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Mach37, the CIT-backed accelerator for cybersecurity startups, has announced its spring cohort of investments. The companies include services ranging from risk tracking to system immunization and firewalling — your usual cybersecurity shenanigans.

The Herndon-based accelerator invests $50,000 in each of its startups and provides network access and guidance toward each company's development. The portfolio includes 22 companies as of this announcement.

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Johns Hopkins University today unveiled specific steps it plans to take to cultivate and support a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship and respond to the strategic challenges detailed in last year's committee report on the topic.

The implementation plan, the release of which was announced today to the university community in a message from JHU President Ronald J. Daniels, addresses the 22 specific recommendations to bolster the university's innovation initiatives that were included in the May 2014 innovation report.

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Where will the first $1 trillion company come from? Some think it is already in the making, but not visible yet. The future is all around us and innovators can see it more than the rest of us.

As suggested, a convergence of technologies, including the Internet of Things, AI, robotics and synthetic biology, might just make a health company the first to be the Trillion Dollar Unicorn.

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Symbiomix Therapeutics, a late-stage, privately held biopharmaceutical company developing innovative medicines for serious women's health infections, today announced results from its Phase 1 clinical program demonstrating that its lead product candidate, SYM-1219, was safe and well tolerated and had predictable pharmacokinetics (PK), and that contraceptive efficacy for birth control pills would not be altered by SYM-1219 administration.

These results will be presented on March 6th at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT), which takes place in New Orleans from today through March 7th. Following are the details for the two posters presenting the study results:

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AstraZeneca has completed the acquisition of Actavis’ branded respiratory business in the US and Canada for an initial consideration of $600m.

The deal strengthens AstraZeneca's aclidinium respiratory franchise and builds on the acquisition of Almirall's respiratory portfolio in 2014 by extending the company's development and commercialization rights into the US for both Tudorza Pressair and Duaklir Genuair.

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Gaithersburg-based molecular diagnostics company OpGen Inc. filed Tuesday to go public in hopes of raising as much as $37.4 million.

In its initial regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it would trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol OPGN. It has yet to set a price for the stock or date for the initial public offering, which New York-based Maxim Group LLC will manage.

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This spring, the InvestMaryland Challenge will award four $100,000 grand prizes to innovative young companies with the potential to flourish in Maryland.

Now in its third year, this national seed and early-stage business competition, hosted by the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, has accepted hundreds of applications since fall 2014. Judges have now narrowed the field to just 46 companies, including the competition’s first-ever international semifinalist, Israel-based AcceleRadio. This month, they will present their business plans during face-to-face interviews with panels of three to five judges. Final reviews will take place in April.

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The Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus welcomes Leidos to the campus community. Leidos has located some of its employees in Building III, putting them in close proximity to the National Cancer Institute Shady Grove, located right next door. Leidos Biomedical Research and the National Cancer Institute have a contract to work together on “genetics and genomics, proteins and proteomics, advanced biomedical computing and information technology, biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing, nanotechnology characterization, and clinical trials management,” according to NCI.

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Today at Henderson’s Wharf Inn in Fells Point, U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) announced she has decided not to run for re-election. Senator Mikulski, who will complete her 5th term in office in January, 2017, says she wants to focus for the next two years on working for her constituents and for the nation.

“Because every day, I want to wake up thinking about you -- the little guys and gals, the watermen, automobile workers, researchers, small business owners and families,” Senator Mikulski said. “I want to give you 120 percent of my time with all of my energy focused on you and your futures. Because it’s always been about you, never about me. That’s what it takes to be a good senator by my expectations and by my standards.”

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Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Mersana Therapeutics Inc, a provider of Fleximer antibody-drug conjugate technology, has secured $35 million in Series B-1 financing. New Enterprise Associates led the round with participation from Rock Springs Capital Management, Elliott Sigal, former head of R&D at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer Venture Investments and Fidelity Biosciences. Also, Mersana has appointed Anna Protopapas as president and CEO. And, Protopapas and Dr. Elaine V. Jones, executive director of Pfizer Venture Investments, have been added to Mersana’s board of directors.

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Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, the Maryland Democrat who is the longest-serving woman in congressional history, will depart Capitol Hill the way she arrived — with a sharp tongue, an unabashed liberalism and a mission to make the Senate a place where women belong.

Mikulski surprised many colleagues Monday with her announcement that she will leave the Senate next year after five terms. In good health at 78, the senator said she wants to shift her focus: “Do I spend my time raising money? Or do I spend my time raising hell?”

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On Feb. 19, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took a huge step towards patient-centric medicine when it approved the marketing of genetics testing company 23andMe’s carrier test for Bloom Syndrome. This was a startling — and good — development because it affirmed the rights of consumers to drive their own health-care decisions and procedures. But it also means that it has become urgent to develop policies to regulate the rights of companies to resell data derived from the contents of our DNA and from our medical records.

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There’s been a flurry of news related to telemedicine this week, with several notable developments in Mississippi and Silicon Valley.

One of the more interesting aspects of telemedicine is that much of the innovation and focus of late has come from startups and vendors, while health systems have shown a bit of reluctance to deploy it on their own.

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U.S. Small Business Administration leader Maria Contreras-Sweet drew parallels Friday between Baltimore and the rust-belt city of Detroit — but she actually meant it in a positive way.

Contreras-Sweet, the SBA's administrator, was in Baltimore and took questions about the administration's work in the city and its overall direction. Baltimore has many highly skilled workers who can pivot to new startup businesses, much like Detroit has automobile-industry employees who can put their expertise to work elsewhere, she said.

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As the landscape of the biopharmaceutical industry expands into growing regions, an exciting transformation is beginning to transfer commercialization “recipes” to emerging markets. All eyes are on small, specialty, and midsize players emerging at the forefront of innovation in the mature regions of Europe and the United States.

At the global level, the BRICK countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Korea are aggressively investing in R&D, facilities, and scientist training, and vying for bigger roles not only as markets for medicines, but also as rich breeding grounds for R&D and manufacturing.

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California-based companies received about 56 percent of all U.S. venture capital dollars in 2014, the state's highest share of venture activity since the dot com boom of the early 2000s. Over the past 15 years, investment activity has steadily become more concentrated in California and a few other states. In 2009, about 67 percent of all deals and 74 percent of venture capital dollars flowed to the top five states. By 2014, those states' share of venture dollars grew to 80 percent, according to NVCA/Pricewaterhouse Coopers data. A recent Harvard Business Review article, however, suggests that startups are receiving first-round funding in more metropolitan areas than ever.

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Paul Palmieri thinks Maryland's entrepreneurs and innovators need a boost — especially after supporters of a state angel investor tax credit turned out in force to a Senate hearing Wednesday and faced some tough questions.

"We need to, as much as possible, support new entrepreneurs," said Palmieri, the founder and former CEO of Millennial Media who's now venture adviser at Chevy Chase-based New Enterprise Associates Inc. and an angel investor.

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A coalition of 13 leading life science and diagnostics organizations today announced the formation of the Allele Frequency Community, a landmark initiative that is creating an extensive, high-quality and ethnically diverse collection of human genomes to address a key challenge in interpreting sequencing data for research and clinical applications. The announcement coincides with the start of the 16th annual Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) scientific meeting in Marco Island, Florida.

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Signing a deal can seal your fate. An exit for your investors may mean the end of your dream. What if you decided to forego the exit route, leapfrog to an IPO, and use commercial partnerships to fuel your scale-up into a fully integrated biopharma company? For an example in progress, look at Sucampo — a still-small company with two FDAapproved products, many more in the pipeline, a healthy balance sheet, and a commitment to maintain its long-term independence.

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Vaccination may be the most effective public health intervention of all time. This is especially true in developing countries, where many families can’t find or afford health care when they get sick. The prevention offered by vaccines can be life-saving.

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Smart Asset names Rockville and Bethesda as having the best paying STEM jobs in the nation

Looking for a job in STEM-related fields (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics)?  Look no further than Montgomery County.

A recent report by Smart Asset (smartasset.com) lists Rockville and Bethesda as the top spots in the nation for well-paying STEM jobs.  The area (which included Frederick, MD) beat out Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Boston and New York in offering the most financially rewarding opportunities. 

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Venture capital investment in U.S. life sciences companies soared 29 percent in 2014 from the year before, reaching $8.6 billion, the highest level since 2007. And there is reason to think 2015 will also be a big year for a sector having its third boom of the last two decades.

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Did you see the recent news that the FDA has approved the first direct-to-consumer genetic test in the U.S.? Can you say game-changer? Talk about personalized medicine, what’s more personal than our own genetic blueprint? In a health care era defined by patients taking more personal responsibility for their own health and well being, including the costs, it’s about time that we enabled consumers directly with access to their own health care data and the tools to interpret and act on it. Access to our own genetic data gives new meaning to the buzzword, patient-centered care.

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Baltimore health technology startup Protenus Inc. hopes a partnership with health care consulting firm Sage Growth Partners will speed up the company's development and lead to top-notch clients for the fledgling company.

Protenus is developing a cyber security tool that helps hospitals protect patient information by identifying and thwarting insider threats to hospitals' electronic medical records. Since launching in 2014 the company has been focused on fine tuning its technology, which is already in use at Johns Hopkins Hospital. As part of Sage's venture management program, Sage will help Protenus strengthen the business strategy side of the company. Protenus will be based at Sage's office at the Broom Factory in Canton.

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There’s a hushed quiet in the waiting room at a midtown Manhattan fertilization clinic called Reproductive Medical Associates as a dozen women flip through magazines, the glossies a welcome distraction from their scheduled treatments and consultations. But just down the hall, in a window-rimmed corner office with views of Central Park, conversation ping-pongs back and forth as Piraye Yurttas Beim, a scientist and entrepreneur, updates the clinic's co-director on her startup's progress.

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The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) will be hosting its 2015 national meeting in Denver, Colorado, from April 28 – 30 at the Embassy Suites Denver – Downtown/Convention Center. Each year, the national meeting is highly anticipated by the FLC and the technology transfer (T2) community, serving as the premier event for advancing T2 strategies and providing important connections.

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It's a Rubik's Cube.

That's what New Enterprise Associates general partner Harry Weller told me about the monster venture capital firm's philosophy regarding the management of its giant funds. The firm has raised more than $13 billion across 14 funds since its inception in 1977, the last three of which have been between $2.3 billion and $2.6 billion.

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Everything about China is big, including its cancer problem. In some wealthier cities, like Beijing, cancer is now believed to be the most frequent killer. Air pollution, high rates of smoking, and notorious “cancer villages” scarred by industrial pollution are increasing death rates around the country. Liver cancer in particular is four times as prevalent as it is in the West, in part because one in 14 people in China carry hepatitis B, which puts them at risk. Of all the people worldwide who die of cancer each year, some 27 percent are Chinese.

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Springboard’s Health Innovation Hub is a collaboration platform advancing the growth of digital health and life science companies led by women with significant potential for investment and partnerships.

About the Program

We seek women-led companies with a track record of milestone achievement. We are location- and stage-agnostic but seek solutions within several themes:

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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:

  • Reinforcing Service to the Biomedical Research Community
  • Notice of Extension of the Public Comment Period for NOT-OD-15-019 "NIH Request for Public Comments on the Draft NIH Policy on Dissemination of NIH-Funded Clinical Trial Information” 
  • Announcement of Anticipated Availability of Funds for Research and Research Conferences on Research Integrity
  • The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is now the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) 
  • National Center for Complementary and Integrative HealthNotice of Availability of Administrative Supplements to Extend the Scope and Reach of LINCS Datasets
    • (NOT-RM-15-012)
    • The Common Fund/Office of Strategic Coordination

Please note that most links to RFAs, PAs, and Guide Notices will take you to the NIH Web site. RFPs will take you to FedBizOpps. Links to RFPs will not work past their proposal receipt date. Archived versions of RFPs posted on FedBizOpps can be found on the FedBizOpps site using the FedBizOpps search function. Under “Document to Search,” select Archived Documents.

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Deloitte has launched the 2015 Top Technology Talent Competition for a fifth year seeking innovative ideas from college students on how technology can solve a business problem.

The winner of the 2015 Top Technology Talent Competition will win a trip to one of the Deloitte digital studios in the US, in addition to a six-week summer internship in Deloitte Ireland which will enable them to further develop their idea if they so choose.