Biohealth Innovation
Four weeks into my first semester of college, my academic confidence was completely shredded. I had back-to-back tests in cell biology, chemistry, and calculus, and my time management skills weren’t quite there yet. I failed my calculus exam, and suddenly I wasn’t sure I had the intelligence or the ability to get a degree in science.
A group focused on spurring regional cooperation to boost the economy wants to raise $3 million to $5 million to rebrand Greater Washington and challenge its reputation as an epicenter of politics and gridlock.
The 2030 Group, a consortium of businesses, organizations and executives, will unveil a new video and website Thursday that will serve as a sort of platform for future marketing efforts. Then a call to fund the regionwide branding effort will begin.
Agriculture Innovation to Commercialization (AgI2C) is a new 2017 initiative of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (AGNR) to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, and commercialization in agriculture, natural resources, and environmental sustainability. AgI2C will join the University’s innovation network that includes the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship in the Robert H. Smith School of Business, Mtech in the School of Engineering, the Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and the University’s Office of Technology Commercialization.
Initially, AgI2C will focus on: (a) incubating AGNR undergraduate teams to develop and pitch ideas for products and service, (b) offering an intensive Winter Term course for new graduate students, and (c) developing a learning and doing culture in AGNR academic courses.
2017 AgI2C Undergraduate Ideation Competition
The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources has partnered with the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship and the Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship to launch its inaugural Agriculture Innovation to Commercialization competition. Learn more about the competition at http://agnr.umd.edu/agi2c/ideation-competition.
Dreamit Health recently announced its spring 2017 cohort of startups, and it’s medley of eight impressive early stage companies from all around the world.
The new group represents Dreamit’s 22nd cohort, and this cycle represents the accelerator’s fifth year in partnership with Penn Medicine and Independence Blue Cross. The selected startups are addressing everything from the patient experience to the medical workflow.
Can a pill make you younger?
One of the few drug studies ever carried out in an attempt to address this question was reported by Novartis on Christmas Eve 2014. The company had sought to see whether giving low doses of a drug called everolimus to people over 65 increased their response to flu vaccines.
What do Washington, D.C., Kansas City, Mo., Baltimore, Indianapolis, and New Orleans have in common? According to a recent report, they're the best places to be if you're a woman in tech.
Roche's multiple sclerosis (MS) drug Ocrevus won U.S. approval, putting the potential blockbuster back on track after a brief delay and giving a lift to patients with a form of the disease that until now had no approved treatment.
The drug, also known as ocrelizumab and administered via infusion, becomes the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved medicine for the primary progressive form of the neurological disease (PPMS).
Saturday, April 15 at 1:00pm
Mudd Hall – 3400 North Charles Street Baltimore, MD
Hatch 2017 brings over 6 speakers, 30 startups, and 3 workshops to the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus for a day of entrepreneurial education, networking, and celebration. Hatch is entirely free & open to the community.
Our Speaker Symposium features some of Baltimore's biggest entrepreneurs and business leaders from around the nation. The Startup Showcase lets Baltimore and MidAtlantic companies showcase the game-changing products they have been working on, allowing attendees to network directly with the teams. Our BLUE workshop series consists of three, 30-minute breakout sessions focused on various facets of founding startups. Come for the speakers and startups, stay for the free food and swag, networking opportunities, and celebration of the people and companies driving Baltimore forward.
Aging can seem like a scary prospect, but a wealth of scientific studies have found that youth isn't all it's cracked up to be. There are plenty of cases in which human beings peak well into middle and old age.
Teenagers, for instance, may have vitality on their side, but older people are generally more psychologically stable. And so it goes with several phenomena people experience as they age.
Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett will participate in a press conference today hosted by WorkSource Montgomery, Inc. in collaboration with Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) and Montgomery County Government to announce the Summer R.I.S.E (Really Interesting Summer Experience) program. The event will run from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Tuesday, March 28, at Kaiser Permanente’s Mid-Atlantic States Regional Administrative Offices on 2101 East Jefferson Street in Rockville.
This new initiative provides MCPS rising juniors and seniors with enriching summer career development experiences through local Montgomery County businesses and nonprofit organizations.
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:
Notices:
Requests for Applications:
Global technology leaders still consider the United States at the forefront of innovation, but China is catching up, according to a recent survey from KPMG. The accompanying report, "The Changing Landscape of Disruptive Technologies," also ranks the top global companies and visionaries for innovation. Beyond the lists, the findings reveal how companies are cultivating an innovation culture. A great many survey respondents, for example, said their organization has appointed a chief innovation officer to lead these efforts. In addition, they're measuring progress through patents earned, revenue growth, and brand and reputation barometers.
Millions of bodies suffer a loss of soft tissue — namely skin or muscle — each year. It can result from trauma, natural aging, or even surgery, like a mastectomy for breast cancer patients. Typically, the only option to repair such damage is surgery, and transferring tissue from one part of the body to another.
Across the commonwealth, families are feeling squeezed by stagnant wages and rising costs. Too many Virginians are working part-time instead of full-time; too many college graduates are working in jobs that don’t require a four-year degree.
Virginia’s anemic economic growth rates have trailed the national average for five straight years. We even fell to the bottom ten states for economic growth in 2014. More people are moving out of Virginia than moving in. Our tax climate ranking fell to 33rd in 2017. We’ve dropped out of the top 10 on the CNBC list of Best States for Business, after being number one just five years ago.
The University System of Maryland announced this month the launch of its Maryland Momentum Fund, which will provide $25 million to support startups formed within the system.
The university system has already committed $10 million to the initiative, and is working alongside the University of Maryland, Baltimore County as well as UM Ventures — a joint research and innovation program between this university and the University of Maryland, Baltimore — to obtain the remaining $15 million from local venture capitalists and angel investors, said Julie Lenzer, UM Ventures co-director.
GlaxoSmithKline and Regeneron have given their backing to a new project that will use patient data held by the UK Biobank.
The firms will get free access to the samples in return for covering the cost of sequencing it and, after a period of exclusivity, they will then allow the data to be plugged back into the resource for wider use.
Eli Lilly and Company has publicized plans to invest $850 million in the United States throughout 2017.
The media release, delivered Friday, follows a meeting between Lilly executives, federal, state and local government officials at Lilly Technology Center in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Once again, more than three-quarters of U.S. venture capital (VC) dollars went to companies in California, New York and Massachusetts in 2016, according to data from the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)/CB Insights’ Moneytree Report Explorer. Approximately 53.3 percent of all VC capital went to California companies, down nearly 4.4 percent from the states peak in 2014 (57.7) and down 3.9 percent from 2016. While California’s share declined, both Massachusetts and New York saw increases in their share of VC dollars invested:
Patients everywhere take their medication with emocha.
This World TB Day, we want to say thank you to our partners around the world who are uniting to #EndTB.
Patients across three continents are using the emocha platform to facilitate TB treatment, and we’re proud to support hundreds of healthcare workers as they fight to eradicate TB.
Public health departments in California, Maryland, Texas, Missouri, Washington, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico have adopted emocha’s video DOT platform for active and latent TB monitoring. Sites in Australia, India, and Mexico have also implemented the technology, proving that video DOT is an effective strategy for combating global TB.
Patients could one day self-administer vaccines using a needleless, pill-sized technology that jet-releases a stream of vaccine inside the mouth, according to a proof-of-concept study conducted at UC Berkeley.
The study did not test vaccine delivery in people, but demonstrated that the technology, called MucoJet, is capable of delivering vaccine-sized molecules to immune cells in the mouths of animals. The technology is a step toward improved oral vaccine delivery, which holds the promise of building immunity in the mouth’s buccal region of cells, where many infections enter the body. When patients hold the MucoJet against the inside of their cheek, the device releases a jet stream that directly targets the buccal region. This region is rich in immune cells but underutilized in immunology because of the challenge of efficiently penetrating the thick mucosal layer in this part of the oral cavity with existing technologies, such as the oral spray often used for influenza vaccination.
Get a sneak peak of the Mobile eXploration Lab (MXLab) – the country’s largest, most advanced mobile STEM laboratory! MdBio is launching the MXLab for the 2017/2018 school year, and we want to give teachers across the state the first chance to see the lab in action and provide feedback on our activities for Maryland high schools.
Join us at one of five events across the state to get a sneak peek of the MXLab plus a hands-on teacher professional development activity for your classroom.
On Tuesday, March 7, 2017, the University of Maryland (UMD) Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices and RTI International (link is external) welcomed nearly 150 representatives of Maryland’s medical device ecosystem to a daylong event focused on bringing products from invention to market in the state. The event, Medical Device Innovation in Maryland: from Technology to Lab to Market, took place at the UMD campus in College Park, and culminated with a tour of the soon-to-be new home of the A. James Clark School of Engineering: A. James Clark Hall.
“This is the start of an incredibly exciting time for biomedical devices in Maryland – and you’re here at the beginning,” University of Maryland Provost Mary Ann Rankin told attendees.
Symbiomix today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for filing the Company’s New Drug Application (NDA) for its lead investigational product candidate Solosec™ (secnidazole oral granules), an innovative antibiotic designed to treat bacterial vaginosis (BV). In accordance with the FDA’s priority 6-month review designation, the agency has established a user-fee goal date under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) of September 17, 2017. Symbiomix submitted the NDA filing in January 2017.
Solosec™ is a potent, next-generation, investigational 5-nitroimidazole antibiotic with enhanced pharmacokinetic properties, which will be the first and only single-dose oral therapy approved for BV if approved by the FDA. The FDA previously designated Solosec™ as a Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) for the treatment of BV and granted it Fast Track designation, which made Solosec™ eligible for priority review and at least 10 years of market exclusivity.
What’s next for the pharmaceuticals industry, amid digital disruption and rapid technological advances? McKinsey’s Martin Dewhurst sat down for a wide-ranging conversation with David Epstein of venture firm Flagship Pioneering to explore ways the sector could shift in coming years. In this interview, part of our Biopharma Frontiers series on how the pharmaceutical industry is evolving and how leaders can adapt, Epstein discusses the next horizon of innovation, critical elements of an effective business, and the kind of culture he tries to foster. An edited transcript of their conversation follows.
Dear Friends of CONNECTpreneur:
I hope everything is well! This is a "Last Call" for our April 4 Big Idea CONNECTprenuer SPRING FORUM at the Hyatt Regency in Bethesda, MD. We expect over 500 CXOs, founders, entrepreneurs, angel investors, etc., and we will be completely SOLD OUT again. So, please sign up now!
We have unparralled CXO to CXO networking, plus an amazing program:
Fireside chat with DAVID TRONE, Co-Founder and Owner, Total Wine & More
Awesome Entrepreneur "War Stories" Panel (moderated by GLEN HELLMAN (aka Mr. Cranky), angel investor and CEO of Driven Forward) featuring:
· NIGEL JONES, CEO of Koolspan and Managing Director of TWJ Capital
· BETH MALONEY, President of Palladian Partners
· D.P. VENKATESH, VP of Broadsoft and CEO of mPortal
PLUS 9 awesome early stage companies will present their companies.
Host: UM BioPark & Wexford + Technology
Location: UM BioPark Life Sciences Conference Center, 801 W. Baltimore Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201
Date: March 30, 2017 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm
Please join the BioPark's Monthly Networking Event along with collegues from the Maryland Proton Treatment Center. Mingle with MPTC leadership and staff, BioPark tenants, and UMB faculty and staff.
The co-founders of a Johns Hopkins-backed startup had personal motivations for developing better health care tracking technology.
The mother of Sathya Elumala, who is CEO of Multisensor Diagnostics, suffers from multiple chronic health conditions and spends time in hospitals almost every month. Gene Fridman, the company's chief technology officer, lost a sister who had a chronic condition that wasn't detected soon enough.
Vaccines may be available for pneumococcal infections, but none of them, including the widely used Prevnar 13, can cover all strains. SutroVax is one of the startups trying to solve that problem, and today raised $64 million to test its approach in humans.
New investors Frazier Healthcare Partners and Pivotal bioVenture Partners led the Series B financing round for Foster City, CA-based SutroVax. Also participating in the round were earlier investors Abingworth, Longitude Capital, Roche Venture Fund, and CTI Life Sciences Fund. In addition to the $60 million Series B investment, SutroVax says the earlier investors are also putting another $4 million into the company.
The National Science Foundation's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program provides small business with equity-free funding to conduct research and development (R&D) work and de-risk technology for commercial success. The NSF SBIR program accepts innovative proposals that show promise of commercial and societal impact in almost all areas of technology.
SBIR Phase I proposals are expected to undertake R&D with the aim of establishing technical feasibility or proof of concept. Successful applicants will receive a grant of up to $225,000 over a period of 6 to 12 months (the period to be decided by the company).
Successful SBIR proposers will receive funding about 6 months after the solicitation deadline. Companies that receive a Phase I award are eligible to apply for a Phase II award (award amount up to $750,000; duration 2 years).
In order for America to maintain its innovative and technological competitive advantage, it is imperative that current policy design favor high growth formation through the catalytic means of institutional financing. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs have historically served as crucial financing to help de-risk early-stage technology development and enable validation that encourages follow-on private institution capitalization. With new trends in the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, advanced materials, genomics, environmental sustainability, renewable energy, national security, and many other areas evolving over the years ahead, national governments bear the responsibility for helping seed the inventive fire that enables economic growth as we move forward.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2017, 8:30 AM - 12 PM | WASHINGTON, DC
If you do business with the government, you are a target for cyber-attacks!
If you are a government contractor, join us to learn how to implement a strong and cost effective cybersecurity program that will strengthen your company's cybersecurity posture and help you meet requirements necessary to do business with the federal government. As an attendee, you can receive two customized assessments to help identify your company’s level of exposure: (1) a mini cyber-risk review from CyberRx that will assess your company’s cyber capabilities within the Cybersecurity Framework; and (2) a threat intelligence assessment from Wapack Labs that can help to identify if your organization has been or will be the victim of an attack. Space is limited. Register today.
Pulmocide raised $30.4 million in a Series B round of financing to support the early clinical development of its lead inhaled drugs against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and pulmonary aspergillosis. The fundraising round was led by new investor SR One and included the Longwood Fund and existing investors SV Life Sciences, F-Prime Capital, Johnson & Johnson Innovation–JJDC, and Touchstone Innovations.
The National Cancer Institute has picked the Johns Hopkins Montgomery County Campus as the site for a new laboratory building for its epidemiology and genetics researchers.
The planned 70,000-square-foot building will bring together about 134 scientists and employees now working in separate facilities in Gaithersburg and Frederick, about 25 miles apart.
The University of Maryland University College is tearing itself apart -- on purpose.
The university, which gets nearly all of its funding from tuition revenue, has long relied on enrolling large numbers of students associated with the military for financial stability. After teaching students at military bases across Asia and Europe for decades, the university was quick to realize the potential of the internet and became a pioneer in the field of distance education.
Friday, April 14, 2017 7:30 AM - 9:30 AM
Bethesda Marriott - 5151 Pooks Hill Road Bethesda, MD 20814
With the transition to the Trump administration, change is coming rapidly in the form of legislative proposals, regulations (or repeal thereof), and policy statements. How will all this affect the ability of tech companies to raise the capital they need to grow. Amid this shifting ground, we’ve asked an expert panel of our own Maryland technology companies to talk about their recent successes and challenges in raising capital and their outlook for the ability of Maryland technology companies to do the same. Our panel, moderated by David Straut of Wells Fargo, includes two long-time local tech CFOs who have had recent success raising money and the Director of the Maryland Venture Fund, which oversees investments in approximately 50 local technology ventures
Financial Executives Forum: FEF is devoted to peer-to-peer connections and programs that highlight the latest topics of interest for the region’s leading business and financial executives. FEF encourages participants to connect as well as learn from some of the area’s preeminent executives, policymakers and thought leaders.