Who?

A conference and career fair for current postdoctoral fellows working in Washington, D.C. area federal labs and universities, and for companies recruiting high-level S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) professionals.

What?

This event exposes area postdoctoral fellows in the S.T.E.M. fields to the many career options (e.g., government, private sector, entrepreneurship) that are available to them.

The career fair portion connects local job-seeking postdocs with companies seeking that level of talent.

When & Where?

Bethesda North Marriott / Montgomery County Conference Center 5701 Marinelli Road, Rockville, MD 20852

April 24, 2014 

Time: 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Watch this space for more information about the next event.

MedCity News, writing about DreamIt Ventures, notes the venture capital firm specializing in incubation and seed investments is calling for applications for DreamIt Health Philadelphia in an environment where more and more applicants are developing smartphone diagnostic tools. “This trend in mHealth devices is prompting a shift in how DreamIt characterizes the accelerator to include not just health IT to health tech. It also wants startups to be more aware of regulatory requirements.”

Elliot Menschik, managing partner for healthcare with DreamIt Health, told MedCity News that DreamIt needs to educate its class members specifically about FDA guidelines and regulatory requirements concerning mobile health settings. “More and more, we will see companies that need to [know how to] navigate the FDA in an mHealth setting,” he said. “We ask them, ‘Have you thought about how the FDA will treat this?’ It’s a big, eye-opening experience for them. But we’re in a much better position to help those companies than ever.”

The size of angel financing rounds in the healthcare industry grew last year, although the share of all angel deals focused on healthcare stayed about the same.

Silicon Valley Bank, the Angel Resource Institute and CB Insights are out with their 2013 Halo Report today looking back at last year’s trends. The data showed deals rebounding from a dip in 2012 and becoming increasingly valuable.

BioSTL announced today a five-year, $2.5 million grant from the Monsanto Company that will support the nonprofit’s work to promote regional economic growth and advance St. Louis’ standing as a leader in bioscience. Funding from Monsanto will allow BioSTL to step up its collaborative efforts to build a strong bioscience ecosystem that capitalizes on St. Louis’ world-class plant and medical science strengths. The announcement came during InvestMidwest 2014, a venture capital conference that showcases 40-45 companies from throughout the Midwest in the three industry tracks of life sciences, technology, and food/ag/bioenergy.

"St. Louis is home to a unique convergence of corporate, university, and entrepreneurial strengths that place our region among the world’s great bioscience centers. Monsanto has been a longtime collaborator with local universities and research institutions as well as an early supporter of regional entrepreneurial activities," said Donn Rubin, President and CEO of BioSTL. "This contribution will help to advance St. Louis’ economy by further expanding the infrastructure necessary to grow St. Louis’ bioscience community."

MIPS provides funding, matched by participating companies, for university research projects that help companies develop new technology products.

Benefits to Maryland Companies

• Cost-effective research with world-class university faculty
• Access to university students, state-of-the-art facilities, laboratories and equipment
• Non-dilutive, non-debt funding for research
• Opportunity to work directly with talented students—potential future hires
• Rapid proposal evaluations—MIPS notifies award winners within 60 days of the proposal deadline

Benefits to Maryland Faculty

• Research translates directly to new product development
• Potential for published papers and improved university facilities
• Students gain valuable experience working on commercial technologies

Visit www.mips.umd.edu or call 301.405.3891 for details.

APPLICATIONS ARE DUE BY MAY 1, 2014!

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley will address the University of Maryland graduates at spring commencement on Thursday, May 22, the campus announced Tuesday.

Students announced the second-term governor would be speaking by posting a photo on social media of O’Malley with Testudo, the university's mascot.

Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, will address graduates of Johns Hopkins University at commencement on May 22, 2014.

Named one of Fortune's "50 Most Powerful Women in Business," one of Forbes' "100 Most Powerful Women," and one of Vanity Fair's 50 "leading innovators [that] shake the foundations of their industries," Wojcicki became head of the video-sharing powerhouse earlier this year.

MedImmune, the global biologics R&D arm of AstraZeneca, is always enthusiastic about explaining how its science benefits patients’ lives. So taking part in Cambridge’s highly successful Science Festival, which finished last weekend, is a wonderful opportunity for the company to reach out and share its activities with the wider Cambridge community.   

With many thousands of visitors, the Cambridge Science Festival provides the public with opportunities to explore and discuss topics of scientific interest and, importantly, is the perfect place to raise aspirations by encouraging young people to consider a career in science. Over both weekends of the Festival, firstly in the Corn Exchange and then at the Clinical School at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, over 35 MedImmune scientists volunteered their time to demonstrate to a continual stream of visitors to understand how new antibody medicines are found using viruses which grow in bacteria.

Contract research organizations make good money providing critical services to young biotech and drug development companies early on. But often, those companies are cash-strapped at the stage when they need a CRO. That’s why some CROs are becoming stakeholders in the companies they work with, offering cash or services for equity in life science startups.

“We fundamentally believe that we should be aligned with our clients,” said David Gee, strategic business development at Cato BioVentures, the venture capital affiliate of a CRO called Cato Research. “I think it’s reasonable, particularly with early-stage companies, that we have some skin in the game. (Then) we have reason to come to a positive endpoint and to get there as quickly and efficiently as possible, because that’s how part of our value is going to be generated.”

The Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) announced today that 12 startup companies have advanced to the final round of the InvestMaryland Challenge, the State’s national business competition. The finalists are competing for $100,000 top prizes in four categories — Information Technology, Life Sciences, General Industry, and, new this year, Cybersecurity. All companies who entered the Challenge are eligible for more than $300,000 in other prizes, including grants, software and lab and incubator space. The winners will be announced in May.

“Congratulations to the finalists and all the companies that advanced in the InvestMaryland Challenge. To stand out from the field of 260 applicants is an achievement in itself and a testament to the strength of the companies competing for the top prizes,” said Dominick Murray, DBED Secretary. “For two years in a row, Maryland has been named the #1 state in the country for innovation and entrepreneurship and companies like those competing in this Challenge are the reason why. They are the future leaders of Maryland’s Innovation Economy and we are proud to support them as they grow and create jobs.”

For startup CEOs, there’s probably nothing more nerve wracking than giving a presentation to prospective investors. Dr. Lisa Beth Ferstenberg knows about that first-hand.

A serial biotech entrepreneur, Ferstenberg was founding CEO of Cellective Therapeutics, a Gaithersburg biotech that raised $28 million in Series A funding. MedImmune bought the company in 2005 for as much as $160 million. She is currently chief medical officer for Sequella Inc., a Rockville biotech that develops drugs to fight tuberculosis.

Europe has shown the world over the past half century how countries with centuries of conflict can finally cast aside their differences and work together. The European Union has created a single currency, a common patent office, a single public funding source for basic research, and a single legislative body for issues reaching across the continent.

But if there’s one area where the countries of Europe continue to compete vigorously—other than in soccer and other sports—it’s in their efforts to attract and build up communities or “clusters” of biotechs, pharmaceutical employers, universities, and independent research institutions.

Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff founded Honest Tea in 1998. In the recently released Mission in a Bottle, the co-founders tell -- in comic book form -- the story of building a successful mission-driven business. Goldman, now president and "TeaEO" of Honest Tea, joins Motley Fool CEO Tom Gardner to discuss sustainability, entrepreneurship, and what it means for a socially responsible, health-oriented business to be bought by Coca-Cola  (NYSE: KO  )  .

In addition to his work with Honest Tea, Goldman co-founded Bethesda Green to help green businesses get off the ground, and has been involved with healthy food companies Beyond Meat and Happy Baby. 

As a direct result of Montgomery County's ongoing partnership with Chungbuk Province, which includes a Chungbuk Exchange Official who has worked at DED since February 2013, three Korean companies have launched U.S. operations at the County's Germantown Innovation Center (GIC).

“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic.” Peter Drucker

In a period of massive change, franchises die and are born, previously unimagined models emerge, and incumbents that are too focused on “protecting share” find themselves closing their doors. The healthcare industry represents nearly a fifth of U.S. GDP and it is going through such a period of dramatic change as we speak.  The product companies that dominate the marketplace today find themselves cash rich but growth poor.  At the same time an army of inventors and visionaries in biotechnology, medical devices, diagnostics, health care services, healthcare IT, and consumer health fields are eager to provide a new model for the future.

Ambient Clinical Analytics is a new startup, founded by Mayo Clinic researchers with help from Silicon Valley investors, that aims to bring data assimilation, communication and analytics to the bedside.

Backed by Rock Health and the Social+Capital Partnership, the venture develops decision support tools for intensive care units, operating rooms and emergency departments. Its technologies, which were developed at the Mayo Clinic, enable real-time access to process-of-care information and analytics.

Thursday, May 8, 2014 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (EDT)

Learn from leading investors on syndication:

• Richard Anders, Mass Medical Angels
• Barbara Fox, Avaxia Biologics
• Henry Kay, Launchpad Venture Group
• Reid Leonard, Merck Research Ventures
• Mike McGrail, Cooley LP
• Moderator: Stephen Flaim

Connect with 23 NHLBI companies seeking early-stage investors and partners

• Discover innovative technologies close to commercialization
• Attend a reception to partner and network

Registration is free, but space is limited. Sign up now to save a spot!

More information and agenda to follow.

The Hive is an immersive and informal social environment, dedicated to exploring and showcasing transformative startups and the inspiring entrepreneurs that power the ideas shaping the future of health and medicine.

Our second location will allow us to host The Hive on both coasts – increasing the number of game-changing startups who will join us this coming September 10-12 in either Washington, DC or San Francisco, CA. To help support a growing community of Hive entrepreneurs, we’re re-opening the Hive Application process for two short weeks and applications will be accepted today until April 1.

New Enterprise Associates is up to its neck in initial public offerings these days. But even for NEA, a chipmaker IPO isn't exactly common.

One of the Chevy Chase-based venture capital firm's portfolio companies, Milpitas, Calif.-based Aquantia Corp., this week  announced a $16 million Series G financing led by Xilinx Inc., a possible prelude to a public offering for the decade-old semiconductor company, an executive  told The Wall Street Journal.

More than 21 startups presented their technology offerings to Exelon executives and IT employees at "Dancing with Startups," a two-day event hosted by Exelon and the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the Cyber Point Technology & Innovation Center last week.

The event is part of Exelon's continuing effort to reach out to technology innovators in search of new ideas that have the potential to transform the energy industry. From cybersecurity software to smartphone technology, participating companies pitched their ideas and products during rapid-fire, 20-minute sessions. Exelon employees peppered the groups with questions, seeking to identify new technologies that Exelon might be able to pilot.

People who are prone to bleeding due to poor blood clotting, such as those with hemophilia or on anticoagulants, are often required to take blood tests. These test are usually done in clinics and hospitals, adding to the patient’s burden and expense of extra travel just to make sure that blood is adequately anticoagulated. New technology that is being developed at Qloudlab, a startup based at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, uses capabilities already present in today’s smartphone screens for blood coagulation testing.

Video games have been used in a number of therapeutic applications, such as managing pain in burn victims and helping youngsters deal with depression. A new project in Australia is bringing together video game technology with gesture recognition and some other components to create a virtual reality interactive environment for dementia patients and their caretakers. The project is still in the development stage, and is looking for crowdsourced funds, but the video below shows off the current prototype that will eventually include a 10 m x 10 m projection screen, a touch display, and special lighting.

Pharmaceutical companies have long relied on successfully launching new drugs to drive growth. This pressure is only likely to increase. Patents are expiring and product pipelines are shrinking. Austerity measures in many countries are increasing local and national hurdles for market access. And, at the same time, launches are becoming more numerous, smaller, and more competitive. We estimate that pharmaceutical companies will launch some 400 new products in the next three years, up 146 percent from 2005. Given this changing external landscape, awash with more products of ever greater diversity, it’s never been more important for pharmaceutical companies to crack the new-product launch code.

The University Economic Development Association (UEDA) is currently seeking nominations for its annual Awards of Excellence program, which recognizes cutting edge university-based economic development initiatives from across the country. The Awards of Excellence Program recognizes higher education institutions and their partners who are transforming their campuses into engines of economic prosperity through creative initiatives in five categories:

Don't take $5,000 from all your friends, Fortify Ventures Managing Director Jonathon Perrelli warns a founder over lunch in the second episode of “Startupland,” or "you're going to have 20 pains in the asses."

If “Startupland” — a documentary on early-stage entrepreneurship that premiered last week in D.C — does one thing well, it's depicting the complex and uneasy relationship founders have with outside capital. The above quote, in particular, is a particularly blunt reference to the pitfalls of the friends-and-family round, where a startup CEO risks adding a horde of impatient, inexperienced micromanagers to his cap table. It's a tension that runs throughout the first two episodes of “Startupland,” which was screened on March 13 at Landmark's E Street Cinema. Founders need early money, yet early money is expensive.

Small technology companies could get help hiring interns through a proposed program aimed at strengthening ties between businesses and universities.

Under a General Assembly bill, the Maryland Technology Internship Program would give 40 small businesses up to $3,000 a year to hire interns. The bill (HB1317) to create the program was approved by the state House of Delegates and is being considered by the Senate. If approved, Gov. Martin O’Malley would need to authorize funding for the program, estimated at $190,000 in fiscal 2015.

Commercializing technology doesn’t have to be all about patents, licenses and startups.

Universities looking to grow their influence in the technology sector often focus on patenting their own ideas, starting companies from faculty research and other strategies that keep new ideas in-house or on a leash. But Maryland’s technology industry relies on the talent coming out of local universities. And in order for the industry to grow and thrive, technology companies and universities will need to forge stronger bonds.

According to financial services firm Ernst&Young, global venture capital investment in 2013 increased 2 percent compared to 2012, to $48.5 billion. Meanwhile, economic conditions improved in many geographic markets due to increased levels of liquidity and a boost in investor confidence.

The upshot: More investors are competing to invest in promising startups and entrepreneurs, especially outside the U.S.

2014 will continue to be a year of transformation as the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the changes it represents ripple through the healthcare industry. From conversations with healthcare providers across the country, Vree Health has identified four key issues providers face in the coming year–and beyond.

1. Healthcare reimbursement is due for a reboot

Healthcare systems, hospitals and providers are caught between two widely divergent business models: fee-for-service versus pay-for-performance. While dependent on the former, they must restructure their businesses to improve quality and manage costs across the entire care continuum to prepare for the latter. It’s an about face that Dr. David Nash, Founding Dean of the Jefferson School of Population Health, likened to turning an aircraft carrier around in the Panama Canal, when he spoke at MedCity CONVERGE last year.

Last year the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) put out a report on healthcare accelerator programs that we covered at the time. It is still the best summary of the health accelerator space. CHCF also created an infographic on how healthcare accelerators can maximize their value. The report focused on Rock Health, Startup Health, Blueprint Health, HealthBox, StartX Med, and TigerLabs.

Since that report was published, other health accelerators have launched and had classes, DreamIt and Wildcatters being the largest ones that come to mind. The accelerator landscape is getting attention right now with SXSW going on and accelerators are active at and around conferences. I thought it was time to revisit the subject.

The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland's largest technology trade association, is pleased to announce that three members of its board have been named to a statewide private sector economic development commission. They are Douglas Doerfler, CEO of MaxCyte and TCM chairman; Dr. DeRionne Pollard, president of Montgomery College; and Christy Wyskiel, senior advisor for Enterprise Development at Johns Hopkins University.

AstraZeneca's global biologics R&D arm MedImmune and the University of Cambridge have entered into a three-year oncology research collaboration in order to advance cancer research by using imaging technologies to measure key biologic changes within growing tumors.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The $100K ACC Clean Energy Challenge, a business plan competition supported by the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) encouraging students from universities in the southeastern United States to develop business plans for new clean energy companies, today announces its Elite Eight Plus Two, with nine winners from ACC schools and one winner from the at-large, non-ACC pool of entrants.

University of Maryland students will host Bitcamp, the university's first Major League Hackathon, April 46, 2014 in Cole Field House on the university's College Park, Md., campus. More than 750 college and high school students from across the country are expected to attend the innovative technology summit at UMD.

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, will collaborate through MD Anderson's Moon Shots Program to develop therapies that unleash patients' immune systems to attack their cancers.