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Montgomery County, particularly Gaithersburg, has become a central hub for vaccine research and development, and to a lesser extent for vaccine manufacturing.

The County is a key vaccine development center “not only for the country, but the world,” said Brad Fackler, senior director for life sciences at the c.

Netherlands-based biotechnology firm MIMETAS has partnered with Roche to develop a new organ-on-a-chip system to support intestinal permeability assessment.

The new system is designed to enable evaluation in perfused three-dimensional (3D) gut tubules in high throughput under exposure to pharmacological compounds. As part of their research, the firms are reported to have grown more than 350 gut tubules under flow to form leak-tight structures.

Altimmune, a drug company based in Gaithersburg, has agreements with investors to raise about $14.7 million, excluding fees and expenses, in a second round of financing. The company plans to sell 15,565 shares of convertible preferred stock and warrants to new and existing investors in a round that the company expects to close around Aug. 21.

Senseonics Holdings, Inc. (NYSE MKT: SENS), a medical technology company focused on the development and commercialization of Eversense®, a long-term, implantable continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system for people with diabetes, today announced the pricing of its previously announced underwritten public offering. Senseonics is offering 11,637,500 shares of its common stock, par value $0.001 per share, at a price to the public of $2.15 per share. In connection with the offering, Senseonics has also granted the underwriter a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,745,625 shares of common stock offered in the public offering to cover over-allotments, if any. Senseonics intends to use the net proceeds from the offering primarily to begin commercialization of Eversense in the United States, if approved, to fund continued research and development of future configurations of Eversense, and for working capital and general corporate purposes. The offering is expected to close on August 23, 2017, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of customary closing conditions.

Creatv MicroTech, a biotechnology company developing noninvasive diagnostics for cancer, has received a $250,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (NIH/NCI) to test the company’s CellSieveTM system for determination of residual disease in lung cancer patients after chemoradiation therapy, and for early detection of lung cancer recurrence. Creatv MicroTech’s discovery of a very large cell, the cancer associated macrophagelike cell (CAML), in patient blood has enabled more informative and reliable blood based cancer diagnostics. The presence of the CAML biomarker indicates the presence of cancer. Creatv developed CellSieveTM technology to capture and analyze CAMLs. In collaboration with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Creatv will assess the use of CAMLs in lung cancer patients to determine residual disease following treatment. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death, with an estimated 158,040 deaths (86,380 men and 71,660 women) from this disease in 2015. Ideally, treatment should be continued as long as necessary and stopped only after the cancer has been eradicated. The problem is that standard imaging techniques, CT and MRI, cannot detect small residual cancers, and thus treatment regimens may be insufficient for a patient’s individual need. The goal of Creatv’s study is to determine the point at which chemoradiation should be stopped, reducing the likelihood of recurrence. “We are honored to be recognized for the progress we have made in developing precision blood-based cancer diagnostics,” said Cha-Mei Tang PhD, President and CEO of Creatv MicroTech. “Our collaboration with the world renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center and support from the NIH will further demonstrate the value and utility of the CellSieveTM system and CAMLs in the battle against cancer and will ultimately save lives.”

I’m thrilled to let you know that our gut-on-a-chip work has been published this week in Nature Communications. 350 mini-guts on-a-chip, 20,000 data points, the largest organ-on-a-chip dataset ever published! The paper features the all new 3-lane OrganoPlate®, supporting barrier integrity and transport assays in even more complex tissue models.

Our colleague Elena Naumovska is a major contributor to this work. She joined us last year from the arctic circle to work on gut-on-a-chip models in a collaboration with Galapagos and Sheffield University.

And finally, we’re looking forward to see you at no less than 6 conferences in the coming 6 weeks, starting next week at the WC10 Congress 2017 in Seattle.

With kind regards, Jos Joore Managing Director, MIMETAS

Once considered a potential Democratic challenger to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan next year, John Delaney has set his sights higher — much higher. The three-term representative of Maryland’s 6th Congressional District is aiming to unseat President Trump with a promise to jump-start the U.S. economy by bringing innovation and entrepreneurship to Washington.

Supernus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SUPN), a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing products for the treatment of central nervous system diseases, today announced, following a four-day bench trial, that the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey ruled that TWi Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and its subsidiary infringed U.S. Patent Nos. 7,722,898, 7,910,131, and 8,821,930 by submitting to the FDA an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) seeking permission to market a generic version of Oxtellar XR® before the expiration of Supernus’ patents. The District Court ruling also confirmed the validity of U.S. Patent Nos. 7,722,898, 7,910,131, and 8,821,930.

Maryland gained 800 jobs in July and unemployment fell for the third consecutive month.

The private sector added 11,500 positions while government positions decreased by 10,700, according to preliminary data released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor. Maryland’s unemployment rate dropped to 4 percent in July from 4.1 percent.

Venture capital spending continues to lag behind the record activity of recent years, but startups needn’t worry; industry analysts say there’s still billions in dealmaking still to be done.

Nationally, VC firms invested roughly $38 billion in startups and other early-stage companies during the first two quarters this year, down 10 percent from the $42 billion recorded during the same span in 2016 and off about $2 billion from 2015, according to data collected by Pitchbook and the National Venture Capital Association.

The Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) at the University of Maryland, College Park seeks an organized, energetic person to assist with operational functions and related activities for the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program in the Honors College.

This nationally award-winning program helps to develop the entrepreneurial mindsets, skill sets, and resources for first and second-year students. The position-holder would provide coordination and support for: 1.) program operations and administration; 2.) courses and curriculum; 3.) student activities and engagement; 4.) marketing and recruiting; and 5.) development and grants.

This is an exciting opportunity for a self-starting, highly motivated, tech-savvy individual with experience in or desire to engage in an entrepreneurial and/or higher education environment. The ideal candidate will possess a Bachelor’s degree along with excellent skills in verbal, written and interpersonal communication, teamwork, multi-tasking, problem-solving, event management, and customer service.

This is a 6-month, hourly, contractual position, up to 40 hours per week, that would begin immediately. To apply, please send a resume and cover letter to eip@umd.edu. For best consideration, please apply by August 28, 2017.

The Cybersecurity Association of Maryland has a pair of new board members.

Silent Circle CEO Gregg Smith and EZShield VP of Technology Darrell Laffoon were elected to the board of the organization, according to a statement. Elected to a second term was Karen Austin, publisher of United States Security Magazine.

Johns Hopkins’ accelerator for impact-focused entrepreneurs opened up applications for its next cohort.

The JHU Social Innovation Lab will accept up to 10 companies for the next cohort, which begins in the fall. The program is open to entrepreneurs who are Greater Baltimore residents, as well as the Johns Hopkins community.

September 18, 2017 | 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM – Maryland Department of Commerce World Trade Center Baltimore 401 East Pratt Street, 17th floor

The Maryland Department of Commerce invites you to learn about the new Maryland Defense Diversification Assistance Program that is designed to assist Maryland companies with dependence on US Department of Defense contracts to expand into international markets. The presentation will highlight Australia (particularly the State of Victoria) as a destination for exporting and partnerships.

9 November 2017 – Munich

Future X Healthcare offers a unique platform to connect key innovation drivers in healthcare for an open and inspiring exchange of ideas, insights and solutions. The one-day event fosters new networks between the worlds of science, industry, VCs, accelerators, start-ups and politics.

The mission for 2017: to shape the future of healthcare by making big data meaningful – from science to patient care. The increasing availability of healthcare data – from genomic profiling, advanced imaging, digital biomarkers to electronic health records and mobile health – creates the foundation and framework for a more targeted, personalized healthcare. Together, we can change the way we do research, prevent and diagnose diseases, and treat patients.

Experience a day full of inspiration at Alte Bayerische Staatsbank in Munich with top speakers, start-up pitches, a networking innovation fair and two brand-new awards.

Muhammad Najee-Ullah has long been interested in technology, and he recognized the potential for art, tech and design to engage youth in Baltimore.

With Pop-Up Robotic Gaming Grounds (PURGG), Najee-Ullah introduces youth to STEAM. At after-school programs and events, PURGG lets students compete with teams of robots to gather items on a field. It’s also about learning what goes into designing and building the robots through educational “Design/Build/Compete” workshops that introduce coding, 3D printing, game design and plenty of other concepts.

GlaxoSmithKline opened its new $56.6 million vaccines plant in Montrose, Scotland, that will manufacture sterile aluminum salts and includes a microbiology lab. But the small addition comes as a much bigger project has been canceled.

Join us on Thursday, August 24 for the 2017-18 Fall Term FAES Graduate School Open House to meet and mingle with FAES faculty. Bring yourself, a friend, and your questions about registering for the Fall 2017 courses. The event will be held in the FAES Academic Center, Building 10, NIH, Bethesda, MD, 4:00 – 6:00 PM. Light refreshments will be served!

Job Summary: BioFactura is seeking highly motivated applicants with an entrepreneurial spirit for an open position in our biosimilar development programs. We are looking for qualified candidates with a masters or doctoral degree in the life sciences with highly relevant skills and bench experience. The selected candidate will participate in the development and validation of various biosimilar product assays. In this position, the candidate will be responsible for planning, conducting, execution and analysis of experiments using various techniques in protein analysis. Relevant skills include HPLC/U-HPLC (HILIC, RP, SEC, CEX, AEX, affinity), capillary electrophoresis (CE), mass spec, SDS-PAGE, IEF, ELISA, qPCR. Knowledge of protein purification methods and process development/scale-up is a plus. Knowledge of Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) including analytical method qualification/validation and current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) are desired. Experience in the preparation and delivery of oral and written presentations as well as participation in the preparation and submission of grants and/or manuscripts for publication are a plus. Excellent communication skills and the ability to analyze and interpret data, design appropriately controlled experiments independently, and maintain up-to-date laboratory notebooks are a must. This is an excellent opportunity to gain valuable experience with an innovative, small, young Biotech company and build a career in the biopharmaceutical industry. Candidates should feel comfortable working in a high risk/potential high reward environment and able to work overtime and weekends as project needs are determined.

Wed, October 25, 2017

PITCH. NETWORK. LEARN. BE INSPIRED.

TEDCO’s 7th Annual Entrepreneur Expo will bring together all of Maryland’s entrepreneurial resources from across the state into one place, at one time.

You can expect to see 700+ of the region’s top entrepreneurs, small and large business executives, angel and venture capital investors, federal and state economic development officials, university leaders and legislators.

The 2017 Biomedical PhD Career Fair offers a great opportunity for employers to connect with potential hires about opportunities in their organizations. Pairing companies from across the region and country with PhD students and trainees from Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland, NIH, and Howard University, the Biomedical PhD Career Fair caters to employers who are looking to recruit top talent from some of the country’s strongest biomedical programs. 

Trainees attending the Career Fair specialize in disciplines including:

• Biochemistry
• Biomedical Engineering
• Biophysics
• Health Sciences Informatics
• Genetics
• Immunology
• Molecular Biology
• Neuroscience
• Pathobiology
• Pharmacology