BHI Weekly Newsletter Archives

Rockville, MD-based Sucampo Pharmaceuticals is a global biopharmaceutical company which currently has one marketed product, Amitiza, in its portfolio. Amitiza is approved for chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC) in adults, irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) among adult women and opioid-induced constipation (OIC) in patients with chronic non-cancer pain.

Join BioBuzz and sponsor Immunomic Therapeutics to celebrate the move from allergy to oncology application of their proprietary LAMP-Vax™ technology platform. The celebration will be at Bar Louie in the Rockville Town Center on July 27, 2017 from 5 – 7pm. Only a 5 minute walk from the Rockville Metro, please join us for this exciting event.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), an urban office REIT uniquely focused on collaborative life science and technology campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, is creating the Alexandria Center® for AgTech – RTP — the initial phase of a premier multi-tenant mega campus in Research Triangle Park (RTP) — and is leading the cluster’s evolution into a first-in-class AgTech ecosystem at the forefront of newly emerging innovations that address global hunger as it impacts human health. Located at 3054 East Cornwallis Road, which Alexandria recently acquired through an affiliate, the Alexandria Center for AgTech – RTP is adjacent to Alexandria’s 6 Davis Drive, and the collective development of the two campuses will form a 1 million square foot-plus mega campus that will support the AgTech sector in its continued, dramatic growth. The first phase of the project is the strategic redevelopment of the Cornwallis site into 175,000 rentable square feet (RSF) of best-in-class office/laboratory and greenhouse facilities and a highly curated amenities center designed to foster innovation, drive productivity and enhance collaboration.

Roche has bought Vienna-based diabetes management platform mySugr for an undisclosed price, the Swiss drugmaker said on Friday, joining a crowd of companies expanding app-based digital health services.

Privately held mySugr offers a logbook for mobile devices to help people track their blood sugar, medications and activity levels. It has been working with Roche since 2014 and previously got funding from Roche’s Venture Fund.

The Company:

Noble Life Sciences (Sykesville, MD) is a rapidly growing contract research organization (CRO) that provides preclinical drug, vaccine and medical device development services, from discovery to GLP-compliant studies for regulatory submissions. The company offers in vitro and in vivo services, including cellular and animal disease model development and experimental design, non-GLP and GLP animal efficacy, toxicity, biodistribution and product release studies in both small and large animals. The company also offers custom antibody production services, research animal and tissue products, and vivarium services.

The Position:

The representative will be responsible for selling preclinical services to new accounts in order to achieve sales targets, developing new sales in these accounts by monitoring customer’s existing projects for successful completion to stated goals, and proposing related and new services as they monitor accounts needs for future CRO services.

The representative is expected to use his/her knowledge of the market and external contacts in companies developing drugs, vaccines, and medical devices to increase sales. The representative will implement sales and marketing strategy and tactics to gain new customers and achieve sales and profit goals in designated geographic territory.

FULL-TIME POSITION:

Job Summary: BioFactura is seeking highly motivated applicants with an entrepreneurial spirit for an open position in our biosimilar development programs. We are looking for qualified candidates with a masters or doctoral degree in the life sciences with highly relevant skills and bench experience. The selected candidate will participate in the development and validation of various biosimilar product assays. In this position, the candidate will be responsible for planning, conducting, execution and analysis of experiments using various techniques in protein analysis. Relevant skills include HPLC/U-HPLC (HILIC, RP, SEC, CEX, AEX, affinity), capillary electrophoresis (CE), mass spec, SDS-PAGE, IEF, ELISA, qPCR. Knowledge of protein purification methods and process development/scale-up is a plus. Knowledge of Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) including analytical method qualification/validation and current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) are desired. Experience in the preparation and delivery of oral and written presentations as well as participation in the preparation and submission of grants and/or manuscripts for publication are a plus. Excellent communication skills and the ability to analyze and interpret data, design appropriately controlled experiments independently, and maintain up-to-date laboratory notebooks are a must. This is an excellent opportunity to gain valuable experience with an innovative, small, young Biotech company and build a career in the biopharmaceutical industry. Candidates should feel comfortable working in a high risk/potential high reward environment and able to work overtime and weekends as project needs are determined.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Masters/Doctoral degree in life sciences
• Hands on experience in protein analytics (3-5 years)• Excellent time management and proven ability to complete projects on time
• Excellent level of initiative and quest for knowledge
• Must be organized and self motivated
• Must have excellent communication and writing skills
• Familiarity with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and Powerpoint etc.)
• Must love to learn!

Benefits: BioFactura offers a competitive salary and benefit plan including health insurance (medical, dental & prescription) and a retirement plan with employer match.

Contact: Darryl Sampey, Ph.D.President and CEOBioFactura, Inc.8435 Progress Drive, Suite ZFrederick, MD 21701Cell: 240-620-3566Office: 301-315-8002www.biofactura.comdsampey@biofactura.com

FEFA is a government contracting corporation and we have a current opening for a Technology Transfer Support Specialist with CRADA experience. The position is located in Silver Spring, MD. The candidate shall utilize knowledge of technology transfer law and regulatory requirements related to managing life science/medical research to provide advice, guidance, and assistance to Institute staff on issues relating to collaborative and other agreements, inventions, patents, licenses and other technology transfer matters.

The candidate shall also use excellent interpersonal skills in a team environment to prepare, review, and provide assistance with development of intergovernmental and technology transfer agreements to include interagency agreements (IAA), cooperative research and development agreements (CRADA), material transfer agreements (MTA), and nondisclosure agreements (NDA).

The Fellowship in Government provides a unique public policy learning experience, demonstrates the value of science-government interaction and enhances public health science and practical knowledge in government. APHA is looking for candidates with strong public health credentials and an interest in serving as a staff person in the U.S. Congress. The fellowship is based in Washington, D.C. The fellow will have the option of working in the House or Senate on legislative and policy issues such as creating healthy communities, improving health equity, addressing environmental health concerns, population health or the social determinants of health. Much of the work developing public policy happens at the staff level, where these critical issues are not well understood or incorporated into the discussion. The fellow will have the opportunity to make an impact and improve the health of the public.

Defining a great entrepreneurship scene requires a delicate balance. Sure, there has to be a healthy atmosphere of investment and innovation to get people in, but to get them to stay is a whole ‘nother story. Great startup cities need to have a culture, voice and mission. It’s what defines them as unique, a place to go because it’s not only where your skill sets lie, but where you feel like you can help change the world.

Making the cut for a booming community is a culmination of the underdogs, the cities that others overlooked for safe bets. However, when there’s risk, there’s also reward, which is why these cities, in my estimation, are all about to break the mold.

The company plans to use the investment to complete clinical trials for their gene therapy products aimed at choroideremia, retinitis pigmentosa, and macular dystrophy.

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab’s latest space mission: Flying a satellite into an asteroid.

Scientists from the Laurel-based lab recently got the go-ahead from NASA to move forward on design of a spacecraft that could land on an asteroid, and deflect it from a collision course with Earth. The refrigerator-sized spacecraft would be the centerpiece of a mission called Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART.

The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) recently released a report on Bioscience Innovation in the States: Legislation and Job Creation through Public-Private Partnerships. This biennial report provides a good summary of state initiatives serving the industry plus a discussion of new developments and trends by state.

What if you could really understand what someone wanted? What if by asking the right questions and listening to the words another person uses, you could better understand what they wanted – even before they did? What if you could improve all your relationships?

Improved communication and a deeper understanding of motivation is possible. By learning a repeatable framework, based on language choices that expose unconscious motivation, you can experience being ‘heard’ and better understand others. Dr. Kristin Backstrom, from the Centers for Motivation, will share insights on how language choices express what drives and motivates individuals, helping you learn how to improve teamwork, reduce conflict, and achieve goals.

Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s best known start-up accelerator, thinks it has found a new type of biotechnology start-up.

Life-sciences companies come with a high risk of failure—often, the science behind a proposed invention isn’t entirely proven, and turns out not to work. Because of this risk, the traditional way to fund early-stage life sciences companies is for a landmark East Coast investor, such as Third Rock or Flagship, to take a huge equity stake in the business and replace the founder with a seasoned executive. In exchange, it pumps tens of millions of dollars into the company over many years. It often takes more than a decade to generate a return.

The next NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Omnibus funding opportunity deadline is September 5, 2017. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) welcomes all investigator-initiated projects within their mission through these funding opportunities:

Along with training artists, MICA is showing more desire to educate students in creating business opportunities with their work.

That’s evident in community facing events, as the Station North arts college now runs a startup competition, and is helping students get space at OpenWorks makerspace.

PCI is pleased to announce the publication of the first-ever guide to commercialization at Penn. We created the Commercialization Guide so that faculty and external partners would have an easy and accessible reference to guide them in pursuing commercial partnerships and entrepreneurial activities at Penn. The guide provides both comprehensive and detailed information around working with PCI on all kinds of commercialization activities and it also covers key topics such as: Penn’s Patent Policy, creating a startup at Penn, the process for patenting intellectual property, disclosing conflicts of interest and other important topics for engaging in commercialization.

Leslie Ford Weber, director of the Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus, has been elected chair-elect of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.

Weber, who is also director of campus, government and community affairs in Montgomery County for the university and Suburban Hospital, previously served the Chamber as vice chair of the legislative affairs committee and will continue in that role as chair-elect. Before that, she was vice chair of the economic development committee.

FULL-TIME POSITION:

Job Summary: BioFactura is seeking highly motivated applicants with an entrepreneurial spirit for an open position in our biosimilar development programs. We are looking for qualified candidates with a masters or doctoral degree in the life sciences with highly relevant skills and bench experience. The selected candidate will participate in the development and validation of various biosimilar product assays. In this position, the candidate will be responsible for planning, conducting, execution and analysis of experiments using various techniques in protein analysis. Relevant skills include HPLC/U-HPLC (HILIC, RP, SEC, CEX, AEX, affinity), capillary electrophoresis (CE), mass spec, SDS-PAGE, IEF, ELISA, qPCR. Knowledge of protein purification methods and process development/scale-up is a plus. Knowledge of Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) including analytical method qualification/validation and current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) are desired. Experience in the preparation and delivery of oral and written presentations as well as participation in the preparation and submission of grants and/or manuscripts for publication are a plus. Excellent communication skills and the ability to analyze and interpret data, design appropriately controlled experiments independently, and maintain up-to-date laboratory notebooks are a must. This is an excellent opportunity to gain valuable experience with an innovative, small, young Biotech company and build a career in the biopharmaceutical industry. Candidates should feel comfortable working in a high risk/potential high reward environment and able to work overtime and weekends as project needs are determined.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Masters/Doctoral degree in life sciences
• Hands on experience in protein analytics (3-5 years)• Excellent time management and proven ability to complete projects on time
• Excellent level of initiative and quest for knowledge
• Must be organized and self motivated
• Must have excellent communication and writing skills
• Familiarity with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and Powerpoint etc.)
• Must love to learn!

Benefits: BioFactura offers a competitive salary and benefit plan including health insurance (medical, dental & prescription) and a retirement plan with employer match.

Contact: Darryl Sampey, Ph.D.President and CEOBioFactura, Inc.8435 Progress Drive, Suite ZFrederick, MD 21701Cell: 240-620-3566Office: 301-315-8002www.biofactura.comdsampey@biofactura.com

The University of Maryland seeks a dynamic, forward-thinking individual to lead the newly-renamed Office of Innovation and Commercialization (OIC). The OIC is charged with cultivation, assessment, protection, and commercialization of intellectual property and other transferrable knowledge (frameworks, methods, copyrights, etc.) generated at the University. The OIC is an integral component of UM Ventures – College Park which has a mission to help drive economic and social impact from University research and discoveries through corporate partnering and entrepreneurial activities.

The Director leads and manages the OIC, overseeing personnel, budgets, and all aspects of intellectual property cultivation, assessment, protection, and commercialization. The Director establishes and implements strategies to maximize the social and economic impact of University research and discoveries through OIC’s commercialization efforts and its support of related entrepreneurial endeavors. The Director is responsible for developing and meeting annual OIC licensing goals and acts as primary point of contact and steward to resolve problems and issues affecting intellectual property and licensing at all levels within the University.

emocha Mobile Health, a Baltimore-based startup company focused on medication adherence, today announced that it has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research award by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Through the NIH Fast-Track mechanism, the Phase 1 award will total $225,000, with an additional $1.5 million for Phase 2 granted upon achieving milestones. The project will demonstrate the feasibility of video directly observed therapy for patients undergoing the initiation phase of buprenorphine treatment through office-based opioid treatment (OBOT) programs. Outcomes of interest will include adherence, retention in care, measures of illicit opioid use and abstinence, and medication diversi

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

• Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (NRSA) Predoctoral Stipends, Training Related Expenses, Institutional Allowance, and Tuition/Fees Effective for Fiscal Year 2017
• (NOT-OD-17-072) National Institutes of Health
• Extramural Loan Repayment Program for Clinical Researchers (LRP-CR)
• (NOT-OD-17-077) National Institutes of Health
• Extramural Loan Repayment Program for Pediatric Research (LRP-PR)
• (NOT-OD-17-078) National Institutes of Health
• Extramural Loan Repayment Program for Contraception and Infertility Research (LRP-CIR)
• (NOT-OD-17-079) National Institutes of Health
• Extramural Loan Repayment Program for Health Disparities Research (LRP-HDR)
• (NOT-OD-17-080) National Institutes of Health
• Extramural Clinical Research Loan Repayment Program for Individuals from Disadvantaged Backgrounds (LRP-IDB)
• (NOT-OD-17-081) National Institutes of Health
• Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance
• (NOT-OD-17-083) National Institutes of Health
• Notice of NIDCR’s Withdrawal from Participation in PAR-16-242 “Bioengineering Research Grants (BRG) (R01)”
• (NOT-DE-17-010)
• National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
• Notice of NIDCR’s Withdrawal from Participation in PA-16-040 “Exploratory/Developmental Bioengineering Research Grants (EBRG) (R21)”
• (NOT-DE-17-011)
• National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
• Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for Point of Care Technologies Research Network Centers (U54)
• (NOT-EB-17-004)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for Heart, Lung, and Blood Co-morbiditieS Implementation Models in People Living with HIV (HLB SIMPLe) (U01)
• (NOT-HL-17-520)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for Heart, Lung, and Blood Co-morbiditieS Implementation Models in People Living with HIV Data Coordinating Center (HLB SIMPLe DCC) (U24)
• (NOT-HL-17-521)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice on Upcoming Webinar for RFA-HL-18-007 “ImPlementation REsearCh to DEvelop interventions for People Living with HIV (PRECluDE) (U01)”
• (NOT-HL-17-524)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• The NIH Common Fund Regenerative Medicine Program (RMP) Announces the Opportunity to Collaborate with the Stem Cell Translation Laboratory (SCTL) at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)
• (NOT-RM-17-030)
• NIH Roadmap Initiatives
• Notice Announcing Funding Opportunity Issued for the NIH Data Commons Pilot Phase
• (NOT-RM-17-031)
• NIH Roadmap Initiatives

New Enterprise Associates, Venrock, and Pelion Venture Partners—all early investors in Internet company Cloudflare—are now ponying up $100 million to fund startups that build applications atop Cloudflare’s technology, which speeds up web site performance and offers security to web applications. Cloudflare products handle an estimated 10% of the world’s web requests. If you click on a browser button, theres a good chance Cloudflare is expediting the response.

On March 7- 8, 2017, Defined Health convened the 28th annual Cancer Progress meeting in New York City. Since 1985, Cancer Progress has served as a unique forum for an insightful and frank discussion about the scientific progress being made in oncology from the perspectives of clinical, regulatory, commercial, payer, patient advocacy, and investor stakeholders. As a companion piece to the meeting (or a primer for those who were unable to attend), the following summarizes some key takeaways and their implications for those looking to establish or maintain relevance in this fast-paced competitive landscape. Key issues addressed herein include the emerging roles of immuno-oncology (IO) vs. non-IO therapies, collaboration vs. competition, and value vs. unmitigated pricing within the evolving oncology landscape. The report closes with some thoughts about where cancer management may be going based on an assessment of present trends.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced a legislative proposal that would provide $500 million over five years for the life sciences sector, extending the state’s commitment to the biotech and medical technology industry. The money would be used for strategic investments in public infrastructure, research and development, workforce training and education. The proposal includes a $295 million bond authorization to provide capital funding, up to $150 million in job-creating tax incentives, and $55 million for the Investment Fund, which would be provided through the annual consolidated net surplus, the same funding mechanism as the current initiative. The funding will continue to be managed by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) and build on earlier investments. MLSC was charged with implementing the $1 billion, 10-year state-funded initiative that was signed into law by former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick in 2008 and expires next year.

Roche has bought Vienna-based diabetes management platform mySugr for an undisclosed price, the Swiss drugmaker said on Friday, joining a crowd of companies expanding app-based digital health services.

Privately held mySugr offers a logbook for mobile devices to help people track their blood sugar, medications and activity levels. It has been working with Roche since 2014 and previously got funding from Roche’s Venture Fund.

Along with training artists, MICA is showing more desire to educate students in creating business opportunities with their work.

That’s evident in community facing events, as the Station North arts college now runs a startup competition, and is helping students get space at OpenWorks makerspace.

The next NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Omnibus funding opportunity deadline is September 5, 2017. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) welcomes all investigator-initiated projects within their mission through these funding opportunities:

What if you could really understand what someone wanted? What if by asking the right questions and listening to the words another person uses, you could better understand what they wanted – even before they did? What if you could improve all your relationships?

Improved communication and a deeper understanding of motivation is possible. By learning a repeatable framework, based on language choices that expose unconscious motivation, you can experience being ‘heard’ and better understand others. Dr. Kristin Backstrom, from the Centers for Motivation, will share insights on how language choices express what drives and motivates individuals, helping you learn how to improve teamwork, reduce conflict, and achieve goals.

Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s best known start-up accelerator, thinks it has found a new type of biotechnology start-up.

Life-sciences companies come with a high risk of failure—often, the science behind a proposed invention isn’t entirely proven, and turns out not to work. Because of this risk, the traditional way to fund early-stage life sciences companies is for a landmark East Coast investor, such as Third Rock or Flagship, to take a huge equity stake in the business and replace the founder with a seasoned executive. In exchange, it pumps tens of millions of dollars into the company over many years. It often takes more than a decade to generate a return.

I founded my healthcare technology company, ClickMedix, while I was a graduate student at MIT’s Development Ventures class. Our mission is to improve the health of over one billion people. We currently have deployments in 18 countries, and serve more than a quarter million patients – all without investor money. I have been funding my startup by winning business plan competitions and through paying customers. Here are three steps to winning business plan competitions:

The Secretary of Health in Pennsylvania will leave the state to join the executive team at Geisinger Health System.

Karen Murphy, R.N., Ph.D., has been named executive vice president, chief innovation officer and founding director of Geisinger’s Steele Institute for Healthcare Innovation. Her last day with the state is Friday but she won’t start her new job at Geisinger until September.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is by far the principal nonprofit funder of biomedical research in the United States. Consequently, when President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2018 budget proposal included deep cuts in funding for the NIH, it sent shock waves through academic medical institutions that benefit from NIH research moneys. Although Congress is unlikely to accommodate this proposal, the suggested cuts raise the question of the role of government in medical innovation.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017, 05:30pm – 06:30pm

Learn about the Maryland Women’s Business Center and other resources to help you start and grow your business. 

Location : 51 Monroe Street, Suite PE-20, Rockville MD 20850-2482

Friday, July 14, 2017, 10:00am – 01:00pm

Understand why you need a strong business plan. Learn how to develop each critical piece of your plan. Workshop includes comprehensive outline and additional resources.

Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 01:00pm

Got a lot of questions about commercialization that you’ve been saving up? Now’s your chance to ask an expert! Elizabeth Smith is an experienced entrepreneur, mentor, and thought leader in the BioHealth Capital Region. In addition to being available at MERL office hours, Elizabeth will be available on the BioHive on July 18th at 1PM EDT to answer your questions about commercialization!

Monday, July 24, 2017, 11:30am – 05:00pm

The Maryland Department of Labor, in consultation with the Maryland Department of Commerce, is excited to announce the return of Maryland Business Works, a highly successful incumbent worker training program. Join Mark Nardone, Director of Bio-Trac, to learn more about how the returning Maryland Business Works Program can support and grow small businesses in Maryland.

GlycoMimetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLYC) today announced the closing of its underwritten public offering of 8,050,000 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $11.50 per share, which includes the exercise in full by the underwriters of their option to purchase up to 1,050,000 additional shares of common stock. All of the shares in the offering were offered by GlycoMimetics. The aggregate gross proceeds to GlycoMimetics from the offering, before deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses, were approximately $92.6 million.

Over the past four years, 1,668 deals involving university spinout companies from across the globe attracted approximately $35.6 billion from 2013 to 2016, according to a new report from Global University Venturing. The report, however, highlights that global deals peaked in 2014 with 529 deals and total investments dollars peaked in 2015 with nearly $14 billion invested. As the authors highlighted, these global numbers were unsustainable and 2016 saw significant declines in both deals and dollars. In 2016, the total deals reported were 407 (21.6 percent decrease from 2015) and dollars invested was $6.4 billion (a 54.3 percent decrease from 2015).

On June 15, two startups based on Johns Hopkins technology received Incubator Company of the Year Awards at an annual event sponsored by the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) and several other organizations.

Event is for Post-Docs & Professional Scientists currently working in the Therapeutic Areas of:

• Oncology
• Respiratory, Inflammation & Autoimmunity
• Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases
• Infectious Diseases & Vaccines
• Related scientific disciplines

Event will include music, lawn games, hors d’oeuvres, drinks.

In Uganda alone, nearly 600,000 newborns require medical intervention for complications at birth. That’s a problem that Teresa Cauvel and Sona Shah are on a mission to solve. Neopenda, the health tech startup they founded in 2015, makes wearables that monitor four newborn vitals: Heart rate, respiration, blood oxygen saturation, and temperature.

Patients with active systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were able to control their disease with Benlysta (belimumab) plus standard of care (prednisone), pharmaceutical giant GSK said in announcing the results from a 10-year continuation study.

GSK presented the study’s results at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2017), held June 14-17 in Madrid.

New Enterprise Associates has closed its 16th flagship fund on $3.3 billion, per the Wall Street Journal, the largest venture vehicle ever raised.

A monumental fundraise, yes, but billion-dollar funds are nothing new for NEA—its latest vehicle also represents the firm’s seventh consecutive $1-billion-plus venture fund. In 1978, NEA closed its first fund on $16 million. The firm has gone on to garner $17 billion in committed capital across 15 funds, not including NEA 16. Here’s a look at the firm’s largest funds to date, according to the PitchBook Platform:

The University System of Maryland was ranked 27th by the National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association on a list of the most U.S. patents granted last year among universities worldwide.

The University of Maryland received 48 of the 72 patents granted to universities in the university system in 2016, said Felicia Metz, the intellectual property assistant director of this university’s Office of Technology Commercialization, which works with patents owned by the university and inventors to help make the products of research available on the market.

More and more, bwtech@UMBC has been a stop for international visitors looking to learn about cybersecurity, said executive director Ellen Hemmerly.

While paying a visit to the research park’s incubator or attending a conference offers a glimpse, there are signs of a desire to dig deeper. Earlier this year, the incubator was a “soft landing” for a group of companies from the Netherlands as part of an exchange program run by the Maryland Department of Commerce.

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today that its fourth-generation HIV combination antigen-antibody assay, the Elecsys HIV combi PT assay, has received FDA PMA approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Innovations born in the world of academia have contributed more than a trillion dollars to the US economy over the past two decades, according to a new report.

Examining the licensing of university technology, a study undertaken by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), reveals that over a 20 year period ‘academic patents and the subsequent licensing to industry’ boosted industry output by $1.33 trillion.

University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s bwtech Research & Technology Park is partnering with the state Department of Commerce to create an international cybersecurity center that will help lure foreign cyber companies to establish a presence in Maryland.

Advances in biotechnology innovation have had an enormous transformative impact on many sectors of the U.S. economy — life-saving drugs for patients of all ages, protecting plants that are key to feeding the world and industrial biotechnology applications that are leading to bio-based fuels, chemicals and products that can protect our environment.

The bioscience’s need for a stable and supportive public policy framework is vital to industry firms large and small. It is almost impossible for any state or region to ignore the need for selective incentives to either hold existing bioscience companies or attract new enterprises.

Just as some politicians are increasing their calls for Washington micromanagement of the Bayh-Dole law (which allows universities and federal laboratories to license federally supported inventions for commercial development) a new study shows how impressively the current decentralized, market driven system is performing.

Despite the best cybersecurity efforts, the number of breaches in the healthcare world is remaining fairly constant, according to the latest Protenus Breach Barometer.

The Barometer is based on data provided by DataBreaches.net.

The Maryland Science Center has promoted from within to replace president and CEO Van Reiner, who will retire this year after 13 years with the Inner Harbor attraction.

Mark Potter, the organization’s vice president of development for the past six years, will assume the top spot following Reiner’s retirement in October.

Whether you’re a fan of Steve Jobs and his products or not, two things are undeniable: He was very successful and very different. Now you can relax; this short article will not provide a blow-by-blow account of the man and his methods. “What would Steve Jobs tell the pharma/biotech industry?” is just a metaphor to encourage our industry to radically change — not by reinventing the wheel, but by copying the success of others.

Here’s what New Enterprise Associates chief Scott Sandell says about his record fund, along with a look at the other 10 firms that have raised $1 billion or more since 2015.

Pharmaceutical companies are betting big on a new wave of innovative cancer therapies they believe will be more effective than existing treatments and move them a big step closer to finding a cure for the disease.

The fast-emerging branch of therapies – immuno-oncology (IO) – works by equipping the body’s immune system with the tools to kill cancer cells.

The Old Line’s flag laid board-flat against the marbled gray sky as crisply as if it had been pressed by a hot iron. I double checked my lifejacket, clipped the boat’s kill switch onto its nylon strap and eased the 25-foot center console beyond the breakwaters of Matapeake. White caps that had rolled past Point Lookout three hours earlier continued to barrel northward toward Rock Hall. I took a quick look around, briefly questioned my decision-making faculties and then punched the throttle to get on top of the rumbling three footers.

The Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Improvements Act of 2017, H.R. 2763, unanimously passed a House committee last week, moving one step closer to approval.

“The bill ultimately helps small businesses advance innovation and research that will help industries across California and the nation,” Knight said. “The advantages of supporting small business in their ventures are endless as some of the greatest entrepreneurial developments in technology originate from the support of the surrounding community and government resources.”

Nearly two years after its launch, Johnson & Johnson’s crowdfunding website for global public health projects in underserved communities has raised almost $500,000 for 51 projects to date.

The percentage of projects posted on the website that are funded has increased from 33 percent one year ago to 65 percent this year, according to an email from Fetzer.

Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, U.S. and UK are the world’s most innovative countries according to a new report by produced by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Now in its 10 edition, the Global Innovation Index surveys 130 economies using dozens of metrics – from patent filings to education spending – for a high-level look at the innovative activity that increasingly drives economic and social growth.

The brain continues to surprise us with its magnificent complexity. Groundbreaking research that combines neuroscience with math tells us that our brain creates neural structures with up to 11 dimensions when it processes information. By “dimensions,” they mean abstract mathematical spaces, not other physical realms. Still, the researchers “found a world that we had never imagined,” said Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project, which made the discovery.

Using an input-output “I-O” approach to estimating the economic impact of academic licensing and summing that impact over 20 years of available data for academic U.S. Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) Survey respondents, the total contribution of these academic licensors to industry gross output ranges from $320 billion to $1.33 trillion, in 2009 U.S. dollars; and contributions to gross domestic product (GDP) range from $148 billion to $591 billion, in 2009 U.S. dollars. Estimates of the total number of person years of employment supported by U.S. universities’ and hospitals’ and research institutes’ licensed-product sales range from 1.268 million to over 4.272 million over the 20- year period. An explanation of the I-O approach is provided, and the assumptions used and the potential effects of the assumptions on the estimates are discussed. AUTM associated contributions to GDP, calculated using the I-O approach, are compared with U.S. GDP as a whole, and to selected industry, as defined by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes, contributions to GDP. Factors affecting the AUTM contributions to GDP appear to differ from those affecting U.S. GDP as a whole, as well as from those affecting selected NAICS industry contributions to GDP.

A Sanofi executive discusses his company’s leadership-development programs and approach to building employee capabilities amid rapid change.

Rich Bendis, Founding President and Chief Executive Officer, BioHealth Innovation, Brian Darmody, Associate Vice President for Corporate and Foundation Relations and former Association of University Research Parks (AURP) President, and Julie Lenzer, AVP of Innovation and Economic Development at UMD engage in a discussion of the transformed university tech transfer office at the AURP BioParks 2017 conference, held in conjunction with BIO 2017 at San Diego, California.

The session was moderated by David Winwood, Associate Executive Director and Chief Business Development Officer at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at LSU, and included an earlier panel on the transformation of medical research campuses into hubs of innovation and scientific breakthroughs.

This event is a prelude to BIO 2017 in San Diego, which generated a record breaking delegation from the state of Maryland, including numerous private sector biotechnology companies based in Maryland, Ben Wu, from Maryland Department of Commerce, Tamie Howie, from the Maryland Technology Council, and biotechnology economic development representatives from across the state.

At BIO 2017 the delegation will discuss partnering opportunities with the FDA in White Oak, state financing for biotechnology companies, and presentations from Maryland’s leading biotechnology companies at the Maryland Pavilion.

When Ripley Ballou — Rip to his friends — started to feel sick at a party in 1987, he thought it was because of his friend’s home-brewed beer.

Ballou was taking a break from his work on developing a malaria vaccine at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland, which he was doing in collaboration with the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Back then, researchers could be a principal investigator as well as volunteer in their own projects.

The American Visionary Art Museum provided the backdrop Thursday night for this year’s edition the Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards.

The awards seek to spotlight startups making moves around the state, as well as the incubators that provide support to help them grow.

emocha mobile health is turning its technology toward the nation’s growing opioid crisis.

Providing a way for medical staff to remotely observe patients taking required medication can help people battling addiction stay in treatment, said CEO Sebastian Seiguer.

OpGen announced today that it has signed a supply agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific to combine its Acuitas Rapid Test for Pathogen ID with Thermo Fisher’s real-time PCR solutions.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and the University of Maryland, College Park have granted Cellth Systems exclusive licensing rights for the commercial development of cell-tethering technology that allows real-time analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), which has important applications in cancer treatment. In addition, Cellth announced today that TEDCO, an independent organization assisting and funding Maryland’s startup community, has awarded the company $150,000 through its Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII) program.

Silver Spring regenerative medicine company Aziyo Biologics Inc. raised $12 million in a recent funding round, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a University System of Maryland institute a $6 million grant to develop a vaccine for the hepatitis C virus.

The Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research will conduct the grant-funded research over a five-year period. The institute is a joint research enterprise between the University of Maryland, College Park, the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx) received a new contract from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to provide a test for cancer that does not require tissue samples.

The Canton-based company makes a liquid biopsy, which tests for cancer by evaluating 64 genes that are associated with cancer.

Sonavex, a Baltimore-based medical device company, has announced a raise of $3M in financing including the first close of its Series A round led by Grey Sky Partners. Recently named Maryland’s 2016 Incubator Company of the Year, Sonavex is focused on improving surgical patient outcomes with point-of-care imaging technologies. Other organizations participating in this financing include CRCM Venture Capital, TEDCO, and the Abell Foundation. Award of a $750k Phase II SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation is also included in the financing. With this influx of capital, Sonavex will be advancing the commercialization of EchoSure, a Doppler ultrasound system, and developing additional ultrasound solutions currently in the company’s pipeline. The press release also announces the addition of Bill Niland, CEO of Harpoon Medical, and Bob Hallenbeck, former executive at Becton Dickinson, to Sonavex’s Board of Directors.

Technology talent often found in California’s tech mecca Silicon Valley is starting to spread to other parts of the U.S., thanks to the rising cost of living in the Bay Area and government tax breaks for companies that move to another state. And because of that, Baltimore is starting to see growth in the industry.

Typically when someone gets #Cancer, it is not the initial tumor that kills them. At some point, the tumor spreads to other parts of the body, such as the brain, the liver, or other parts to the point where it becomes untreatable. What if a therapy could be developed that could slow or even stop this process? A post-doctorate fellow at #Johns Hopkins may well have discovered such a therapy, according to the Baltimore Sun.

The University of Maryland and Georgetown University are two of the world’s leading academic institutions for the number of utility patents they were awarded last year.

Researchers in the University of Maryland (UMD) Fischell Department of Bioengineering (BIOE) Jewell Laboratory are using quantum dots – tiny semiconductor particles commonly used in nanotechnology – to decipher the features needed to design specific and effective therapies for multiple sclerosis (MS) and other autoimmune diseases. Their findings were published this week as the cover story of Advanced Functional Materials.

The Omnibus solicitation of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have been released with submission dates of September 5, 2017 and January 5, 2018. The solicitation is for both SBIR and STTR applications for NIH, and SBIR proposals for CDC and the FDA.

To fill a pair of life-sciences buildings on the East Side it built during the past decade, Alexandria Real Estate Equities recruited big pharmaceutical companies, like Eli Lilly and Roche, as anchor tenants. Now the firm is focusing on startups it hopes will spur the next wave of growth at its Alexandria Center for Life Science campus.

The firm today announced lease deals for roughly half its year-old, 15,000-square-foot LaunchLabs incubator. Most of the 13 tenants emerged from local academic and research institutions including New York University, Columbia, and the New York Genome Center. The products being explored include tissue implants from 3-D printers, drugs to heal scar tissue and genetically engineered organisms augmented with synthetic chromosomes.

The contractor must have experience and expertise coordinating entrepreneurial training programs for biomedical innovators over a minimum of three (3) years.

The contractor must have an understanding of concepts in medical device innovation and design, as well as commercialization processes and strategies.

A few years ago, multinational pharma companies seeking growth and respite from market uncertainty in Europe and the United States found a haven in emerging markets. Their rapid economic growth triggered an expansion in healthcare coverage and the emergence of a new cohort of consumers able to afford larger out-of-pocket spending on drugs. But early euphoria was soon replaced by a more somber outlook.

Big data analytics are entirely transforming business paradigms. Automated databases are enabling businesses to perform mundane tasks more efficiently. And, the commercial sector isn’t the only area to benefit from data analytics. Its impact is widespread and is being seen across many different sectors, including healthcare.

Governor Terry McAuliffe today announced that Granules India Ltd., a vertically integrated pharmaceutical company, will invest $35 million into its wholly owned subsidiary, Granules Pharmaceuticals Inc., to expand its pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing capabilities in Fairfax County. Virginia successfully competed against New Jersey for the project, which will create 102 new jobs. In 2014, the company invested $15 million to establish the wholly-owned subsidiary operation, creating 75 jobs.

The “birthplace of biotechnology” is to receive $10 million for a pioneering precision medicine programme.

It was announced this week that the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine (CIAPM) has been awarded the money from the local government’s budget, a decision welcomed by the California Life Sciences Association (CLSA).

“Processors are overdesigned for most applications,” says University of Illinois electrical and computer engineering professor Rakesh Kumar. It’s a well-known and necessary truth: In order to have programmability and flexibility, there’s simply going to be more stuff on a processor than any one application will use. That’s especially true of the type of ultralow power microcontrollers that drive the newest embedded computing platforms such as wearables and Internet of Things sensors. These are often running one fairly simple application and nothing else (not even an operating system), meaning that a large fraction of the circuits on a chip never, ever see a single bit of data.

A provocative study published earlier this month in the journal Science and Public Policy contends that Europe lacks the cutting-edge science long seen in the U.S., and increasingly published in Asia: “Europe lags far behind the USA in the production of important, highly cited research,” co-authors Alonso Rodríguez-Navarro, Ph.D., of Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, and Francis Narin, Ph.D., founder of CHI Research (now The Patent Board).

The biotech industry remains poised for growth, EY said in its annual industry report released today, despite continuing pressure from payers to contain drug prices and an investor pullback from capital markets that helped deflate profits and slow down revenue growth for public companies last year.

“Beyond Borders: Staying the Course” observed that while biotechs will continue to pursue the prices they seek for new drugs by citing their value—either in patient outcomes or lower costs—so too will payers seek to contain those prices.

Commercializing Technologies for Societal Impact

The governments of the United States of America (through the Department of State) and India (through the Department of Science & Technology) have established the United States – India Science & Technology Endowment Fund (USISTEF) for the promotion of joint activities that would lead to innovation and technopreneurship through the application of science and technology. The Endowment Fund activities are implemented and administered through the bi-national Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF).

The fund aims to select and financially support promising joint U.S.-India entrepreneurial initiatives that address the theme of “Commercializing Technologies for Societal Impact” through a competitive grant program.

Americans are identifying the need for more healthcare innovation, according to a recent survey.

A Klick Health consumer survey, conducted by Maru/Matchbox, found that only 17% of people rank health-related sectors as most innovative, but 40% think they should be.

A transformative cancer therapy based on modified immune cells has lured doctors, companies, and patients alike, but many are hitting a frustrating roadblock: generating enough of these chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells to meet surging demand. The situation is fluid, with shortages cropping up in some places and easing in others. Doctors, meanwhile, are grappling with how best to distribute the experimental therapy among very sick patients in clinical trials.

MassChallenge marked the end of its first digital health cohort PULSE@MassChallenge with assurances from Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker that the Commonwealth would back a second class of digital health businesses and provide funding for health technology innovation center TechSpring. Health technology businesses with eye tracking technology for concussion detection, virtual reality to reduce social isolation for nursing home residents and a telehealth alternative to ambulance radios were among the 31 participants in the inaugural class to be singled out at the Boston event.

TEDCO is known for providing seed funding for early stage companies.

“We want to help the incubation industry raise their bar, too, and keep pace with acceleration and innovation in Maryland,” said Neil Davis, Director of Entrepreneurial Development at the quasi-public agency that backs early stage companies.

Johns Hopkins University is among the top ten institutions worldwide to receive U.S. utility patents in 2016, according to a rankings report published by the National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association. The report ranks JHU at No. 7, with the university listed as the first assignee on 167 patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last year.

UMBC officials are planning to add new space at the research and technology park adjacent to the Catonsville campus over the next two to five years.

Up to 100,000 additional square feet for tech companies could be added at the south campus of bwtech@UMBC, said Gregory Simmons, UMBC’s VP of Institutional Advancement.

TEDCO named George Davis as its new CEO on Wednesday. He will start in the leadership role of the quasi-public agency that backs early stage companies on June 26.

The organization provides investment funding as well support for entrepreneurs. Davis has experience both in leading and funding companies in Maryland.

Bruce Booth, D.Phil., a partner at Atlas Venture, astutely observed earlier this year that two key resources fueling the growth of biopharma were until recently somewhat geographically spread among the 10 or so regions of the nation where the industry began to arise a generation ago.

“In recent years, this has changed—Boston and San Francisco are now the preeminent biotech clusters. And their gravity in the ecosystem is only getting stronger,” Dr. Booth concluded in a March 21 post on his Life Sci VC blog. “Beyond having great science and the right ‘pixie dust’ in the local environment, two fundamentally important ingredients to the success of any cluster are capital and talent—and both are aggregating into the two key clusters.”

The Maryland Tech Council (MTC), Maryland’s largest technology trade association, announced the winners of its 29th Annual Industry Awards during a celebration and ceremony at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center attended by more than 550 business leaders from around the state.

“MTC was honored to recognize the Industry Award winners this year whose innovations are improving and saving lives,” said Tami Howie, CEO, Maryland Tech Council. “This year’s winners gave inspiring and heart-felt messages on their advancements and how they are changing the world.”

Qiagen this past weekend said that it signed separate agreements with Bristol-Myers Squibb and Johns Hopkins University related to next-generation sequencing assay development.

Under one agreement, Qiagen and BMS will initially explore the use of NGS to develop gene expression profiles as predictive or prognostic tools for use with several BMS immuno-oncology therapies. The companies also plan to enter into a further agreement to develop diagnostic products using the jointly developed profiles to expand the use of NGS technology with other BMS immuno-oncology therapies.

QIAGEN (NASDAQ: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced it has received premarket approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its automated artus® CMV QS-RGQ MDx kit for use on QIAGEN’s QIAsymphony platform, providing fast, reproducible, high-quality test results for use as an aid in the management of solid organ transplant patients who are undergoing anti-CMV therapy.

Patients who have undergone organ transplantation have an elevated risk of infection from CMV, which is a common virus that infects people of all ages. Over half of all adults by age 40 have been infected with CMV, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Once CMV is in a person’s body, it stays there for life in latent form and can reactivate.

Johns Hopkins University has been ranked among the top 2 percent of universities in the world by the 2018 QS World University Rankings released today.

Out of 950 universities from more than 80 countries, Johns Hopkins came in at No. 17—the same ranking as last year—and was the ninth-highest ranked U.S. school. QS has ranked JHU among the world’s top 20 universities for the past ten years, and among the top 30 since the rankings list debuted in 2004.

Join MCCC in congratulating David Nguyen as he receives the MCCC 2017 Chairman’s Award.

David’s contributions to the MCCC Board of Directors are strategic and impactful. An exemplary thought leader, he has advanced the Chamber’s Metro Maryland concept, grown our membership and provided innovative solutions to advance the MCCC mission.

The angel investor market in 2016 experienced a decrease in investment dollars and in the deal size. Total investments in 2016 were $21.3 billion, a decrease of 13.5% over 2015, according to the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire. A total of 64,380 entrepreneurial ventures received angel funding in 2016, a decline of 9.5% over 2015 investments. The number of active investors in 2016 was 297,880 individuals, a decrease of 2.3% from 2015. The change in both total dollars and the number of investments resulted in a deal size for 2016 that was smaller than in 2015. While these data indicate a cautious retreat in terms of dollars invested and deals, angels increased their appetite for seed and start-up investing, and the associated risk, but with a higher perceived value as demonstrated by the increase in valuations and decrease in deal (investment round) size.

The University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors on Friday approved an academic affiliation with the Inova Health System Foundation that includes a research institute and a UVA School of Medicine regional campus.

Global Genomics and Bioinformatics Research Institute UVA and Inova, along with partner George Mason University, will recruit investigators to work in collaborative teams on genetics and genomics, bioengineering, systems biology of disease, developmental biology and computational biology. The goal: make scientific discoveries that can be turned into new treatments, drugs and devices that improve the health of patients across Virginia and beyond.

Some startup concepts are easy to understand.

OrderUp wants to deliver food right to your door. Lyft will make sure you can call a ride to anywhere you need to go.

President Trump has named Norman “Ned” Sharpless, the director of the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, to lead the National Cancer Institute.

The oncologist and geneticist will succeed Doug Lowy, who has been acting director of NCI since early 2015. Lowy is expected to remain at the institute as deputy director and a researcher.

A program at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise aimed to bolster economic development in the region has received millions to help more students and the community get involved.

The Wise County school announced Friday that their parent school in Charlottesville has allocated $3.5 million from its Strategic Fund for the Wise Innovation Ecosystem.

There’s no shame in getting a little bit of help, particularly when it comes to running a business. Sure, you can bootstrap a one-man company with no advice from seasoned entrepreneurs and a notable lack of experience yourself, but you know what’s going to happen? You’re probably going to fail. And all you had to do was ask for a little bit of guidance for your friendly neighborhood startup accelerator.

Can they do whatever a spider can? Definitely not. But what they can do is provide you with capital, mentorship, and perhaps most importantly, a little structure to your budding business. A startup accelerator is designed to make life as an entrepreneur easier. Well, the good ones are anyway.

Ty Alston is helping microfunding website Kiva.org find its place in Baltimore’s startup scene.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) today announced it will continue to serve as a catalyst for identifying and engaging with emerging innovators and disruptors with the second annual Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge. Building on the success of the inaugural program in which 500 startups participated, the Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge brings together leading-edge startups with prominent health and life sciences companies to tackle some of the world’s greatest health challenges including access, affordability and transparency.

Honoring those who see past the present to create the future. The future is not granted. It is born from the initiative of entrepreneurs. Now in its 31st year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year® program celebrates these future-makers whose drive propels growth in our economies and our world.

We invite you to join us in celebrating the remarkable achievements of this year’s Maryland finalists at the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2017 Maryland Awards gala.

On May 15, MdBio Foundation hosted the first STEM Leadership Experience, an afterschool workshop for high school girls, onboard the Mobile eXploration Lab. Designed in collaboration with MdBio’s longtime partner, MedImmune/AstraZeneca, the program is an immersive, hands-on activity designed to teach laboratory practices while building relationships between high school students and STEM professionals.

President Trump announced Tuesday that he will keep Francis S. Collins as director of the National Institutes of Health.

Collins was first nominated for the position in 2009 by President Obama. Shortly after he took office, Trump announced that Collins would stay on in an interim role, and many scientists have wondered if Collins would be offered the position or would accept it on a permanent basis in the new administration. Trump surprised many this year by proposing cuts of nearly 20 percent in the budget of the NIH, which normally has support from Democrats and Republicans alike.

The 2017 Omnibus Grant Solicitations of the NIH, CDC, and FDA are now available for the SBIR and STTR (NIH only) programs.

The 2017 SBIR/STTR Omnibus solicitations and accompanying resources can be found below:

• SBIR: PA-17-302
• STTR: PA-17-303
• 2017 Program Descriptions and Research Topics and Appendix A (SBA approved topics for budget waivers)
• SF 424 (R&R) Online HTML Application Guide
• SF 424 (R&R) PDF Guide Application Guide for SBIR/STTR Grant Applications
• Annotated SF424 SBIR/STTR Form Set

Standard Application Due Dates: September 5, 2017 and January 5, 2018.

The Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) has been awarded two $115,000 grants to commercialize technologies based on improving protein-based therapeutics utilizing a novel biopolymer and an alternate way to treat Niemann-Pick disease patients. The grants are funded by the Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII) as part of the Technology Council of Maryland’s (TEDCO) effort to support commercialization of academic-based scientific research and the state’s efforts to foster economic development in Maryland. The MII program is a collaboration between the State of Maryland and five Maryland institutions: University of Maryland, Baltimore; University of Maryland, College Park; Morgan State University; UMBC; and Johns Hopkins University.

Several technology research and commercialization research projects are getting money thanks to the Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund Awards.

Governor Terry McAuliffe announced $2.7 million in funding for 40 projects across the Commonwealth, including several in Albemarle County.

The FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health is ramping up medical app and device offerings with a recently announced digital health unit.

The aim of this development is to centralize and coordinate digital health information so that there is consistency in applying policies. According to the associate director of digital health for the FDA, Bakul Patel, the primary responsibilities of those on the project will be to develop software and digital health tech to assist with premarket submissions or devices, utilize experts, and incorporate metrics that will aid review times and submissions.

A vaccine that could provide a major breakthrough in the fight against Type 1 diabetes is to be tested in human trials.

Developed by Belgian biotech Imcyse, in collaboration with the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in Paris – and 18 clinical sites across Europe, the company’s Imotopes™ technology can destroy immune cells that kill insulin-producing cells.

Crowdfunding platforms such as GoFundMe and YouCaring have turned sympathy for Americans drowning in medical expenses into a cottage industry. Now Republican efforts in Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare could swell the ranks of the uninsured and spur the business of helping people raise donations online to pay for health care.

But medical crowdfunding doesn’t have to wait for Congress to act. Business is already booming, and its leaders expect the rapid growth to continue no matter what happens on the Hill.

With both Maryland and Virginia donating land and financing construction of new federal buildings, a hundred square mile District of Columbia (originally called Territory of Columbia) was surveyed.

University of Maryland (UM) Ventures announced today that the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) has granted worldwide, exclusive licensing rights for a new vaccine technology to Serenta Biotechnology, LLC, a Gaithersburg, MD-based startup. The license is based on technology co-owned by UMB and Northern Arizona University and is the basis for a multivalent vaccine against infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterial strain often resistant to antibiotics.

We are pleased to report that 20/20 placed first place among 21 pre-selected entrepreneurial contestants this month at the U.S. China Innovation & Investment Summit InnoSTARS competition in Houston, Texas: http://www.uschinainnovation.org/innostars/ . As a result, we have won an all-expenses paid trip to China to meet with and pitch to investors in that country as part of the Final Stage of the contest. The contest involved a 7-minute pitch by the CEO of 20/20 followed by Q&A before a panel of judges comprising Chinese and American VCs and business executives.

On April 26, hundreds of people came to East Baltimore for the grand opening of FastForward 1812. The event, billed as a celebration of a new physical space to support innovation, was just as much a celebration of the innovation hub’s promise to impact the future of Johns Hopkins, the city of Baltimore and people around the world by helping bring life-changing technologies to market.

“[This space is] a physical manifestation of our commitment to bringing together the necessary ingredients of innovation,” Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels said during the celebration’s opening remarks.

Last year, Johns Hopkins University and MedImmune announced their collaboration on a unique new initiative, the Johns Hopkins-MedImmune Scholars Program. The program has just selected its first Ph.D. candidates for a curriculum that will prepare them for careers in the biopharma industry.

Inez Lam and Natalia Majewska, both first-year Johns Hopkins University Ph.D. students, will participate in the five-year program, the first-of-its-kind in the United States, to gain a better understanding of the process and challenges of drug discovery and development. Upon completion, they will receive a traditional Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University.

Maryland Technology Development Corp. is offering $300,000 to the person or organization that comes up with the best idea for how to support and grow technology companies in the state.

Are you an NIH-funded investigator focused on medical device innovations? NIH recently announced the availability of administrative supplements to parent awards for a number of different activity codes with participation by four ICs (see lists below). Both SBIR/STTR awardees as well as recipients of a number of different research grants are eligible.

Max Becton and Fairleigh Dickinson were two travelling salesmen when they met through an act of kindness in a Texas railroad station in 1897. The friendship that resulted formed the basis of a partnership that built Becton-Dickinson into a global medical technology company based in Bergen County. A story in 201 Magazine recounts the history of how the company got started.

As an entrepreneur, I spent over three years in two different startup incubators – Brazil’s Genesis Institute, part of PUC-Rio’s university, and Maryland’s Rockville Innovation Center, run by Montgomery County’s Economic Development Department. As mentor, I have also had the opportunity to coach several incubated companies, from incubators like 1776 and beyond. I could experience firsthand the benefits of business incubation, which can be significant for early-stage entrepreneurs.

For more than a decade, Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation has been making grants to organizations that support its mission of increasing the number of adults obtaining postsecondary credentials.

That’s the typical playbook for private foundations—contribute to other not-for-profits that are trying to make a difference. But over the past year, Lumina has aggressively moved in a more novel direction, funneling more of its $1.2 billion endowment into venture capital. Instead of just handing out grants, it’s taking ownership stakes in for-profit businesses, mainly education-tech startups.

Entrepreneurs in healthcare and life science ventures must master the art of communication to all stakeholders in order to enhance their chance of success.Some of these skills are intuitive, some are learned, but all are essential in order to build a cohesive and collaborative team that will succeed in bringing your innovation to life! Join us at the next SoPE event and take home some pearls from the experts in this field.

This inaugural event will showcase technologies being developed at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda and Frederick, and Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNLCR) to encourage startup formation, technology licensing, and collaborations. It will introduce the local scientific community to the regional technology development stakeholders and highlight available resources.

Prospective investors, established companies, interested stakeholders, and those looking to commercialize technologies are invited and encouraged to attend. The day will feature short technology summaries by NCI and FNLCR innovators, as well as presentations from regional stakeholders involved with technology development and commercialization. An interactive poster session by innovators and technology ambassadors will concurrently occur.

The Big Idea CONNECTpreneur Summer Forum Tysons Corner – June 13, 2017

“The Best Networking Event in the MidAtlantic.”

This will be our 24th consecutive SOLD OUT event over the last 6 years!

Over 70% of previous attendees surveyed say that CONNECTpreneur is the “Number One” tech and investor event in the Mid-Atlantic region!

DCInno calls CONNECTpreneur “The Best Networking Event in DC” and a “NETWORKING JACKPOT” of the Region’s TOP Entrepreneurs, Business Leaders, CXOs, Angels, and VCs.

This UNIQUE EVENT is like NONE OTHER in our region, because of the high quality of our attendees, speakers and presenters.

And YES, the networking is unprecedented!

Senseonics is set to raise $41 million to support the anticipated commercialization of implantable continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system Eversense. The fundraising attracted the support of major existing shareholders New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Roche.

This is the third Challenge Project which the two organisations have run together.

UTC Cambridge students attended weekly sessions with scientists and business professionals from the MedImmune team to learn about many aspects of a medicine’s discovery and development, including scientific research, manufacturing and regulation. In addition to visiting MedImmune’s state-of-the-art laboratories at Granta Park, students also attended workshops, classes and practical sessions held at UTC Cambridge’s purpose-designed building at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. In addition to gaining exposure to scientific research disciplines, students focused on practical and operational matters such as the importance of team work and collaboration, as well as wider concerns facing patients, government and industry on a global scale.

Saluda Medical has raised $40 million in a round led by a GlaxoSmithKline VC fund. The series D gives Saluda the means to take its spinal cord stimulation (SCS) device through a pivotal trial in the U.S. while commercializing it in Europe and its home country, Australia.

Writing on trends, I frequently profile tech companies that use trends to outperform competitors. But using trends is not restricted to tech companies.

By following trends, since 1998 Alexandria Real Estate Equities has tripled the performance of the NASDAQ, quadrupled returns of the S&P 500, and quintupled the Russell 2000. Alexandria has even outperformed technology stalwart Microsoft, and investment guru Berkshire Hathaway by 230%.

Event is for Post-Docs & Professional Scientists currently working in the Therapeutic Areas of:

• Oncology
• Respiratory, Inflammation & Autoimmunity •Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases •Infectious Diseases & Vaccines
• Related scientific disciplines

Event will include music, lawn games, hors d’oeuvres, drinks.

MedImmune fully supports and abides by the PhRMA Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals. MedImmune cannot accommodate or pay for the cost of a spouse or other guest of a healthcare professional. As such, this event is open to invitees only. If you are a prescriber and/or a Federal, State, or Institution employee, you may be subject to laws, regulations, or rules which prohibit, limit, or require the public disclosure of gifts, meals, or items of value you may receive. We ask that you comply with any such laws, regulations, or rules that govern your receipt of gifts, meals, or items of value. Please bring your State License Number (SLN) and National Provider Identifier (NPI) to the event. These will be used for reporting purposes where required by state and federal law (OPEN Payments). You may look up your NPI and SLN at http://www.npinumberlookup.org/.

TP Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on addressing oncology drug resistance, announced today that the company raised $45 million in a Series C financing round. The round was co-led by Lilly Asia Ventures (LAV), OrbiMed Advisors, LLC, and S.R. One, Limited, and joined by existing investors Cormorant Asset Management and SV Tech Ventures. In conjunction with the financing, Carl L. Gordon, Ph.D., CFA, General Partner at OrbiMed, Hongbo Lu, Ph.D., Partner at LAV, and Simeon J. George, M.D., Partner at S.R. One, joined the company’s Board of Directors.

GlaxoSmithKline, once the largest real estate owner in Research Triangle Park, has sold what’s left of its once-sprawling RTP campus and will lease back a small portion of the property where 3,000 employees and contractors work.

The deal, involving 20 buildings, was announced late Friday by Los Angeles-based Parmer Innovation Centers, which purchased the property, and by CBRE, a Los Angeles-based real-estate advisory that represented GSK in the real estate sale. The sale price was not disclosed.

This inaugural event will showcase technologies being developed at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda and Frederick, and Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNLCR) to encourage startup formation, technology licensing, and collaborations. It will introduce the local scientific community to the regional technology development stakeholders and highlight available resources.

Prospective investors, established companies, interested stakeholders, and those looking to commercialize technologies are invited and encouraged to attend. The day will feature short technology summaries by NCI and FNLCR innovators, as well as presentations from regional stakeholders involved with technology development and commercialization. An interactive poster session by innovators and technology ambassadors will concurrently occur.

The purpose of the administrative supplement is to provide support for NIH-funded investigators to participate in an entrepreneurship training course, the Concept to Clinic: Commercializing Innovation (C3i) Program. The C3i Program is designed to provide medical device innovators with the specialized business frameworks and essential tools for successful translation of biomedical technologies from the lab (concept) to the market (clinic). Through this program, the NIH fosters the development and commercialization of early-stage biomedical technologies by engaging investigators who are interested in better understanding the value of their innovation in addressing an unmet market need. The curriculum and customized mentoring provided by the C3i Program are intended to guide investigators as they assess the commercial viability and potential business opportunity for their innovation. Prospective applicants are strongly encouraged to contact NIH Scientific/Research staff for more information about the program before applying.

Check-out our dynamic line-up of speakers and their panels:

RISE OF MEDICAL CENTERS AS “INNOVATION DISTRICTS”

Panelists will discuss the new real estate drivers around the medical campus planning and the physical design and programs that will change the way healthcare research and practice are delivered. Panel speakers include:

Inova Health System and University of Virginia are kicking off their new partnership with $450,000 in seed money to fund nine joint research projects geared toward better predicting, preventing and treating disease.

Senator Bill Frist, MD, is among the country’s most important healthcare leaders. He is a partner at Nashville-based Frist Cressey Ventures, a heart/lung transplant surgeon and a serial entrepreneur. He’s also the former US Senate Majority Leader and has had a ring-side seat at the development of Nashville’s healthcare startup scene, which is now one of the most mature in the country.

University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Patrick Gallagher’s efforts to hotwire the region’s fledgling life sciences industry is getting a spark from a new seed capital fund targeted to helping develop new medications.

The Pittsburgh Revolution Fund is soliciting $200 million, which will be made available in the form of investments in drug research teams with the idea of spinning out companies, said Bill Newlin, chairman, Newlin Investment Co., a seed-stage investment firm in Sewickley.

ABOUT THE USDD: Every six months, the University Startups Demo Day engages with universities to accept 200 of their best university startups to be scored by a Corporate Selection Committee consisting of Fortune 500 companies. These double-curated startups by academia and industry represent the very top startups coming out of American universities that are industry aligned. The University IP Into University Startups (IP2Startups) program provide Fortune 500 companies an effective way to identify university technologies that correspond to business unit needs that can be licensed or commercialized by university startups. Our Investor Roadshow program provides funding for select Demo Day companies that develop towards corporate milestones over 2-7 years from the IP2Start and Demo Day programs.

IP2Startups and USDD Corporate Selection Committee Pool Includes: Air Products – Specialized Chemicals | Astra Zeneca – Pharmaceuticals | Barilla – Food Processing | BASF – Diversified Chemicals | BMW – Auto & Truck Manufacturers | Dassault Systemes – Software & Programming | DuPont – Chemicals | Eastman Chemical Company – Specialized Chemicals | Eli Lilly and Co. – Pharmaceuticals | Evonik – Specialty chemicals | Faurecia – Automotive parts manufacturing | GlaxoSmithKline – Pharmaceuticals | Hyundai – Auto & Truck Manufacturers | IBM – Computer Services | Johnson & Johnson – Medical Equipment & Supplies | Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of J&J – Pharmaceuticals | M Ventures (Merck KGaA) – Healthcare, Life Sciences, Performance Materials | Medline – Medical and Surgical Supplies | Pepsico – Beverages and Foods | Pfizer – Pharmaceuticals | SABIC – Chemicals | Saint-Gobain – Construction Materials | Sanofi – Pharmaceuticals | Schlumberger – Oil Services & Equipment | Sony – Consumer Electronics | The J.M. Smucker Company – Food Processing | Unilever – Household/Personal Care | Western Digital Capital – Computer Storage Devices

Pappas Capital, a life science venture capital firm, announced today that its new fund, Pappas Ventures V, recently invested in OrphoMed, a clinical stage company that is developing best-in-class therapies for treatment of inadequately-controlled gastrointestinal disorders. The investment in OrphoMed is the first investment by the new Pappas Ventures fund.

Maryland’s governor is putting new economic development energy into creating life sciences and cybersecurity startups.

To kick off the Governor’s Business Summit in Baltimore this morning, Gov. Larry Hogan provided some details on Excel Maryland. It’s a new initiative that’s seeking to bring together government, university and the tech community to develop a new strategy to grow startups.

Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels will co-chair the steering committee for a new statewide economic development strategy initiative focused on accelerating growth in the life sciences and cybersecurity industries in Maryland, Gov. Larry Hogan announced today.

Baltimore biotech firm, PathSensors, announced that its CEO, Ted Olsen, joined with other leaders of the Maryland Biohealth community in developing and issuing recommendations to grow Maryland’s biohealth industry and position the state as a globally recognized Top 3 U.S. BioHealth Innovation Hub by 2023.

Silver Spring drugmaker United Therapeutics Corp. extended an exclusive license with drug giant Eli Lilly & Co. to cover its pulmonary hypertension drug Adcirca, which will lose part of its patent protection later this year.

More people are starting businesses out of opportunity than out of necessity; the percentage of immigrant entrepreneurs is at a two-decade high. However, new businesses are creating fewer jobs than they did a generation ago.

The complex life cycle of a biotechnology product, pharmaceutical or medical device demands a broad range of legal expertise across many practice specialties. From intellectual property protection to corporate and regulatory advice, the leading law firms in the life sciences space combine sophisticated legal counsel with deep scientific knowledge.

Pharmaceutical giant Bayer has opened applications for its Grant4Apps programme. Geared to connect health start-ups with industry experts and help the best talents to thrive within the digital healthcare universe, the programme will offer start-ups an opportunity to become part of an economically inclusive market where innovation is not only encouraged but appreciated as a catalyst for expanding both economic and social growth, says Bayer.

We recently joined leaders from across the biomedical ecosystem at the White House to discuss how to best support biomedical innovation that improves human health and creates jobs and opportunity for economic growth. We discussed the unique role of National Institutes of Health-funded academic research in understanding the biology of human disease, and the irreplaceable role of the biotech industry in translating these basic science discoveries into breakthrough therapies for serious human diseases.

Partners HealthCare’s fund to advance innovations made at its hospitals has closed on the last $24.5 million of its most recent funding round.

Thursday, June 01, 2017 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST

Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center 

5701 Marinelli Road 

Rockville, MD 20850

Sponsors

Award: AstraZeneca/MedImmune, BDO, BioMarker Strategies, Houlihan Lokey, JLL, PwC, UBS Financial Services Inc. and VWR

Gold: Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), CDW, Emergent BioSolutions, Inc., Immunomic Therapeutics, Iron Bow Technologies, Montgomery College, Novavax, Pillsbury, Social & Scientific Systems, Inc., and Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Silver: Glass Jacobson

STEM Scholarship Sponsor: Alexandria Real Estate Equities

The 2017 Industry Awards Celebration will be our 29th year of recognizing the companies and individuals in the Washington, DC region who make a difference. The Tech Council ignites the power of three by bringing together a trio of industries that are accelerating our local ecosystem—technology, life sciences, and healthcare/health IT. It’s our mission to make this region a top three innovation economy by 2023, so we’re redefining what’s possible and helping to shape the future through ideation, collaboration, and innovation. Join us in celebrating the veteran companies and startups, the CEOs and CFOs who are lighting the way and inspiring us all.

The Annual Women Spanning the Globe Leadership Conference features an impressive line- up of speakers and topics designed to enhance the life and careers of international business women. Attendees will leave with a fresh perspective, new ideas, best practices to implement, new friends, and the feeling that you are part of an International Professional Sisterhood.

“A Celebration of Professional Women’s Journeys – Navigating Career, Family and the World”.

When: Tuesday, June 6, 2017

9am – 3:30pm

Where: American Visionary Art Museum

800 Key Highway

Baltimore, MD 21231

Cost: $175 – Non Member; $125 – Member

Entrepreneurs in healthcare and life science ventures must master the art of communication to all stakeholders in order to enhance their chance of success.Some of these skills are intuitive, some are learned, but all are essential in order to build a cohesive and collaborative team that will succeed in bringing your innovation to life! Join us at the next SoPE event and take home some pearls from the experts in this field.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) today held a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by Dr. Rick Bright, director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), and Daniel J. Abdun-Nabi, Emergent’s president and chief executive officer, to mark the formal opening of the company’s newly expanded Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (CIADM) at its Bayview Campus in Baltimore. The facility is one of three centers designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide advanced development and manufacturing of medical countermeasures to support the U.S. government’s national security and public health emergency needs.

Collaboration across academia, government, non-profits, and the biopharmaceutical industry fosters innovation and groundbreaking discoveries in science and research. During the 2017 BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR) Forum held at our Gaithersburg, Maryland campus, world-renowned speakers and local leaders convened to showcase the benefits of continued collaboration that can help us prevent, treat, and find cures for deadly diseases.

Smithers Avanza, a contract research organization supporting the pharmaceutical industry, announced that its Bioanalytical Services Division has completed the second expansion of its bioanalytical laboratory in the last two years. The expansion doubles the size of the Gaithersburg, Maryland lab, which now offers 15,000 square feet of space, and continues the trend of growth in support of client demand for services. Smithers Avanza plans to celebrate the completed expansion with clients, employees and community friends with an Open House.

Immunomic Therapeutics negotiated an exclusive license to Annias Immunotherapeutics’ platform covering technology for targeting cytomegalovirus (CMV) antigens in cancer. The CMV immunotherapy platform was developed by John H. Sampson, M.D., Ph.D., and Duane A. Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D., at Duke University and licensed to Annias. Immunomic will combine the CMV platform with its own nucleic acid-based immunotherapy LAMP-Vax™ technology as a potential treatment for cancers that express CMV, including glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Financial details of the licensing agreement were not disclosed

The Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) announced that its 2017 Woman of the Year is Bahija Jallal, PhD, executive vice president, AstraZeneca, and head of MedImmune. MedImmune is the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca.

Yes, we’re still going to have networking with a few drinks and snacks as usual!

Join us on May 18th in the back lot at Johns Hopkins Montgomery County campus to explore local biotech careers w/ Employers who have open jobs, and two great workforce training organizations that can help you advance your career – Worksource Montgomery & BioTrain. As an added bonus you get to explore the brand new Mobile Exploration Lab (MXLab).

Even if you’re happy with your current position and aren’t looking for something new. Spend some time with your peers and friends to network along with seeing what these organizations have to offer.

Come by for the whole event or just a part of it. We’re looking forward to seeing you there!