Bedsores, diabetic ulcers and other chronic wounds cost the U.S. health care system $30 billion a year. Why? At least in part because the primary tool doctors and nurses use to track wounds is a basic ruler.

A ruler can measure the size of a wound, but does little to track other important qualities, such as changes in shape and tissue color. Consider that patients are usually cared for by a rotating team of nurses, who may each interpret a wound's appearance differently, and it's easier to see how so much money is spent tending to preventable (or at least treatable) conditions.

Recent efforts between the University of Maryland (UMD) and Bethesda-based Weinberg Medical Physics LLC (WMP) have led to a new technique to magnetically deliver drug-carrying particles to hard-to-reach targets. The method has the potential to transform the way deep-tissue tumors and other diseases are treated.

Pieris AG announced today the initiation of a Phase I clinical trial with PRS-080, an anti-hepcidin Anticalin® therapeutic protein designed to treat anemia. The trial is a placebo-controlled, single ascending dose evaluation of the compound's safety and tolerability in healthy volunteers. Conducted in Germany, the trial is underway and patients from the first cohort have been dosed.

When it comes to the biggest investors in Research and Development (R&D) Swiss pharma top dogs Novartis and Roche have defended their positioning among the top ten companies worldwide – according to a recently published EU study.

The University of Maryland is now integrating the Lean LaunchPad® into standard innovation and entrepreneurship courses across all 12 colleges within the University. Over 44 classes have embedded the business model canvas and/or Customer Discovery including a year-long course taken by every single one of its bioengineering majors.

Aris Melissaratos is batting around the idea of making Stevenson University's Maryland Rising economic development forum an annual event.

Can you blame him? The first conference, held Monday, drew big-name speakers and generated a buzz other economic development confabs probably envy.

Hospitals are on the hunt for new ideas to transform health care, and some are looking to reality television for inspiration.

Several health care institutions recently have tested TV’s “Shark Tank” approach to seeking out innovation — gathering a panel of pros to hear invention ideas from startups.

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:

• Request for Comments on the Draft NIH Policy on the Use of a Single Institutional Review Board for Multi-Site Research
• (NOT-OD-15-026) Office of the Director, NIH
• Reminder for the Extramural Scientific Community: Implementation of the Genomic Data Sharing Policy Begins January 25, 2015
• (NOT-OD-15-027) Office of the Director, NIH
• Notice of Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare Policy on Shared Animal Welfare Concerns
• (NOT-OD-15-028) Office of the Director, NIH
• NIH Modification to Guidance on Marking Changes in Resubmission Applications
• (NOT-OD-15-030) Office of the Director, NIH
• Update: New Biographical Sketch Format Required for NIH and AHRQ Grant Applications Submitted for Due Dates on or After May 25, 2015
• (NOT-OD-15-032) Office of the Director, NIH
• Notice of NHGRI Participation in PA-14-015 "Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Institutional Research Training Grants (Parent T32)" and Establishment of New Training Program in the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of Genetic and Genomic Research
• (NOT-HG-15-004)
• National Human Genome Research Institute
• Notice of Additional Due Date and Correction for RFA-HG-14-005 "Revisions to Add Biomedical Big Data Training to Active Institutional Training Grants (T32)"
• (NOT-HG-15-009)
• National Human Genome Research Institute
• Notice of Change to Instructions for Senior/Key Personnel in the Overall and Project Components of PAR-13-316 "NHLBI Program Project Applications (P01)" 
• (NOT-HL-14-242)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Request for Information (RFI): Challenges and Opportunities for Exploring and Understanding the Epitranscriptome
• (NOT-RM-15-007)
• NIH Roadmap Initiatives

Requests for Applications:

• Human Cellular Models for Predicting Individual Responses to Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator- Directed Therapeutics (R41)
• (RFA-HL-15-026)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Application Receipt Date(s): February 9, 2015 and November 9, 2015
• Human Cellular Models for Predicting Individual Responses to Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator- Directed Therapeutics (R43/R44)
• (RFA-HL-15-027)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Application Receipt Date(s): February 9, 2015; November 9, 2015; and November 9, 2016

Sometime soon a slender robot that looks like Casper the ghost and works like Skype on wheels may visit the bedside of an Ebola patient in West Africa, as a doctor nearby instantly transmits data to other researchers over a portable Wi-Fi network.

This source of strategic partnership offers a synergistic relationship that combines monetary and functional resources, capabilities, and core competencies for the purpose of technology commercialization. Entrepreneurs who are looking to accelerate the growth of their businesses often realize they can capture a greater bang for their buck when they collaborate with CVCs who offer value beyond the dollar.

Louis Brandeis famously characterized states as laboratories for democracy, but cities could be called labs for innovation or new practices. With far fewer resources than states or the federal government and responsibilities to people on a daily basis, cities have to be scrappy and creative when it comes to delivering services and running their operations.

California has been associated with risk-taking, entrepreneurship and innovation since the Gold Rush. Today, California is still an innovation engine in such varied sectors as agriculture and the Internet. But only one homegrown industry can stake a claim as a leading contributor to our state’s economy and the health of people around the world: the life sciences sector.

Falls Church-based Northrop Grumman Corp. has named Kenneth Bedingfield as its next chief financial officer.

Bedingfield will succeed James Palmer, who retires next year.

A flood of new health care IT companies has been pouring into the U.S. health care market. The cause of this torrent: the recognition that as market and regulatory forces alter incentives in health care, IT companies will play a powerful role in combating the overemployment and declining productivity that has plagued this industry and in helping providers improve the quality of care.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has for the fourth consecutive time been ranked No 1 among global pharmaceutical companies assessed for their efforts to improve access to medicine in developing countries.

Released on 17th November by the Access to Medicine Foundation, the 2014 Access to Medicine (ATM) Index gives GSK a composite score of 3.3 out of a possible 5, following an in-depth evaluation of company activities in seven areas that are germane to enhancing access to medicine in developing countries.

How do you turn a genetic disorder into a money-making empire? Grumpy Cat has done it, but is it only acceptable because she is a funny looking feline instead of a human?

Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services welcomed its third group of “entrepreneurs-in-residence” — mainly private-sector tech experts and start-up founders who are spending a year advising the agency on its health IT projects.

AstraZeneca became the latest biotechnology company to expand its manufacturing operations in Maryland when the British drugmaker announced plans last month to enlarge a production facility and add 300 workers in Frederick.

Pieris AG has achieved the fourth milestone payment for its lead Anticalin® program with Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited (hereinafter Daiichi Sankyo; headquartered in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, TSE 4568), triggering an undisclosed payment, the company announced today. This milestone marks in total the sixth milestone achieved for the parties' two R&D collaborative projects. Specifically, the milestone was the decision by Daiichi Sankyo to initiate a GLP toxicity study in non-human primates. In 2013, Pieris transferred the program to Daiichi Sankyo, which is responsible for further development of the program.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE:4502) today announced its global oncology business unit, headquartered in Cambridge, MA, will be called Takeda Oncology. The creation of Takeda Oncology will improve the company’s ability to meet the unique and urgent needs of cancer patients, their loved ones and health care providers worldwide. Takeda will sustain its long-standing entrepreneurial approach to oncology research and development while expanding its global commercial network and resources as Takeda Oncology. Takeda is retiring the Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company brand, and replacing it with Takeda Oncology to reflect the new global oncology business unit.

Blueprint Health has formed an interdisciplinary group inside and outside of healthcare to develop and assess new healthcare technologies earlier in an effort to reduce risk and to better predict the ROI of solutions earlier, according to a company statement. The Blueprint Health Collective will be totally separate from its New York City-based accelerator.

Steve Silverman resigned this week as the director of the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development.

County spokesman Patrick Lacefield said Silverman, who has served in the role since 2009, left the post to purse a job in the private sector.

Governor Terry McAuliffe on Thursday announced a Virginia Bioscience Initiative, kicking off the effort with a public and private sector roundtable discussion on the commercialization of university bioscience research at the State Capitol.  University representatives and bio industry leaders joined the Governor, members of his administration and renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Dr. Robert S. Langer for this discussion.

Canadian researchers have developed “smart textiles” able to monitor and transmit wearers’ biomedical information via wireless or cellular network by superimposing multiple layers of copper, polymers, glass, and silver.

GI View out of Ramat Gan, Israel finally won FDA clearance to introduce to the U.S. market its self-propelled single-use Aer-O-Scope colonoscope. This device originally appeared on our radar almost a decade ago, but the regulatory road seems to have been rocky for GI View, and the company expects it will be at least another year before it begins introducing the Aer-O-Scope to the U.S. market.

I was asked by the U.S.-UK Fulbright Commission to give a series of lectures in the United Kingdom in 2013 on the topic of diplomacy. This was surprising, as I am even marginally competent in only one domain of diplomacy—the forms of international relations that involve nations working together in fields of medical science and health. So I proposed to address the question of what accounted for the success—despite inherent difficulties and adverse circumstances—of three important and ambitious international initiatives in medicine and related science undertaken by the United States.

Tom Telford ’s stomach ached. The New York City teacher had been drinking cup after cup of coffee as he labored to finish year-end grading and coach his high-school baseball team through the playoffs. He worried he might have an ulcer.

Health startup founders have one more day to get their applications in to be a part of DreamIt Health’s second Baltimore cohort.

The deadline is Friday for the new group of health startups. Get to it.

BioCity, the Bioscience incubation specialist with locations in the East Midlands (BioCity and Medicity in Nottingham), the North West (BioHub at Alderley Park) and Scotland (BioCity Scotland at Newhouse), has announced a new investment fund, created following a significant contribution by AstraZeneca.

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Holdings (NASDAQ:RHHBY) recently announced the acquisition of Ariosa Diagnostics, which makes non-invasive prenatal testing equipment. The terms of the deal were not disclosed by Roche in its press release. According to WHO, there are over 200 million pregnancies worldwide annually and prenatal testing to detect Down syndrome is gaining strong traction.

Entrepreneurs on college campuses got another boost Thursday with Boston-area Xfund closing a $100 million fund to bankroll new ideas and support startups it’s backed so far.

The recent bumpy landing of Philae on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after a ten year journey, and more than 1.4 billion euros in investment, is a fantastic example of European science, expertise and collaboration at work.

Biopharmaceuticals are among the most sophisticated and elegant achievements of modern science. The huge, complex structures of these drugs don’t just look extraordinary in the 3-D modeling systems used to design them; they also perform their jobs remarkably well, offering high efficacy and few side effects. And there is much more to come: existing treatment archetypes are evolving and becoming more sophisticated all the time, and continuing research is yielding entirely new types of products.

Learn How to Get Seed Funding Investment for Your Business from the Government! Featuring SBIR program managers from leading Federal agencies invited including DOD, NIH, NCI, and Homeland Security plus case studies from experienced SBIR recipients and much more! Network with the SBIR program managers during an Expo and meet other business owners.

This event is generously supported by Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County; Maryland Technology Development Corporation; BioHealth Innovation; and the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development.

Eyeing the biotech IPO boom earlier this year, Ariosa Diagnostics planned to go public as it battled larger competitors in the prenatal testing field. But the San Jose, CA-based company backed off in late April, and that was its last chance. Multinational healthcare firm Roche has bought Ariosa for an undisclosed amount, the companies announced today.