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 BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a regional private-public partnership focusing on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Central Maryland, today announced the launch of a new service offering: the Startup Package for Client Companies. The new package is designed to provide early-stage biohealth companies in Central Maryland with access to critical professional services – including corporate legal guidance, intellectual property, banking, accounting, payer and strategy, and grant support – as an enhanced benefit to working with BHI.
"We are proud to offer this service to our startup clients seeking to commercialize biohealth products," said Richard Bendis, President & CEO. "BHI aims to facilitate the development of commercially viable health-related products and companies. Providing access to these professional services is a critical step towards helping our biohealth startup clients in achieving this goal."
BHI has partnered with a supporting network of professional service providers that share the same vision for growing Maryland's biohealth sector, including Venable LLP, M&T Bank, Aronson, Miles & Stockbridge, InHouse Patent Counsel, Science Sherpa, Center for Medical Technology Policy, ADVI, and BBC Entrepreneurial Training & Consulting. These firms understand the nature and needs of startup companies, and offer preferred rates for client companies.
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Rockville biotechnology company Cellphire is the latest receipient of funding via the State’s InvestMaryland program, receiving $1 million last month!
Cellphire is developing stabilized cellular products, including freeze-dried platelets that can be stored for years and used in a range of advanced therapeutic and diagnostic applications including sports medicine, plastic surgery and dentistry. The company received a contract last year worth up to $57 million from the Biomedical Advanced Research Defense Authority, a division of U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The InvestMaryland funding will be used to continue development of the company’s freeze-dried platelet product, Thrombosomes, and move it closer to winning FDA approval.
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GSK and Save the Children have announced the second annual $1 million Healthcare Innovation Award, which was established to identify and reward innovations in healthcare that have proven successful in reducing child deaths in developing countries.
Organizations from across the developing world can nominate examples of innovative healthcare approaches they have discovered or implemented. These approaches must have resulted in tangible improvements to under-5 child survival rates, be sustainable and have the potential to be scaled-up and replicated. Special attention will be given to work that aims to increase the quality of, or access to, healthcare for newborns.
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Take a break from the Summer heat with our sponsor, Hydro Service and Supplies, and join us for another great networking event on July 9th from 5:00 - 7:30 p.m. at American Tap Room in Rockville, MD. This location is a short walk from the Metro located in the Rockville Town Center.
Hydro Service and Supplies, Inc. provides a versatile range of quality ultrapure water systems and products, from large scale central production systems to point-of-use laboratory systems. Since 1967, Hydro has been an industry leader by combining synergistic engineering and innovative designs with high-performance component selections, superior materials of construction, and precision manufacturing that result in high quality ultrapure water systems.
Hydro is dedicated to providing quality products and professional support from our experienced sales, engineering and service teams. Hydro serves Pharmaceutical, Biotech, Microelectronic, Research, Academic, Medical/Clinical, Food and Beverage, and Industrial applications. In addition, Hydro offers engineering services, turn-key installation, start-up and commissioning, validation support, PLC programming, water testing services and reliable service support 24/7/365.
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Originating as a solution to educate health workers in developing countries, emocha is now a powerful platform that allows researchers and clinicians to use mobile data capture, health education, and communication to address the challenges of adherence, linkage to care, and patient data management across a myriad of use cases. Sebastian Seiguer, CEO and Founder of emocha, and Morad Elmi, Director of Marketing, spoke with us about the latest from this Baltimore-based startup.
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Two Montgomery County companies each took home the top prize of $100,000 in their category as part of the 2014 InvestMaryland Challenge.
Bethesda-based life sciences company, Brain Sentry, won for its helmet-mounted sensor used to identify team sport players who should be evaluated for a concussion. Gaithersburg-based IT company, ClickMedix, won its catergory for technology aimed at helping physicians and health organizations maximize the number of patients they are able to serve.
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Funding and Research Opportunities
The following funding opportunity announcements from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest:
NIH Guide Notice:
- Notice of CDC/NCCDPHP Participation in PA-14-071 "PHS 2014-02 Omnibus Solicitation of the NIH, CDC, FDA and ACF for Small Business Innovation Research Grant Applications (Parent SBIR [R43/R44])"
(NOT-CD-14-001)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
- Notice of Website for Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for PAR-13-231 "Phenotyping Embryonic Lethal Knockout Mice (R01)"
(NOT-HD-14-021)
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Requests for Applications:
- Enriching the Hematology Research Workforce through Short-term Educational Experiences in Emerging Science Research Education Program Grant (R25)
(RFA-HL-15-006)
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Application Receipt Date(s): October 13, 2014
Please note that most links to RFAs, PAs, and Guide Notices will take you to the NIH Web site. RFPs will take you to FedBizOpps. Links to RFPs will not work past their proposal receipt date. Archived versions of RFPs posted on FedBizOpps can be found on the FedBizOpps site using the FedBizOpps search function. Under “Document to Search,” select Archived Documents.
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Leslie Ford Weber, interim executive director of Johns Hopkins University’s Montgomery County Campus, has been appointed to a board of directors executive committee position with the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.
Weber will serve a yearlong term as vice chair of the economic development committee. She shares the responsibility with Stewart Edelstein, executive director at the Universities at Shady Grove.
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The Johns Hopkins University has joined the National Science Foundation‘s National Innovation Network and becomes the fourth member university in the NSF Innovation Corps regional collaboration led by the University of Maryland, along with the George Washington University and Virginia Tech.
The NSF has approved a request from the three original universities to officially include Johns Hopkins in the I-Corps program’s “node” in the Mid-Atlantic called DC I-Corps, which was formed last year with $3.75 million in NSF funding.
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University of Maryland, a national leader in entrepreneurship education and venture creation, announces it will offer a new master's degree program in technology entrepreneurship starting this fall.
The 30-credit, 15-month Master of Technology Entrepreneurship, available online to current and aspiring entrepreneurs worldwide, features the university's most advanced and comprehensive entrepreneurship curriculum to date, taking students from concept development and prototyping to business model generation and customer validation, as well as legal aspects of entrepreneurship, financial and innovation management, and effective growth strategies.
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Former Johns Hopkins University college student Alex Koren wants to make a difference.
Koren feels he has a better opportunity of doing that by dropping out of Johns Hopkins, and devoting all of his time to his ideas on a Thiel Fellowship.
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On June 24, UBI Index announced the Global Top 25 University Business Incubators of 2014. We would like to thank all participants of this year's benchmark for great efforts in supporting entrepreneurs and helping the industry understand the importance of incubation.
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Valuations on venture-backed companies jumped again in the second quarter as the number of IPOs and the amount VCs invested in startups both hit post-dot-com highs, a new report from PitchBook Data shows.
The total amount invested has climbed steadily each quarter in the past year, jumping from $12.8 billion in Q2 of 2013 to $21.5 billion in the same period this year. The $13.9 billion raised in 76 new venture funds is also a recent high.
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A survey of healthcare and life science professionals and investors suggests healthcare M&A activity will surge past 2013 levels when there were 394 deals valued at $97 billion. The report by Bass Berry & Sims and Mergermarket indicates that market disruption, brought on by the Affordable Care Act, will lead to more consolidation deals across healthcare facilities, life science and healthcare IT companies.
The Affordable Care Act and HITECH Act are etched into the heart of most of these deals. That’s apparent from the facilities trying to figure out ways to cope with reduced Medicare reimbursements to the technology hospitals will need to adopt to fit in with change in payment models in the future. They also need to comply with electronic medical record requirements. Here are six trends that illustrate and factor in to the survey’s outlook.
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Educational experts have been telling us the future of employment opportunity will be in jobs requiring science, technology, engineering or mathematics training. At least in the D.C. area, the future is now.
A new study from the Brookings Institution finds the majority (55.1 percent) of job postings in the Washington area in the first quarter of 2013 required STEM skills. And not rudimentary skills either. More than 48 percent of all job postings required STEM skills and at least a bachelor's degree.
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Anyone who wants a job next year at Anne Arundel Medical Center -- whether as a surgeon or security guard -- will have to prove they don't smoke or use tobacco.
The Annapolis hospital's new hiring policy might be controversial, but it is legal in Maryland and more than half of the United States. And it's a type of job screening that is gaining favor with employers -- from hospitals to companies such as Alaska Airlines -- trying to control rising health costs and cultivate a healthier, more productive workforce.
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Reston-based New Atlantic Ventures joined a handful of other venture investors in backing Truveris, a New York startup whose cloud-based platform helps drive down the cost to companies of providing prescription drug benefits.
NAV Fund, an existing investor, joined New Leaf Venture Partners, Tribeca Venture Partners and First Round in Truveris' $12.75 million Series C round, which was led by Canaan Partners.
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The heart is more forgiving than you may think — especially to adults who try to take charge of their health, a new Northwestern Medicine® study has found.
When adults in their 30s and 40s decide to drop unhealthy habits that are harmful to their heart and embrace healthy lifestyle changes, they can control and potentially even reverse the natural progression of coronary artery disease, scientists found.
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