Researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park and Baltimore campuses are working to shed new light on how, one day, immune tissues could be designed and implanted to create next-generation vaccines or immunotherapies for a range of diseases, or serve as cutting-edge tools for the early diagnosis of cancers or other illnesses.
The Maryland Technology Development Corp. has awarded a $750,000 grant to Longeveron LLC, a Miami-based biopharmaceutical company, to study whether stem cells can make a better flu vaccine for seniors with a researcher from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
VLP Therapeutics, LLC. (“VLP”), a biotechnology company focusing on the research and development of therapeutic and preventative vaccines and new cancer therapies, announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued US Patent #9,969,986 covering a virus like particle comprising modified envelope protein E3. The patent protects key composition of matter of VLP’s proprietary i-αVLP virus-like particle platform technology and the pharmaceutical composition for use in preventing infectious disease and the treatment of cancer. VLP Therapeutics is currently focused on developing preventative infectious disease vaccines and therapeutic cancer vaccines utilizing the platform technology covered by patent #9,969,986 and other issued US patents,
Although the concept of immunotherapy has been around for more than a century, it only gained prominence as a method of targeted cancer therapy in the early 2000s. In 2015, Merck’s Keytruda® (pembrolizumab), a checkpoint inhibitor drug, made headlines as a breakthrough therapy for melanoma after former U.S. president Jimmy Carter was treated with it. Keytruda had just received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the first anti-PD-1 therapy, and its highly-publicized success created a frenzy in the media; followed by the initiation of scores of immuno-oncology (I-O) clinical trials.
The healthcare services and technology market is growing rapidly, which creates opportunities, risks, and structural questions for companies in the sector and those in the broader healthcare value chain.
The Wall Street Journal just ran an interesting interactive feature looking at where college grads move after graduation. They looked at 445 schools, and tracked destinations by metro area. They discovered that graduates, particularly from stronger schools, are flocking to major metro areas. The Big East, Ivy League, Pac-12, Big-12, ACC, and Big Ten are all over 70% in sending college grads to major metro areas (but see below for caveats).
Research to develop life-saving products, including new vaccines and other products to protect against deadly drug-resistant bacterial infections, got a significant boost today.
The UK Government’s Global Antimicrobial Resistance Innovation Fund (GAMRIF) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) have joined the CARB-X partnership to support scientific research around the world to develop new vaccines, preventatives, and other products against drug-resistant bacterial infections, particularly among vulnerable populations in low- and middle-income countries.
New York State will invest $30 million into the Center for Bioelectronic Medicine at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset as part of the state’s $72 million investment to support three transformative, economic developments on Long Island, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday.
Results from a multi-year clinical trial testing hyperbaric oxygen as an intervention for US military service members who have experience mild traumatic brain injuries with persistent symptoms were published recently in Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Journal.
AI and Big Data allow innovators to leverage neuroscientific knowledge at scale to untapped markets.
We would all like our brains to be more powerful – especially those of us with reason to fear the effects of advancing age or a degenerative illness. For the entrepreneurs behind widely promoted “brain-training” apps like Lumosity, the universal desire for cognitive improvement translates to lucrative opportunities. Some scientists and clinicians, too, have hopped on the bandwagon, seeking avenues to lend their expertise to the business world while theoretically bringing cognitive enhancement to the masses.
