On September 14, 2007, Lorenz Diesbergen, age 44, stepped off a commuter train in downtown Chicago and began his daily walk to work in the Chicago Loop. As he crossed the bridge over the Chicago River, his heart’s normal rhythm suddenly deteriorated into an uncoordinated frenzy of useless fibrillations. He may have managed a few more steps—we don’t know—before he pitched forward and fell face-first onto the sidewalk.  Paramedics were on the scene within minutes, but efforts at resuscitation proved futile. He left behind a wife and four children.

Venture capital (VC) funding for the Life Sciences sector, which includes Biotechnology and Medical Devices, reached $2.5 billion in 195 deals for the second quarter of 2014, according to a new report, "Biotech soars to record high," which includes data from the MoneyTree™ Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) LLP and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), based on data provided by Thomson Reuters. While this quarter was the highest Life Sciences investment since the second quarter 2007, it was also the strongest second quarter since 1995, which is the earliest data recorded by the MoneyTree.

Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur, author and professor at Stanford University, developed the curriculum for the National Science foundation’s business boot camp for scientists before the NIH adopted it for scientists in the SBIR grant program. At a fireside chat at New York University Langone Medical Center hosted by NYC Bio this week, Blank talked about a new investment group called M34 Capital that will invest in technologies seeded by federally funded research, particularly graduates of I-Corps boot camps.

Led by CEO Errol Arkilic, founding and lead program director for the NSF I-Corps program, the Berkeley-based company was co-founded by Arkilic, Blank, Jim Hornthal, and Tom Baruch, according to its website. Its seed investment spans from $50,000 to $250,000. “We want to be the first external capital invested, and work closely with the founding team to help refine their business model and create the framework to systematically demonstrate its full potential,” according to the website. “We believe that the best entrepreneurs have the ability to blend technical insight with market-based feedback, allowing their innovations to mature into a successful company.”

Bayer HealthCare appears to be the first pharmaceutical company that started its own accelerator. The company that made €18.924 million in turnover in 2013 “understands that innovation and healthcare cannot only be driven by the industry but also needs creativity.” This was announced by Christian Ullrich, Head of Marketing & Sales IT at Bayer HealthCare yesterday.

Bayer has partnered with universities and smaller companies before and started Grants4Apps, a crowdsourcing initiative last year. This year, it was turned into an accelerator.

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.

Tue, Sep 9, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Hosted by NHLBI

In this Hangout, we will discuss the basic concepts of medical device regulation in the U.S., what is considered significant risk versus non-significant risk, and how the level of risk factors into the regulation of new product development.

Howard University Hospital will receive $11 million in federal grants toward developing new therapeutics for the Ebola virus, Howard officials said.

At least $2 million from the National Institutes of Health will go toward developing a new drug to target a particular protein of the Ebola virus. As well, $2 million will go toward work at the hospital researching HIV resistance in people with sickle cell disease, officials said.

With a massive influx of new funding, Frederick pharmaceutical company Vaccinogen Inc. is preparing to make big moves that leaders hope will put it on the map.

Vaccinogen announced Aug. 25 it had secured $80 million in funding from Stockholm investors and closed the first $10 million tranche of the funding. The funding will support late-stage clinical studies needed to make Vaccinogen’s OncoVAX commercially available. The drug is designed to reduce recurrence of colon cancer.

BHC Center of Financial & Investment Business (“BHC”), an Atlanta based affiliate of Bao Hao Investment Management Co., Ltd. of Shanghai, has announced the first of what it expects to be several equity investments in 20/20 GeneSystems, Inc. (“20/20”). In making the investment BHC is seeking to help advance the introduction in China of 20/20’s blood test for the early detection of lung cancer (see www.BloodTestforLungCancer.com).

20/20 currently produces and markets this innovative blood test for the early detection of lung cancer in the United States. Primary care physicians employ the blood test to help detect lung cancer in patients who are smokers and former smokers. It is known as “PAULAs test.”

Date: September 18 - 19, 2014

Location: Baltimore, MD

This highly interactive course lets participants work in small teams to help understand the complexity of strategic planning and its challenges. Economic developers must build consensus among board members, stakeholders and the community as a whole, creating a unified vision for the future. Learn techniques to build consensus among stakeholders who represent different values and interests. Also, participants will learn the quantitative techniques used to better understand their community including: location quotients, shift share, input-output and cluster analyses. Explore project assessment methods for setting priorities and measuring your plan's impact.

Get on the Bus!

Are you an entrepreneur ready to pitch your company? Register for your chance to film a 3-minute video pitch that will be seen online by VC, angel investors and voted on by fans around Maryland!

The Montgomery County Department of Economic Development and the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce are hosting two Pitch Across Maryland stops in Montgomery County on Wednesday, October 1. Learn More Want to get on the bus and film your pitch? Apply Here.

The Montgomery County application deadline is Monday, September 15.

ATCC, the premier global biological materials resource and standards organization, and bioMérieux, a world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics, announced today their collaboration to expand and solidify the bioMérieux VITEK® MS microbial identification database for the industrial market. Recently, ATCC acquired the bioMérieux VITEK® MS system to make this innovative MALDI TOF technology a fundamental component of their authentication and quality control processes.

Strengthening the database with additional strains continues to increase the robustness of the VITEK® MS micro-organisms library while increasing the size and enhancing the utility for customers as a solid quality assurance tool.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014 from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM (EST)

The 7th Annual Maryland Stem Cell Research Symposium, hosted by the Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission and Montgomery County will be held on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 at the Silver Spring Civic Center, Silver Spring MD. The Symposium is the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund premier event that delivers comprehensive scientific talks, poster presentations, and networking time, enabling cell therapy basic research and technologies from the lab to pre-clinical and to commercialization. With a powerful line-up of speakers and many opportunities for you to present your work in concurrent or poster presentations, the Symposium will follow the format and style of previous meetings with additional networking time and an intimate environment.

Abstract Submission:

The Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund (MSCRF) is now accepting abstract submissions for poster and oral presentations for the 7th Annual Maryland Stem Cell Research Symposium. We encourage you to take full advantage of this opportunity to share your research results with our community. Multiple abstract submissions are welcomed.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Please Click Here to submit your abstract today!

Roche has just announced the acquisition of the U.S. biotech company InterMune for $8.3 billion. The driver for Roche was to gain access to InterMune’s drug, pirfenidone (trade name, Esbriet), which is already approved in Canada and Europe for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). IPF is a deadly lung-scarring disease which affects 50,000 – 70,000 people in the U.S. and 80,000 to 110,000 in Europe. While still under review by U.S. regulatory authorities, Roche’s acquisition signals its belief that pirfenidone will also gain U.S. approval. How big a product can pirfenidone be? Consensus forecasts compiled by Thomson Reuters Pharma peg annual sales at greater than $1 billion in 2019 – a nice addition to Roche’s stable of pulmonary compounds including Xolair (asthma) and Pulmozyme (cystic fibrosis).

Roche Holding AG said Sunday it would pay $8.3 billion for a California biotech firm that has yet to turn a profit on a new drug to treat a deadly lung disease—the latest gamble by a pharmaceutical giant to buy its way into a lucrative corner of the industry.

The takeover would allow the Swiss company to expand its presence in the treatment of respiratory disorders, one of the world's biggest drug markets. Roche's offer of $74 a share represents a 38% premium over InterMune's closing share price on Friday of $53.80, and a 63% premium before takeover speculation surrounding the biotech started circulating this month.

The interest in using health IT tools as a way to improve healthcare delivery and efficiency has produced many rapidly growing healthcare companies, many of which can trace their origins within one or two years of Obamacare’s passage. These companies have reached a stage of their development to accelerate growth and that has coincided with a readiness by healthcare providers and payers to adopt or ramp up their technology.

With a nod to the top healthcare company on Inc’s 5,000 Fastest Growing Companies, molecular diagnostic companies with smartphone-enabled technology have also become more attractive as investment and acquisition targets.

The 2014 Steering Committee of the Montgomery County Executive Hispanic Gala (MCEHG) announces the first of three awards to be presented during the gala celebration on September 18, 2014 to take place at The Fillmore Silver Spring. 

University of Maryland President, Dr. Wallace D. Loh, will be the 2014 recipient of the “Advocate of the Year Award”.

The Daily Record announced Thursday its 2014 Innovators of the Year, celebrating Marylanders and Maryland-based companies for their innovative spirit.

Twenty-eight innovators will be celebrated during the awards event on Oct. 15 at the American Visionary Art Museum, at 800 Key Highway in Baltimore.

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:

NIH Guide Notice:

Updated Forms and Instruction Clarification for Re-entry (PA-12-150) and Diversity (PA-12-149) Administrative Supplements
(NOT-OD-14-118) National Institutes of Health

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program Contract Solicitation (PHS 2015-1) Now Available
(NOT-OD-14-120) Office of the Director, NIH

Notice of Participation of NLM in PAR-13-357 "Pre-application: Opportunities for Collaborative Research at the NIH Clinical Center (X02)"
(NOT-LM-14-003)
National Library of Medicine

Requests for Applications:

Multi-Site Clinical Trials for the Pulmonary Trials Cooperative (PTC) (U01)
(RFA-HL-15-015)
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Application Receipt Date(s): October 20, 2014

Network Management Core (NEMO) for the Pulmonary Trials Cooperative (PTC) (U01)
(RFA-HL-15-016)
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Application Receipt Date(s): October 20, 2014\

Program Announcements:

Administrative Supplements for Tobacco Regulatory Research on the Role and Impact of Flavors in Cigarettes, Cigars, E-Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco (Admin Supp)
(PA-14-320)
Office of the Director, NIH
National Cancer Institute
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
National Institute on Drug Abuse
Office of Disease Prevention
Application Receipt/Submission Date(s): Multiple dates, see announcement.

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.

In July, alongside the ÜberResearch team, we launched a Twitter competition open to PhD students. The task was to tweet how you would spend £10 million of science funding using the hashtag #uberresearchprize. 

We had hundreds of tweets and the top three, as voted by our judging panel, were then invited to write a blog post, delving into their original tweet. Over the next few days we will publish the top three blog posts here on our blog, announcing the winner on Monday 25th August. 

The Maryland Technology Development Corp. is launching a new investment fund dedicated to cyber security.

The fund will make investments of up to $100,000 in companies that are developing and commercializing new cyber security projects.

JMI Equity closed a $1 billion growth equity fund targeted at investing in software companies and services companies, it announced Wednesday.

The fund is the largest raised by JMI, a private equity firm operating out of offices in Baltimore and San Diego. The firm has raised more than $3.1 billion in committed capital since its founding in 1992. The largest fund JMI previously closed on was an $875 million fund completed in November 2010.

DATE: September 10, 2014 - 3:30 - 5:00 PM

LOCATION: Germantown Innovation Center, 20271 Goldenrod Lane, 2nd Floor, Germantown, MD 20874

As a federal agency, the Department of Energy is creative and innovative. Unlike other federal laboratories, each contractor-operated laboratory manages its own tech transfer agreements. Learn how to navigate these various opportunities and identify the best way to gain access to the technologies and partnerships to enhance your companies growth.

David E. Koegel
David Koegel is the senior technoogy transfer advisor in the Office of Science (SC) at the Department of Energy. A member of the Department's Technology Transfer Policy Board, his experience in technology transfer goes back to the early 90's when he was the Office's Program Manager for American Textile partnership in the Laboratory Technology Transfer Program, a technology transfer collaboration among members of the integrated textile industry, the DOE national laboratories, a number of universities, and several research/education/technology transfer organizations. A member of the National Advisory Council of the Federal Laboratory Consortium, David has been the Department's representative to the FLC for many years, as well as their representative to the federal Interagency Working Group on Technology Transfer. One of his significant duties involves the annual appraisal of the ten Office of Science national laboratories and is the primary point of contact for the various programs and organizations that use the laboratories' personnel and facilities. Previously, he had been the Department's Senior Technology Analyst in the SBIR/STTR Program, the Office of Science Small Business Program Manager, as well as the Program Manager for the Advanced Energy Projects program.

David joined the Department after spending several years at the Pentagon in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Research, Development, and Acquisition, most notably during Desert Shield/Desert Storm, acting as a liaison to the Army's laboratory system. Prior to this, he conducted research at the Army's Night Vision Laboratory using metal organic chemical vapor deposition for the development of advanced infrared imaging devices.

David earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and an M.S. in Materials Science Engineering.

Location: MD, Gaithersburg - Corporate Headquarters

This will be a highly visible position dedicated to ensuring MedImmune further builds its collaboration efforts with governments, universities and non-profit organizations. The primary objective of this role will be to further entrench MedImmune in key biotech clusters to gain access to leading science and technology, enhance MedImmune's reputation and create operational flexibility. The role will entail scouting for cross-therapeutic scientific collaboration opportunities, negotiating deals, working closely with internal scientists, event planning and strategic planning and analysis.

MorphoSys AG (MOR) MPSYY,  and Emergent BioSolutions Inc. EBS,  today announced an agreement for the joint development and commercialization of ES414. The compound, to be renamed MOR209/ES414, is an anti-PSMA/anti-CD3 bi-specific antibody targeting prostate cancer, which was developed by Emergent using its proprietary ADAPTIRTM (modular protein technology) platform. Preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies have shown that MOR209/ES414 redirects T-cell cytotoxicity towards prostate cancer cells expressing Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA), an antigen commonly found on such cells.

When you think of tech companies, incubators or startups, South Carolina is still probably one of the last places that comes to mind. But with its new Office of Economic Engagement, which launched in the summer of last year, and a steadily growing incubator program, the University of South Carolina is working to change any misconceptions about tech startups not meshing well with the Palmetto State.

Just last week, USC’s Technology incubator held a graduation ceremony for seven companies that were ready to transition into the larger business community.

An invasive species has been introduced into the U.S. health innovation ecosystem, with a growing danger of permanent damage to the development of specialty drugs. The relentless assault on the price of Sovaldi is becoming a threat to the 30-year political balance that has energized the biomedical revolution.

Sovaldi is the kind of medicine that the drug scolds claim to want—a true scientific advance with a near-perfect cure rate for Hepatitis C, the liver-destroying virus that infects one of every 100 Americans and some 150 million world-wide. The old critique was that pharmaceutical discovery had stalled and the industry produced only me-too drugs. Now they attack Sovaldi because its price is $84,000 a patient.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded 36 Early Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) to enable new technologies to better understand how complex behaviors emerge from the activity of brain circuits.

These awards will contribute to NSF's growing portfolio of investments in support of President Obama's BRAIN Initiative, a multi-agency research effort that seeks to accelerate the development of new neurotechnologies that promise to help researchers answer fundamental questions about how the brain works.

A team of Biomedical Engineering undergraduate students from Johns Hopkins recently won the 2014 Design by Biomedical Undergraduate Teams (DEBUT) Challenge for developing a device that aims to help surgeons safely and accurately place screws during spinal fusion procedures and surgeries for spinal abnormalities.

The AccuSpine pedicle probe was designed by eight undergraduates: Clay Andrews, Eric Xie, Adarsha Malla, Bradley Isaacs, Anvesh Annadanam, Erica Schwarz, Ravi Gaddipati, and Luis Herrera. Their project began in July 2013 as part of a Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design design team class. Their goal was to address a clinical need for an effective guidance system for the safe and accurate placement of screws.

There are approximately 1,250 business incubators in the United States, including about 120 with some life science focus, according to the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA). These programs vary greatly in their structure and services.

Often associated with universities or medical centers, life science incubators frequently offer affordable office space attached to shared wet lab facilities. Others focus on accelerating companies' progress by offering intensive coaching, networking and support services. Some programs include seed funding up to $250,000 at a stage when few others are willing to invest.

Digital health incubator Rock Health is investing in eight new startups and teaming up with three new corporate entities – Blue Shield of California, Deloitte and global healthcare firm Abbott.

The new startups being incubated span the healthcare spectrum, from HIPAA compliance to life sciences and biotech. Among them:

The annual global confidence survey from the National Venture Capital Association produced an unusual apparent contradiction.

Investors around the world think the U.S. is the best place to back startups but confidence in our country's government among domestic VCs is dropping.

Innovative technologies and methodologies fuel progress in biomedical and behavioral research and represent an increasingly important area of the economy. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program provides support for research and development (R&D) of new or improved technologies and methodologies that have the potential to succeed as commercial products.

The purpose of this notice is to (1) announce the issuance of the Solicitation of the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for Small Business Innovation Research Contract Proposals (PHS 2015-1) with a receipt date of November 5, 2014, 4:30 PM ET; and (2) inform the public about the opportunities that the SBIR program offers to small business concerns as well as to scientists at research institutions.

The SBIR legislation requires the Public Health Service (PHS), Department of Health and Human Services, and certain other Federal agencies to reserve 2.8 percent (for FY 2014) of their extramural research or R&D budgets for an SBIR program. (The NIH SBIR set-aside requirement for FY 2014 is $663 million.)

Wrap up a great summer with one last BioBuzz networking event on August 27th from 5:00 - 7:30 p.m. at American Tap Room in Rockville, MD. This location is a short walk from the Metro located in the Rockville Town Center so there are no excuses not to come.

New this month, join us for Table Talks at BioBuzz.

This month's featured Table Topics will be on Project Management & Navigating your Life Science Careers.

Life Science Career Talks with;
Shira Harrington, President of Purposeful Hire
Multiple corporate recruiters from local Biotech companies

Project Management discussions with;
Tariq Allana, Project Manager at GlycoMimetics
Allen Bolden, Experienced GMP Manufacturing Project Manager

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.

"Advances in cellular analysis promise earlier diagnosis and improved therapies for diseases, from cancer to Alzheimer's," said James Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., director of NIH's Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI). "These prizes will also help to stimulate new businesses and economic growth in our biomedical communities."