BHI Weekly Newsletter Archives

University of Maryland (UM) Ventures and CoapTech, LLC, announced today that the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) has granted CoapTech exclusive licensing rights for the commercial development of a platform technology called Coaptive Ultrasound. CoapTech will use the technology, initially, to bring to market a medical device allowing non-surgical providers to safely perform feeding tube placement at the bedside through a novel procedure termed PUG (Percutaneous Ultrasound Gastrostomy). PUG is a minimally invasive and more cost-effective method for the placement of permanent gastrostomy (feeding) tubes into stomachs of patients who need long-term nutritional supplementation.

WorkSource Montgomery, Inc., the workforce development resource for Montgomery County businesses and career seekers, is collaborating with Montgomery College, which will serve as the lead on a $5.6 million America’s Promise grant. The grant will provide IT and cybersecurity training for students to ensure Montgomery County is better equipped to meet local business needs.

MedImmune and Abpro said today they will partner to develop a preclinical, novel, bispecific antibody targeting angiopoietin-2 and vascular endothelial growth factor (Ang2-VEGF).

Through the collaboration—whose value was not disclosed—several potential therapeutic areas will be explored where inhibition of the Ang2 and VEGF pathways with the bispecific antibody may provide clinical benefit, MedImmune and Abpro said.

Investigators at the Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies (ICRHPS) at Tufts Medical Center (Tufts MC) and Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) – a shared resource between Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM), together with the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine’s Brain Injury Outcomes (BIOS) Division and the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR), won a seven-year, $25 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) to form one of only three new national Trial Innovation Centers (TICs) that will provide high-quality design and operational support to investigators conducting multi-center clinical trials.

Marriott Hotels in Europe has launched an accelerator program for tech companies to enhance the travel and hospitality experience. Each startup will be given expert guidance and the opportunity to pilot their product. Following a successful test period, Marriott Hotels could potentially offer them an ongoing partnership.

AstraZeneca will partner with Bicycle Therapeutics to develop respiratory, cardiovascular, and metabolic disease treatments based on Bicycle’s proprietary bicyclic peptide (Bicycle®) product platform through a collaboration that the Cambridge, U.K., startup said today could generate for it more than $1 billion.

Under the collaboration, Bicycle has agreed to identify Bicycle bicyclic peptides for an undisclosed number of targets specified by AstraZeneca. The pharma giant has agreed to oversee further development and product commercialization.

Alexandria Real Estate CEO Joel Marcus on the company’s deal to develop Merck’s new research facility in California.

Becton, Dickinson and Co. (NYSE:BDX) presented their roadmap for the future on their recent analyst day briefing. The presentation laid out ambitious plans that management has set out for the company through to 2019, including targeting top line expansion and double-digit bottom line expansion to be driven by margin improvements. The management has also set out to increase dividends through to 2019, through roughly $11 billion in operating cash flow (OCF) generation.

BioBuzz Workforce Foundation, Inc., a social community organization whose mission is to build a more connected bioscience industry in the region, today announced a partnership with The City of Frederick Department of Economic Development and the Frederick County Chapter of BioBeers Meetup group. This new collaboration will give Frederick companies access to BioBuzz’s BioHive Platform and showcase them as important components within the ecosystem.

QIAGEN and CosmosID, a leading genomic big data company, today announced the launch of a metagenomics analysis plugin for the QIAGEN Microbial Genomics Pro Suite and CLC Genomics Workbench. The launch of the Cosmos ID plugin expands QIAGEN’s industry leading platform for NGS bioinformatics and strengthens its role as a provider of Sample to Insight metagenomics solutions.

Seeking to deliver the “final nail in the coffin for HIV,” NIH scientists have kicked off a large clinical trial of a vaccine regimen this week in South Africa.

Under a collaboration that includes GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases started a phase 2b/3 trial of a new vaccine regimen in 5,400 sexually active men and women aged 18 to 35 who don’t have the infection. They’ll receive five injections over a year.

A five-year extension of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs took a big step forward at the end of November.

U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, announced that language she wrote seeking the extension was included in a compromise National Defense Authorization Act, with votes expected soon.

This request for information (RFI) seeks comments regarding early translational research activities supported by NHLBI.

Background

NHLBI seeks to facilitate and accelerate the development of new clinical interventions by bridging the gaps between mechanistic, discovery, and early translational research. This includes providing appropriate mechanisms to support investigator-initiated research, addressing resource and knowledge gaps, and creating initiatives to support career development of translational scientists and biomedical entrepreneurs.

The emergence of big data, as well as advancements in data science approaches and technology, is providing pharmaceutical companies with an opportunity to gain novel insights that can enhance and accelerate drug development. It will increasingly help government health agencies, payers, and providers to make decisions about such issues as drug discovery, patient access, and marketing. From our unique vantage points at Genentech, a leading biotechnology company with a major data science practice, and The Data Incubator, a data-science education company that places and trains data scientists, we have seen how the pharmaceuticals industry has leveraged big data for some potentially revolutionary advances and the challenges it has faced along the way.

In its third year of mentoring and investing in cybersecurity start-ups in Northern Virginia, state-funded start-up accelerator Mach37 is starting to show it can churn out self-sustaining businesses.

Quasi-public venture capital firm MassVentures reports that its SBIR Targeted Technologies (START) program has invested $12 million into 50 companies that need more time to commercialize high-risk, high-reward technologies — and those companies have leveraged that state investment to raise an additional $278 million in outside capital.

Scientific efforts to find cures for cancer will be severely hampered if the scientific community does not change the ways in which patient data is collected, shared, and analyzed. The development of targeted therapies and immunotherapies — the two biggest hopes for cancer cures — depend on the existence of large data sets comprising patients’ genetic and clinical information. Today, that data is fragmented and guarded in silos. Indeed, the well-kept secret in the cancer space is that progress in finding cures is being impeded as much by the lack of sharing by the players in the precision medicine ecosystem as it is by the stubbornness of the underlying science.

Sean Parker decided to take on cancer by throwing so many deep-rooted basics of research tradition out the window that he very nearly drove away the academics he wanted to attract.

As part of its longstanding commitment to Africa, Johnson & Johnson today announced the launch of the Africa Innovation Challenge, an initiative to support Africa’s vibrant and growing innovation ecosystem and to help develop important and locally sustainable consumer health solutions. The challenge is the latest initiative in the company’s comprehensive approach to advancing health and innovation worldwide. The Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies’ presence in Africa dates back more than 80 years and includes business operations, public health programs and corporate citizenship.

Joint replacements. Cardiac care. Chemotherapy.

What do those things have to do with the repeal of the Affordable Care Act?

Economists and policymakers think the U.S. may be overpaying for such services, which helps drive up healthcare expenses for everyone. And the health law has a program that includes testing new ways to pay for care — including in those three areas — that might result in better quality and lower costs.

Thermo Fisher has bolstered its stem cell technology and reagent business through the acquisition of MTI-GlobalStem.

Buyout firms have taken an increasingly large role in healthcare, investing in the full range of companies: insurers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, medical-technology firms, and many kinds of service provider. Historically, success has come from making “smart bets” on companies well positioned to capitalize on an industry trend or shift. TPG’s buyout of Par Pharmaceutical and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice’s acquisition of Envision Healthcare are examples of investments that benefited from secular industry tailwinds. Those same factors have propelled the healthcare sector to a leading performance in public markets over the past five years (Exhibit 1).

America’s entrepreneurial economy is the envy of the world. Young companies account for almost 30 percent of new jobs, and as we have fought back from the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes, startups have helped the U.S. private sector create 15.5 million jobs since early 2010—the longest streak of private-sector job creation on record.

Today, in celebration of National Entrepreneurship Month, the Administration is releasing a Top 10 list of President Obama’s most significant specific actions to promote American entrepreneurship, as well as announcing new efforts to build on these successes. The President’s unprecedented focus on the role of startups in the United States’ innovation economy is exemplified by his launch of Startup America in 2011, a White House initiative to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the Nation.

Venture capital has been on a good run over the past few years across a range of sectors; even with recent slowdown relative to 2014-2015, venture-backed investments remain above historic averages. In fact, the first three quarters of 2016 alone are already higher than the annual rate of venture investing in all but two years since 2002.

Fri, December 9, 2016 – 8:30 AM – 1:00 PM EST

Montgomery Community Media in partnership with the Maryland/DC District Export Council, the US Commercial Service, the Maryland Department of Commerce, and the Small Business Administration present a three-hour program on the challenges and opportunities facing companies going global. The program will feature 3 panels covering key aspects of international trade, including trade finance and local resources that facilitate trade. Speakers include government executives as well as CEOs who have successfully taken their companies international.

Wednesday, December 14, 7 – 11 amFalls Church Marriott Fairview Park

Super Early Bird expires November 3rd for our CONNECTpreneur Winter Forum, headlined by Revolution Chairman & CEO, STEVE CASE, former AOL Time Warner Chair and New York Times bestselling author of The Third Wave.

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

Wednesday, December 09, 2015

Dear Friends and Colleagues, This next DC SoPE event is a must for every healthcare/life science entrepreneur, innovator, and potential investor! Our panel will answer questions about terms sheets from the audience…from the most basic to the most erudite. Please join us and pass the information along to your constituents and stakeholders. Thanks for your support in nurturing the Healthcare/Life science ecosystem in the DC region.

Quantified Care is making moves this fall.

The health IT startup received an investment from KiwiVenture Partners II earlier this month. The terms of the infusion from the New York-based venture firm were not disclosed.

A $65 million building was dedicated Monday afternoon at the East Baltimore Development Inc. project that will include a business incubator, research space and a Starbucks job training site.

The Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine will receive $138 million in federal funds that will support the work of the newly created Center for International Health, Education and Biosecurity to build programs in Africa to combat HIV/AIDS.

Venture capital has been on a good run over the past few years across a range of sectors; even with recent slowdown relative to 2014-2015, venture-backed investments remain above historic averages. In fact, the first three quarters of 2016 alone are already higher than the annual rate of venture investing in all but two years since 2002.

House and Senate health committee leaders have released the final “21st Century Cures” bill and announced that the House of Representatives will vote Wednesday on a $6.3 Billion landmark medical innovation package that will accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery of new cures and treatments and provide new funding for the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration. The leaders said the House would also vote Wednesday to include in the Cures bill legislation that updates major mental health programs for the first time in a decade. The new funding includes $1 billion in state grants to fight opioid abuse.

The University of Virginia Health System has named its first-ever Chief Innovation Officer, a position that’s expected to bridge the gap between research and treatment.

UVA is home to revolutionizing research and technology but newly-hired CIO Jeff Keller will facilitate in putting the research to use.

House and Senate leaders announced late Friday night that they had finally hammered out a deal on landmark legislation designed to speed federal approval of new drugs and devices and boost funding of medical research.

But what Republican lawmakers call the “final” version of the 21st Century Cures Act is actually still in negotiation with Senate Democrats, a senior Democratic aide told STAT on Sunday.

The 2017 FLC Awards is now open for nominations. One of the most coveted honors in the technology transfer field, the FLC Awards have been presented to over 200 federal laboratories since their inception in 1984. Many of our winning technology transfer efforts have gone on to become products and devices that are indispensable in our daily lives, including:

The i6 Challenge award sets aim on enhancing Long Island Bioscience Ecosystem

The Center for Biotechnology at Stony Brook University has announced that is has received a three-year, $500,000 U.S. Department of Commerce i6 Challenge Investment. The award will support the Center for Biotechnology’s (CFB) efforts to bolster the regional bioscience ecosystem by supporting a formal mentorship program, as well as a critical NIH-focused SBIR/STTR training and application development program which will assist in capital formation and launching new companies.

Tuesday, November 29th | 10:00am – 12:00 pm Rockville Innovation Center, 155 Gibbs Street, Rockville, MD 20850

Hosted by BioHealth Innovation

You’ve probably heard about the Cloud, Big Data and Machine Learning, but where does the hype end and the true value of these technologies begin? Can, or should, your business leverage these technologies? Mark Weston and Matt Puglisi from Netrias LLC (www.netrias.com) will describe the current state of the art for Cloud computing, Big Data and Machine Learning to help you better leverage these technologies for your business.

Mark Weston, Chief Software Architect, is a software engineer with extensive experience in applying distributed database technologies to problems at scale. Matt Puglisi, Chief Executive Officer is a seasoned leader with successful experience as a technology company executive, a leader of research and development efforts, government service, and military service

Please RSVP by November 22nd to Joyce Debrowski (jdebrowski@scheerpartners.com | (301) 279-2222). The event is open to the first 30 registrants only.

International Trade – The Basics for Bio & Technology Companies

Attend this lunch-and-learn event to hear global industry experts discuss how Maryland companies can leverage resources to fund and market their international ambitions. Hear from one local company who has successfully taken advantage of these tools.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Existing companies and startups in the life sciences and health technology industries

PANELISTS: 

Jessica Reynolds, Regional Manager for Europe and Africa at Maryland Department of Commerce’s Office of International Investment and Trade

Barry Bogage, Executive Director of Maryland Israel Development Center

Carla Menendez McManus, Commercial Officer at U.S. Export Assistance Center

Dr. Hyacinth Ntchobo, Founder and CEO of MagBio Genomics

Lunch provided.

Thursday, December 1, 2016 | 6:00 – 8:30 p.m.

Hosted by the Maryland/Israel Development Center 

Samuel E. Feigin, Partner, Crowell & Moring LLP 

Event Chair

The Showcase is a fantastic networking event and expo. It will feature booths for Israeli companies in Maryland, as well as Maryland companies who have business relationships with Israeli companies. In addition, the program will feature insight from the heart of the U.S.-Israel business world from one of its foremost leaders, Zur Feldman. This is your chance to meet leaders from Israeli hi-tech, life sciences, cyber and homeland security companies and others operating in Maryland. This is a great opportunity for local companies, investors and organizations who want to explore or expand their involvement in the robust U.S.-Israel business ecosystem and for all to learn about that ecosystem.

A life sciences incubator formerly run by Montgomery County is now being managed by a public-private partnership that focuses on helping central Maryland scientists and bio-health startups bring their ideas to market. Rockville-based BioHealth Innovation Inc. at the start of October began managing the Germantown Innovation Center, which is part of the Pinkey Innovation Complex for Science and Technology at Montgomery

Calling all innovators, startups, and entrepreneurs: join us in participating in the first-ever #FosterlyCensus — a region-wide, community project gathering information and statistics about our rapidly expanding ecosystem. Be a part of the most comprehensive, resourceful survey our city has ever seen by filling out the info at http://fosterly.com.

As the IoT reels from and struggles with ongoing security issues stemming from DDoS and botnet and SSH and DNS and innumerable other interrelated problems, the industry needs outside input and leadership to give it strategic guidance.

According to a recent announcement, one such source of guidance will be in the form of the Rockville Innovation Center (RIC) in Montgomery County, Maryland, where BioHealth Innovation (BHI) has partnered with The MITRE Corporation, a not-for-profit corporation that operates federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs), including the National Cybersecurity FFRDC, to look for innovative solutions to next-generation security threats.

In an effort to accelerate growth in the cybersecurity and health technology industries in Montgomery County, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) has partnered with The MITRE Corporation of McLean, Virginia—a not-for-profit corporation that operates federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs), including the National Cybersecurity FFRDC.

BHI will serve as the primary manager for the Rockville Innovation Center (RIC), which is home of BHI’s health tech startup accelerator, Relevant Health. MITRE will provide the resident RIC start-up companies technical mentorship and insight into the most pressing cybersecurity challenges facing business and government today. This collaboration is an extension of a strategic initiative recently launched by MITRE to act as an innovation bridge between the private and public sectors.

The RIC will support start-ups and attract early-stage technology companies within these key technology sectors to graduate companies into commercial spaces in Montgomery County in a few short years.

As Maryland emerges as a hotbed for research and commercial opportunities in the biohealth industry, many small businesses in this sector see the state as a good place to grow. When William Hearl started building Rockville-based Immunomic Therapeutics Inc. a decade ago, much of the initial learning curve was finding that sweet spot between creating their

Roche said today it will launch a CHF 100 million ($100.1 million) global network of 21 academic centers focused on cancer immunotherapy R&D.

The new Centers of Research Excellence (imCORE™) Network aims to advance promising new immuno-oncology treatments by quickly carrying out preclinical and clinical research, as well as aggregating and sharing data.

Gaitherburg-based OpGen Inc. has entered a new partnership with pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. in a collaboration officials say will help more quickly combat so-called superbugs with rapid diagnostic tests.

OpGen, which has focused on creating rapid DNA diagnostic tools to improve antibiotic decision-making, has been building a bank of bacterial pathogens to offer more accurate infection diagnostic testing.

Integrated BioTherapeutics (IBT) announced today that it has entered into an exclusive worldwide license agreement with Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE: EBS) whereby Emergent will gain exclusive rights to use IBT’s proprietary vaccine antigens and know-how in a joint research, development, and manufacturing collaboration focused on an equine-based hyperimmunoglobulin for the treatment of hemorrhagic fever caused by Filoviruses. Financial terms of the agreement are not disclosed.

AstraZeneca today announced the completion of the licensing agreement between MedImmune, its global biologics research and development arm, and Allergan plc, for the global rights to MEDI2070.

MEDI2070 is an IL-23 monoclonal antibody currently in a Phase IIb clinical trial for moderate-to-severe Crohn’s disease and ready for Phase II for ulcerative colitis, diseases that sit outside AstraZeneca’s three main therapy areas.

HTG Molecular Diagnostics, Inc. (Nasdaq: HTGM) and QIAGEN Manchester Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of QIAGEN N.V. (Nasdaq: QGEN). This Agreement creates a framework for both companies to combine their technological and commercial strengths with the goal to offer pharmaceutical companies a complete NGS-based solution for the development and commercialization of companion diagnostics, with a focus in oncology. Together with the parties’ entry into the Agreement, QIAGEN North American Holdings, Inc., another QIAGEN subsidiary, made a minority investment in HTG’s common stock.

Baltimore-based Glyscend Inc. was awarded one of three $500,000 research grants from Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC and its research arm Janssen as part of the health care giant’s World Without Disease QuickFire Challenge.

Glyscend was spun out of Johns Hopkins University and continues operations as part of the Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures program. The company is currently in the process of raising a Series A funding round, with a goal of between $5 million and $10 million. The Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) grant money will help the company reach its goal, said Ashish Nimgaonkar, co-founder and CEO.

Faculty from the University of Maryland, Baltimore and Johns Hopkins University and local entrepreneurs were recently recognized for their groundbreaking research with $200,000 in prizes.

The awards were made by the two universities, the Abell Foundation and the Maryland Department of Commerce as part of a day-long 2016 Innovation Showcase. The event was cohosted by the Johns Hopkins Alliance for Science and Technology Development and the University of Maryland, Baltimore Commercial Advisory Board.

GSK has recently been ranked first in the Access to Medicine Index for the fifth consecutive time, taking a leadership position in research and development, pricing, manufacturing and distribution, and product donations.

The Index, which recognises GSK for its clear access to medicines strategy and company-wide ownership, is an independent measure of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies’ efforts to improve access to healthcare in developing countries.

When a scientist discovers a new drug to cure a disease, it’s cheers all around. But what happens next? How is the drug produced for commercialization so that it can actually be administered to a patient?

That’s where Michael Betenbaugh, a Whiting School of Engineering professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, comes in. He and his laboratory team are working with researchers at MedImmune to develop a more efficient media in which to grow the microbes used to produce genetically engineered human antibodies for testing, development and commercialization.

EY has named J.W. “Bill” Marriott, Jr., Marriott (MAR) International Executive Chairman, its 2016 US EY Entrepreneur of the Year. The honor was announced at the EY Strategic Growth Forum in Palm Springs, California.

The legendary hotelier credits hard work and high expectations for his associates as two key reasons for his success. Under his more than 50 years of leadership, Marriott has grown from a family restaurant business into the world’s largest hotel chain.

During the STRT1UP Roadshow, lots of companies around the state pitched on the Startup Maryland bus.

They were looking to get exposure from the video evidence it provided, but also looking to move on to the next round.

TEDCO’s Entrepreneur Expo came to Baltimore this year, hosting an all-day session at the Hilton on Monday.

The annual event attracts founders, investors and other community members from around the state. For the past several years, it was held in Columbia.

Startup Maryland yesterday unveiled the finalist for the Pitch Across Maryland Competition. Startup Maryland is proud to showcase the finalists along with all the ventures who participated in the 2016 STRT1UP Roadshow celebration of innovation and entrepreneurship. This year’s Finalist for each category are listed below with a link to their 2016 pitch video:

Deloitte today released the 2016 Technology Fast 500, an annual ranking of the fastest growing North American companies in the technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech sectors. Loot Crate claimed the top spot with a growth rate of 66,661 percent from 2012 to 2015.

Based in Los Angeles, Loot Crate delivers monthly curated mystery boxes of entertainment and pop culture themed collectibles to fans. Founded in 2012, Loot Crate has more than 650,000 subscribers worldwide in 35 countries. Loot Crate’s position at the top of this year’s list showcases how innovation isn’t always about new technology and invention, but also about ingenuity, the recombining of existing assets and know-how in new ways to maximize value.

California, the nation’s birthplace of biotechnology, continues to add jobs in that sector and the life sciences in general, a trade association reported Wednesday.

While growth is slow, the life sciences remain a potent economic force, especially in San Diego County and the San Francisco Bay area. There are also signs of expansion in Los Angeles County, which has long been overshadowed by its neighbors to the north and south.

International Trade – The Basics for Bio & Technology Companies

Attend this lunch-and-learn event to hear global industry experts discuss how Maryland companies can leverage resources to fund and market their international ambitions. Hear from one local company who has successfully taken advantage of these tools. WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Existing companies and startups in the life sciences and health technology industries

OCTOBER 27, 2015 @ 8:00 AM – OCTOBER 29, 2015 @ 5:00 PM

Join us for the 17th Annual National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovation Research & Small Business Technology Transfer Conference. This year’s conference From Washington to Washington: Supporting Small Business Innovation for Health, will provide attendees an opportunity to learn more about the $780 million in annual NIH funding available exclusively for small businesses to perform innovative research and build new businesses based on their technologies.

A Chinese group has become the first to inject a person with cells that contain genes edited using the revolutionary CRISPR–Cas9 technique.

On 28 October, a team led by oncologist Lu You at Sichuan University in Chengdu delivered the modified cells into a patient with aggressive lung cancer as part of a clinical trial at the West China Hospital, also in Chengdu.

A $25,000 contribution from AT&T will help the MdBio Foundation boost science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in Maryland. The contribution supports MdBio programs for underserved high school and rising middle school students, including the MdBioLab, a mobile laboratory that travels across the state giving students hands-on STEM experiences.

Brian Gaines, CEO of the MdBio Foundation, made the announcement during today’s Advancing Tomorrow’s Leaders in STEM (ATLAS) event at the University of Maryland BioPark in Baltimore. ATLAS is a college and career readiness symposium that offers students underrepresented in STEM an opportunity to connect with business leaders, colleges, government agencies and potential employers.

The Tech Council of Maryland is pleased to announce their new chairman and recently named board members representing a diverse coalition of Maryland technology, life sciences, legal and academic professionals.

Incoming Chairman Rene B. LaVigne has over 25 years of sales, marketing, operations, finance and accounting experience in the information technology and financial industries. He also serves as President and Chief Executive of Iron Bow Technologies.

When historians look back at the presidential election of 2016 they will certainly have many questions, but perhaps the biggest one isn’t getting enough attention today. “What the (insert the popular profanity of the future)?” they will likely ask. “Why was there hardly any mention of climate change?” Or will the future inhabitants of Earth be so distracted by survival that they won’t even care what happened in 2016 when the greatest country on the planet at that time denied this problem existed?

Relevant Health alumni, Agewell Biometrics is in the running to win the Medstartr Open Crowd Challenge. You can suppoprt them and help end the epidemic of avoidable falls in the elderly. Make a tax deductable donation or show your support by ‘Liking’ the campaign and help Agewell over the finish line.

Agewell’s Equilibrium™ platform is the first automated, fall prevention system. Using a smartphone, and soon a wearable sensor, Equilibrium™ measures strength, balance and physical function in order to identify fall risk, giving an early window of opportunity to take the right preventative steps before a fall happens.

One in three people aged 65 years and older fall every year – the leading cause of injury-related deaths amongst older adults, in addition to causing loss of independence, social isolation and depression. As many as 50% of these falls could be prevented with simple exercises, but only once a problem is identified. Equilibrium™ gives you the early warning for fall risk and soon you’ll be able to download it on your iOS or Android phone as a simple-to-use app.

A diagnostic test developer, miDIAGNOSTICS, has inked a deal with a Baltimore-based healthcare startup emocha to provide a way to conduct diagnostic tests through silicon chips and transmit those lab test results through the cloud, according to a press release.

Montgomery County’s Business Innovation Network is pleased to announce that Rockville’s own ReveraGen BioPharma, Inc., a Rockville Innovation Center tenant, granted an option to in-license vamorolone to Swiss company Actelion Ltd. This agreement marks the first tech transfer out of Children’s National Medical Center. Prior to moving to the Rockville Innovation Center, ReveraGen made their home at the Shady Grove Innovation Center.

Actelion Ltd and ReveraGen BioPharma, Inc., announced via press release that they entered into an agreement on November 3, 2016. By this agreement, Actelion has obtained an exclusive option to in-license ReveraGen’s lead compound vamorolone for the treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy at two different stages in its development.

The cofounders of startup that is looking to develop a vaccine for HPV are heading to a Buffalo accelerator.

PathoVax is among the new class of startups at 43North. A panel of judges and experts selected them as finalists after a big, fancy pitch competition held in late October meant to showcase Buffalo’s emerging tech chops.

Qiagen N.V., a leading global provider of sample to insight solutions, announced the validation of new and improved sequencing chemistry for its GeneReader NGS System, the world’s first complete Sample to Insight solution making the benefits of next-generation sequencing (NGS) accessible to any laboratory.

Qiagen published new, excellent performance data of the Qiagen GeneReader NGS System using the new sequencing chemistry and Qiagen’s GeneRead QIAact Actionable Insights Tumor Panel. Data generated from the GeneReader NGS System with the new chemistry showed 100% concordance with results of Qiagen’s FDA approved therascreen KRAS RGQ PCR assay, the company’s CE-labelled therascreen RAS Extension Pyro Assay as well as with an alternative next-generation sequencing (NGS) sequencer from another vendor. In this study, 42 metastatic colorectal cancer FFPE samples were tested with previously confirmed RAS mutational status.

Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (ITI), a privately-held, Maryland-based biotechnology company, today announced they are now accepting applications for their Cancer Discovery Incubator Award.

After experiencing partnering success and a $315 million deal with Japan-based Astellas Pharma Inc. for their LAMP-Vax platform technology in allergy, Immunomic Therapeutics, in concert with BioHealth Innovation, is giving back to the region’s growing scientific community with the Cancer Discovery Incubator Award. The incubator will enable and accelerate beginning ventures aimed at offering measurable change in oncological healt

Tuesday, November 29th | 10:00am – 12:00 pm Rockville Innovation Center, 155 Gibbs Street, Rockville, MD 20850

Hosted by BioHealth Innovation

You’ve probably heard about the Cloud, Big Data and Machine Learning, but where does the hype end and the true value of these technologies begin? Can, or should, your business leverage these technologies? Mark Weston and Matt Puglisi from Netrias LLC (www.netrias.com) will describe the current state of the art for Cloud computing, Big Data and Machine Learning to help you better leverage these technologies for your business.

Mark Weston, Chief Software Architect, is a software engineer with extensive experience in applying distributed database technologies to problems at scale. Matt Puglisi, Chief Executive Officer is a seasoned leader with successful experience as a technology company executive, a leader of research and development efforts, government service, and military service

Please RSVP by November 22nd to Joyce Debrowski (jdebrowski@scheerpartners.com | (301) 279-2222). The event is open to the first 30 registrants only.

Building Specifications:

• Up to 31,764 SF Available
• Rare large block of existing Class-A laboratory/office
• Heavily improved with casework, sinks, fume hoods, autoclaves, cold rooms
• Certified BSL-3 Suite
• Building is fully backed-up by emergency generator
• Complimentary membership to Alexandria FitLab fitness center
• Close proximity to Metro, FDA, NIH, lodging, restaurants and retail amenities

The mosquito-borne Zika virus — described in recent, grim federal warnings as “not controllable by current technologies”— could become an important source of hope for a regrouped Novavax Inc.

Gaithersburg-based Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX), still recovering from stunning negative results from its phase 3 trials of its lead respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine for older adults, said this week that it had “exciting preclinical data” from its new Zika program.

A new five-year collaboration between Johns Hopkins University and biopharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb aims to determine why some patients being treated for cancer respond to immunotherapy drugs called checkpoint blockers and some do not, and to develop more effective combination immunotherapies.

Projects included in the collaboration will span laboratory research on patients’ tumor samples and several early-stage clinical trials led by Johns Hopkins scientists at the Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.

Thu, November 17, 20164:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST

Join more than 400 of the region’s business and government leaders for the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore’s Annual Meeting, November 17, 2016 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront. While Maryland is known for its history and culture, food and beautiful landscape, this year’s annual meeting will celebrate one of the region’s greatest assets – the people – as they tell their stories. The program will recognize the region’s growing companies and those who make our community a world-class market in which to live, work, learn and invest.

NOVEMBER 16, 2016 5:00pm to 6:30pm

Host: UM BioPark & Wexford Science + Technology

Location: UM BioPark Invent & Advance Conference Rooms 801 W. Baltimore Street Baltimore Maryland 21201

Please join the BioPark’s Monthly Networking Event. Mingle with UM Venture program managers, BioPark tenants, and UMB faculty and staff.

Nominations are open for the 2017 Industry Awards Celebration. This will be our 29th year of recognizing the companies and individuals in the 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 health IT. It’s our mission to make this region a top three innovation economy, so we’re redefining what’s possible and helping to shape the future through ideation, collaboration, and innovation.

Join BioBuzz as we partner with BioIT Solutions to celebrate their 10th Anniversary at Growlers in Gaithersburg on November 16, 2016. BioIT Solutions offers a range of services from enterprise systems built on their 1Platform4 Suite for advanced computational, workflow, and data management systems to IT strategy, architecture and management consulting. The 1Platform Suite consists of a software foundation on which various highly configurable modules are assembled and tailored to each client’s specifications and needs.

The company was founded by IT experts who have worked in the biotechnology sector for over 20 years in a variety of information-technology capacities, including senior positions as CIO, and directors of Bioinformatics, Quality Systems and Clinical Systems at companies including Human Genome Sciences (now part of GlaxoSmithKline). The breadth of our experience makes us an ideal partner for early-stage companies, as well as those with legacy systems in need of modernization.

Thursday, December 1, 2016 | 6:00 – 8:30 p.m.

The more than 25 Showcase companies are some of the best from the robust U.S.-Israel Business ecosystem in fields including cyber security, homeland security, bio/pharma, environmental, healthcare, medical device and software. For more information on the companies, go to MarylandIsrael.org/showcase2016.

miDIAGNOSTICS, global developer of integrated diagnostic solutions for the point-of-need, announces that it has established a collaboration with emocha Mobile Health Inc. from Baltimore, MD, USA. A Johns Hopkins startup company, emocha has developed a platform of digital mobile applications that streamline the continuum of care. The goal of the collaboration is to enable mobile health solutions based on the miniaturized products for point-of-need under development by miDIAGNOSTICS.

Concerns over the role of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation could lead to legislation intended to hinder the agency and slow its attempts to further the goal of paying providers for value rather than volume.

While no specific legislative language has surfaced, multiple sources confirmed that Republicans upset with what they say is overreach by the CMS Innovation Center, also known as CMMI, are considering a legislative response. A few Republicans have previously said they would support repealing the agency entirely or zeroing out its budget. More modest efforts could include banning mandatory participation in payment models.

Get in the habit of producing good financial reports every single month. But you need more than just standard financial reports. You need a Management Dashboard that monitors critical metrics that may not pop out of your accounting reports. These monthly reports are a learning opportunity: What did we think would happen? What actually happened? Why was there a difference? Are we on track to hit our key milestones?

The day following the election of Donald J. Trump as President, a survey of leaders in biotechnology in the United States, conducted by GENETIC ENGINEERING & BIOTECHNOLOGY NEWS (GEN), showed that Trump’s presidency will negatively impact NIH research funding as well as STEM education; a plurality said it will also spark a “brain drain” as foreign-born researchers educated in American universities will be more likely to leave.

An end to Obamacare and a less aggressive approach to drug pricing expected

Pharmaceutical stocks surged in Europe on Wednesday as Republican Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential election win led investors to conclude the threat of tough action on drug pricing had receded.

Five Top Intellectual Property Legal Experts and a Room Filled with Life Science and Healthcare Entrepreneurs…what could possibly happen?

Strategies for Start-ups (and Non-Start-ups) to Maintain, Protect and Unlock their Intellectual Property.

The workshop is intended for non-lawyers to understand IP issues and answer questions on just about every aspect of IP including; Copyrights, Trade Secrets, Trademarks, Patents, licensing, IP Due Diligence, IP Strategy, etc.

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 an associates, bachelor or masters 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.

Eric Hoffman, PhD, writes a lot of grants, proposals and papers. A lot. As Professor and Associate Dean of Research at Binghamton University following stints at George Washington University, Harvard Medical School, and University of Pittsburgh, Dr Hoffman is used to writing a lot.

He also writes grants and proposals for his other job as CEO of Reveragen BioPharma – a small biotech company that has slowly developed a drug to treat boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

The cofounders of healthcare cybersecurity startup Protenus are providing insight to a think tank that focuses on protecting critical infrastructure from attacks.

Robert Lord and Nick Culbertson, who launched the company through Dreamit Health Baltimore after meeting in medical school at Johns Hopkins, were named fellows with the D.C.-based Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology.

Come to the “Before Party” of the Biopark’s monthly Science in the City Happy Hour! Join us for a tour then you are welcome to join us at SitC Happy Hour. Alternatively, if you are visiting us from outside of Baltimore, come during low traffic hours in the middle of the day and have lunch on us.

This Open House is designed for biotech professionals that are considering backup storage where a power outage or equipment failure could prove devastating to your initiatives. We are a boutique biorepository that work with some of the biggest names in Biotech to protect their biomaterials from equipment failure hazards.

New study finds that modification of the gut microbiome with a high concentration probiotic may reduce neurological inflammation found in many HIV-positive patients on antiretroviral treatment (ART)

MasterPeace Solutions Ltd., a cybersecurity contractor in Columbia, opened a new accelerator Thursday to support and grow startups founded internally by company employees.

The most interesting aspect of Foundation Medicine (NASDAQ:FMI) is that, last year, cancer giant Roche (OTCQX:RHHBY) paid $50 per share to buy a 56% stake in the company. Bill Gates and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Ventures are also owners in this genomic testing company. However, right now, the stock is trading at $22.50, about half that Roche number.

Were all these smart people wrong? Did the M&A decision makers at Roche and the analysts working for Bill Gates and Google Ventures not do their homework? Or are we missing something here?

CSSi LifeSciences™, a trusted partner from discovery to commercialization for drugs and medical devices, is excited to announce the establishment and launch of its fully integrated Medical Device CRO. CSSi LifeSciences™ Medical Device CRO aims to positively impact the timeline of regulatory clearance and increase profitability for medical device companies, in order to successfully launch its innovative research discoveries and product concepts into the market.

Inova Health System and the University of Virginia plan to announce a $112 million partnership Wednesday that will bring a regional campus of UVa’s School of Medicine to Northern Virginia.

Back in February, Inova Health System announced it would create a $100 million venture fund. It offered few details at the time.

But as Inova officials celebrated another milestone Wednesday with an new University of Virginia partnership on multiple medical, research and business fronts, CEO Knox Singleton finally offered some details on Inova’s investment plans.

TEDCO is happy to announce its new Seed Investment Fund. After careful consideration of feedback received from our recent market stakeholder survey, we’ve decided to transform our Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF), Cyber Security Investment Fund (CIF) and Life Science Invest,ment Fund (LSIF) into a single Seed Investment Fund.

The new program will make it easier than ever for startup technology companies to seek Seed Funding from TEDCO.

GE Healthcare and Johns Hopkins Hospital partnered to construct a NASA-style command center to better manage patient safety, experience and volume. The Judy Reitz Capacity Command Center leverages systems engineering principles that are commonly used in the aerospace, aviation and power industries.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Roche’s PD-L1 assay as a diagnostic to identify PD-L1 expression levels in patients considering treatment with Tecentriq (atezolizumab) for previously treated metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The Maryland Department of Commerce has an opportunity for you to soft land in the Hague Security Delta (HSD) — the largest security cluster of Europe — providing you with access to the full EU market.

Fri, December 9, 2016 – 8:30 AM – 1:00 PM EST

Montgomery Community Media in partnership with the Maryland/DC District Export Council, the US Commercial Service, the Maryland Department of Commerce, and the Small Business Administration present a three-hour program on the challenges and opportunities facing companies going global. The program will feature 3 panels covering key aspects of international trade, including trade finance and local resources that facilitate trade. Speakers include government executives as well as CEOs who have successfully taken their companies international.

Will big data cure cancer?

While there’s a lot of breathless talk about the potential of big data to do just that, Greg Simon, the Executive Director of the White House’s Cancer Moonshot Taskforce, is a skeptic–at least for now.

Israeli equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd has launched a new fund specifically focused on the digital health field, called OurCrowd Qure. They will work with Johns Hopkins University to provide validation of value, market access, and on-going feedback on the startups.

“I think that crowdfunding for digital health makes a huge amount of sense,” John Medved, CEO of OurCrowd, told MobiHealthNews. “We’re not just raising money in a different way. We’re helping to build the company in a different way. A crowdfunding platform is uniquely positioned to help digital health leaders.”

Wednesday, December 14, 7 – 11 amFalls Church Marriott Fairview Park

Super Early Bird expires November 3rd for our CONNECTpreneur Winter Forum, headlined by Revolution Chairman & CEO, STEVE CASE, former AOL Time Warner Chair and New York Times bestselling author of The Third Wave.

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

Join us for an evening of food, drink, and revelry as we celebrate moving into our new prototyping and manufacturing facility! Tour the new offices and check out the workshop. See what all the buzz is about.

We’ll also have some entertainment for your inner geek. Get an introduction to some of the tools or test your robot driving skills with the “House Bots” from the Baltimore Robotics Center.

Bringing entrepreneurs from all around together at one place! This is the premier event in Maryland showcasing all the resources to help entrepreneurs to learn, connect and be inspired.

NIH is committed to improving the participation of all people in our small business research SBIR & STTR programs. One of the goals of the SBIR and STTR programs is to encourage participation in innovation and entrepreneurship by socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses (SDB) and women-owned small businesses (WOSB), groups who historically have been underrepresented in both the SBIR/STTR applicant and awardee pools, and have slightly lower success rates than applicants across the board.

A new algorithm developed by a Johns Hopkins computer scientist could revolutionize the way scientists look at genes.

A team of 17 scientists led by Michael Schatz told the JHU Hub that the open-source software creates a clearer picture of an organism’s DNA. The results were published in the journal Nature Methods.

Last week at the Cleveland Clinic’s annual Medical Innovations Summit, Daniel Kraft, chair of medicine and neuroscience at Singularity University, and an oncologist, painted a dazzling picture of a healthcare future where digital tools empower everyone and can solve several of healthcare’s bigger problems.

But he also posed a question whose answer will be borne out over the next few years: The tech and data tsunami is coming, but do we have the right platforms in place to catch the wave?

There are a lot of scientific papers out there. One estimate puts the count at 1.8 million articles published each year, in about 28,000 journals. Who actually reads those papers? According to one 2007 study, not many people: half of academic papers are read only by their authors and journal editors, the study’s authors write.

But not all academics accept that they have an audience of three. There’s a heated dispute around academic readership and citation—enough that there have been studies about reading studies going back for more than two decades.

Stephen Quake’s laboratory at Stanford University looks like biology’s version of Thomas Edison’s famous New Jersey workshop. Roll-down curtains cast shadows across odd devices buzzing and clicking in the aisles. You half expect to find Quake, author of 135 patents and rarely seen wearing anything other than a faded polo shirt, sleeping on one of the benches, just as the Wizard of Menlo Park was known to.

Wed, November 9, 2016 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST

Join us for an evening of food, drink, and revelry as we celebrate moving into our new prototyping and manufacturing facility! Tour the new offices and check out the workshop. See what all the buzz is about.

We’ll also have some entertainment for your inner geek. Get an introduction to some of the tools or test your robot driving skills with the “House Bots” from the Baltimore Robotics Center.

Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE: RNN) announced that it has been issued a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) covering RX-21101 for the targeted delivery of docetaxel directly into cancer tumor cells using a nano-polymer conjugate technology.

Johns Hopkins University has licensed a technology that tests for a marker of cancer’s susceptibility to immunotherapy to Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx), a leading provider of advanced cancer genome testing products and services.

The technology tests for microsatellite instability (MSI), which occurs when cells have a defect in the ability to repair the mistakes that naturally occur when cellular DNA is copied. Tumor cells with MSI typically have many more mutations than other tumor cells and are more often successfully treated with new immuno-oncology drugs such as PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors.

Altimmune, Inc., a clinical stage immunotherapeutic company, today announced that a poster detailing the design and preclinical evaluation of its HepTcell immunotherapeuticfor the treatment of chronic hepatitis B infection will be presented at the 2017 Keystone Symposia Conference taking place October 25 – 29, 2016 in London.

“Chemistry is the study of matter,” Walter White once opined on Breaking Bad. “But I prefer to see it as the study of change.”

If you take matter (in this case, brick and mortar real estate) and you factor in change (the rising price of this matter), what you’re left with are fewer places to study heady topics like chemistry.

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC) and the bwtech@UMBC Cyber Incubator announced today that two more cyber startups – one representing the first international company to participate – have graduated from the Northrop Grumman Cync program. iWebGate of Perth, Australia and Light Point Security of Baltimore have completed the Cync scholarship program.

Bing Yao, PhD, Head of Respiratory, Inflammation and Autoimmunity at MedImmune, spoke with Healio Rheumatology about MedImmune’s collaboration with the University of California at San Francisco, techniques to quantify biomarkers and MedImmune’s role in treating rheumatologic patients.

Entrepreneur, the magazine that celebrates small business, recently released a list of what they consider to be the 360 best small businesses America has to offer. And wouldn’t you know — some of #dctech’s own were among the companies named.

The list is not meant to showcase only companies that are growing really fast (we see you, Inc.) — it’s more of a congratulations to companies “that keep all their parts growing in harmony.” As such, each company on the list has been evaluated according to the metrics of impact, innovation, growth and leadership.

Kevin Plank’s underdog story has become synonymous with Baltimore — the city his company Under Armour calls home.

Now his investment company, Plank Industries, is looking to rebuild an entire area of the city. Billions of dollars will be poured into Port Covington in one of the largest urban redevelopment projects in the country, which will include housing, retail and an entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission announced today the launch of Accelerating Cure, a new initiative to support regenerative medicine and cell therapy technologies moving from research to commercialization and finally to clinical trials. Accelerating Cure will fund close to $9 million with its five programs to address the different stages the technologies need to go through. The Commission also announced that Dr. Amritha Jaishankar joined the team as the Award Manager for the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund.

Reston-based telemedicine provider Avizia Inc. raised $6 million in Series A funding, amping up a fundraising round we reported earlier this year to a total of $17 million.

Biotech venture capital is supposed to be the highest-risk/highest-reward type of investment there is. But many biotech VCs are actually pretty conservative, hesitant to wager on edgy science that might take a decade to pay off.

The outline of a Greater Washington rebranding campaign is beginning to take shape:

“Greater Washington: Where you come to make history happen.”

The Global Competitiveness Report assesses the competitiveness landscape of 138 economies, providing insight into the drivers of their productivity and prosperity. Switzerland, Singapore and the United States remain the three world’s most competitive economies.

Amgen Europe GmbH, an affiliate of Amgen Inc, has invested in an Israel-based digital health incubator, eHealth Ventures, to serve patients by driving innovation and sustainable healthcare through technology discovery.

“This addition will provide a new strategic element to our screening process and build significant value to our portfolio companies. Having Amgen on board will deliver invaluable assets and know-how in many of the digital health innovation aspects, including market input, commercialisation of R&D, business modeling, go-to-market strategies and more,” said Talor Sax, chief executive officer, eHealth Ventures Incubator.

The goals for economic development have long focused on expanding opportunities for citizens. With greater pressure to demonstrate impact, states have embraced the collection and reporting of performance indicators. However, as the economy continues to change, economic development goals become more nuanced. Consequently, state economic development leaders seek to improve the indicators they use to measure the effectiveness of their incentive programs. This white paper describes common indicators in use, pros and cons of the two most common types of indictors: those representing jobs and investment. The white paper also offers guidance on the process for improving and expanding the slate of indicators states can deploy to evaluate their efforts.

New York biotech has historically lagged behind more established life sciences hubs like Boston and San Francisco, but collaborations between its research institutions have helped the city start to move forward. Another step in that direction was taken this morning, with the launch of what’s being called Bridge Medicines.

Cori Bargmann’s new job description includes “to help cure, prevent or manage all diseases by the end of the century.” That’s quite a lofty goal.

Bargmann is a neuroscientist and president of science for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the joint venture of pediatrician Priscilla Chan and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. The couple pledged $3 billion to solve major medical problems by helping scientists and engineers collaborate long term, over 25, 50, even 80 years.

This table shows the “sticker prices” — published tuition and required fees — at more than 3,000 colleges and universities for the 2016-17 academic year. Click the institutions’ names to see historical data back to 1998.

December 1, 2016, 8:30-4:00 p.m.

The Open Data Science Symposium is open to the public and will be available through a webcast.

Big Data is an underutilized resource for innovation and discovery in biomedical research and the NIH is committed to unleashing its full potential by making it an open and easily accessible resource. The Open Data Science Symposium will feature discussions with the leaders in big data, open science, and biomedical research while also showcasing the finalists of the Open Data Science Prize, a worldwide competition to harness the innovative power of open data.

Please Register for the Open Data Science Symposium by November 18, 2016.

BioBuzz and Elite Sponsor the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) are excited to announce a special event that lands right in the middle of the Oktoberfest season. Flying Dog Brewery will be our guest as we bring together the worlds of biotech and beer to show how closely related they really are. We are proud to have BioBuzz Double Helix Sponsors CRB and BREP along with Azzur IT as Co-Sponsors for this event.

Before the general networking begins, Flying Dog CEO, Jim Caruso, and COO/Head Brew Master, Matt Brophy will be on the IBBR Auditorium stage from 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. to speak about the company and everything that goes into the process of brewing their beer.

Bringing entrepreneurs from all around together at one place! This is the premier event in Maryland showcasing all the resources to help entrepreneurs to learn, connect and be inspired.

Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc. (PGDx), a leading provider of advanced cancer genome testing products and services, today announced that it has licensed rights to patent pending microsatellite instability (MSI) testing technology from Johns Hopkins University to help identify candidates for immune checkpoint inhibition. PGDx already includes the MSI technology in its pan cancer genomic tissue assays for patients and drug developers, and will be incorporating it into the recently launched PlasmaSELECT™ 64 non-invasive pan cancer assay. The company also includes the MSI technology in its PROGENEUS™ technology transfer enterprise solution, which enables advanced cancer genomic testing by local and regional laboratories that have next-generation sequencing (NGS) capabilities.

As cybersecurity becomes more of an imperative for individuals and organizations, several regions in the US are investing money and efforts in security innovation.

Silicon Valley may be the most famous hotspot for tech innovation in the country, but it’s far from the only place driving cybersecurity advancement. Areas such as the Washington, DC region and the Boston metro area are home to a growing number of security startups and incubators.

David Petr is roughly five weeks into his tenure as the first-ever president and CEO of the Montgomery County Economic Development Corp., a new nonprofit entity charged with marketing Maryland’s most populous jurisdiction to the private sector.

The drive for economic growth around the world is seeing regions strive to create their own innovation ecosystems. Universities are an important aspect of an innovation ecosystem, so for the second year running, Reuters has created its index of the world’s top 100 most innovative universities, highlighting those educational institutions doing the most to advance science and invent new technologies and help drive the global economy.

Not surprisingly, the world’s top three continue to be Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (ranked #2) and Harvard University (ranked #3).

November 1-3, 2016 – Columbus, OH

Throughout SSTI’s 2016 Annual Conference, we will be engaging with the theme of Innovation with Purpose: Shaping Future Opportunities. Whether you are interested in the agenda overview, four thematic tracks, interest group roundtables and tour, or want to see the agenda by session type, you can find that information below. We’re looking forward to having this conversation with you in November! 

Panel:SUSTAINING YOUR ORGANIZATION: LESSONS LEARNED

Sustaining a public-private partnership is never easy. But tight public budgets, political transitions, and increased competition make it even more difficult. However, it is achievable — with clear focus and tough decisions. In this discussion-based session, practitioners will discuss what sustainability means, share how their organizations have achieved financial sustainability and offer advice on how you can do the same.

Moderator:

• Matthew Stevens, Strategic Initiatives Manager, U.S. Small Business Administration

Speakers:

• Richard Bendis, President & CEO, BioHealth Innovation, Inc.
• Henry Cialone, President & CEO, EWI 
• Amy Jensen, Director of Finance & Operations, The Water Council

BioBuzz and Elite Sponsor the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) are excited to announce a special event that lands right in the middle of the Oktoberfest season. Flying Dog Brewery will be our guest as we bring together the worlds of biotech and beer to show how closely related they really are. We are proud to have BioBuzz Double Helix Sponsors CRB and BREP along with Azzur IT as Co-Sponsors for this event.

Before the general networking begins, Flying Dog CEO, Jim Caruso, and COO/Head Brew Master, Matt Brophy will be on the IBBR Auditorium stage from 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. to speak about the company and everything that goes into the process of brewing their beer.

Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 5:30 PM – Columbus Center 701 East Pratt Street Baltimore, MD

1st Pitch Life Science is coming to Baltimore for the first time. Hear what happens AFTER a start-up company presents to an investor group! Usually after a pitch, the investors have a closed-door discussion to decide whether the opportunity merits further investigation and possible investment. 1st Pitch Life Science (http://www.1stpitchlifescience.com) offers presenters and audience members the chance to hear what happens in those closed-door discussions, and to learn what really matters to investors.

Access to cancer screening services in Nigeria, and identifying symptom changes in schizophrenia and depression patients are the focuses of the 2016 Research and Innovative Seed Grant award recipients, highlighting a collaborative research program between the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB)and the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP). Part of the University of Maryland: MPowering the State initiative, the Seed Grant program was established to create opportunities for collaboration between disciplines and between the universities. All areas of research at UMB and UMCP are considered for funding.

By the end of next year, Harpoon Medical’s minimally invasive surgical tool could be in operating rooms across Europe.

Harpoon still is testing the technology, but believes its device could revolutionize mitral valve repair, a hours-long surgery that requires splitting the breastbone and stopping the heart. Harpoon’s tool can finish the job in a hour and a half through a small incision.

Washington-area companies raised nearly $300 million in venture capital funding during the third quarter, putting the region on track to reach $1 billion in investments by the end of the year, according to recently released data from the National Venture Capital Association.

In all, 49 local companies raised $299.5 million during the third quarter, a 47 percent increase from the $204 million the region’s firms secured during the same period last year, according to PitchBook, a research company that provided the data for the association’s report.

BioFactura, Inc. was granted patent rights by China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) protecting the core technologies of its proprietary StableFast™ Biomanufacturing Platform. SIPO allowed 17 claims broadly covering composition of matter and methods. StableFast™ is BioFactura’s proprietary NS0-based system to rapidly generate stable cell lines that have the potential to lower cost, produce follow-on biologics and are single-use technology compatible. The Company is developing high-value biosimilars both internally and collaboratively.

Investigators at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Brain Injury Outcomes program and the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research have been awarded a seven-year, $25 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) to form, along with Tufts University School of Medicine, one of three Trial Innovation Centers.

Madison, Wisconsin-based Propeller Health has closed a $21.5 million Series C financing round, with new investors 3M Ventures, S.R. One, Limited and Hikma Ventures, plus existing investors Safeguard Scientifics and Social Capital. The funding will be used to further Propeller’s digitally-guided therapy platform.

Propeller’s aim is to simplify management of chronic respiratory diseases like asthma and COPD through sensors that attached to inhalers and sync to a companion app. The digitally-guided therapy platform is able to integrate with multiple sources, including connected medications, and uses machine learning to design a personalized therapy plan for each user.

With the visionary language of large federal initiatives like the “Cancer Moonshot” or provocative branding such as “NIH…Turning Discovery into Health®” and the National Institute of Health website further touting “revolutionary ideas often come from unexpected directions,” one might assume an equally ambitious approach is being taken to ensure federal life sciences research is going toward research with the most promise for positive impact and scientific advancement. One of the calls of Vice President Joe Biden’s recent Cancer Moonshot report was urging not to accept a “business as usual” approach. A recent report underscores why that may be a problem at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

We recently released our inaugural PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor as a comprehensive resource on all matters venture capital. You can download the full 20-page report for free, but if you’d like to fast forward to the highlights, we’ve collated the top charts below:

Two University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) researchers and a UM Venture startup company stemming from the University’s tech transfer efforts received financial awards to accelerate the commercial development of their biomedical inventions into treatments and devices to meet today’s health challenges.

For the last eight years, the UMB Commercial Advisory Board and the Johns Hopkins Alliance for Science and Technology have held a yearly meeting of faculty of both universities, advisors and potential investors to explore pathways to commercializing inventions created in the universities’ laboratories, and encourage entrepreneurship among faculty members. This year, $200,000 was awarded to faculty and startup companies from both universities. UMB inventors competed for a UM Ventures Award and one of two Abell Foundation Awards. UM Venture start-ups presented their companies for the chance to win a UM Venture Start-up Award. This year’s UMB-affiliated awards went to:

THE 7TH GALIEN FORUM EVENT: The 2016 Galien Forum will take place on the morning of October 27th, 2016, and will feature round table debates focusing on critical global healthcare issues and challenges. Our annual life science Forum is rapidly becoming a leading event for discussing issues of innovation in the industry. The Galien Forum brings together leading CEOs, biomedical experts from industry, academia and government.

Your search ends at the Universities at Shady Grove (USG), where nine top Maryland universities bring 40 of their best degree programs to YOU on one convenient campus in Rockville. Choose from a variety of degrees offered in flexible formats that fit the lives of working adults.

USG GRADUATE OPEN HOUSE Monday, November 7th / 6:00pm Check-in / 6:30pm Welcome / 7:00pm-8:00pm Sessions & Information Fair

Officials from the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore have unveiled plans for the new Center for Sports Medicine, Health and Human Performance.

Media outlets report the center, announced Wednesday, will be dedicated to cutting-edge research into concussions and other sports injuries. The center will combine research into traumatic brain injuries with treatment of student athletes and the public.

December 1, 2016, 8:30-4:00 p.m.

The Open Data Science Symposium is open to the public and will be available through a webcast.

Big Data is an underutilized resource for innovation and discovery in biomedical research and the NIH is committed to unleashing its full potential by making it an open and easily accessible resource. The Open Data Science Symposium will feature discussions with the leaders in big data, open science, and biomedical research while also showcasing the finalists of the Open Data Science Prize, a worldwide competition to harness the innovative power of open data.

Please Register for the Open Data Science Symposium by November 18, 2016.

For a while, Illumina—the 800-pound gorilla of genomics—could do no wrong. The DNA-sequencing company’s market cap more than quadrupled from 2012, to peak at a whopping $34 billion, fueled in part by the growing hype around the potential of genomics to transform how we prevent, diagnose, and treat disease, as well as facilitate medical research discoveries.

October 27, 2016 – Arnold & Porter LLP, 601 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC, 20001

The Washington DC/Baltimore Chapter of Women In Bio is presenting a program to learn about board service in the public and private sectors. If you are a budding entrepreneur looking to develop a board, this is the event for you. If you were recently named to a board and want to know more about your responsibilities, this is the event for you. If you want to start a business/nonprofit and need to know how to set up a board, this is the event for you.

Moderated by Mr. Yusuf Azuzullah, Chairman Board of Directors, Global Board Advisors Corp (GBAC), panelists include:

• Ms. Rachel King, CEO and President of GlycoMimetics, Inc.
• Ms. Lily Qi, Assistant Chief Administrative Officer, Montgomery County Office of the County Executive
• Ms. Sharon Ayd, Chief Scientific Officer and Senior VP Pharmaceuticals, Regulatory Compliance Associates Inc.

As part of the White House’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative, today, SHARE For Cures (www.SHAREForCures.org) launched a technology platform and study aimed to gather a better understanding of the real-world use of novel cancer immunotherapy drugs.

SHARE For Cures’ new SHARE platform will easily and securely gather clinical, wellness, lifestyle, and patient-reported data about cancer immunotherapy use, side effects and benefits. Once gathered, the data will enable researchers to better understand how these new therapies are being used outside of clinical trials, as well as the health impact of specific drugs on real-world patients.

The Johns Hopkins University earned $58 million in licensing revenue in its 2016 fiscal year, three times more than in the prior year.

Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, the university’s commercialization office, attributed the spike in part to a major sublicensing deal between one of its portfolio companies, Immunomic Therapeutics, and Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas Pharma.

NATURE OF WORK

The Senior Grants and Contracts Manager will be tasked with the preparation, drafting, review and negotiation of contractual agreements with a special emphasis on agreements that support biomedical research initiatives and partnerships. S/he should have a strong customer service orientation and be able to identify process improvements so that transactions are completed with the right balance of efficiency and risk mitigation. S/he will report to the Director of Operations but will serve the contracting needs of colleagues across the Foundation. Strong writing, analytical and organizational skills must be matched with a sense of flexibility, entrepreneurial spirit and good cheer.

October 27, 2016 – Arnold & Porter LLP, 601 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC, 20001

The Washington DC/Baltimore Chapter of Women In Bio is presenting a program to learn about board service in the public and private sectors. If you are a budding entrepreneur looking to develop a board, this is the event for you. If you were recently named to a board and want to know more about your responsibilities, this is the event for you. If you want to start a business/nonprofit and need to know how to set up a board, this is the event for you.

Moderated by Mr. Yusuf Azuzullah, Chairman Board of Directors, Global Board Advisors Corp (GBAC), panelists include:

• Ms. Rachel King, CEO and President of GlycoMimetics, Inc.
• Ms. Lily Qi, Assistant Chief Administrative Officer, Montgomery County Office of the County Executive
• Ms. Sharon Ayd, Chief Scientific Officer and Senior VP Pharmaceuticals, Regulatory Compliance Associates Inc.

Technologists and entrepreneurs are reshaping cities like Baltimore with companies that bring new residents and products that change how we interact with the landscape. With a new mayor set to take office in Baltimore following the November 8 general election, it’s worth considering what the tech community wants to see at City Hall.

Ike Leggett says he will not seek a fourth term as Montgomery County executive.

Leggett, a former Howard University law professor who became the county’s first African American councilman and county executive, first announced publicly Sunday he would not run again at a fundraiser for an anti-term-limits group.

The Rockville biotech says two versions of its ADHD drug could serve a potential $7 billion market.

Historically prizes have been surprisingly effective at kickstarting innovation, will Deloitte’s XPRIZE do the same?

Curing cancer is the holy grail of the medical and scientific communities, but a simple prize could make a whole lot of difference.

Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 5:30 PM – Columbus Center 701 East Pratt Street Baltimore, MD

1st Pitch Life Science is coming to Baltimore for the first time. Hear what happens AFTER a start-up company presents to an investor group! Usually after a pitch, the investors have a closed-door discussion to decide whether the opportunity merits further investigation and possible investment. 1st Pitch Life Science (http://www.1stpitchlifescience.com) offers presenters and audience members the chance to hear what happens in those closed-door discussions, and to learn what really matters to investors.

BioBuzz and Elite Sponsor the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) are excited to announce a special event that lands right in the middle of the Oktoberfest season. Flying Dog Brewery will be our guest as we bring together the worlds of biotech and beer to show how closely related they really are. We are proud to have BioBuzz Double Helix Sponsors CRB and BREP along with Azzur IT as Co-Sponsors for this event.

Before the general networking begins, Flying Dog CEO, Jim Caruso, and COO/Head Brew Master, Matt Brophy will be on the IBBR Auditorium stage from 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. to speak about the company and everything that goes into the process of brewing their beer.

Supported by a $9 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, a multidisciplinary team led by Johns Hopkins researchers has begun looking for new ways to attack one of the scariest traits of this disease: its frequent refusal to stay in one place.

The new funding, to be allocated over a five-year period, will enable scholars in physical sciences, engineering, applied mathematics, cancer biology, and other disciplines to pool their expertise to solve stubborn cancer-related mysteries.

We’re pleased to announce the release of the Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures fiscal year 2016 annual report – for the first time in digital format! Last year, we took tremendous strides in realizing our mission to benefit people around the world through innovation and to invigorate the local Baltimore economy. We saw a record number of disclosures, significant growth in our corporate partnerships, the creation of more startups than ever before, and substantial progress on the buildout of new state-of-the-art facilities. While we’re proud of our accomplishments, there’s more to do. We are using the facts and figures in this report to identify the paths that led to success and to develop strategies that build upon our progress.

The National Science Foundation has awarded $3.45 million over the next five years to renew its Innovation Corps program D.C.-area node to support entrepreneurship. George Washington University works alongside three additional collaborating institutions to train entrepreneurial student and faculty researchers and help them bring their discoveries to market.

The innovation hubs, known as I-Corps nodes, provide research infrastructure and training that help researchers transition fundamental science and engineering discoveries to the marketplace, according to NSF. The nodes also support I-Corps sites nationwide and offer seven-week I-Corps curriculum to their teams.

On Jan. 20, 2015, about 30 minutes into his State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama said the words that would set in motion a health research initiative that could exceed the scope of any that has come before it.

Obama told listeners that he was green-lighting the launch of the Precision Medicine Initiative, a program two decades in the making that would begin where the groundbreaking Human Genome Project left off.

The Clark Charitable Foundation gifted Johns Hopkins University $15 million to provide financial aid and create a new academic program for undergraduate engineering students.

The gift honors the late A. James Clark, a former trustee of the university and of Johns Hopkins Medicine and former CEO of Clark Enterprises and Clark Construction Group LLC, one of the country’s largest privately held general building contractors. It is the largest endowed scholarship gift ever given to the university’s Whiting School of Engineering.

Today CosmosID announced participation in Vice President Biden’s National Cancer Moonshot, which aims to accelerate progress in preventing, diagnosing, and treating cancer. CosmosID will provide access to its automated bioinformatics platform, MetaGenID, for five cancer microbiome research studies (valued at $150,000) to understand how the microbiome (i.e. oral, gut, and skin) contributes to development of specific cancers.

Facing federal and state pressure to raise retention and graduation rates, dozens of colleges and universities are developing analytics tools to help students make better decisions about everything from courses to social activities.

Purdue University has notified its 7,300 incoming freshman about a new web application that could help them better acclimate to life on campus. Administrators at the West Lafayette, Ind., school view the software as a critical tool for an institution whose graduation rate hovers at around 50 percent.

PricewaterhouseCoopers published its quarterly MoneyTree Report Friday showing that startups of all stripes garnered a total of $10.6 billion through 891 deals nationwide. However, the deal value and the number of deals fell 36 percent and 25 percent respectively from the same quarter last year.

Venture capitalists invested $19.6 million in Maryland companies in the third quarter, the lowest total in any quarter since 1997.

The total investment represents a 76 percent decrease from the second quarter and is down 86 percent from the third quarter last year, according to a MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data provided by Thomson Reuters.

An affiliate of Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. (NYSE: ARE), an urban office REIT based in Pasadena, Calif., has purchased Torrey Ridge Science Center in San Diego’s Torrey Pines submarket. Walton Street Capital and SteelWave sold the campus to Alexandria for $182.5 million.

Torrey Ridge Science Center is a Class A life science campus leased to companies such as Regulus Therapeutics, Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Nitto BioPharma, Interpreta and BP Technology Ventures. The three-building, 291,799-square-foot campus was 87 percent leased at the time of sale.

MD Start, a European medical technology accelerator, announced Thursday that it has raised $11.5 million to create and fund four new French companies that can fulfill unmet needs in the medical device market.

The round was led by French Tech Acceleration Fund managed by Bpifrance, a French public investment bank. Other returning investors were French venture capital firm Sofinnova Partners, Dublin-based Medtronic, and LivaNova, a London-based medical device company.

Wed, Nov 16, 2016 at 6:00 PM

Five Top Intellectual Property Legal Experts and a Room Filled with Life Science and Healthcare Entrepreneurs…what could possibly happen?

Strategies for Start-ups (and Non-Start-ups) to Maintain, Protect and Unlock their Intellectual Property

The workshop is intended for non-lawyers to understand IP issues and answer questions on just about every aspect of IP including; Copyrights, Trade Secrets, Trademarks, Patents, licensing, IP Due Diligence, IP Strategy, etc.

Redwood City, California-based medical device company Relievant Medsystems Inc has raised $36 million in funding. New Enterprise Associates led the round with participation from Canaan Partners, Emergent Medical Partners and Morgenthaler Ventures.

A partnership between the University System of Maryland and Prince George’s County schools led to increased student interest in STEM fields, higher scores on the science portion of Maryland State Assessments and more students entering STEM fields in college, according to the project’s final report.

The USM’s Math Science Partnership Minority Student Pipeline aimed “to expand the minority student pipeline in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in higher education, by employing strategies engaging STEM faculty, teachers, undergraduates and high school students,” the report read. The USM’s Education Policy and Student Life Committee reviewed the report on Sept. 20.

I have just downloaded the app Uberstand to my phone — the “revolutionary” app that seamlessly converts academics into a standing reserve of mobile, on-demand, adjunct knowledge providers. The app is designed to meet the real-time needs of institutes of higher learning and their customers, who often find themselves operating with a knowledge deficit, or what the industry terms a “need-to-know.”