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The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland’s largest technology trade association for life science and technology, today announced the winners of its 26th Annual Industry Awards. More than 700 technology and business leaders from around the state attended the celebration last night, which took place at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center.

“The individuals and companies we honored at last night’s industry awards celebration represent the tremendous talent, innovation and dedication we have in Maryland’s thriving technology community,” said Phil Schiff, TCM’s CEO. “The nominees for this year’s awards were truly outstanding, and exemplify how Maryland’s technology community is playing a vital role in ensuring our state’s long-term prosperity.”

Electronics giant Samsung recently announced a foray into big pharma. The South Korean company is set to invest over $2 billion into biopharmaceuticals—drugs developed from biological sources (e.g. vaccines or gene therapies) as opposed to traditional chemical cocktails—with a focus on creating cheaper versions of existing therapies.

But cheapness won’t be Samsung’s only advantage. The company better known for its smartphones could also take advantage of the fact that the pharma industry has been slow to explore mobile health technology.

It’s too early to say what Pfizer’s bid for AstraZeneca means for MedImmune. But it’s starting to become clearer what MedImmune means for Pfizer’s bid for AstraZeneca.

As Pfizer courts MedImmune’s U.K.-based parent, one promising immunotherapy product — MEDI4736, now in late-stage clinical trials for non-small cell lung cancer — has seen a flood of attention alongside another closely watched lung cancer drug, AZD9291. Data on both drugs are slated to be presented at the end of May at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual conference in Chicago. AstraZeneca is looking to wield positive results to showcase its immuno-oncology pipeline, undergirding the argument that it’s worth more than the $106 billion that Pfizer originally bid for it.

Cybersecurity will be a major growth engine in the region for many years to come. The 2014 CyberMontgomery Forum is YOUR chance to join with cyber leaders from the private sector, government and academia.  Hear from The Honorable Thomas J. Ridge, the first Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and former Governor of Pennsylvania.

Plus, get an update on the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence and hear from industry experts and guest speakers including Congressmen Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett and representatives from Lockheed Martin, Discovery Communications, DMI, Triumfant, Koolspan, Inc. and…

A 300-teraflop supercomputer named Deepthought2 will now power research at the University of Maryland. Housed in the institution’s new 9,000-square-foot Cyberinfrastructure Center, Deepthought2 was developed with high-performance computing solutions from Dell and will support advanced research activities ranging from studying the formation of the first galaxies to simulating fire and combustion for fire protection advancements.

Deepthought2 replaces its namesake Deepthought, installed in 2006. According to a university statement, “the new supercomputer is 10 times faster than its predecessor, able to complete between 250 trillion and 300 trillion operations per second. It has a petabyte (1 million gigabytes) of storage and is connected by an InfiniBand network, a very high-speed internal network. Put another way, Deepthought2 is the equivalent of 10,000 laptops working together, it has 2,000 times the storage of an average laptop, and its internal network is 50 times faster than broadband.”

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have completed a groundbreaking new test: They knocked widespread blood cancer into remission with a single massive blast of measles vaccine.

Stacy Erholtz, who was suffering from an advanced stage of blood cancer, recovered thanks to an intravenous injection of the measles virus, which was sufficient to overwhelm the cancer’s natural defenses, the StarTribune reports.

GlycoMimetics, Inc. announced today that data from a Phase 2 clinical trial of its lead drug candidate rivipansel ( GMI-1070 ) in pediatric patients has been presented at the American Society of Pediatric Hematology Oncology (ASPHO) 27th Annual Meeting . As part of the symposium entitled, “Sickle Cell Disease: Saving the Brain and Treating the Pain,” Timothy McCavit, M.D., M.S., Assistant Professor of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, highlighted the results observed in a randomized, multi-center, double-blind, adaptive Phase 2 study of rivipansel in pediatric sickle cell disease patients with vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC). The ASPHO Meeting is taking place May 14 through May 17 at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago.

“Because sickle cell disease is genetic with symptoms presenting in patients at very young ages, there is a huge unmet need for managing its symptoms in pediatric populations. Dr. McCavit’s presentation at the ASPHO meeting underscores the potential role of rivipansel in addressing VOC in pediatric patients,” said Helen Thackray, M.D ., Vice President of Clinical Development and Chief Medical Officer at GlycoMimetics. “We remain committed to supporting the advancing study of this potential therapy in both children and adults and look forward to continued research through the Phase 3 study, which will be led by our collaborator Pfizer, Inc.”

OpGen, Inc., a Gaithersburg based molecular diagnostics company, announced today that it has launched a new molecular-based test that can quickly and reliably identify patients at risk for harboring serious disease-causing microbes that can resist even the strongest antibiotics. The Acuitas™ MDRO Gene Test is a comprehensive molecular screening tool that can directly detect as many as seven genes from one patient sample, and will help hospitals and public health officials combat some of the most critical multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs) threatening patients in healthcare facilities. 

“Drug-resistant ‘superbugs’ pose a serious and immediate threat to the world’s health and safety increasing the likelihood of prolonged illnesses, higher costs – even death,” said Evan Jones, Chairman and CEO, OpGen, Inc. “The new Acuitas MDRO Gene Test makes MDRO screening more efficient and cost-effective by delivering comprehensive, precise and actionable information to healthcare practitioners within 24 hours, assisting them in their efforts to combat and prevent the spread of these complex and potentially life-threatening infections.”

The National Venture Capital Association on Wednesday named Scott Sandell, a Silicon Valley-based general partner with New Enterprise Associates, its next chairman.

He takes over as chair of the Arlington-based VC trade group at an optimistic time, at least compared with the years following the recession. By the NVCA’s own numbers: Venture firms, nationally, are seeing increasing success luring back limited partners, while a greater number of venture-backed companies are going public. Total VC dollars invested hit a more than dozen-year high last quarter.