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Tuesday, December 2, 2014 from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM (EST)

The 7th Annual Maryland Stem Cell Research Symposium, hosted by the Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission and Montgomery County will be held on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 at the Silver Spring Civic Center, Silver Spring MD. The Symposium is the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund premier event that delivers comprehensive scientific talks, poster presentations, and networking time, enabling cell therapy basic research and technologies from the lab to pre-clinical and to commercialization. With a powerful line-up of speakers and many opportunities for you to present your work in concurrent or poster presentations, the Symposium will follow the format and style of previous meetings with additional networking time and an intimate environment.

Abstract Submission:

The Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund (MSCRF) is now accepting abstract submissions for poster and oral presentations for the 7th Annual Maryland Stem Cell Research Symposium. We encourage you to take full advantage of this opportunity to share your research results with our community. Multiple abstract submissions are welcomed.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Please Click Here to submit your abstract today!

Roche has just announced the acquisition of the U.S. biotech company InterMune for $8.3 billion. The driver for Roche was to gain access to InterMune’s drug, pirfenidone (trade name, Esbriet), which is already approved in Canada and Europe for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). IPF is a deadly lung-scarring disease which affects 50,000 – 70,000 people in the U.S. and 80,000 to 110,000 in Europe. While still under review by U.S. regulatory authorities, Roche’s acquisition signals its belief that pirfenidone will also gain U.S. approval. How big a product can pirfenidone be? Consensus forecasts compiled by Thomson Reuters Pharma peg annual sales at greater than $1 billion in 2019 – a nice addition to Roche’s stable of pulmonary compounds including Xolair (asthma) and Pulmozyme (cystic fibrosis).

Roche Holding AG said Sunday it would pay $8.3 billion for a California biotech firm that has yet to turn a profit on a new drug to treat a deadly lung disease—the latest gamble by a pharmaceutical giant to buy its way into a lucrative corner of the industry.

The takeover would allow the Swiss company to expand its presence in the treatment of respiratory disorders, one of the world’s biggest drug markets. Roche’s offer of $74 a share represents a 38% premium over InterMune’s closing share price on Friday of $53.80, and a 63% premium before takeover speculation surrounding the biotech started circulating this month.

The interest in using health IT tools as a way to improve healthcare delivery and efficiency has produced many rapidly growing healthcare companies, many of which can trace their origins within one or two years of Obamacare’s passage. These companies have reached a stage of their development to accelerate growth and that has coincided with a readiness by healthcare providers and payers to adopt or ramp up their technology.

With a nod to the top healthcare company on Inc’s 5,000 Fastest Growing Companies, molecular diagnostic companies with smartphone-enabled technology have also become more attractive as investment and acquisition targets.

The 2014 Steering Committee of the Montgomery County Executive Hispanic Gala (MCEHG) announces the first of three awards to be presented during the gala celebration on September 18, 2014 to take place at The Fillmore Silver Spring. 

University of Maryland President, Dr. Wallace D. Loh, will be the 2014 recipient of the “Advocate of the Year Award”.

The Daily Record announced Thursday its 2014 Innovators of the Year, celebrating Marylanders and Maryland-based companies for their innovative spirit.

Twenty-eight innovators will be celebrated during the awards event on Oct. 15 at the American Visionary Art Museum, at 800 Key Highway in Baltimore.

In July, alongside the ÜberResearch team, we launched a Twitter competition open to PhD students. The task was to tweet how you would spend £10 million of science funding using the hashtag #uberresearchprize. 

We had hundreds of tweets and the top three, as voted by our judging panel, were then invited to write a blog post, delving into their original tweet. Over the next few days we will publish the top three blog posts here on our blog, announcing the winner on Monday 25th August. 

The Maryland Technology Development Corp. is launching a new investment fund dedicated to cyber security.

The fund will make investments of up to $100,000 in companies that are developing and commercializing new cyber security projects.