” said Frank Bonsal III, an ed-tech venture capitalist who leads Towson University’s business incubator. “An ecosystem takes 20 years to build. We’re on year three.”

Image: Jaclyn Borowski - Andrew Coy, executive director of the Digital Harbor Foundation, says students should play a bigger role in growing ed-tech. 

When it comes to raising capital for a tech startup, savvy entrepreneurs know how important it is to hustle. From trying to attract the attention of VCs to appearing on television shows like ABC’s Shark Tank, these days when it comes to raising cash, everyone is out to get their share.

However, you may be surprised to learn that in this high-tech world, one very traditional institution is looking for smart entrepreneurs to give money to. Aspiring entrepreneur, meet the Small Business Administration (SBA).

With plans to couple Johns Hopkins Medicine’s research cachet and Kaiser Permanente’s population health prowess, the two health giants announced a new “strategic collaboration” on Tuesday.

Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States and Hopkins officials say they will collaborate on patient care by sharing data from electronic medical records and developing better health care models based on evidence of what's worked best. Kaiser will work closely with Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, which is part of the Johns Hopkins network.

Image: http://m.bizjournals.com 

A $10.7 million grant to the University of Maryland School of Dentistry and the University of Maryland School of Medicine will fund the collaborative study of biomarkers associated with sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia, in hopes of finding new ways to predict the infection and developing new vaccines or treatments. The five-year grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is the renewal of a previous $12 million, five-year grant awarded in 2009, bringing the project's total to $22.7 million.

Image: http://www.oea.umaryland.edu 

What do you need to turn a brilliant idea into a business? “A good morale boost,” says Abhishek Motayed, Founder and President of N5 Sensors, Inc. of Rockville. Motayed had that boost this month when N5 Sensors received two Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards totaling $250,000. The grants came from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) towards N5 Sensors work developing low-power, computer chip-size benzene, carbon monoxide, and ammonia sensors.

Image: http://umdtechtransfer.wordpress.com - Pasquale Ferrari, Ratan Debnath, Abhishek Motayed 

Maryland Health Secretary Dr. Joshua Sharfstein will step down in January to join Johns Hopkins University.

Sharfstein's move comes as Maryland is trying to revamp its failed health exchange in time for November open enrollment and as Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration winds down.

Image: Nicholas Griner Maryland Health Secretary Dr. Joshua Sharfstein is stepping down in January and will join Johns Hopkins University. 

The Montgomery County Council gave final approval Tuesday to an ambitious land-use plan designed to spur creation of a new science-focused town center in the county’s long-neglected eastern sector.

The White Oak Science Gateway Master Plan envisions housing, retail and a hub for medical and life-sciences research adjacent to the Food and Drug Administration headquarters at Route 29 and Industrial Parkway. The plan also adjusts zoning and land-use regulations with the goal of energizing new residential construction and commercial renewal in the White Oak and Hillandale communities.

The FLC planner visually communicates the outstanding research and development efforts of the federal laboratory system. Images and captions tell the story of the technology's scientific relevance and potential impact.

Printed annually, the planner is distributed to over 10,000 recipients, including members of Congress, scientists, researchers, agency representatives, laboratory directors, technology transfer professionals, students, academia, and members of industry.

Image: http://www.federallabs.org 

QIAGEN (NASDAQ: QGEN; Frankfurt, Prime Standard: QIA) today announced a collaboration agreement with AstraZeneca PLC (LSE, NYSE and OMX: AZN) for the co-development and commercialization of a liquid biopsy-based companion diagnostic to be paired with IRESSA, AstraZeneca's targeted therapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The project builds on a master framework agreement signed by both companies in 2013 and aims to develop and market a novel QIAGEN companion diagnostic that analyzes plasma samples to assess EGFR mutation status in NSCLC patients. The assay will be designed to guide the treatment of NSCLC patients with Astra Zeneca's oral monotherapy anti-cancer treatment when tumour tissue is not available. QIAGEN already offers the therascreen EGFR RGQ PCR Kit (therascreen EGFR test) as a tissue-based companion diagnostic for lung cancer patients, which was approved in the U.S. by the FDA in July 2013 and in China in May 2014.

Baltimore startup Quantified Care thinks it's possible for doctors to do an entire check-up with a smartphone and a bag of gadgets. It wants to sell you all of it — including the bag. Quantified Care is making a business of finding the most useful smartphone apps and devices for doctors and is developing software to help docs analyze data across devices. The company also runs an e-commerce website at which doctors can buy the devices it backs.

Image Courtesy of phanlop88 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ditching handshakes in favor of more informal fist bumps could help cut down on the spread of bacteria and illnesses, according to a study released on Monday.

The study in the American Journal of Infection Control found that fist bumps, where two people briefly press the top of their closed fists together, transferred about 90 percent less bacteria than handshakes.

Image: By The U.S. Army (Fist bump) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons 

In these times of tight budgets and rapidly evolving science, we must consider new ways to invest biomedical research dollars to achieve maximum impact—to turn scientific discoveries into better health as swiftly as possible. We do this by thinking strategically about the areas of research that we support, as well as the process by which we fund that research.