Dr. Sara Michelle Nayeem and Dr. George Wall Bell IV were married Saturday evening at River Farm in Alexandria, Va. The Rev. Michael Godzwa, an Assemblies of God minister, officiated. Enlarge This Image

Susie Soleimani Photography Dr. Nayeem, 34, works at New Enterprise Associates, a venture capital firm in Chevy Chase, Md., where she helps the firm invest in biopharmaceutical companies. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and received an M.B.A. from Yale, from which she also received a medical degree cum laude.

Roger Novak, left, and Jack Biddle are embarking on their first fund in six years.

Bethesda-based Novak Biddle Venture Partners is setting out to raise its sixth fund, said co-founder Jack Biddle, its first such effort since the early-stage venture firm raised $227 million six years ago.

That fund will be accompanied by some big changes at the top. Two general partners, Phil Bronner and Tom Scholl, will take on reduced roles as venture partners in the next fund, according to Biddle. Bronner and Scholl, both tech brains with entrepreneurial backgrounds, were promoted to their current positions when the firm closed its fifth fund in 2006.

TTS Ltd., the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Johns Hopkins University Technology Transfer are pleased to announce that the 2012 edition of the TTS North America takes place at the world-renowned Johns Hopkins University in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Often immitated but never equaled, since 2007, and in North America since 2010, the TTS Global Initiative has been the original and leading international meeting for biotech sector Industry-Academia licensing, partnering  & technology transfer.  Designed to help all Tech Transfer Offices build the same expertise and relationships that enables the top TTOs to do the deals and sign the licensing agreements that have brought so much benefit to their universities, insitutes, departments and researchers. The TTS North America is the pillar of this key international inititiative and community of the leading technology transfer, licensing, IP and early stage biotech innovation and venture professionals world wide.

Scott E. Dagenais, senior vice president/regional president Baltimore of M&T Bank, and Jay S. Ridder, Baltimore office managing partner at Ernst & Young, have been appointed to BioHealth Innovation Inc.’s Board of Directors.

BioHealth Innovation is a regional private-public partnership focusing on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in central Maryland.

CardioNet Inc. entered into a definitive agreement Monday to acquire Cardiocore Lab Inc. for $23.5 million.

Rockville-based Cardiocore is a centralized cardiac testing laboratory services company with locations in San Francisco and London.

Care.com, the site that matches users with childcare, pet care and related services, announced today that it has raised a whopping $50 million in Series E funding, led by Institutional Venture Partners. The round was joined by Matrix Partners, New Enterprise Associates and Trinity Ventures.

Founded in 2006, the Waltham-based company has upwards of seven million users in 15 countries.

Deirdre Connelly '83 will take the helm as president and CEO of Human Genome Sciences following the company's acquisition by GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world's leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies.

HGS, headquartered in Rockville, Md., exists to place new therapies into the hands of those battling serious diseases.

TOPIC:  U. S. Federal Technology Transfer and the FLC: Identifying and Accessing Federal Lab Technologies Available for Partnering

DATE: August 8, 2012

LOCATION: Shady Grove Innovation Center 9700 Great Seneca Highway Rockville, Maryland 20850

PRESENTER: Gary K.Jones Washington DC Representative  Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer

Each year approximately $30 billion in intramural research and development occurs at hundreds of U.S. federal labs, across government in all sectors (defense, energy, health, transportation, etc.).  These labs and research institutes are charged with the mission of transferring the results of that federal research investment to the private sector, promoting economic growth, meeting societal needs, and enhancing U.S. competitiveness.  The Federal Lab Consortium (FLC) plays an important role in assisting that effort.  This session provides: 1) an overview of U.S. federal tech transfer; 2) the role of the FLC in supporting that mission; 3) how to identify and access federal lab partnering and collaborating opportunities; and 4) recent policy and legislative initiatives focused on tech transfer.

Care.com ( http://www.care.com ), the largest online care destination in the world, today announced the closing of $50 million in new funding. The financing was led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) and joined by existing Care.com investors - Matrix Partners, New Enterprise Associates and Trinity Ventures - among others.

Founded in 2006, Care.com has raised $61 million in previous rounds of financing. The Company, which has approximately 7 million members in more than 15 countries, allows families to connect with millions of caregivers to help manage the lifecycle of care challenges families face: childcare, including special needs, senior care, pet care, housekeeping, tutoring, and more. Earlier this year, Care.com embarked upon an international expansion campaign which to date has included the acquisition of Berlin-based Besser Betreut, the largest online care portal in Europe, and the launches of Care.com in the UK and Canada.

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, announced today the appointment to its Board of Directors of two Baltimore-based business leaders: M&T Bank Corporation Senior Vice President/Regional President Baltimore Scott E. Dagenais and Ernst & Young's Baltimore Office Managing Partner Jay S. Ridder.

"As the first Central Maryland intermediary created to connect Baltimore's strengths in university and hospital biohealth research with the bioscience industry and federal lab assets in Montgomery County, it is important for the BHI Board to have leadership and representation from both parts of our region," said Scott Carmer, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. Chairman of the Board and MedImmune Executive Vice President of Commercial Operations. "I am pleased to welcome Scott and Jay to the BHI Board.  They will both bring valued expertise from the Baltimore community and also provide depth in commercial banking and accounting experience."

The University of Maryland BioPark announced today that Baltimore BioWorks, Inc., a vocational bioscience training firm, has signed a lease to join the BioPark and its expanding group of commercial tenants. With this agreement, Baltimore BioWorks has opened corporate offices in the BioPark’s BioInnovation Center located at 801 West Baltimore Street in Baltimore.  

“Adding Baltimore BioWorks as one of our new commercial tenants is very exciting for us as workforce readiness is critical in the life sciences industry,” said Jane Shaab, University of Maryland Research Park Corporation Senior Vice President. “We are seeing increased interest in the BioPark from many types of bioscience-related companies. As a result, we have a great mix of tenants who range from emerging life science companies to training and educational resource firms to outsourced research and clinical services providers.”

When you’re neck deep in starting a new business, you may not take the time to properly protect your inventions. As a result, you could see your intellectual property stolen or you could be sued for inadvertently stealing the intellectual property of others. Here are five easy tips on how to quickly develop an intellectual property strategy, specifically with respect to patents.

1) Give each team member an information disclosure form

The first key step to getting a patent is identifying ideas that are potentially novel and inventive. Discovering and understanding your employees’ inventions as early as possible will enable your patent lawyer to draft earlier applications with more accurate and comprehensive disclosures, which means stronger patents. Circulating an information disclosure form to your team will help your startup learn about technology being created internally.

Every industry needs its anchors, the companies that everyone looks up to as models of success. Think Apple, GE, Boeing. Biotech is no different, as it has been defined by trailblazers like Genentech, Genzyme, and more.

But if you look around, biotech is clearly losing its anchors. And this worrisome trend isn’t just happening in one or two places—it is playing out in most every regional cluster where the industry has grown up in the past 30 years.

Most of the $25.5 million in venture capital pumped into Maryland businesses in the second quarter went to just two companies and was primarily focused on later-stage firms, according to a new report.

The $25.5 million total, which was split among eight companies, was the smallest quarterly total in almost 16 years, according to the new MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters.

Qiagen has published its financial results for the second quarter of 2012, during which it experienced a strong increase in sales.

The company's net sales rose by nine percent year on year to reach a total of $307.2 million (197.67 million pounds), with growth observed across all regions and customer classes.

Molecular diagnostics and applied testing product sales were noted as being particularly robust, while the firm was also able to expand through the acquisition of Cellestis, Ipsogen and AmniSure.

GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE: GSK) today announced that it has completed its acquisition of Human Genome Sciences (NASDAQ: HGSI) for US$3.6 billion on an equity basis, or approximately US$3 billion net of cash and debt. All outstanding shares of HGS were acquired for US$14.25 per share in cash.  

The subsequent offering period for GSK’s tender offer for HGS shares expired at 5:00 pm, New York City time, on 2 August 2012.  The depositary for the tender offer has advised GSK that approximately 174,430,970 shares were validly tendered and not withdrawn during the initial and subsequent offering periods (including shares that had been tendered by notice of guaranteed delivery and subsequently delivered), all of which have been accepted for payment and purchased.  Such shares, together with shares otherwise beneficially owned by GSK, represent a total of approximately 87% of HGS’ outstanding shares.

What do I do after I graduate? That is never an easy question, but the July 19 Diamondback article, “Students struggle to find jobs after graduating with Ph.D.s in sciences,” suggests it might be even harder to figure out.

The article cited a recent survey showing 45 percent of computer, mathematical and natural sciences school graduates had accepted full-time employment after graduation. It stated, “CMNS Associate Dean Robert Infantino said job shortages coincide with the health of the economy and that the government must increase its investments in research and technology.”

A Review of the Federal Government's Entrepreneurial Initiatives
Monday, August 13, 12:00 pm to 12:30pm ET

Richard Bendis and Nish Acharya will talk about the innovation and entrepreneurship programs in Federal Government today. Nish will also discuss briefly the status of the EDA i6 competition and the noticeable increase in the quality of the proposals.

They will speak about the paradigm shift in the EDA programs from a "Bricks and Mortar" focus (hard) to a more innovative programmatic focus (soft) on innovation, commercialization and entrepreneurship.

They will also discuss the convergence of Universities, Government/ NIST and industry in the formation of private/public/partnerships to implement strategic innovation based economic development initiatives on a regional basis.

If you thought buying stock in mobile health (mHealth) companies was a good idea, it is. But if you decided to invest in the overall digital health sector - which includes mHealth, B2B apps and consumer services such as ZocDoc – you’d be brilliant. And, probably very rich.

Private financing by venture capitalists more than tripled in the first half of 2012, according to a study by financial services company Burrill & Company, as reported by Richard MacManus at ReadWriteWeb. This follows a June report from nonprofit foundation Rock Health that showed "skyrocketing" VC funding in the healthcare sector.

Did you know that the first business incubator was started in Batavia, N.Y., in 1956? Joseph Mancuso was the founder, and after seeing newly hatched chicks running around from one of his portfolio companies, he coined the business “incubator”. From there on out business incubators started gaining popularity. There are currently 1,200 in the U.S. They have caught the attention of local governments and universities interested in retaining entrepreneurial talent. An example of this is LaunchHouse’s partnership with the city of Shaker Heights.

GlaxoSmithKline PLC has removed all of the executive officers of Human Genome Sciences Inc. as part of its $3.6 billion acquisition of the Rockville-based biotech, including President and CEO Tom Watkins.

GlaxoSmithKline PLC has removed all of the executive officers of Human Genome Sciences Inc. as part of its $3.6 billion acquisition of the Rockville-based biotech, including President and CEO Tom Watkins, according to a securities filing on Monday.

Whether Glaxo would keep the local company's management in place was the subject of great speculation after the buyout was announced earlier this month. Watkins, who had helmed the Maryland drugmaker since 2004, has been replaced by Deirdre Connelly, GSK's president of North America Pharmaceuticals.

Scheer Partners Inc. and The JBG Cos. are reviving a $100 million real estate fund they established in 2008 to invest in life science properties.

Rockville-based Scheer, a broker for biotech and medical real estate, and the Chevy Chase developer had set up the Greater Washington Life Sciences Fund just as the recession kicked into gear. After buying one 53,000-square-foot property at 21 Firstfield Road in Gaithersburg, the partnership essentially went into hibernation.

County Executive Ike Leggett (center) and Councilmembers Nancy Floreen (second from right) and Hans Riemer (right) visited BioHealth Innovation's Open House on July 23. BioHealth Innovation (BHI) was established as a public-private partnership to accelerate the technology transfer and commercialization of biohealth research in the Central Maryland region. At the event were BHI Chairman Scott Carmer (left) and CEO Rich Bendis (second from left).

I was happy to help celebrate the opening of the BioHealth Innovation’s new headquarters at the historic Wire Hardware Building in Rockville. BHI was established as a public-private partnership to accelerate the technology transfer and commercialization of biohealth research in Maryland, and that’s a great thing for Montgomery County. Congratulations BHI. We're glad to have you in Rockville.

-Nancy Floreen, Montgomery County Council Member

Technology job openings surged by 8.2% in June, according to job-search site SimplyHired, but some places remain better than others if you’re looking for a tech job. The site's top and bottom five contain a few surprises.

SimplyHired bases its ranking on the number of tech job openings compared to the number of people who are working in the region. The numbers below are based on metropolitan areas as defined by the U.S. census bureau.

1. Baltimore, Maryland (46,150 people employed, 14,093 tech job openings): Hunter Sherman, the chief engineer at Sparks, Maryland-based BizBrag, Inc., said the company is struggling to find qualified people to fill its jobs. As a result, BizBrag is planning to move. “A big part of our issue is that we're just north of the city, and a majority of the engineers are located to the south, closer to the D.C. area,” Sherman said. “This is one of the major reasons that we plan on moving our business into the city in the coming months.”

Admit it. You enjoy working in science, but weren’t always captivated by how it was taught. You aren't alone. Studies show that when students lose interest in science coursework the problem is often how science is taught - not science itself. Teachers lack the interesting curriculum and adequate support needed to provide engaging and intriguing coursework. The lack of interest among science students leaves them disinterested, bored, and unprepared to meet the challenges of a technology-driven future.

These findings have real-world consequences. Despite the heroic efforts of talented U.S. science teachers, many of our brightest young students migrate away from the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) career paths that could power America's 21st century competitiveness.

If you’ve recently asked yourself, or someone standing next to you, “Where are all the biotech jobs?” it’s a good thing you’re reading this now.

While surveying for our latest annual Top 25 List of biotechnology companies in the Baltimore area, I asked each company whether they’re hiring any time soon, and all of these below said yes:

The 2012 NVCA Yearbook includes a comprehensive analysis of U.S. venture capital industry statistics. The main source of data for this publication is ThomsonONE.com, the online research database of Thomson Reuters. ThomsonONE.com  is endorsed by the NVCA as the official United States venture capital activity database. The publication includes metrics regarding commitments made to venture capital funds, venture capital investments into entrepreneurial companies, and venture-backed exits (mergers and acquisitions and IPOs). The publication also includes appendices regarding portfolio company valuation guidelines, international accounting convergence and venture capital activity outside the United States.

Noble Life Sciences, Inc., a preclinical drug development contract research organization (CRO), announced a partnership with BioFactura, Inc. (Rockville, MD), a developer and provider of proprietary technologies and services for production of biologicals.

The collaboration expands Noble’s CRO services to include the development and production of monoclonal antibody and other protein-based drugs. Through the partnership, Noble becomes the exclusive commercial contract services provider of BioFactura’s technologies and capabilities.

Chevy Chase-based New Enterprise Associates has closed on what appears to be the largest venture fund in history at $2.6 billion, the firm announced Wednesday.

NEA’s 14th fund gives the VC titan a fresh pool of capital to inject into tech companies along a wide array of stages, sectors and geographies, and comes two and a half years after the firm closed on a thirteenth fund that was only slightly less mammoth. NEA is among the most prolific startup funders in the D.C. region, both in biotech and information technology.

How time flies.

Just last year, many of us in the Baltimore technology community were talking about whether our city needed an accelerator program. The Emerging Technology Center, with the help of the Abell Foundation, stepped up and provided one.

The first class of four companies graduate tomorrow. And one of the graduates, NoBadGift.com, is moving out to San Francisco for three months to be a part of the NewMe accelerator program. Great news for that team of three entrepreneurs.

Yesterday it was a pleasure to attend the BioHealth Innovation Inc. (BHI) open house at the historic Wire Hardware Building in Rockville to celebrate the opening of the organization’s new headquarters. At the Open House, BHI President & CEO Rich Bendis welcomed guests and introduced Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett who talked about the important role of BHI and this industry – not just for the county, but for the entire state of Maryland.

Could a low-cost screening device connected to a cell phone save thousands of women and children from anemia-related deaths and disabilities?

That’s the goal of Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering undergraduates who’ve developed a noninvasive way to identify women with this dangerous blood disorder in developing nations. The device, HemoGlobe, is designed to convert the existing cell phones of health workers into a “prick-free” system for detecting and reporting anemia at the community level.

QIAGEN N.V. announced results of operations for the second quarter and first half of 2012, delivering a solid performance and making significant progress on strategic initiatives to drive innovation and growth. QIAGEN also raised the outlook for full-year net sales and adjusted EPS targets and announced a program to repurchase up to $100 million of its shares.

In the second quarter of 2012, net sales grew 9% (+14% at constant exchange rates, or CER) to $307.2 million from the same period in 2011, as all customer classes, particularly Molecular Diagnostics and Applied Testing, and all regions recorded growth. Adjusted operating income rose 10% to $86.4 million, as the adjusted operating income margin was steady at 28% of net sales. Adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) grew to $0.25 from $0.23 in the 2011 quarter.

Companion bills were introduced in Congress on April 25th of this year with little fanfare (particularly in comparison to the Leahy-Smith American Invents Act) but they have the potential to provide significant funding for university-related start-up companies.  The bills, H.R. 4720 and S. 2369, are entitled the "America Innovates Act of 2012" and are sponsored by Reps. Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Timothy Bishop (D-NY) in the House of Representatives and Sens. Frank Lautenberg, Jerrod Brown (D-OH), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in the Senate.  They have been referred to their respective committees (the House Sub-Committee on Technology and Innovation and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation), but to be frank it is unlikely that they will receive positive action in this election year.

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, has located its corporate headquarters in the Wire Hardware Building at 22 Baltimore Road in Rockville.

BHI also announced the creation of two new staff positions filled by recent hires Ethan Byler as Director of Innovation Programs and Amanda Wilson as Operations Manager.