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 Fourteen of 40 companies at the William Hanna Center for Innovation at Shady Grove already have moved to new space, and county employees are working with the rest to find new homes, county economic development head Steven A. Silverman said Wednesday. The new sites include the Germantown Innovation Center and the Montgomery campus of Johns Hopkins University in Rockville, as well as private space, he said. The county is in the process of replacing its oldest business incubator with a national cybersecurity center aligned with the National Institute of Standards and Technology of Gaithersburg. That plan has been met with opposition from not just tenants, but several Montgomery state legislators and former County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, who is running against County Executive Isiah Leggett in the Democratic primary in June.
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As cars zoom along Darnestown Road, drivers can glimpse the gently sloping pastures of historic Belward Farm, a wide swath of green in the middle of Montgomery County that has seen little change since the Civil War.
Even as tract mansions, shopping centers, roads and office parks have sprouted nearby, Belward has endured, looking today much as it did in the 19th century. Not long ago, Belward Farm was home to an 80-head herd of black Angus cattle, two miniature horses and a donkey, whose owner, Elizabeth Beall Banks, was a feisty opponent of development.
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Silver Spring-based United Therapeutics (NASDAQ: UTHR) finished off 2013 with a strong showing, collecting revenues of over $1.1 billion for the first time in its corporate history as well posting a net profit for the full-year 2013 and upbeat 2014 outlook.
Hidden beneath all the earnings news is a very important line segment on the balance sheet called “Cash and Cash Equivalents”. These are assets that have high liquidity and can be easily converted to cash or are cash themselves; that being said United Therapeutics has amassed nearly $1.14 billion worth of it. The amount is over $350 million more than the company held at the end of 2012.
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The University of Maryland just announced a new relationship with Lockheed Martin where the two will partner to develop an integrated quantum computing platform. The duo signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday putting into effect the establishment of the Quantum Engineering Center at the UMD.
"Classical computing can only take us so far," Dr. Ray O. Johnson, Lockheed Martin senior vice president and chief technology officer, said in an interview with the university. "In the future, critical systems will become so complex that problems will take too long or become too expensive to solve using even our most powerful supercomputers. We believe the next computational revolution will stem from applied quantum science—a discipline that connects physics, information science, and engineering."
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A new teacher “pipeline” at the University of Maryland, College Park, is expected to help with difficult-to-fill teacher positions in Prince George’s County.
“It absolutely bolsters our available pool of STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] teachers. And because we’re partners with the university, it gives us ready access to those students coming through the program,” Debra Sullivan, recruitment and retention officer in Prince George’s County Public Schools Department of Human Resources, said of Terrapin Teachers, a new program designed to encourage more undergraduate students in STEM fields to go into teaching.
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Governor Martin O’Malley announced today that the State, through the BioMaryland Center, has awarded nearly $1.5 million to seven innovative life sciences companies and one educational institution through its Biotechnology Development Awards program. The companies, which received up to $200,000 each, will use the funding to accelerate the commercialization of a wide range of treatments and technologies; including a device that detects concussions in youths engaged in sports; a tool that takes a minimally invasive approach to mitral valve repair; and a drug to reduce eye injections for macular degeneration. An award was also given to a Johns Hopkins University researcher who is developing a device to lessen certain risks involved with cardiac ablation.
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Johns Hopkins University and MedImmune, one of the largest biotechnology companies in the region, have teamed up for an innovative, $6.5 million research collaboration, and eight students in the Master’s in Biotechnology Enterprise and Entrepreneurship practicum are directly involved. They will be doing their practicum projects with MedImmune.
“The partnership between JHU and MedImmune is a wonderful opportunity for MBEE students to gain real-world experience,” said Lynn Johnson Langer, director, Enterprise & Regulatory Science Programs for the university’s Center for Biotechnology Education. “Their work will be highly valuable to the company, and a great learning experience for the students. Truly a win-win.”
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If you love the company you work for...
Then tell us! Share with the Frederick business community all the great things your company offers its employees. Great health insurance? Company picnics? Job training? Philanthropic efforts? Service awards? No detail is too small. Take home the coveted Best Places to Work award and window cling. Let everyone know just how great your company is.
New this year: All winners and the event will be covered in Frederick Magazine.
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You may remember him best for his hit song "She Blinded Me With Science," which rose to No. 5 on Billboard's Hot 100 Chart in 1982, but Thomas Dolby is more than just an '80s pop star with an interest in blending technology with sound. He is a legendary artist who has been on the forefront of digital music. Now, the synthpop musician will have a chance to share his passion with students by serving as Johns Hopkins University's first Homewood Professor of the Arts, a position that will allow him to create a new incubator on campus for technology in the arts.
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Writing Commercialization Plans for BioTech Thursday, March 13, 2014, 12:00pm - 01:15pm
Before your bio-tech product goes to market you need to write a commercialization plan. Join expert Elizabeth Anne Smith from SoMax Consulting as she reviews:
- Purpose of a Commercialization Plan
- Differentiation from Business Plan
- Biotech Commercialization Plan Outline and Key Elements
- Sources for Assistance
This event is for business owners who want to effectively communicate product value and vision.
More Information
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REGISTRATION DEADLINE: MARCH 14
The 8th Annual Entrepreneurial University Startups Conference is organized annually by the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2.org). The University Startups Conference is a unique conference series dedicated exclusively to the best practices for creating and funding globally-competitive, venture-backable university startups.
We bring together universities creating startups with VCs, angel investors, SBIR program managers and Fortune 500 technology scouts funding them. The conference also includes NSF, NIH, NIST, DOD, DOE, DHS and other government agencies working on improving the Innovation Economy by increasing the quality and quantity of startups coming out of universities.
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Fundrise, a crowdfunding start-up that finances commercial real estate projects for investors, will be debuting its latest offering on Wednesday morning on its site: a vacant commercial building on 1539 7th Street NW, in Washington, DC that the developer hopes to turn into a boutique retail site. The project is $2 million and $350,000 will be available to the general public.
This will be Fundrise’s 18th project and while in many respects it is similar to the ones that came before it, there is something new. Maryland residents can invest in the project–in as little as $100 increments—for the first time. Prior to this, these projects were only open to DC and Virginia residents.
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Juxtopia®’s (www.juxtopia.org) team, Juxtopia® Imhotep, formed as a program to create minority telemedicine companies to address telemedicine marketplace needs. The global telemedicine market grew from $9.8 billion in 2010 to $11.6 billion in 2011 and will almost triple to $27.3 billion in 2016, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.6% over the next five years, according to a report from BCC Research.
Juxtopia® Imhotep officially entered the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE http://www.qualcommtricorderxprize.org/ in January, 2014. In this X PRIZE competition, Juxtopia® Imhotep will compete with 31 teams around the world to engineer a consumer-friendly mobile telemedicine device that will measure vital signs and diagnose 15 health conditions including, but not limited to, diabetes, anemia, atrial fibrillation, stroke, tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia, and hepatitis.
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J. Craig Venter is the latest wealthy entrepreneur to think he can cheat aging and death. And he hopes to do so by resorting to his first love: sequencing genomes.
On Tuesday, Dr. Venter announced that he was starting a new company, Human Longevity, which will focus on figuring out how people can live longer and healthier lives.
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J. Craig Venter, the human genome pioneer, today unveiled a new San Diego-based venture with an ambitious goal of providing whole genome sequencing and cell-therapy-based diagnostic services for patients.
Venter said he co-founded the company, Human Longevity Inc., or HLI, with Robert Hariri, who oversaw Celgene Cellular Therapeutics and Peter Diamandis of the X Prize Foundation. The company already has raised $70 million in Series A venture financing that includes a Malaysian investment fund that also is the lead investor of another Venter venture, Synthetic Genomics, San Diego-based Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN), and other individual investors.
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March 13th, 2014 8:00am-10:00am at the Shady Grove Innovation Center, 9700 Great Seneca Highway, Rockville, MD 20850
The Maryland/Israel Development Center and The Tech Council of Maryland invite you to join us on March 13, 2014 at 8:00 am, for an informational session to discuss business growth opportunities for U.S. companies nterested in potential partnerships with companies in Israel.
A representative of the Israel Bi-national Industrial R&D Foundation (B.I.R.D Foundation) will be presenting information on the foundation’s technology collaboration grants of up to $1 million. If you are working with a company in Israel or could be looking to partner with one, you could be eligible. Join us to learn about the application process and timelines.
You will also have an opportunity to hear about an upcoming Israel trade mission. This is a great way to explore partnership opportunities with Israeli companies. Learn about a trade mission to Israel's premier Innovation Conference -- featuring Israel’s renowned Biomed Conference side-by-side with a groundbreaking High Tech Conference.
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Startup incubator DreamIt Ventures Austin is kicking off a new microfund this week that will benefit the companies involved with its second accelerator program.
The microfund, which will run through a partnership with AngelList, allows accredited investors to crowdfund money for startups. Everyone who participates in DreamIt Austin’s microfund will need to make a $2,500 minimum investment that will fund all nine companies within DreamIt’s Austin program — that means you can’t just pick and chose to fund only the companies you like.
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DreamIt Ventures continues its investment in the health tech space by launching its third DreamIt Health program. We’ve previously covered the 2013 DreamIt Health Philadelphia program and the 2014 DreamIt Health Baltimore program, which is ongoing. Applications for the third class, which will be in Philadelphia from July 18th till November 9th, are currently being accepted until May 16th. If you have the next great startup idea for health, you can apply here….
We had the opportunity to speak with DreamIt Health Managing Partner, Elliot Menschik, MD, PhD, about the program and where he sees opportunities in health tech entrepreneurship.
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China Fortune Land Development Co., Ltd. (CFLD), a leading expert in investment and operation of industrial zones in China, officially launched a high-tech incubator in Silicon Valley on February 28. The incubator marks a new way to upgrade China's industries, a new platform to connect Chinese and US high-tech industries and a key step of CFLD's global expansion.
The US has the richest technological resources, the most sophisticated educational system, and the best innovative environment in the world. It fosters a large number of international giants and innovative startups that provide services and products to customers around the world.
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Phlebotomy. Even the word sounds archaic—and that’s nothing compared to the slow, expensive, and inefficient reality of drawing blood and having it tested. As a college sophomore, Elizabeth Holmes envisioned a way to reinvent old-fashioned phlebotomy and, in the process, usher in an era of comprehensive superfast diagnosis and preventive medicine.
That was a decade ago. Holmes, now 30, dropped out of Stanford and founded a company called Theranos with her tuition money. Last fall it finally introduced its radical blood-testing service in a Walgreens pharmacy near company headquarters in Palo Alto, California. (The plan is to roll out testing centers nationwide.) Instead of vials of blood—one for every test needed—Theranos requires only a pinprick and a drop of blood. With that they can perform hundreds of tests, from standard cholesterol checks to sophisticated genetic analyses. The results are faster, more accurate, and far cheaper than conventional methods.
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Debt isn’t always a dirty word in the world of startups.
Yesterday I heard John Hoesley from Silicon Valley Bank give a brief presentation on venture debt as a funding mechanism for startups at a capital connections event hosted by BioOhio. He mentioned that SVB has seen an uptick in its venture debt business over the last few years as venture capital dollars have become more scarce and companies have turned to alternative sources of funding.
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A number of devices now exist that turn smartphones into medical monitors, but they tend to focus on specific vital signs and you’d have to carry a number of separate components to measure a variety of parameters. A new iPhone case called Wello from Azoi Inc. is planned to be released later this year combines a one lead ECG, thermometer, pulse oximeter, and supposedly even a cuffless blood pressure sensor in one device. It will also come with an optional spirometer for measuring airway flows and volumes.
Though other components are available in existing devices, cuffless blood pressure measurement is not trivial and has never been demonstrated to be as accurate as traditional cuffed BP monitors. And since FDA clearance is still required to release the Wello in the U.S., it will be interesting to see just how accurate it really is. Coincidentally, the Scanadu Scout, a device with similar claims, including cuffless blood pressure monitoring, is set to be shipped this month to all those who invested in it through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign.
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Fierce Biotech today published the top 15 sites in the US for biotech venture capital in 2013. This according to figures from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) as compiled by Thomas Reuters. The findings are not terribly surprising in terms of the rankings -- except it might be a mild surprise that San Francisco outspent Boston/Cambridge on the VC front last year. Otherwise, the rankings look to make sense. Here is the summary below in terms of place, dollars and numbers of deals. The total dollars for the US was $4.5 B.
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The rumors were true – kind of: The Founders Fund has been out raising a massive amount of cash for a fifth fund, but it’s not $750 million as originally thought. It’s $1 billion, the fund said today.
Most known for backing Facebook, Spotify and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, FF is a “stage agnostic” fund that focuses on aerospace, artificial intelligence, advanced computing, energy, health and consumer Internet.
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In his $3.9 trillion fiscal year 2015 budget proposal released Tuesday, President Obama asked for $1.8 billion to support health information technology incentive payments — the same amount he requested last year. Actual spending for this category came to $1.07 billion in 2013.
The budget also included $77.1 billion in discretionary funding to support HHS’s mission, $800 million below the 2014-enacted level.
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The IPO wave kept rolling for venture-capital-backed biotech as two life science companies held their first trading day Friday, while another estimated a price range for its public debut and a fourth publicly filed its paperwork.
Reuters Shares of Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc. rose 8.6%, while Recro Pharma Inc.‘s stock rose 3.8%.
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Alejandro Zaffaroni, a prolific biotechnology entrepreneur and Silicon Valley legend who played a significant role in the development of the birth control pill, the nicotine patch, the DNA chip and corticosteroids, died on Saturday at his home in Atherton, Calif. He was 91.
The cause was complications of dementia, Ana Leech, his longtime assistant, said.
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