Curator: Stephen J. Williams, Ph.D

I am intending to do a series of posts highlighting interviews with Philadelphia area biotech startup CEO’s and show how a vibrant biotech startup scene is evolving in the city as well as the Delaware Valley area. Philadelphia has been home to some of the nation’s oldest biotechs including Cephalon, Centocor, hundreds of spinouts from a multitude of universities as well as home of the first cloned animal (a frog), the first transgenic mouse, and Nobel laureates in the field of molecular biology and genetics. Although some recent disheartening news about the fall in rankings of Philadelphia as a biotech hub and recent remarks by CEO’s of former area companies has dominated the news, biotech incubators like the University City Science Center and Bucks County Biotechnology Center as well as a reinvigorated investment community (like PCCI and MABA) are bringing Philadelphia back.

Campus Technology is looking for innovative colleges and universities that have deployed unique technology solutions to campus challenges.

Nominations are now open for our tenth annual Campus Technology Innovators Awards, recognizing institutions, technology project leaders and vendor partners that have used technology in new ways to support teaching, learning, administration and operations. The deadline for entries is Feb. 17.

Health Canada has accepted US-based Sucampo Pharmaceuticals' New Drug Submission (NDS) for Amitiza (lubiprostone), 24mcg capsules, to treat chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC) in adults and opioid-induced constipation (OIC) in adults with chronic non-cancer pain.

The pharmaceutical giant Roche has paid an undisclosed price to acquire Bina Technologies, a bioinformatics company. The move sees Roche expand further into the life sciences sector.

For obvious reasons, hospitals are a hotspot for germ exposure, which can increase the risk of infection for those making a visit by up to 10 percent, according to a recent study. What might be surprising though, is that researchers found more bacteria colonization on the hospital elevator buttons than even on the facility’s toilets.

Imagine, a quick pinprick on the sidelines of a football game that could tell athletes whether they’ve concussed. Arizona startup BioDirection is developing a point-of-care device that diagnoses minor brain injury quickly – in 60 to 90 seconds – with just a single drop of blood.

Two-thirds of a wide variety of cancer kinds are largely rooted in undesirable genetic luck and not simply the benefits of traits passed down from parents or risk components like smoking or diet program, according to a new study. Random mutations in DNA are largely accountable for the majority of cancers in humans, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

On Thursday, January 15, 2015 from 4-6:30 pm there will be an open house for the spring courses in the "Advanced Studies in Technology Transfer" program at the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES) Graduate School at NIH in the new Classroom & Bookstore complex in NIH Building 10 / B1 level.  For the semester beginning on January 26, 2015 there will be 14 courses offered with details available in the new 2014-15 course catalog ( www.faes.org ). The Advanced Studies in Technology Transfer is an open enrollment program with class credits transferable into various university MBA & MS degree programs. The technology transfer classes will be held at the offices of the NIH Office of Technology Transfer in Rockville as well as the NIH main campus in Bethesda.

U.S. drug approvals in 2014 hit their highest level in 18 years and recommendations in Europe also came at a rapid rate, driven by expensive new treatments for cancer and rare diseases.

United Therapeutics Corporation (NASDAQ: UTHR) announced today the signing of an agreement with DEKA Research & Development Corp. for the development of a potential technology breakthrough in the subcutaneous delivery of Remodulin® (treprostinil) Injection to patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) via a pre-filled semi-disposable pump system.  

U.S. News & World Report is pleased to announce the 2014 STEM Leadership Hall of Fame, honored during the U.S. News STEM Solutions conference. In choosing the honorees, U.S. News sought out leaders who, among other things, have achieved measurable results in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields; challenged established processes and conventional wisdom; inspired a shared vision; and motivated legions of aspiring STEM professionals.

Outgoing D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray gave the city's tech scene some love as one of his final acts, signing a somewhat controversial tax cut into law. The capital gains tax on returns from investments in certain tech companies was lowered to 3 percent.

Here are a few thoughts on the cut from techs I spoke with...

Governmental agencies face a wide spectrum of challenges in creating mHealth apps, ranging from a changing development culture to potential litigious issues, revealed a new report published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.     

Anne Arundel County's economic development chief took to LinkedIn in search of a new executive director of the Chesapeake Innovation Center — and he's dangling a big carrot.

Robert L. Hannon, president and CEO of Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp., is spreading the word that he's looking for an executive director for the agency's technology incubator who has a background in small-business/technology development, technology commercialization, entrepreneurship and five years professional work experience. The position's salary will range from $110,000 to $130,000, with an estimated benefits

Last spring Laura Murphy, then 28 years old, went to a doctor to find out if a harmless flap of skin she had always had on the back of her neck was caused by a genetic mutation. Once upon a time, maybe five years ago, physicians would have focused on just that one question. But today doctors tend to run tests that pick up mutations underlying a range of hereditary conditions. Murphy learned not only that a genetic defect was indeed responsible for the flap but also that she had another inherited genetic mutation.

The CMS Innovation Center paid $2.6 billion through September to hospitals, doctors and others through nearly two dozen programs that tested new ways to deliver healthcare and pay for it.

SHUTTLE Pharmaceuticals, a privately held company, today announced it has been awarded a fast-track Phase I/II contract #HHSN261201400013C by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The $ 1.62 million contract will fund the initial development of IPdR (5-iodo-2-pyrimidinone-2-deoxyribose), a prodrug of the radiation sensitizer IUdR (5-iodo-2-deoxyuridine). The contract is to determine the scientific merit, feasibility and potential for commercialization of oral IPdR for use as a radiation sensitizer for the treatment of rectal cancers. The NIH contract provides funds to cover a portion of the costs for initiating a Phase I trial in GI cancers and development of companion diagnostics for analyzing clinical specimens from Phase I patients.

Ah, the elevator pitch. A favorite tool of the networking masses. A rite of passage of sorts. You’ve heard the scenario: you step into an elevator and go up one floor. The elevator doors open and in walks the client of your dreams. They start some small talk and ask, “What do you do?” and you’ve got the rest of the elevator ride to respond. How do you answer that in 20 seconds in such a way that gets them interested? The answer is simple. You need an elevator pitch for your elevator pitch.

Roche Holding AG said US health regulators have approved its Ebola test for emergency use in response to the world's worst outbreak of the disease in West Africa.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Roche’s LightMix Ebola Zaire rRT-PCR Test for use on patients with signs and symptoms of Ebola Zaire virus infection, the Swiss drugmaker said in a statement.

In 2014, wearable health tracking devices continued to get more creative, going far beyond simple fitness tracking. The K-Goal, a "Fitbit for your vagina," promised to help women do kegel exercises correctly, while the Emotiv EEG headset offered the prospect of mental acuity, measured by a device that tracks the brain's concentration.

The year in biotechnology began with a landmark event. A decade after the first human genome was decoded at a cost of about $3 billion, the sequencing-machine company Illumina, of San Diego, introduced a new model, the Hyseq X-10, that can do it for around $1,000 per genome.

A new business incubator in Baltimore's Inner Harbor will cater to startup companies launched through universities.

The Institute of Marine & Environmental Technology in January is opening a 4,300-square-foot incubator in its offices at the Christopher Columbus Center in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

Medical technology developer Medtronic, Inc. recently completed an application submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the pre-market approval of their SynchroMed II implantable drug infusion system, which includes a new catheter design. The system is intended to be used by pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients for the intravenous delivery of the drug Remodulin (treprostinil), which is being developed by the United Therapeutics Corporation.

Here are my 10 crucial pieces of advice for students who aspire to a career in pharmaceutical labs:

1. You need a solid foundation in science. Master the basics, and learn how to apply that knowledge.

Biotechnology will have a strong year in 2015, but it can’t get any better than 2014, biotech investor G. Steven Burrill says in his annual year-end report.

“The unprecedented IPO (initial public offering) and M&A (mergers and acquisitions) activity this year will make 2014 one for the record books and unlikely to ever be surpassed,” Burrill said.

Faced with diminishing returns on R&D investments, large pharmaceutical companies are searching for innovative ways to successfully identify, develop, and market products with financial viability. Yet small discovery companies and biotechs continue to outpace large pharma in the approval of NMEs (new molecular entities).

Rampaging animal spirits have given birth to a biotechnology unicorn. It's apt that a stellar year for initial public offerings in the sector will be capped by its biggest float ever. Juno Therapeutics is a year old and revenue free, but its cancer fighting technology is hot. At nearly a $2 billion valuation, the company shows capitalism's ability to catalyze investors' hopes and resources.

Whether a startup makes or breaks depends on if you have the right people on the team. How can you know? During my start-up journey as an early employee of an online education startup, co-founder of a social enterprise, and sole founder of my health technology company, ClickMedix, I've been through and witnessed the birth, growth, decline, and eventual end of startups.

Marriott International Inc. is launching a restaurant incubator competition, hoping to tap the world's growing cadre of food and beverage entrepreneurs to bring a new level of cool to its hotels.

The Bethesda hotel giant bills the competition, called Canvas, as a "global concept lab for food and beverage ideas." The winners will get up to $50,000 each and six months to operate and prove their concepts.

In a world’s first, a double-amputee, with arms missing at shoulder level, received two prostheses, each of which he is able to control intuitively with his mind and manipulate different joints to control a total of 30 degrees of motion.

The system installed at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory relies on surgically connecting electrodes to existing nerves that used to lead to the different part of the arm and hand.

Researchers at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia have shown for the first time that gold nanorods can effectively stop the growth of cervical cancer cells. The laboratory study of attaching the nanorods to their cell receptors used the famous HeLa cell lines as a cervical cancer model.

The iGrow Hair Growth System from Apira Science (Boca Raton, FL) received the FDA green light for over-the-counter sale for women with Fitzpatrick skin phototypes I to IV and with Ludwig Baldness Scale Classifications of I to II.

The helmet, which includes a pair of headphones for listening to music or podcasts from your tablet or smartphone during at-home treatment, delivers red light to the scalp using lasers and light emitting diodes. The company terms this Low-Level Light Therapy (LLLT) and the system requires use for four to six months to get complete results.

England's publicly funded healthcare system, the National Health Service (NHS), announced 11 new Genomics Medicine Centres Monday, as part of a new DNA scheme that aims to tackle cancer and rare diseases.

Amgen Inc. announced an agreement Monday to become a sponsor of LabCentral, a biotech incubator in Cambridge, Mass.

The Thousand Oaks pharmaceutical company can nominate up to two biotech startups a year for residence in LabCentral’s facilities. The lab has 28,000 square feet and can house 28 early stage companies. Other sponsors of the project include Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, MIT and Johnson & Johnson Innovation.