This year marks the 70th Anniversary of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). NHLBI began as the National Heart Institute on June 16, 1948, when President Harry S. Truman signed the National Heart Act. In 1969, the Institute expanded its mission (and name) to cover research on lung diseases, and in 1976, the Institute grew further to include blood disorders. 

To commemorate the Institute's 70th anniversary and showcase important investments in scientific research, NHLBI is featuring lectures throughout the year from prominent thought leaders representing areas of high scientific priority in heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders.

D.C.-area tech companies who pulled in sizable investments contributed to a big venture capital fundraising quarter for the D.C. area to start 2018.

Enterprise Therapeutics Ltd, a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the research and development of novel therapies for the treatment of respiratory diseases, today announced that it has closed an oversubscribed £29 million ($41 million USD) Series B round co-led by Versant Ventures and Novartis Venture Fund. The syndicate also included new investor Forbion, founding investor Epidarex Capital and existing investor IP Group. 

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), an urban office REIT uniquely focused on collaborative life science and technology campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, today announced the expansion of Alexandria LaunchLabs®—its premier, full-service life science startup platform—into the thriving East Cambridge life science ecosystem. Alexandria LaunchLabs will open in the fall of 2018 in One Kendall Square, one of the most sought-after locations for life science companies in the United States. Building upon the success of Alexandria LaunchLabs' initial flagship site, which opened at the Alexandria Center® for Life Science – New York City in June 2017, the company will now bring its validated Alexandria LaunchLabs platform to Cambridge to meet the cluster's critical demand for life science startup space.  

The first annual Kendall Square Challenge, an app-driven fundraiser competition benefiting various nonprofits, will take place May 17 in Cambridge.

MIMETAS, leader in organ-on-a-chip products and tissue models, has secured 20.5 million USD in financing from an international syndicate from Asia and Europe. Mimetas will use the proceeds of this Series B financing round to expand its global commercial footprint with the OrganoPlate® organ-on-a-chip platform. In addition, the company will broaden its product portfolio, establish tissue production facilities, develop novel OrganoPlate® products and expand into clinical market segments, including personalized medicine. The company has operations in the Netherlands, USA and Japan.

The D.C. area saw its biggest first quarter in startup funding in at least 16 years, with companies raking in more than $473.3 million in venture capital with the biotech and software sectors leading the way, according to data provided by PitchBook.

In 2016, a mother filed a lawsuit relating to the death of her son Christian against a diagnostic company. When Christian began experiencing a series of unrelenting seizures, the company performed a massive battery of tests, including the sequencing of a gene called SCN1A. At the time, the company reported that he had a variant of unknown significance (VUS) there. What the company did not realize was that there was a peer-reviewed study that had identified the same SCN1A mutation in an Australian family one year earlier. Christian received inappropriate treatment and died from a seizure months later.

What’s Working in Washington EXTRA is an opportunity for us to discuss an issue of particular interest to the region. We’re talking today about life science, biotechnology, medical devices, and how these industries are successful and well-represented represented here in the D.C. region. Joining us to discuss the growth of these sectors are two experts: Richard Bendis, president & CEO of BioHealth Innovation Incorporated, and Jeff Gallagher, CEO of Virginia Biotechnology Association, or VABio.

TEDCO CEO George Davis has spent several months in his new role traveling the state and talking to startups and other tech industry players, trying to figure out how his organization can best serve Maryland's entrepreneurial community beyond what it has been doing for the past 20 years.

May 15 & 16, 2018 - Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport

The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Small Business and Industry Assistance (CDER SBIA), and Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) Division of Industry and Consumer Education (DICE) are pleased to announce a co-sponsored event developed just for you.

Immunomedics, Inc., (NASDAQ:IMMU) (“Immunomedics” or the “Company”), a leader in the field of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), today announced the appointment of Robert Iannone, M.D., M.S.C.E., as Head of Research & Development and Chief Medical Officer, effective today. In his new role, Dr. Iannone will oversee and lead all clinical development, regulatory, pre-clinical, translational research and medical affairs strategies and activities of the Company. Dr. Iannone brings more than thirteen years of experience in clinical drug development, including the approval of several targeted and immuno-oncology medicines at AstraZeneca/MedImmune and Merck & Co.

The 2018 Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards publicly recognizes achievements by current clients and graduates of Maryland incubators and provides a forum for the nominees to increase their visibility in the business, technology and investment communities.

Business incubators support new and early-stage businesses in Maryland. In 1986, the first public incubator was established at the University of Maryland in College Park. Recognizing the economic challenges facing new companies, business incubators are facilities that provide reasonable market rents, shared services and technical assistance to start-ups and early-stage companies, including manufacturing, biotech, service and technology firms.

An aerospace company born out of the University of Maryland, College Park has raised $1.45 million in a round led by the University System of Maryland and the Abell Foundation.

Funding has been flowing into biotech over the past few years.

Over one week earlier this year, biotech and healthcare startups raised almost $1 billion in capital. And on Tuesday, a cancer-drug startup called Allogene raised $300 million in its series A round.

Accelerate tech product development with MIPS funding.

The Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program provides funding for university research projects that help companies develop new technology products.

In reviewing data regarding the hundreds of TBED-related investment funds, SSTI found that 24 of them have invested in at least one dozen startups each over the past year.  The funds are characterized as economic development, university-centric, regionally focused, or impact oriented investment funds, incubators and accelerator programs located in the U.S. or Canada. Data the various funds provide to  Pitchbook is the source of the list below, ranked in order by activity level. Each organization may have used their public or university funding to support operations, due diligence or mentoring of portfolio companies and/or to support direct invest into startups.  University-centered activities in the list are denoted by an asterisk at the end of the entry.  Two of the most active 24 funds are nonprofit, impact accelerators supported in part by foundations and corporation philanthropy.

CASI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: CASI), a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to bringing high quality, cost-effective pharmaceutical products and innovative oncology therapeutics to patients, announces receipt of a letter from the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) (group within the China FDA in charge of technical review) indicating that EVOMELA® (melphalan) for injection has been scheduled for review by the Expert Advisory Anti-Tumor (Oncology) Drugs Committee (the “Advisory Committee”), which is scheduled to take place between April 25-26, 2018 (the “Advisory Committee Meeting”).

Deadline to apply is April 17, 2018

The Maryland Tech Council and SoBran are celebrating the transformational science coming out of Maryland and surrounding area by establishing the Innovation for Impact Prize. This is an added annual award at the Industry Awards Celebration. Tell us how your innovative research will impact the world one day and describe your research!

The National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Engineering (ENG) announces a nationwide search to fill the position of Division Director (DD), Industrial Innovation and Partnerships (IIP). The position provides an unparalleled opportunity to lead the Division to support research, innovation, and entrepreneurship at the forefront of advancing knowledge and stimulating translation of new knowledge into solutions that benefit society; to share in the management responsibility of the Directorate for Engineering to advance NSF’s overall strategic goals “to expand knowledge in science, engineering, and learning, to advance the capability of the nation to meet current and future challenges, and to enhance NSF’s performance of its mission.”

Federal health IT contractor CNSI has sold a majority interest in the company to Alvarez & Marsal Capital, a middle-market private equity firm.

Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

The Kirwan Commission hopes investing in initiatives like full-day preschool and intensified teacher preparation training will help Maryland schools become competitive on an international level.

At the Loews Annapolis Hotel on Tuesday night, ten founders took the stage.

They were gathered before a full audience of tech community members to pitch and close out FounderTrac, the Annapolis-based program which ran over 12 weeks to start the year. Throughout, the founders went through a curriculum to help build their business and were guided by “Executive Sherpas,” who offered mentorship.

Contrary to popular belief, the D.C. region can be a dynamic place to start a life science business. Many things that we are now taking for granted from the standpoint of healthcare and life extension, are happening, and were developed, here in our region. One example of that is our next guest, David Cetlin, founder of MockV Solutions, a startup that’s growing through revenue in the area.

Safeguard Your Intellectual Property Internationally & in the U.S. Learn about IP and how to protect it Online, while Exporting and at Trade Shows

This is an opportunity to learn the basics of IPR protection and U.S. government resources available to help you protect your IPR at home and abroad.

It is our pleasure to host the Summer RISE program again this year. We had some amazing students last year and we look forward to the next group of rising stars.” – Darlene Douglas, Summer RISE 2017 Host“

Today, WellDoc® announced a pilot program in the Providence Health & Services Oregon/SW Washington Region to examine the use of WellDoc’s BlueStar®, an FDA-cleared, proven digital therapeutic for individuals with type 2 diabetes. The Providence Health & Services pilot program will include individuals living with type 2 diabetes and will evaluate the impact of a digital therapeutic—when used in conjunction with the support of a dedicated Diabetes Educator—on user engagement, retention, satisfaction and clinical outcomes.

Gliknik Inc. today announced that the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) has issued U.S. Patent 9,926,362, which claims methods of using compounds that have utility as recombinant mimetics of pooled human intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). The patent, which issued jointly to Gliknik Inc. and to the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), encompasses the uses of trimers, tetramers, pentamers, hexamers, and many other structures containing two or more human IgG1 Fc domains and binding multiple low affinity Fc gamma receptors (FcγRs).

General Electric is selling a chunk of its healthcare IT business to New York private equity firm Veritas Capital for $1.05 billion in cash, as GE (NYSE: GE) chief executive John Flannery aims to streamline the Boston-based industrial behemoth and reverse a steep decline in its stock price.

MedImmune, the R&D arm of AstraZeneca, will make an immediate payment of $10 million to the Israeli cancer immunotherapy company. Israeli cancer immunotherapy company Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN; TASE: CGEN) today announced that it has entered into an exclusive license agreement with MedImmune, the biologics R&D arm of AstraZeneca. The agreement will facilitate the development of bi-specific and multi-specific immuno-oncology antibody products.

The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) is delighted to recognize Zhijian “James” Chen, Ph.D., with the 2018 Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences for discovery of the enzyme cyclic GMP‐AMP synthase (cGAS) and its corresponding pathway, which solved a century- old mystery about DNA. Long before DNA was known to be a genetic material, scientists knew that it could activate the body’s immune system to fight infections. However, they did not understand the cellular process that occurred to trigger this response until Dr. Chen’s discovery. The cGAS enzyme and its DNA-sensing pathway are the catalyst for the critical immune response that defends the body against viruses, bacteria and tumors, but surprisingly, they also can inflict autoimmune disease. Now in its sixth year, the Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences will be presented to Dr. Chen at the FNIH Award Ceremony hosted by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on May 16, 2018 in Washington, D.C.

Senseonics Holdings, Inc. (NYSE American: SENS), a medical technology company focused on the development and commercialization of Eversense®, a long-term, implantable continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system for people with diabetes, today announced a favorable outcome of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Toxicology Devices meeting on the Eversense system. The panel, comprised of independent medical experts, voted unanimously, 8 to 0, that the benefits outweigh the risks, voted unanimously, 8 to 0, that the system is safe, and voted unanimously, 8 to 0, that the system is effective.

Adding to the growing momentum in Prince George’s County, WeWork, a global leader in coworking with more than 200 locations in 21 countries around the world, has selected College Park for its first location in the State of Maryland. As part of a new partnership model, this will be the first WeWork on a college campus, located in the University of Maryland’s Discovery District.  

Altimmune, Inc. (Nasdaq:ALT), a clinical-stage immunotherapeutics company, today announced positive data from its Phase 2a study of NasoVAX intranasal influenza vaccine and provided an update on its Phase 1b study of HepTcell targeted immunotherapy in chronic hepatitis B infection. Results from the Phase 2a study of NasoVAX™ intranasal flu vaccine in 60 healthy individuals showed 100% seroprotection in the mid- and high-dose groups. Results from the Phase 1b study of HepTCell in hepatitis B infection showed that HepTcell was well tolerated at all doses tested, while the unblinded T-cell immunogenicity results were inconclusive.

Johns Hopkins University is launching a new concentration in Regenerative and Stem Cell Technologies within the Master of Science in Biotechnology. Students will become knowledgeable about areas including regenerative medicine, cell therapy, gene therapy and tissue engineering.