![]()
Standing to address a crowd of biotech business leaders and health experts at a conference hosted by Virginia’s biotechnology association this week, Inova Center for Personalized Health CEO Todd Stottlemyer began with a question.
![]()
Standing to address a crowd of biotech business leaders and health experts at a conference hosted by Virginia’s biotechnology association this week, Inova Center for Personalized Health CEO Todd Stottlemyer began with a question.

As with many new fields, synthetic biology—which incorporates disparate disciplines like engineering, computer science, biotechnology, and molecular biology—is hard to pin down. But a rough working definition says that it is the application of the principles of engineering to biological systems. Instead of using engineering’s discrete modules of code, transistors, resistors, and capacitors, synthetic biology builds things from sequences of genetic material. The field has remarkable potential and has already been used to aid the production of antimalarial drugs and synthetic flavorings. One researcher used mail-order DNA and a genetic map available online for free to create a live polio virus. The implications could be enormous.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a regional innovation intermediary focused on commercializing market-relevant bio-health innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Maryland, has been awarded a renewal of its contract to extend and expand its entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR) program with the National Institutes of Health (NIH). BHI will place EIRs within the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the NIH Office of the Director and other NIH Institutes and Centers.

Unicorns pranced all over Twitter Sunday as users celebrated an imaginary holiday for an imaginary creature. But some Twitter folk weren’t in the mood for make-believe.
After all, who needs unicorns when majestic, spear-headed animals actually exist?

It’s not the current product lineups that matter the most for big pharma companies. It’s their pipelines.
Three big pharma companies boasting the strongest pipelines are Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Novartis (NYSE: NVS), and Roche (NASDAQOTH: RHHBY). Here’s what sets these drugmakers apart from their peers.
![]()
Standing to address a crowd of biotech business leaders and health experts at a conference hosted by Virginia’s biotechnology association this week, Inova Center for Personalized Health CEO Todd Stottlemyer began with a question.

Much has been written about the role of the creative economy as a key indicator of economic health. The “rise of the creative class” and “creative clusters” are concepts that inform the larger conversation on cities as the economic drivers of regions. As a result, everyone from academics to governments are increasingly looking for ways to measure the scope and size of the creative economy.

When we visit a friend or go to the beach, our brain stores a short-term memory of the experience in a part of the brain called the hippocampus. Those memories are later “consolidated” — that is, transferred to another part of the brain for longer-term storage.

The Johns Hopkins University’s newest business incubator, set to open formally at the end of April, adds more office and lab space to spur the school’s ongoing effort to commercialize research.
FastForward 1812, located in the East Baltimore development area at 1812 Ashland Ave., offers a home to startup companies trying to build products that grow out of research at the univeristy or its medical school. It’s also open to other Baltimore-area entrepreneurs.

Social Lab@Light City panelists Michelle Geiss, Darius Graham and Tammira Lucas talked about what it takes to create a sustainable ecosystem of social entrepreneurship.