The MdBio Foundation, Inc. (MdBio), a nonprofit organization, today announced that it has received a grant of $50,000 from AstraZeneca and its Gaithersburg, Md.-based global biologics research and development arm, MedImmune. The grant will enable the foundation to expand its focus on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and prepare today’s students to become the workforce of tomorrow.

“Our goal is to show students the many possibilities their future can hold with a strong foundation in STEM,” said Brian Gaines, CEO of MdBio. “AstraZeneca’s and MedImmune’s generosity will enable us to expand our programs to ensure that we reach students who can benefit from enhanced educational opportunities. Our state is well-known for its strength in the bioscience market, and we hope to foster the next generation of employees for the companies that call Maryland home.”

Let's face it: pre-Election Night, this year's race for Maryland governor was pretty underwhelming, the kind where your mother might reveal she's thinking of voting for Republican businessman Larry Hogan because she remembered his dad to be a nice guy back when he was Prince George's County executive in the 1970s.

(Hi, Mom! For the record, I don't know who she ended up voting for.)

iHealth is one of the leading developers of connected health devices, with devices on the market ranging from the BP5 connected blood pressure cuff to the Align wireless glucometer. As we recently highlighted, they have also been at the forefront of integrating the data captured by these devices with the electronic health records used by clinicians.

We had the opportunity to talk with Jim Taschetta, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Retail Sales at iHealth, about their current work at Duke & Stanford exploring EHR integration, views on integration of Android devices, and more.

The University of Maryland earned a gold medal in the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM) held in Boston from Oct. 30 to Nov. 3, 2014.

The competition engages student-led teams from universities across the globe to present novel synthetic biology projects that address real-world problems.

University of Maryland University College recently swept two divisions of the Maryland Cyber Challenge for the second consecutive year, capturing first place in the College and Professional divisions of the premier Maryland cyber competition held at the annual Cyber Maryland conference in Baltimore.

“This is a tough competition and to beat many great teams just to get to the finals in the college and professional divisions is an amazing accomplishment. We fielded four teams for this competition (two in each division) and all four made it to the final round. That speaks to the quality of our teams, ” said Jeff Tjiputra, chairman of UMUC’s undergraduate cybersecurity program and academic advisor to the cyber competition teams. 

The Pentagon's technology arm is prepared to invest up to $700,000 in a promising idea in the field of biological sciences and technology. The goal is to turn theoretical concepts into actual products, such as better sensors for prosthetic limbs and techniques to cope with infectious disease outbreaks.

Under a new initiative by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, inventors will be able to send in proposals without having to trudge through miles of red tape as they would have to in traditional government contracts.

Photo Credit: DARPA

Dr. William Kirwan, chancellor for the University System of Maryland, announced over the summer that he will be stepping down, but not until his replacement is hired.

He's lost count of the number of college graduations he's been a part of since taking the job as Maryland's education chancellor more than a decade ago.

The Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Index enables business leaders, government policymakers, and taxpayers to gauge how their states’ tax systems compare. While there are many ways to show how much is collected in taxes by state governments, the Index is designed to show how well states structure their tax systems, and provides a road-map to improving these structures.

Johns Hopkins University, Biomedical Engineering, CBIDMonday, December 8, 2014 from 3:00 PM to 7:30 PM (EST)Baltimore, MD

Join us December 8th for a review of 16 exciting healthcare design projects at the Johns Hopkins Center for Bioengineering Innovation & Design (CBID).  CBID MSE and Undergraduate projects will be presented.  This year we're honored to have as our Keynote Speaker Dr. John Kostuik.  Dr. Kostuik is Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of K2M Inc, a world leading spine surgery company.  The event will also have a Shark Tank competition with a panel of tough judges and real cash prizes.  Refreshments will be provided.

Considering that Emergent BioSolutions (NYSE: EBS  ) has regular government contracts and other manufacturing contracts -- so regular that it's willing to give quarterly guidance, which many companies wouldn't dream of -- it was a little surprising to see by how much the biotech beat the guidance it gave three months earlier. Third-quarter revenue came in at $138 million, substantially higher than the guidance of $110 million to $125 million it gave three months ago.

But, as it turns out, this is just an accounting issue. In the third quarter, Emergent BioSolutions set up a collaboration with MorphoSys to develop its prostate cancer drug candidate ES414. Under the terms of the agreement, Emergent BioSolutions got a $20 million upfront payment -- the biotech recognized $15.3 million of this in the third quarter. Back out the payment, and Emergent BioSolutions' revenue falls within its previous guidance, fortunately at the upper-end.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland have collaborated to build a new center that will preform studies on how to store, process and transmit data using quantum architecture.

The Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science is designed to complement basic quantum research being done at an institute run by NIST, UMD and the National Security Agency, NIST said Oct. 31.

Inspired by a series of new strategic initiatives, BioNJ announced a rebranding today -- BioNJ, The Gateway to Health – that reflects an expanded vision and mission directed to fostering a vibrant life sciences ecosystem in New Jersey where science is supported, companies are created, drugs are developed and patients are paramount.

The rebranding is supported by the launch of a revitalized website at www.BioNJ.org that is contemporary in its look and represents the determination of BioNJ to help move the life sciences industry forward.

The National Institutes of Health is challenging science innovators to compete for prizes totaling up to $500,000, by developing new ways to track the health status of a single cell in complex tissue over time. The NIH Follow that Cell Challenge seeks tools that would, for example, monitor a cell in the process of becoming cancerous, detect changes due to a disease-causing virus, or track how a cell responds to treatment.

The challenge aims to generate creative ideas and methods for following and predicting a single cell’s behavior and function over time in a complex multicellular environment – preferably using multiple integrated measures to detect its changing state.

Cartagenia announced today that it and Qiagen's bioinformatics business are part of a consortium that has received €1.4 million ($1.7 million) in funding from a European funding initiative to support the development of software tools for personalized genetic analysis of cancer variants.

The Lungcadia program will combine the technologies and expertise of Cartagenia, Qiagen, and the Institute of Pathology at Hannover Medical School and will focus on lung cancer as a disease model, but the partners aim to make the results applicable to other types of cancer. The project has received the funding from the EuroTransBio initiative, which supports biotech collaborations in Europe.

Osiris has a history of developing treatments — like Prochymal, the first government-approved stem cell drug — and then selling them to other companies. Its product portfolio is thus diverse, and that is wise when it comes to Grafix, which competes with a number of other advanced wound care products.

Ryan Sysko needed someone to push WellDoc's diabetes management app, BlueStar, into the market. It was time to turn to an outsider to make sure BlueStar successfully sold in Maryland and, eventually, nationwide. The FDA-approved smartphone app helps diabetes patients track blood glucose levels, medications, diet and exercise on a cellphone. It requires a prescription from a doctor.

To take on the task, Sysko, the Baltimore health care technology company's CEO, called on Kevin P. McRaith. Former vice president of ...

Chevy Chase-based Wedding Wire, the largest and most trusted online marketplace connecting merchants with engaged couples and party planners, ranked highest of any other Maryland company this year, coming in at number seven with 2013 revenue of nearly $34 million. Also making the Top 10 is Rockville-based CoesterVMS, a leader in the mortgage banking and appraisal industry, coming in at number nine with $14.47 million in revenue in 2013.

Brain science is taking a hit, according to a recent series of papers published in a special issue of the Cell Press journal Neuron.

“While the disease burden and economic impacts are on the rise, progress in the development of new therapeutics and treatment approaches has appeared to have stalled,” reads an editorial introducing the issue. “Approval for new therapeutics (whether drugs, devices, or other treatment approaches) for nervous system disorders have been declining and most of the treatments we currently have are not disease modifying.”

Monday, November 10, 2014 8:30AM-12:00PM

Embassy of Italy 3000 Whitehaven St NW Washington DC

There is growing interest for enabling Transatlantic Collaborations via STEM-Driven Research & Innovation. This half-day summit’s purpose is to enable technology development and deployment between the U.S. and Europe for research and small businesses that have benefited from the government’s innovation and funding pipeline. Through dynamic conversations with thought leaders, policy makers and doers from the private and public sectors, attendees will leave with a better understanding of how entrepreneurs can take their ideas from the lab and expand to a borderless market.

This event is organized on occasion of the Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Italy will be hosting the next Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Milan in March 2015 .

Wednesday, November 19, 20146:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Get out of the office and enjoy yourself! Join Maryland’s business community for an evening of networking and fun at the Tech Council of Maryland's Fall Cocktail Reception. This reception will be held at the prestigious Congressional Country Club in Bethesda. If you haven't attended our FEF Fall Reception, come and find out what you've been missing.

The reception features an open bar, great food and two hours with no agenda other than networking, seeing old friends and meeting new people. This is the perfect atmosphere for executives and decision makers from the region’s leading companies to come together and share ideas. Everyone is welcome and you don’t need to be a financial executive to attend this event, so register today.

The NBIA (National Business Incubation Association) seeks a dynamic new President and Chief Executive Officer. Our ideal candidate will be an exceptional leader with business expertise and a passion for entrepreneurship, as well as the drive, intellect, and professional presence to support and promote business incubation and acceleration.

The incoming President and CEO will report directly to the Board of Directors, and it is critical that this individual be well-versed in the broader national and international entrepreneur support ecosystem (including but not limited to business incubation, acceleration, coworking/emerging startup models, and economic environments – i.e. programs serving rural, urban, and developing economies).

DAASN is proud to be an Enthusiast sponsor for Tedco's 4th Annual Entrepreneur Expo and a Major sponser of Startup Maryland.

Startup Maryland Announces Great Eight Finalists and Fan Favorites for 2014 Pitch Across Maryland Tour

Diversity of Industries and Opportunities Defines the Third Annual State-Wide Tour and Celebration of Maryland Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

As CMS goes, so goes private insurance. That’s perhaps a simplification of how reimbursement rates are developed for healthcare payers, but big payers definitely watch what CMS is doing.

So it’s no small deal that CMS late last week issued new rules that include “significant additional coverage for telemedicine services,” the American Telemedicine Association said in a release.

When we think of Google, we think of the company that powers the widely used search engine, and we think of computer programming, engineering, and electrical design. However, recently Google has expanded and moved towards research in medical technology. Just a few months ago, the tech giant partnered with Novartis to license a glucose measuring smart contact lens. The company had also recently bought portions of Calico, an anti-aging research company, and 23andme, a company that provides personal genetic tests. Now, Google aims to develop a wearable diagnostic device to detect cancer and heart attacks through the use of nanoparticles.

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell today named a new member to the Health Information Technology Policy Committee (HITPC) and renewed appointments for three members of the Health IT Standards Committee (HITSC). The committees are charged with recommending policies and technologies needed to implement a nationwide health information technology infrastructure and strategic plan. 

The two federal advisory committees were created through the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The committees provide the opportunity for stakeholders and the public to provide direct input to HHS. 

A year ago Robert Lord and Nick Culbertson were medical students with an idea for a company.

Now their startup Protenus Inc. is doing business with Johns Hopkins Hospital, figuring out how to use $770,000 in seed financing and hiring staff members to get their cyber security system in more hospitals.

Vheda Health, a digital health company that seeks to help people with chronic conditions, is one of a handful of healthcare startups that have received backing from a commercialization fund from Maryland’s Technology Development Corp. They were part of a list of 15 companies that received $1.5 million. It follows a funding allocation from earlier this year.

The Maryland program allocates funding to companies developing technology products with universities and/or federal labs in the state. To qualify, companies have to be in a collaboration with a federal lab or university, they have to be located in an affiliate incubator company in the state, they have to be involved in one of two Maryland programs — ACTiVATE, an entrepreneurship training program aimed at women, or INNoVATE — or participate in TEDCO’s Rural Business Initiative. The focus is on small businesses so companies must have under 16 employees, or be a university spin-off under five years old or have venture investments under $500,000. More than half of the companies’ employees must work in the state.

Tuesday said its global biologics research and development arm, MedImmune, has agreed to buy privately-held Definiens, which would strengthen MedImmune's focus on the discovery of novel predictive biomarkers in immuno-oncology.

Definiens is into imaging and data analysis technology, known as Tissue Phenomics, which dramatically improves the identification of biomarkers in tumour tissue.

Business accelerator DreamIt Health Baltimore plans to lay roots in the Inner Harbor.

DreamIt Health Baltimore is negotiating a lease as it prepares to welcome its second class of entrepreneurs in 2015. The accelerator, which is run by Philadelphia-area DreamIt Ventures, operated out of spare office space at a Johns Hopkins building in Fells Point this year. Managing Director Jason Hardebeck hopes to finalize a deal for between 5,000 square feet and 6,000 square feet of space in the coming weeks.

Nominations are being accepted for the 2015 FLC Laboratory Director of the Year Awards. Sponsored by the FLC National Advisory Council, this award honors Laboratory Directors who have made maximum contributions to the overall enhancement of technology transfer for economic development. Accomplishments related to the transfer of technology from the federal laboratory to industry—including support of FLC activities, internal accomplishments, industry involvement, and community service—are the primary criteria for the award.

The San Francisco-based digital health accelerator Rock Health has raised a large third round of funding and says it will boost its investments in new portfolio companies to (up to) $250,000 each.

The new funding round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Kaiser Permanente Ventures, with participation from KPCB, Mayo Clinic, Montreux Equity Partners, and Great Oaks Ventures.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014 | 6:00-8:30 p.m.

Silver Spring Civic Center-One Veterans Plaza
GPS Address: 8525 Fenton Street, Silver Spring

Meet Israeli entrepreneurs working in Maryland and Maryland companies trading with Israel at the MIDC’s fourth annual Showcase of Maryland/Israel Business.
Featuring keynote speaker, Jeremy Bash,Founder and Managing Director, Beacon Global Strategies and former Chief of Staff, Department of Defense and CIA

Every once and a while you get a reminder that lives are literally at stake in some R&D partnerships. Last Wednesday was one of those days. I was privileged to moderate a panel for the Congressional Technology Transfer Caucus on innovative partnerships fostered by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) the newest center/institute at the National Institutes of Health. It was anything but a run of the mill tech transfer session.

We often hear that $2 billion to $5 billion are required to commercialize a new drug, with 14 years or more required for development and a 95% chance of failure. Less well known is that for thousands of serious diseases plaguing humanity only about 500 have FDA approved treatments available. Stark as that seems it’s downright cheery compared to rare or neglected diseases. Of more than 6,500 such ailments only 250 have treatments. While these may be “rare” diseases for many of us, to millions of our friends, families and neighbors each morning brings another day of suffering desperately hoping that someone, somewhere is working on a cure.

American Tap Room - 36 Maryland Ave Rockville, MD 20850

Join BioBuzz and our sponsor CRB for another great BioBuzz networking event on November 19th from 5:00 - 7:30 p.m. @ American Tap Room in Rockville, MD. This location is a short walk from the Metro located in the Rockville Town Center.      

CRB is a global consulting, design and construction services firm that relentlessly pursues and delivers success for their clients in advanced science and technology industries. 2014 marks CRB's 30th year in which they have grown from a single three-person office, to a team of 600+ in 12 offices serving clients throughout the world with Rockville, MD being their latest expansion.

Johns Hopkins engineers have invented a lab device to give cancer researchers an unprecedented microscopic look at metastasis, the complex way that tumor cells spread through the body, causing more than 90 percent of cancer-related deaths. By shedding light on precisely how tumor cells travel, the device could uncover new ways to keep cancer in check.

The inventors, from the university's Whiting School of Engineering and its Institute for NanoBioTechnology, published details and images from their new system recently in the journal Cancer Research. Their article reported on successful tests that captured video of human breast cancer cells as they burrowed through reconstituted body tissue material and made their way into an artificial blood vessel.