SparkLabs Group operates a network of accelerators and venture capital funds, and today it is adding to them with the creation of a new global accelerator program focused on cybersecurity and blockchain-related startups in Washington, D.C.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and Children’s National Health System, a pediatric academic medical center in Washington, have launched a clinical research partnership devoted to treating and preventing allergic, immunologic and infectious diseases in children. An inaugural symposium will take place at Children’s National on Sept. 17, 2018, to highlight the partnership and discuss current and future directions for its research activities.

Autolus Therapeutics is a promising clinical-stage biotech that is a leader in T-cell programming and manufacturing technology. They have seen rapid growth since launching in 2014, and recently executed a successful US IPO in June that raised $160.4M at a $17 share price and landed them on the Nasdaq (AUTL).

United Therapeutics Corporation announced that it has entered into an exclusive license agreement with privately held drug development company, Samumed LLC, for purchasing the North American rights to the latter’s IPF drug candidate, SM04646.

Principia Biopharma Inc. (Principia or the Company) (Nasdaq: PRNB), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to bringing transformative oral therapies to patients with significant unmet medical needs in immunology and oncology, today announced the closing of its initial public offering of 7,187,500 shares of its common stock, including the exercise in full of the underwriters' option to purchase 937,500 additional shares of common stock, at a public offering price of $17.00 per share.  The gross proceeds to Principia, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses, were approximately $122.2 million.  All of the common stock was offered by Principia. Principia’s common stock is listed on The Nasdaq Global Select Market under the trading symbol "PRNB."

Galera Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the development of drugs targeting oxygen metabolic pathways with the potential to transform cancer radiotherapy, today announced it has secured $150 million in a joint, oversubscribed Series C financing and royalty purchase agreement. The financing was led by new investor Clarus, with participation from additional new investors Adage Capital Management, HBM Healthcare Investments, Nan Fung Life Sciences, RA Capital, Rock Springs Capital and Tekla Capital Management LLC. Existing investors Correlation Ventures, Galera Angels, New Enterprise Associates, Novartis Venture Fund, Novo Ventures and Sofinnova Ventures also participated. In addition, Emmett T. Cunningham, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., MPH, Managing Director at Clarus, will join Galera’s Board of Directors.

The Maryland Tech Council (MTC), the state’s largest trade association supporting the technology and life sciences sectors, today announced the appointment of Marty Rosendale as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective immediately.

Host:  UM BioPark & Wexford Science + Technology

Location:  UMB BioPark On the Nook Cafe Patio 801 W. Baltimore Street Baltimore  Maryland  21201

Time:  5:00pm to 6:30pm

Mingle with our honored guest, Alex Triantis, Dean of the Robert H. Smith School of Business, other members of the Smith School community, BioPark tenants, and UMB faculty & staff

Join one of the 24 Institutes and Centers within the NIH that awards extramural grants! Extramural grants account for approximately 80 percent of NIH's budget and are awarded to investigators at more than 2,500 universities, medical schools, and other research organizations around the world. To learn more about the grants process, types of grant programs, and the peer review process, visit the website for the Office of Extramural Research.

It’s the 21st century and information is just right at the tip of our fingers – thanks to the wide, wide, internet world. However, in spite of all the availability of information and the easy access to it, many people are still under the cloak of hoaxes and myths – and the business world is no exemption.

Another year, another list of the Top U.S. Cities for Global Trade. If there’s one thing that strikes us about this list over the past couple of years is that the reach of the global economy has not just stretched to other shores but into virtually every city in the United States, no matter the size.

MedTech Innovator, the premier nonprofit startup accelerator in the medical technology industry, today announced that AblaCare, CroiValve, FineHeart, Sana Health, and Spect have been selected as finalists to compete for the title of MedTech Innovator of 2018, out of over 700 applicants. The Grand Prize winner of $350,000 will be determined by the vote of the audience at the largest gathering of medtech industry leaders in North America on Sept. 25 in Philadelphia, PA at The MedTech Conference, powered by AdvaMed.

Johnson & Johnson Innovation's Manhattan outpost of its startup incubator, JLabs, is the new kid on the NYC-health-tech block.

Expanding its portfolio of innovative health solutions, the Inova Personalized Health Accelerator (IPHA) has invested in a new therapy company that is developing a solution to address a major unmet need in patients with olfactory impairment. Sense of smell can often be taken for granted, until it is lost. This occurs most commonly by sino-nasal disease and upper respiratory infection, and in many cases, by head trauma. Cyrano Therapeutics understands the profound impact these senses can have on quality of life and is developing the first safe and effective nasal spray to restore and maintain the sense of smell and its connection with the ability to detect flavor in food (often perceived as taste). According to the peer-reviewed journal BMC Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders, 14 million patients in the United States have olfactory impairment or loss of smell, yet few treatments are available. 

On September 23rd, Montgomery County residents will gather at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda for the Leggett Legacy Forward event celebrating County Executive Ike Leggett and his wife Catherine’s years of outstanding service and their commitment to higher education. The event is a culmination of their effort to establish a legacy gift that will serve the county in perpetuity -- the Ike and Catherine Leggett Scholarship. The scholarship will benefit the county’s historically underrepresented students in higher education through the Achieving Collegiate Excellence and Success (ACES) program.

Samumed said it has sold North American rights to its Phase I idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) candidate SM04646 to United Therapeutics, in a deal that could generate more than $350 million for the privately-held San Diego biotech.

Biotech is one of the buzziest sectors for venture-capital funds right now.

Across the globe, venture-capital investments in biotech startups last year topped

Creatv MicroTech, Inc. (Creatv) has received a $625,000 award from the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) to investigate their discovery of giant circulating cells found in peripheral blood for non-invasive detection of lung cancer by differentiating malignant from benign pulmonary nodules detected by low dose CT (LDCT). In the three-year study, Creatv will examine blood samples from 1,250 subjects at high risk for lung cancer based on their smoking history and occupational exposure to carcinogens. The research will be carried out in collaboration with Fox Chase Cancer Center (FCCC) and the Philadelphia VA Hospital.

The Sheik Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children’s National Health System is pleased to announce the 11 finalists who have been selected to pitch their pediatric medical device innovation at our 6th annual Pediatric Device Innovation Symposium on Sunday, Sept. 23rd in Philadelphia, PA.

New this year, the competition focused on pediatric cardiovascular devices as they are critically needed. From a field of 45 submissions, the finalists are:

Event date: November 07, 2018 SAVE THE DATE!

Please mark your calendar to join us at the Fall 2018 Inova Discovery Series: The Impact of Changing Consumer Expectations on Healthcare Delivery.

Consumer expectations related to healthcare delivery continue to rapidly evolve, forcing health systems and health technology innovators to continually rethink how consumers view the traditional patient-provider-payor relationship. 

It's no secret that choosing the right college can have a big impact on where you end up later in life.

If you're hoping to launch a startup, chances are you'll need some funding down the road -- and, according to the data, the university you attend can be one factor that impacts the amount of funding you'll receive after graduating.

A Chinese scientist has pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal biopharmaceutical trade secrets from GlaxoSmithKline in what prosecutors said was a scheme to set up companies in China to market them.

When Nichelle Obar learned she was pregnant with her second child last year, she never expected that her pregnancy, or her baby, would make history.

Baltimore's Sisu Global Health Inc. is launching overseas sales of its first medical device with the help of $1.2 million in new funding.

Rockville-based Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc. has reached a deal to acquire Miami-based Biscayne Neurotherapeutics in a deal worth up to $185 million.

Technologies such as cloud, bigdata, nosql databases, mobile apps, wearable sensors, and healthcare data interoperability are buzz words to many, but they are technologies that are propelling the healthcare-IT field forward into new frontiers.  The possibilities these technologies bring can aide in patient engagement, data aggregation, integration and analytics for precision medicine. This is the cutting-edge space that Jeeva Informatics, a local company, operates in.  It’s also a very attractive field for students who are eager to get work experience in the emerging technologies of the future.

There’s still no official word on where Amazon is planning to build its second headquarters, but a trail of clues may be leading to the Washington, D.C. area.

UBS expects London to lose at least 25% of its euro clearing volumes as a result of Brexit and thinks the losses could be even greater in the event of a disruptive exit from the EU.

Cybersecurity influencers believe that a new wave of system-embedded devices present a formidable challenge to their field. The Internet of Things (IoT) will introduce a vast amount of small computers, with inadequate security designs, that use high-speed internet, and that combination has all the ingredients for a cyberspace disaster.

Bob Stratton, a security entrepreneur and consultant, states that not every device has to have the high-level security of desktop computers, but manufactures of small computers should include a built-in level of resistance and system integrity.

ExeGi Pharma is pleased to announce two new clinical partnerships with the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia and the University of Tennessee to study the Visbiome Vet probiotic in domestic dogs. Both studies will evaluate the probiotic's effectiveness in managing canine gastrointestinal disorders. Visbiome Vet is an 8-strain probiotic compound with an extremely high concentration of beneficial bacteria (112.5 billion bacteria per dose). The formulation in Visbiome Vet is one of the most extensively studied probiotic products for pets, as it has been the subject of four controlled clinical trials.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today that it has awarded five grants totaling up to $6 million per year over the next five years to Pediatric Device Consortia (PDC) across the country that will provide advice and support services to innovators of children's medical devices. The program aims to enhance the development, production and distribution of pediatric medical devices and has awarded $37 million to various consortia since 2009.

Enjoy an evening with food, fun and lively conversation at Biotech and Beer. Meet old friends and new colleagues in the life science community. Complimentary admission for any bioscience company employees, and university students and researchers with advanced registration. All others may purchase tickets.

When: Thursday, Septmember 27, 2018 4:00-7:00 PM

Where: Farm Brew Live 9901 Discovery Blvd. Manassas, Virginia  20109 United States

Biopharmaceutical, biotech and medical technology companies comprise one of the state’s strongest sectors. They’re crucial to generating new jobs, products and services

Five universities yesterday said they would establish a biotech business incubator at the Shilin-Beitou Technology Park in New Taipei City.

The incubator would the biggest of its kind in northern Taiwan and provide the park, which is still under development, with skilled workers, they said.

None of the four companies with Hopkins-licensed tech that have done IPOs to day are still in Baltimore.