BHI Weekly Newsletter Archives

Here at Commerce, we’re always talking with representatives from Maryland businesses. Recently, we spoke with several business owners and executives about success, specifically asking how their companies are finding success in Maryland.

Robust influx of millennials in the workforce is a significant factor in this year’s ranking of the top 50 “Tech Talent” markets in the U.S. and Canada

San Francisco remains the nation’s leading tech market, but the competition for talent is getting tougher as more highly skilled tech workers—especially millennials—are flocking to cities where the cost of living is lower and tech jobs are plentiful, according to CBRE Group, Inc.’s annual Research report, “Scoring Tech Talent,” which ranks 50 U.S. and Canadian markets according to their ability to attract and grow tech talent.

Wexford Science & Technology LLC will soon again be under new ownership.

Chicago-based Ventas Inc. has agreed to pay $1.5 billion in cash to acquire substantially all of the assets of the Baltimore real estate investment and development firm from affiliates of Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII L.P. Ventas will also assume $33 million of liabilities. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

More women are studying science, technology, engineering and math at UC San Diego than at any other major college in the country, a recent analysis of enrollment has found.

The study conducted by BestColleges.com found that one in three women at UC San Diego graduate with a STEM degree, about three times the national average.

With the big cancer confab ASCO 2016 fading into memory, R&D teams everywhere are getting back to work on their cancer programs – and across the industry many of them will be doing the same work, on the same targets, supporting the exploding supernova known as immuno-oncology.

Businesses that set out to change the world might want to start in D.C.

That’s according to a new study from D.C.-based S&R Foundation’s Halcyon Incubator, which calls Washington the best U.S. city for “social entrepreneurs” — startup founders that attempt to solve social problems with scalable businesses, like the Georgetown grads tackling food-waste with their juicing company, Misfit Juicery.

When: July 28th 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Where: BRI 9410 Key West Ave Rockville, MD 20850

Join BioBuzz and July Co-Sponsors BRI and Azzur IT, as we visit BRI’s offices and labs at their new location in Rockville on July 28th. Biomedical Research Institute (BRI), a 501 c 3 non-profit company, which focuses on the development of diagnostic and vaccine solutions to Schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease that impacts sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil and rural Asia where 800 million people live and over 200 million people are infected.

After months of work under the radar, GlaxoSmithKline committed to entering the Zika R&D field, announcing on Thursday that it’s pairing with the National Institutes of Health in a project based at its new vaccine research hub in Rockville, MD.

Following in their Senate colleagues’ footsteps, a House subcommittee signed off on a budget increase for the National Institutes of Health Thursday. The increases for fiscal-year 2017 confirm lawmakers’ public pledges to establish a pattern of improved budgets for the agency, which before last year saw more than a decade of flat funding.

Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels’ contract has been extended through 2024 by the school’s Board of Trustees.

This is a five-year extension for Daniels, who was given an initial five-year extension in 2014. Daniels, 57, joined Johns Hopkins in 2009, becoming the school’s 14th president.

After years of puzzling over how its grant-review process might be shortchanging younger scientists, the National Institutes of Health appears to have figured out a more fundamental truth: There just aren’t enough of them applying.

D.C. venture capital powerhouse Updata Partners will announce Thursday that it has raised $280.6 million in new funding.

Updata, whose portfolio includes Mashable and VideoBlocks, surpassed its goal for the Updata Partners V LP fund by about $5 million. As of April, it had reported raising $160 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The White House’s Cancer Moonshot 2020 is about much more than clinical research. Data, IT and patient engagement are major components.

Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday is hosting the first National Cancer Moonshot Summit on the campus of Howard University in Washington, and lots of news is being made.

Vice President Joe Biden, who has personal experience of the heartbreak that cancer causes, has taken on humanity’s mortal enemy and aims to end the disease “as we know it.”

The Biotechnology Innovation Organization today released the following statement in response to Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton’s Initiative on Technology & Innovation:

“As one of America’s most innovative industries, biotechnology is tackling head-on the unrelenting scientific challenges inherent in the discovery, development and delivery of new, high-value healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental products.

Could lab-grown bones replace tissue grafts and multiple painful surgeries? Nina Tandon is the CEO and co-founder of EpiBone, a Brooklyn-based biotech company that was chosen as one of the World Economic Forum’s 2015 Technology Pioneers. Tandon is also a World Economic Forum Young Scientist who will be speaking at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China, from June 26 to 28.

Canada’s publicly funded health care system is a source of pride and a defining value for Canadians. They rely on it for timely access to universal, high-quality and innovative treatments and services that are based on need, not on the ability to pay. To support Canadians battling cancer, the Government of Canada is investing $15 million over five years in the Centre for Commercialization of Cancer Immunotherapy (C3i). Immunotherapy is an emerging area of medicine that uses the power of the immune system to combat cancer. When brought to market, C3i’s form of cancer treatment stands to revolutionize cancer care by providing access to non-toxic, highly efficient cures that do not rely on chemotherapy.

The expanding role of healthcare providers is not limited to societies with “developed” healthcare systems. Diseases, such as AIDS and malaria, prevalent in the third world and emerging countries are now considered chronic or curable with the proper treatment, leaving those afflicted with greater chance of recovery. However, as the cost the typical person pays for healthcare over his or her lifetime rises, the question becomes: How will these emerging societies, especially those in less-developed countries, sustain a rising bill?

This is the fifth consecutive year for the USA Creative Business Cup. This year for the first time there will be a f2f finals for competing teams in Washington, DC as part of the activities of Creative World – DC (creativeworld.group) and the National Creativity Network Conference within it. The USA national winner goes on to compete for the 2016 global Creative Business Cup in Copenhagen, Denmark (November 20-21) as a featured event of the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). It is anticipated that over 60 nations will send teams to compete in this year’s event.

GlycoMimetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLYC) today announced dosing of the first patient with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in the Phase 2 portion of its ongoing Phase 1/2 study evaluating its novel E-selectin antagonist, GMI-1271, combined with chemotherapy. Earlier this month, the company announced it had received Fast Track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for GMI-1271 for treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory AML and elderly patients aged 60 years or older with AML. In addition, GlycoMimetics recently announced that the first patient with relapsed or refractory AML has been dosed in the other arm of the Phase 2 portion of this study.

Cerecor Inc. (NASDAQ:CERC), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing treatments to make a difference in the lives of patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders, today announced that it has been awarded a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (“NIDA”) at the National Institutes of Health. The grant of approximately $1.0 million provides Cerecor with additional resources for the ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial for CERC-501, “A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover Design Study of CERC-501 in a Human Laboratory Model of Smoking Behavior.”

Digital health technology leader WellDoc® has expanded its leadership team with two new C-level executives and a key executive director. Healthcare finance veteran Jeff Lehrfeld has joined the company from Magellan Health as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and senior marketing executive Tara Charvat, MBA, is the company’s new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), joining from Valeritas. In addition, Christina Hedge is the new Executive Director, Market Access, reporting to Nick Harsh, Vice President, Market Access, who came to WellDoc this Spring.

More women are studying science, technology, engineering and math at UC San Diego than at any other major college in the country, a recent analysis of enrollment has found.

The study conducted by BestColleges.com found that one in three women at UC San Diego graduate with a STEM degree, about three times the national average.

Wexford Science & Technology LLC will soon again be under new ownership.

Chicago-based Ventas Inc. has agreed to pay $1.5 billion in cash to acquire substantially all of the assets of the Baltimore real estate investment and development firm from affiliates of Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII L.P. Ventas will also assume $33 million of liabilities. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

With the big cancer confab ASCO 2016 fading into memory, R&D teams everywhere are getting back to work on their cancer programs – and across the industry many of them will be doing the same work, on the same targets, supporting the exploding supernova known as immuno-oncology.

Businesses that set out to change the world might want to start in D.C.

That’s according to a new study from D.C.-based S&R Foundation’s Halcyon Incubator, which calls Washington the best U.S. city for “social entrepreneurs” — startup founders that attempt to solve social problems with scalable businesses, like the Georgetown grads tackling food-waste with their juicing company, Misfit Juicery.

The American Cancer Society has handed out $3.84 million in grants to Maryland cancer researchers at the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University and the National Cancer Institute for a range of investigations.

NEA Parnter Sara Nayeem will speak on a panel at the Orphan Drugs and Rare Diseases Conference on Tuesday, June 28, 2016 at Westin Copely Place Boston in Boston, MA. Dr. Nayeem will participate in the panel entitled, Funding Early Opportunities in Orphan and Rare Disease Space: What To Look Out For?

D.C. venture capital powerhouse Updata Partners will announce Thursday that it has raised $280.6 million in new funding.

Updata, whose portfolio includes Mashable and VideoBlocks, surpassed its goal for the Updata Partners V LP fund by about $5 million. As of April, it had reported raising $160 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Vice President Joe Biden, who has personal experience of the heartbreak that cancer causes, has taken on humanity’s mortal enemy and aims to end the disease “as we know it.”

The White House’s Cancer Moonshot 2020 is about much more than clinical research. Data, IT and patient engagement are major components.

Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday is hosting the first National Cancer Moonshot Summit on the campus of Howard University in Washington, and lots of news is being made.

Could lab-grown bones replace tissue grafts and multiple painful surgeries? Nina Tandon is the CEO and co-founder of EpiBone, a Brooklyn-based biotech company that was chosen as one of the World Economic Forum’s 2015 Technology Pioneers. Tandon is also a World Economic Forum Young Scientist who will be speaking at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China, from June 26 to 28.

The Biotechnology Innovation Organization today released the following statement in response to Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton’s Initiative on Technology & Innovation:

“As one of America’s most innovative industries, biotechnology is tackling head-on the unrelenting scientific challenges inherent in the discovery, development and delivery of new, high-value healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental products.

The Cleveland Health-Tech Corridor said it has teamed up with JumpStart Inc. to launch a $2 million investment and attraction fund to provide financial capital for businesses willing to move to the corridor district that links downtown and University Circle.

Last week, Great Britain voted to leave the European Union of 28 member states, or “Brexit.” Since the result was announced sterling has fallen to a 31-year low, there has been a record daily drop in global equity markets and political turmoil has broken out as the UK Prime Minister has said he will step down and the majority of the leadership team of the official opposition party has resigned.

Kitchology, a food+wellness+tech startup headquartered in Germantown, was among the winners of this year’s Maryland Incubator Company of the Year (ICOY) Awards, winning in the consumer product category.

QIAGEN N.V. (Nasdaq: QGEN) announced the successful completion of the conditional, voluntary public tender offer for the shares in Exiqon A/S, a world leader in RNA technology. The extended Offer Period expired yesterday, on 22 June 2016, at 23.59 (CET).

The University System of Maryland is hoping a new $25 million venture capital fund it established will help spin off more commercial businesses — with the system reaping the benefits in the long run.

Innovation Village, an effort to spur economic development in West Baltimore, is partnering with Howard County’s Conscious Venture Lab to help develop fledgling companies and entrepreneurs.

Qiagen and CosmosID have joined the Metagenomics and Metadesign of Subways and Urban Biomes (MetaSUB) consortium, an international five-year effort led by Weill Cornell Medicine, to map the genomes and epigenomes of microbial communities in 54 cities in 32 countries.

What is success? Is it the amount of money you have in your bank account, at any given point? Is it that feeling you get after delivering a killer presentation, or even a pretty decent bar joke? Or is it something bigger—something wholly unnamable, undefinable, immeasurable, and totally subjective?

Throughout the United States, innovation districts have been proposed with varying degrees of emphasis on inclusivity and opportunity. In January 2016, a public-private partnership representing many of Baltimore’s most influential anchor institutions, community-based organizations, and private companies declared their intent to develop an innovation district in West Baltimore dubbed the “Innovation Village.” This week, the Innovation Village steering committee announced several initiatives aimed at supporting inclusive economic growth in West Baltimore neighborhoods including free Wi-Fi, entrepreneurial assistance programs, and the development of a food hub.

Montgomery County is participating in an important regional initiative called the Global Cities Initiative aimed at helping our businesses export and connecting our local economy with the global market.

Nationally, this initiative is led by JP Morgan and the Brookings Institution. In the National Capital Region, it is a collaborative effort between the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, and the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area and numerous other regional partners.

Awards season in the Baltimore tech scene moved into summer mode at the American Visionary Art Museum last week, where the Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards were handed out.

Baltimore incubators were well represented, with companies from the Emerging Technology Centers, Betamore and Johns Hopkins FastForward picking up honors.

Another week, another new initiative for IBM Watson Health.

Wednesday, IBM announced the formation of a Watson Health medical imaging collaborative, seeking to make “cognitive imaging” a routine part of medical practice in oncology, neurology, diabetes care, eye care, cardiovascular disease and other image-heavy specialties. “Imaging is one of the things that spans across many different areas,” said Anne Le Grand, IBM Watson Health’s vice president of imaging.

Join us for a thrilling evening of start-up pitches from multiple sectors in healthcare including: Services, Health IT, Biotechnology, Medical Devices and Diagnostics. Applications are still being accepted, so if you not afraid of getting nipped by one of our judges, send your information to jhausfeld@sopenet.org.

The Brexit votes have been counted. The Brits have decided to leave the European Union. And the financial markets are taking it hard. Right now, futures on the London stock exchange are down 8%. The pound is down 9.8 percent, more than double its previous record decline of 4.1 percent. We’re living in interesting times.

As carpenters finished an elegantly crafted deck near Greenmount Avenue and Oliver Street, I had a thought:

Where is the “gritty Greenmount” described in news articles a few years ago?

Thousand Oaks-based biotech giant Amgen has put its backing behind a new, life sciences incubator, called QB3@953. According to Amgen, it will provide a five year, platinum sponsorship of the San Francisco life sciences incubator, to accelerate the development of new therapies to improve human health. Financial details of the sponsorship were not detailed. As part of that sponsorship, Amgen said it will be providing two awards each year with a company receiving one year of lab space at QB3@953, in addition to connections to Amgen’s executives and other resources. QB3@953 provides lab space to life sciences startups, which Amgen says is a “key obstacle” for life sciences startups. A similar effort, the Ventura BioCenter, operates just around the corner from Amgen in the Thousand Oaks area.

Between June 2015 and June 2016, we’ve created more spaces and places for people to engage with the Science Center; honed and expanded our programs to support innovation and entrepreneurship; and enhanced the way we talk about our role in Greater Philadelphia’s innovation ecosystem.

The first proposed test of CRISPR gene-editing technology in human beings is being funded by Internet billionaire Sean Parker, MIT Technology Review has learned.

The novel cancer treatment, initially disclosed last week, is being reviewed Tuesday by a federal advisory panel in Washington, D.C., and could become the first clinical trial involving CRISPR, the red-hot gene modification technology.

QIAGEN N.V. (NASDAQ: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced the launch of the QIAsure Methylation Test, a novel CE-marked molecular diagnostic test for use in differentiating patients’ risk of developing cervical cancer.

POSITION TITLE: Chief Executive Officer

REPORTING TO: Board of Directors

THE COMPANY: TEDCO (Maryland Technology Development Corporation)

“The economic contribution to the Maryland economy of TEDCO’s five core research, technology transfer, and commercialization programs totaled almost $1 billion in 2015, generating a total of 4,358 jobs” – Battelle Technology Partnership Practice, Report on Economic Impacts of TEDCO

TEDCO was created by the Maryland State Legislature in 1998 to facilitate the transfer and commercialization of technology from Maryland’s research universities and federal labs into the marketplace and to assist in the creation and growth of technology-based businesses in all regions of the State. TEDCO is an independent organization that strives to be Maryland’s lead source for entrepreneurial business assistance and seed funding for the development of start-up companies in Maryland’s innovation economy. In Maryland and beyond, TEDCO is a resource of mentoring, funding and networking for entrepreneurs and start-ups that need guidance as they bring innovative concepts to market. TEDCO is more than an early stage funding resource. It is the hub of Maryland’s entrepreneurial network where start-ups find mentors, organizational assistance, facilities for daily operations, and a roadmap for success.

Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc. (PGDx), a provider of advanced cancer genome testing products and services, today announced that co-founders Luis Diaz, MD, and Victor Velculescu, MD, PhD, have won the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2016 Award in the Maryland region.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. is a global specialty pharmaceutical company, which offers specialized products to governments and healthcare providers. The company derives most of its revenue from one product, BioThrax, which is the only FDA-licensed vaccine for the prevention of anthrax disease. In 2015, about 56% of the company’s revenue came from the sale of BioThrax with the remainder coming from the sale of their other biodefense products, biosciences products, and contract manufacturing.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review Emergent’s supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) seeking approval of the manufacture of BioThrax® (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed) in Building 55, the company’s large-scale manufacturing facility. FDA has set a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) target action date of August 15, 2016.

As cities continue to invest more in smart city technologies, questions surrounding how to staff those moves can puzzle city leaders.

Martin O’Malley, the former mayor of Baltimore and governor of Maryland, suggested during remarks at the Smart Cities Innovation Summit that during his leadership — both at the city and state levels — having a chief innovation officer close to the executive was key to driving government away from the status quo and into new possibilities.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, the owner and developer of the Alexandria Center for Life Science on the East Side of Manhattan, has just launched an incubator space for biotech start-ups.

The new life science laboratory and office platform, which will be called Alexandria Launchlabs, promises 15,000 s/f of space that provides “the necessary resources and collaborative environment to start transforming novel ideas into innovative, early-stage companies that develop products to improve human health.”

Join us for a thrilling evening of start-up pitches from multiple sectors in healthcare including: Services, Health IT, Biotechnology, Medical Devices and Diagnostics. Applications are still being accepted, so if you not afraid of getting nipped by one of our judges, send your information to jhausfeld@sopenet.org.

The approval of Professor Patrick O’Shea’s selection by UCC’s governing body is the first external appointment to the role in 50 years.

Most of his academic career has been at University of Maryland and elsewhere in the US, but he stays in touch with the Irish higher education system. The UCC physics graduate is a director of the Wild Geese Network of Irish Scientists, and he hosted University College Dublin president Andrew Deeks earlier this year.

We were pleased to see the interest in our recent blog on the unique number of investigators applying for and receiving NIH research project grants (RPGs). Some of you (through the blog page or through other media) have asked about whether we have similar data for our Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. We have generated analogous figures for SBIR and STTR grants, and today’s post shares this investigation of the question, “How many unique researchers are seeking SBIR/STTR funding?”

Funding and Research OpportunitiesThe following funding opportunity announcements from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest:

Notices:

• Form Correction Made for All NIH Fellowship Opportunities
• (NOT-OD-16-106) National Institutes of Health
• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institute of General Medical Sciences
• Notice of NHLBI Participation in PA-16-305 “Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Fellowship for Students at Institutions With NIH-Funded Institutional Predoctoral Dual-Degree Training Programs (Parent F30)”
• (NOT-HL-16-325)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice of NHLBI Participation in PA-16-306 “Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Fellowship for Students at Institutions Without NIH-Funded Institutional Predoctoral Dual-Degree Training Programs (Parent F30)”
• (NOT-HL-16-326)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Program Announcements:

• Administrative Supplements for Research on Dietary Supplements (Admin Supp)
• (PA-16-319)
• Office of Dietary Supplements, John E. Fogarty International Center, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Cancer Institute, National Eye Institute, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

The venture fund working to make sweetgreen and CustomInk into household names has raised more than half a billion dollars to double down on its strategy.

Rep. Steny Hoyer and other Democratic lawmakers plan to outline a broad strategy for expanding U.S. manufacturing in Baltimore on Monday, at a time when Washington has stalled on measures sought by the industry.

Merck has added a month-long Silicon Valley stay to the pot on offer for start-ups participating in the next round of its accelerator programmes in Germany and Kenya. The programmes seek to support healthcare, life science and performance materials start-ups, with a particular focus on those developing digital solutions.

The Pentagon has made an unprecedented push to cozy up with Silicon Valley over the past two years, opening satellite offices on the West Coast and Boston in an effort to import fresh insight, ideas and innovation from the private sector to the military.

Global epidemics are outrunning globally accessible containment and cures. There are now more ways to spread diseases worldwide than safe, effective ways to counter them. Biomedical stakeholders are engaged in finding solutions. Now rumored recommendations pending at a UN High Level Panel may make matters worse. Appointed by outgoing Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, the Panel is said to be preparing to release its examination of world “Access to Medicines”. Amazingly it is rumored to be encouraging international flouting of U.S. Bayh-Dole-based patent protection and producer pricing prerogatives. This inevitably will undermine our nation’s life science innovation ecosystem, effectively destroying world hopes for effective response to evolving epidemics.

The UK biotechnology sector continues to build on the success of previous years, raising an unprecedented £900m on the London Stock Exchange in 2015 and recording the highest level of venture finance in recent years, according to the latest report Money, momentum and maturity: UK biotech financing and deals in 2015/16 compiled by the UK BioIndustry Association (BIA) in partnership with Evaluate and the London Stock Exchange.

Imagine the workplace during flu season. Some people get sick and display clear symptoms—a warning sign to coworkers to avoid contact and for that individual to stay home. Others are infected, but never or only belatedly exhibit the tell-tale signs of sickness, meaning they can infect coworkers without knowing it. If healthcare professionals had the ability to test in advance whether a person is likely to spread a disease following infection, they could recommend specific measures to treat the person or limit exposure and perhaps keep an outbreak from growing into an epidemic or pandemic.

When David R. Tabatadze’s small biotechnology venture ran out of money in 2013, he almost gave up on it.

He went to pharmaceutical companies and “angel” investors, those individuals willing to put modest amounts of money into new businesses. None were interested in funding his research into potential genetic medicines.

Gaithersburg-based Novavax Inc. plans to create up to 850 new jobs as part of its planned Montgomery County expansion and will receive state and county financial assistance to support the growth, it was announced Wednesday.

The Kansas City, Mo.-based Kauffman Foundation recently released its 2016 Kauffman Index of Growth Entrepreneurship and found — to the authors seeming surprise — that the Washington, D.C. metro area topped a list of U.S. metro areas with the most growth entrepreneurship.

Can you tell us a bit about your background?

I trained as a physician and scientist, having received both an MD and a PhD. I did my residency in pathology and about 11 years ago I decided to make the transition from academia to industry. Since then, most of my work has been focused on immunotherapy, which is a new and very exciting area of cancer research. Nine months ago I joined MedImmune, the global biologics arm of AstraZeneca, as the head of oncology development.

Digital health technology leader WellDoc® today announced results from a real-world study designed to evaluate the feasibility and reach of using a lay coach in conjunction with BlueStar® mobile prescription therapy to provide ongoing self-management support for people living with type 2 diabetes in a primary care setting. The data were featured via a poster presented today at the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) 76th Scientific Sessions, taking place now at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.

It’s no secret that one of the biggest things holding New York City’s biotech ecosystem back is lack of lab space for startups. The problem will take a broad effort to solve, not just a few buildings or incubators. But one of the city’s biggest real estate players, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, has announced a plan today to help out.

Innovation is the foundation of the 21st Century bioscience industry. It is an industry borne from scientific innovations involving techniques to understand and manage the machinery of living things. The advent of biotechnology in the 1970s, enabled work at the molecular and cellular level including moving genetic information from one living cell to another and tracing the pathways of disease. Over the last 40 years, bioscience innovation has advanced at an astonishing speed. Advances

DATE: Thursday, June 23, 2016 TIME: 8:30 a.m.

Therapeutic proteins represent a number of the currently top 10 best-selling drugs and have combined sales of almost $64 billion per year. The enormous market potential for biosimilars or biobetters has created a crowded field of developers. As a result, there is a growing emphasis on emerging analytical techniques and their lifecycle appropriate application. Industrial, federal, and academic researchers will gather to discuss available open innovation resources and technological advancements for fueling biopharmaceutical development. On Thursday, June 23, 2016 at 8:30 AM join the thought leaders, policy makers, and developers of therapeutic proteins as we present current trends, ideas, and predictions on the use of open innovation biomanufacturing resources and emerging technologies.

The University System of Maryland plans to establish a $25 million fund to invest in startup companies created by students, faculty and recent graduates.

Two Fast Forward companies have been recognized as finalists. The companies are emocha Mobile Health: a mobile health platform that streamlines the continuum of care. and Sonavex Surgical; improving outcomes for surgical patients by using cutting-edge imaging technology to provide clinicians with visualization of critical data — directly at the point of care.

To be held June 23-24 2016 at the NCCOE facility located at 9700 Great Seneca Highway in Rockville.

There is a considerable body of knowledge, governance structures, tools and techniques that have been developed to address regional resilience from a physical infrastructure perspective. However, there has been little done to date to understand and address cyber resilience at a regional level. Even the definition of what constitutes regional cyber infrastructure and whether that is a useful context for examining regional resilience are open questions. As a result, a number of regional consortia, organizations, and programs have begun to focus on this regional cyber challenge and are considering options for addressing regional cyber resilience in a meaningful manner. Please join us on June 23-24 2016, for the inaugural Regional Cyber Resilience Workshop. The workshop will be held at the NCCOE facility located at 9700 Great Seneca Highway, Rockville, MD 20850.

The Maryland Department of Commerce is joining with the state’s top research universities and other life sciences partners and stakeholders to create two or more Centers of Excellence around the state to support cell, gene and regenerative therapies, as well as medical devices and 3-D printing. This partnership with The Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the University of Maryland, College Park will help position Maryland as a leader in commercialization and clinical translation of next-generation medicines and medical devices and ensure the state remains a leader in healthcare innovation. Additional partners include the Center for Medical Technology Policy and biotechnology, pharmaceutical, contract manufacturing, and medical device companies.

The cover of Ernst & Young’s 2016 biotech report has a picture of a parachutist and the subtitle, “Returning to Earth.” According to EY, the biotech industry has experienced explosive growth over the past few years, but that appears to have slowed in 2015. On its own, a 13 percent increase in biotech revenue looks impressive – unless it’s compared to the 18 percent increase in 2014.

Omicia has raised $23 million from Roche’s ($RHHBY) venture fund and other investors. The Series B round will support the expansion of Omicia’s NGS interpretation and reporting capabilities into new sectors, including clinical trials and life science research.

When Gabe Otte went to college, he already had an Apple internship under his belt. In undergrad, his computer-science professors told him to diversify and pick out another area to focus on so he wasn’t bored in class, so he chose biology.

The next Kendall Square just might be located in Allston.

The gritty Boston neighborhood, across the Charles from Harvard University’s main campus, is the site of various construction projects aimed at building up an innovation epicenter over the next five to 10 years. Just don’t tell Jodi Goldstein about the Kendall comparison.

Longitude Capital, an investment firm focused on venture growth investments in biotechnology and medical technology, closed its third fund, at $525m in partner commitments.

Three experts explain synthetic biology and discuss its potential to affect fields as varied as medicine, oil, agriculture, and even fragrances.

Governor Terry McAuliffe announced today $3.4 million in funding to support 48 Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CRCF) awards representing targeted areas of promising research commercialization, including cybersecurity, energy, data analytics, unmanned systems and life sciences.

BioLogic, the Cincinnati region’s only life science incubator, is trying to turn local entrepreneurs’ ideas for improving human health into reality. Now the incubator has a new format, officially becoming a nonprofit a few weeks ago.

The incubator offers the only “wet-lab” space for lease within 100 miles, which allows startups to access expensive material and equipment typically limited to universities and hospitals.

OpGen Inc. (NASDAQ: OPGN) raised $10.4 million in a recent funding round led by the Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, the venture capital arm of pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co.

When you think about the headliners at a music festival, it’s unlikely that the first person to pop into your head would be Martine Rothblatt—the founder of Sirius XM, the one-time highest-paid female CEO in the world who made a robot clone of her wife, and the founder of the Terasem religion, which believes we’ll live forever by uploading our consciousness to the cloud. But Moogfest, a four-day citywide festival of music and technology in Durham, North Carolina, was not the average music festival. Unlike other festivals that make cursory overtures to technology, Moogfest dedicated as much time to explaining how technology influences creativity as to the creative output itself, even listing headline ‘technologists’ alongside its top-billed musical acts.

Bio-Trac®, in partnership with Montgomery College, is proud to offer graduate/post graduate level hands-on laboratory training workshops for research scientists within the Pinkney Innovation Complex for Science and Technology (PIC MC), an integrated academic, business and research campus.

For those in the health and life sciences industry, May is known as National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, more than 50 million Americans suffer from allergies, and more than 24 million Americans are affected by asthma. And while there still isn’t a known cure for these conditions, one Rockville biotechnology company is working to change that.

Greenspring Associates raised $200 million in a new fund that focuses on investing in venture capital fund limited partners and managers that in turn invest in growth-stage companies.

Qiagen is closer to completing its DKK683 million ($104 million) acquisition of Exiqon, a provider of RNA analysis solutions, but has decided to extend for a second time the offer period for Exiqon’s shares.

County Executive Isiah Leggett announced that Montgomery County is moving forward on its vision of creating a local community in East County that provides opportunities to live, work and play in a walkable, mixed use transit-oriented development. The County has reached an agreement with Global LifeSci Development Corporation (GLDC) to develop Viva White Oak, a 300-acre joint mixed use development project.

The Washington, D.C. metropolitan area is the hottest spot in the country for entrepreneurship according to a new report from the Kauffman Index of Growth Entrepreneurship. The ranking is based on a combination of how many new startups there are, how startups in the area have scaled in the course of a decade and how many companies show rapid growth. All told, D.C. easily beats out Austin, Columbus, San Jose and Nashville, the next ranked cities, and far ahead of Boston, New York or other hubs of innovation.

There’s been a lot of talk about bolstering institutions like universities as places to drive the entrepreneurship Maryland needs to become a BioHealth hub. In North Baltimore, Sinai Hospital doesn’t have a connected university, but it still sees an opportunity to turn research into startups.

Did you miss the first I-270 Bio Corridor event last month? If so, you missed out on learning about and connecting with some of the top bio and life science companies and experts as well as resource partners like REDI, the MD Department of Commerce, the Montgomery County Economic Development Corp, Frederick County Office of Economic Development, Frederick City, the City of Gaithersburg Office of Economic Development and Montgomery College.

Over 100 attendees enjoyed a happy hour and discussion of how best to help the I-270 corridor grow with more bio and life science companies at CRB’s new headquarters in Rockville.

This event was scheduled as a precursor to the BIO International Convention taking place this month in San Francisco, REDI, our I-270 Corridor partners, will be there in the Maryland pavilion with information and resources for those companies that may be looking for the perfect location for their bio and life science businesses, promoting the I-270 corridor a hub for this niche market.

When the federal government agreed to a major price hike for Nuo Therapeutics Inc.’s lead wound therapy product last October, officials at the Gaithersburg biotech felt it was the game changer they’d been waiting for.

Twenty-two finalists have been selected for the Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards.

bwtech@UMBC leads the incubator list with eight tenant companies up for awards. Previous winners include Emerging Technology Centers-based SocialToaster, Spark’s Avhana Health and Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship’s Milestone Sports.

The U.S. health care system has a tremendous need for novel high- (and low-) tech solutions to increase its quality, agility and affordability.

To meet this need, the National Science Foundation (NSF) supports research and early-stage development of novel biomedical products, processes and services.

On May 23, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) convened at Johns Hopkins Hospital a scientific expert panel to discuss what to do about the Zika epidemic. Organizing the event within two business days was no small feat, as Cardin, scientific experts, health department leaders, hospital executives and industry representatives all had to quickly clear their very busy morning schedules. The attendance of television and newspaper outlets (such as the Baltimore Sun) meant that the discussion’s proceedings would be available to the public. From the very start, Cardin kept the tone very science-focused: The Zika epidemic is a public health emergency, and the issue is how best scientifically, collaboratively and expeditiously to handle this emergency.

The fifth annual U.S. News STEM Solution Conference kicked off May 18 with a half-day look at STEM education in the Baltimore region and its impact on the local economy.

Pharma major Lupin today said it has received an establishment inspection report (EIR) from the USFDA on closure of inspection of its Mandideep and Aurangabad facilities.

In a BSE filing, Lupin said: “It has received establishment inspection report (EIR) for its Mandideep and Aurangabad facilities wherein the USFDA has concluded that the inspections stand closed.”

Two sets of numbers shows how far biopharma activity has progressed in Asia recently. The value of biotech venture capital funding during the first quarter zoomed to $174 million in the first quarter from $150 million in Q4 2015 and a mere $9.4 million in Q1 2015, according to Tech In Asia.

Thursday, June 2, 2016 7:30 AM – 9:00 AM, Bethesda Country Club

An IPO is one of the most important events in a company’s history, and navigating the course requires an enormous amount of endurance. Choosing an investment bank, perfecting your roadshow, and meeting with investors is just the tip of the iceberg. Join Vit Vasista, Chief Financial Officer of REGENXBIO, at All the Right Moves: Planning a Successful Exit Strategy, on Thursday, June 2, from 7:30 – 9:00 a.m. Vit will share tips that were integral to REGENXBIO’s successful 2015 IPO, from pitching to trading.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Health and Human Services IDEA Lab are looking for a “talented, awesomely connected” entrepreneur-in-residence to shepherd creation of a new pre-certification process for IT vendors interested in working with states.

America wouldn’t be what it is today without innovation.

So says Steve Case, the entrepreneur who co-founded AOL, the company that helped introduce the public to the Internet. Now the chief executive of investment firm Revolution LLC, Mr. Case sat down with Dennis Berman, financial editor of The Wall Street Journal, to discuss the next wave of the Internet’s evolution and how midsize companies might take advantage of it.

Newly released research from the Kauffman Foundation finds that in 2016, Washington, D.C., Austin, San Jose, Columbus, and Nashville were the five highest ranked metropolitan areas for the Index of Growth Entrepreneurship. The five highest ranked states were Virginia, Utah, Maryland, Arizona, and Massachusetts. As described in the SSTI Digest last week, The Kauffman Index of Growth Entrepreneurship measures the growth of entrepreneurial businesses in the United States, complementing the foundation’s recently released Index of Startup Activity and Index of Main Street Entrepreneurship.

The Baltimore-area slipped 10 spots on a new report ranking entrepreneurship growth.

Too often, it seems, the mark of a “good” scientist is the ability to give an excruciatingly embarrassing and incomprehensible scientific presentation – the sort of presentations that litter academic conferences.

Thursday, June 23, 2016 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. • Washington, D.C.

Join the Maryland/Israel Development Center for its second annual MIDC Day at the Israeli Embassy for an exclusive networking event and interactive panel discussion.

Imagine being 15 years from the traditional retirement age and deciding to start your own company. Or deciding to enter a completely different industry—at age 60. Or spending your twenties deferring further study to find out what really drives you.

Few industries are facing as much external change as pharmaceuticals and medical products, whether it be sustained global demand and the need for drugs and devices, accelerating cost pressures on health systems, growing complexity in emerging markets, or the disruptive effect of new technologies in therapy and care provision.

GlycoMimetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLYC) today announced that the peer-reviewed journal, Science Translational Medicine, has published preclinical research in its May 25 issue pointing to a potential clinical application for GMI-1271 in the treatment of breast cancer. The published study details research in an in vivo model that showed the company’s drug candidate, GMI-1271, a novel E-selectin antagonist, inhibits breast cancer metastasis.

Vtesse, Inc. announced today that the dose-finding portion of the company’s global, pivotal Phase 2b/3 clinical trial for its lead investigational product, VTS-270, for treatment of Niemann-Pick Type C1 Disease (NPC) is now complete, and a dose level for further testing has been selected by an independent dose selection committee (DSC). Vtesse’s ongoing Phase 2b/3 prospective, randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled trial is a three-part, efficacy and safety trial of VTS-270, administered by the lumbar intrathecal (IT) route every two weeks. VTS-270 is based on a specific, well-characterized composition of 2-hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin.

Novavax Inc. has won a potentially lucrative fast-track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for one of its lead vaccine candidates to protect older patients against a respiratory virus known as RSV.

Senseonics Holdings, Inc. (NYSE-MKT:SENS), a medical technology company focused on the development and commercialization of a long-term, implantable continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system for people with diabetes, today announced it has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Roche for the multi-country commercialization of Senseonics’ Eversense® Continuous Glucose Monitoring System.

Pharma major Lupin today said it has received an establishment inspection report (EIR) from the USFDA on closure of inspection of its Mandideep and Aurangabad facilities.

In a BSE filing, Lupin said: “It has received establishment inspection report (EIR) for its Mandideep and Aurangabad facilities wherein the USFDA has concluded that the inspections stand closed.”

From Stewart Edelstein, Executive Director, Universities at Shady Grove:

“I am pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Richee L. Smith Andrews as USG’s first Chief Development Officer. Richee brings over 15 years of development experience and will lead USG’s efforts to secure development funding, endowments, and major gifts to support academic programing, scholarships, and student success.”

Women who get a prosthetic foot after losing a leg to disease or injury have limited shoe options, but an invention by five Johns Hopkins University students may change that. The university announced Wednesday that the “Prominence” could be the first non-custom prosthetic foot to adapt to high heels up to 4 inches high.

The National Science Foundation’s I-Corps initiative is heavily influenced by the lean start-up methodology, which calls for rapid iteration of value propositions and customer segments based on formal and extensive interviews with the industry stakeholders of a technology or service. While this methodology has proven to be very successful overall, many universities have reported difficulty engaging faculty in the process because of the six-week commitment to the program.

“Twelve weeks ago, these projects were literally just ideas,” said Rana Quraishi, PhD, director of new ventures in the Office of Research and Development at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). Quraishi was welcoming students, intellectual property experts, and scientists to the final meeting of UMB’s first-ever course in developing and pitching a biotechnology business concept, called CIPP 980.

On May 23, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) convened at Johns Hopkins Hospital a scientific expert panel to discuss what to do about the Zika epidemic. Organizing the event within two business days was no small feat, as Cardin, scientific experts, health department leaders, hospital executives and industry representatives all had to quickly clear their very busy morning schedules. The attendance of television and newspaper outlets (such as the Baltimore Sun) meant that the discussion’s proceedings would be available to the public. From the very start, Cardin kept the tone very science-focused: The Zika epidemic is a public health emergency, and the issue is how best scientifically, collaboratively and expeditiously to handle this emergency.

The fifth annual U.S. News STEM Solution Conference kicked off May 18 with a half-day look at STEM education in the Baltimore region and its impact on the local economy.

Thursday, June 2, 2016 7:30 AM – 9:00 AM, Bethesda Country Club

An IPO is one of the most important events in a company’s history, and navigating the course requires an enormous amount of endurance. Choosing an investment bank, perfecting your roadshow, and meeting with investors is just the tip of the iceberg. Join Vit Vasista, Chief Financial Officer of REGENXBIO, at All the Right Moves: Planning a Successful Exit Strategy, on Thursday, June 2, from 7:30 – 9:00 a.m. Vit will share tips that were integral to REGENXBIO’s successful 2015 IPO, from pitching to trading.

IBM is partnering with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) to create the Accelerated Cognitive Cybersecurity Laboratory (ACCL), which will be housed within the College of Engineering and Information Technology at UMBC. The Lab will use Watson technology to improve cybersecurity.

Longtime San Franciscans may remember the Mission Bay neighborhood, located on the southern end of the city, as the home to one of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company’s railyards. Trains ran in and out of the railyard for nearly 100 years until the 1990s.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released a federal funding opportunity (FFO) to establish and sustain up to eight Regional Alliances and Multistakeholder Partnerships to Stimulate (RAMPS) Cybersecurity Education and Workforce Development. Through this announcement, NIST will commit up to $1.6 million for state or regional consortiums that identify cybersecurity workforce development pathways that address local workforce needs. Although lead organizations must be a nonprofit or institution of higher education, NIST encourages public-private partnerships with industry and local governments. Proposals are due July 12, 2016.

The Association of University Research Parks is proud to present the 2016 Awards of Excellence in research and science park development and practice.

AURP will honor industry leaders at the 2016 International Conference in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Please submit nominees by Friday, July 15, 2016.

The angel investor market in 2015 had a slight increase in investment dollars and in the deal size. Total investments in 2015 were $24.6 billion, an increase of 1.9% over 2014, according to the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire. A total of 71,110 entrepreneurial ventures received angel funding in 2015, a decline of 3.1% over 2014 investments. The number of active investors in 2015 was 304,930 individuals, a decrease of 3.7% from 2014. The change in both total dollars and the number of investments resulted in a deal size for 2015 that was larger than in 2014 (an increase in deal size of 5.1% from 2014). These data, combined with the yield rates and valuations, indicate that angels were selective in their investment behavior in 2015. The decrease in valuations over the last three years indicates a continuing market correction in valuations. However, the $24.6 billion of investments is a robust amount and is close to the market high of $26.0 billion that occurred in 2007.

Startups based in California, New York, and Massachusetts account for most of the VC tech funding in the United States. However, hotbeds of innovation are being spurred by VCs across the country.

With that in mind, we used CB Insights data to analyze the most active venture capital firm by the number of investments into tech startups in each US state from 2011 to 2016 year-to-date (through 5/9/16).

OrbiMed has launched a $307 million venture capital fund five years after its inagural $202 million fund investing in biotech, diagnostic and medical device and digital health companies.

Two sets of numbers shows how far biopharma activity has progressed in Asia recently. The value of biotech venture capital funding during the first quarter zoomed to $174 million in the first quarter from $150 million in Q4 2015 and a mere $9.4 million in Q1 2015, according to Tech In Asia.

Life science venture firm 5AM Ventures has raised $285 million for fund number 5, according to data from a Form D filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm makes investments in life science startups at the seed and early stage of their development.

The National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2) will hold its inaugural University Startups Demo Day (USDD) at the National Press Club and Congress in Washington, DC on September 20, 2016.

The USDD provides an unprecedented opportunity for corporate open innovation and venturing groups, VCs, and angels to discover, review, partner with, and fund university startups. At the same time, it raises awareness in Congress of the pivotal role that universities play in the formation of high potential startups, the creation of high value jobs across the country, and overall national competitiveness.

The USDD will showcase thirty-five (35) of the best university startups in specific technology areas. Selected by their universities, and scored by corporates, angels, and VCs, the top scoring university startups will be invited to present at the National Press Club in the first part of the day. During the second part of the day, the companies will meet and have photo ops with their senators and representatives at Congress.

On June 8th, WTCI will hold our 10th Annual Women Spanning the Globe Leadership Conference. Over the course of the day, you will be introduced to an impressive line- up of speakers and topics ranging from being an authentic leader, living your purpose to promoting and nurturing gender equality in your professional and person life.

We have designed an interactive day with time between sessions, when the audience can “Lean In”, ask questions, encourage feedback and share their perspective. We hope all 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.

The Information Technology (IT) Manager will develop, assess and maintain secure, effective and innovative information technology functions at BHI. The IT Manager influences the BHI organization by strategically managing and providing information, intelligence and insights which influence BHI operations decisions and promote the image of the organization.

Whatever Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) learned about MacroGenics’ off-the-shelf approach to stirring a T cell attack against cancer since inking their first partnership deal 17 months ago seems to have only whetted the pharma giant’s appetite for more.

Neuralstem, Inc. (Nasdaq: CUR), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of central nervous system therapies based on its neural stem cell technology, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell 2,700,000 shares of its common stock and warrants to purchase 2,700,000 shares of common stock in a private placement. The securities are being sold in a private offering at a price of $0.40 per one share of common stock and one common stock purchase warrant. The warrants have an exercise price of $0.40 per share, are immediately exercisable and expire on the fifth anniversary of the date of issuance. The shares of common stock and warrants are immediately separable and will be issued separately.

At the North Bethesda Marriott, Maryland’s leading technology and life science companies gathered to celebrate recent successes from the most innovative teams in the state on Thursday night’s industry celebration.

Roche Venture Fund and 5AM Ventures have led Purigen Biosystems to an $18.2 million Series A round. Purigen will use the money to advance the development and commercialization of a benchtop system for extracting, quantifying and enriching of samples for genomic testing.

QIAGEN N.V. (NASDAQ: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced the extension of the offer period for the acquisition of Exiqon A/S, a world leader in RNA technology. On 18 April 2016, QIAGEN had published a conditional, voluntary public tender offer for the shares in Exiqon, in which the shareholders of Exiqon were offered a cash amount of DKK 18 for each share they held in Exiqon. In accordance with the Offer, the Offer Period expired yesterday on 18 May 2016 at 23.59 (CET).

Roche Holding (RHHBY – Analyst Report) announced that the FDA has granted accelerated approval to its cancer immunotherapy drug, Tecentriq (atezolizumab), for the treatment of patients suffering from locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC), who experienced disease progression during or after platinum-based chemotherapy, or whose disease has worsened within 12 months of receiving platinum-based chemotherapy before or after surgery.

Extending their partnership to an eighth company, La Jolla’s Avalon Ventures and UK-based drug giant GSK said Friday they have formed another San Diego biotech startup.

Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels was among the speakers Thursday at the fifth annual U.S. News & World Report STEM Solutions National Leadership Conference in Baltimore.

The three-day conference brought together leaders from academia, business, and government to contribute key insights into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—or STEM—education. The summit focused on solutions and best practices to ensure that the nation’s future workforce has the necessary skills and knowledge to thrive in a global economy.

TEDCO handed out its annual honors for “Innovation,” “Corporate Excellence” and “Entrepreneurship” on Tuesday. The ICE Awards ceremony at Columbus Center in Inner Harbor marked a move into Baltimore city after last year’s event in Columbia.

Kevin Plank encourages University of Maryland graduates to let “passion” fuel their dreams Kevin Plank remembers sitting in his cap and gown at the University of Maryland, College Park commencement ceremony in 1996 as Hillary Clinton spoke to his graduating class. He also remembers that he was fidgeting in his seat and only half-listening.

The National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics a “Center of Excellence” grant to study the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of applying genomics to research on, and the prevention and treatment of, infectious disease. This builds on three years of work of an exploratory Center of Excellence in ELSI Research (CEER) at the Berman Institute, the first such project to focus attention on genomic ELSI issues in the context of infectious disease.

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) today announced approval of the VENTANA PD-L1 (SP142) Assay1 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a complementary diagnostic to provide PD-L1 status on patients who are considering treatment with the FDA approved Roche immunotherapy TECENTRIQ™ (atezolizumab) for metastatic urothelial cancer (mUC). This test is the first to evaluate patient PD-L1 status using immune cell staining and scoring within the tumor microenvironment, providing clinicians with information that may guide immunotherapy decisions2.

Novartis is splitting its pharmaceuticals division into two business units, one focused on cancer and the second on other drugs, while switching out its current pharma head in the second high-profile management reshuffle this year.

Dr. J. Thomas August, who has spent the last 40 years at Johns Hopkins and decades developing a way for people to fight off viruses, has turned his attention to developing a Zika virus vaccine. He is relying upon one of his own discoveries – a means of delivering cells injected with the DNA code of the virus to a person’s own immune system to fight off infection. “Others talk about 10 years to invent and develop a new vaccine,” said August, “We’re going to do this in about a year.” August is bankrolling his new Baltimore-based company called Pharos Biologicals with his own money and has enlisted CEO David Wise to help raise as much as $5 million to conduct the initial trials.

Researchers at the University of Maryland were able pull away color and chemicals from a block of wood to leave it impressively see-through. The result is a material that is both stronger and more insulating than glass, with better biodegradability than plastic. “We were very surprised by how transparent it could go,” said Liangbing Hu, who wrote about the project in Advanced Materials.

Sanofi Genzyme, the specialty care global business unit of Sanofi (NYSE: SNY), announced today a research collaboration with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine that will focus on novel strategies aimed at advancing the understanding of underlying causes of disease progression in multiple sclerosis (MS). The collaboration, under guidance by a joint committee of representatives from Sanofi Genzyme and the Johns Hopkins Multiple Sclerosis Center, will leverage certain technologies and methodologies designed to inform new therapeutic approaches to treating disease progression.

Satellite campuses are increasingly popular for public institutions hoping to expand their reach and increase access to students throughout the state, but the Post reports Maryland’s configuration of combining nine satellite programs onto one campus is unique.

The 2030 Group has hired a consultant to create a campaign to rebrand Greater Washington and expects to launch that campaign early next year. The fear is that the region all too often loses its best and brightest to places such as Silicon Valley and lags when it comes to diversifying its economy away from a dependence on the federal government to a more entrepreneurial one centered on innovation.

The Washington region is poised to dominate a new billions-dollar industry.

The state venture capital fund led an add-on investment for Columbia’s Healthcare Interactive and is the kind of deal the fund wants to do more of in the future.

It’s abundantly clear that microörganisms play an essential role in maintaining the health of humans, animals, and plants. But how exactly they pull this off is still mostly a mystery—one that the White House hopes to help solve by way of a new microbiome research initiative.

Decades of research have linked specific personality traits to a longer life expectancy. Some of them — from friendliness to emotional stability — may be written into our genes.

And while one study found that we’re not particularly good at identifying these traits in ourselves, it suggested that our close friends are often spot-on.

What 4000+ corporate directors think about the economy, risk, board strengths and weaknesses, and boardroom diversity

“Boards cannot afford to have directors around the table who aren’t delivering value,” says a new report based on the 2016 Global Board of Directors Survey, released from Professor Boris Groysberg and Yo-Jud Cheng of Harvard Business School, Spencer Stuart, the WomenCorporateDirectors (WCD) Foundation, and researcher Deborah Bell. With greater institutional and activist shareholder activity and stronger concerns about risk and global competitive threats, boards are taking on “a more strategic, dynamic, and responsive role” in their companies, the report states – pushing “issues around board composition and diversity to the fore.”

It will be obvious when the Department of Health and Human Services’ IDEA Lab is a success, because it will no longer be needed, according to Damon Davis, the director of the department’s Health Data Initiative.

The TMCx accelerator program couples the resources of Texas Medical Center with the innovative horsepower of entrepreneurs working in the areas of medical technology and digital health. Throughout the program, startups engage with TMC physicians and other hospital stakeholders to refine their value proposition and determine their product/market fit.

GenVec, Inc. (NasdaqCM: GNVC) (“GenVec” or “the Company”), today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with institutional investors for an offering of shares of common stock with gross proceeds of approximately $5 million in an at-the-market registered direct offering. The closing of the offering is expected to take place on or about May 10, 2016, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Hong-Kong based Value Measured Investment Limited led a $10 million Series B financing in Sirnaomics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focusing on RNAi therapeutics. The funding will go towards development of anti-fibrosis treatments, with a Phase I clinical trial planned for early second half of 2016.

Healthcare Interactive Inc. has raised $3.4 million to bring on more clients for its health care planning business.

The new funding is an add-on to the company’s Series A round and was led by the Maryland Venture Fund, the state’s venture capital arm. Previous investors Grotech Ventures and Harbert Management Corp. also participated. The new funding brings Healthcare Interactive’s total Series A to $11.8 million.

The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland’s largest technology trade association, announced the winners of it 28th Annual Industry Awards during a celebration at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center attended by more than 600 technology and business leaders.

Epigenomics AG, a German-American cancer molecular diagnostics company, with its U.S. headquaters in Germantown, MD, announced that LabCorp® to offer Epi proColon®, a blood-based test for colorectal cancer screening, in the U.S.

With its U.S. headquarters located within the Germantown Innovation Center, Epigenomics recently announced that its blood-based test for colorectal cancer screening, Epi proColon®, will be available in the U.S. This deal is yet another example of the success of a company in Montgomery County’s Business Innovation Network, specifically in the life sciences incubator, earning significant revenue from the marketplace. “It’s truly hard to express how proud we are when an incubator company makes it through FDA approvals and gets their product to market,” said Sally Sternbach, Acting Director of Montgomery County Department of Economic Development.

Not only have several of the top bioscience companies in our region grown in the past year, but we can already predict some of the biggest growth spurts we’ll see next.

Johns Hopkins University took over the No. 1 spot on this week’s List of patents in Maryland. The private research institution obtained 133 patents in 2015, achieving a total of 454 patents in the last five years.

It would be easy to mistake the Universities at Shady Grove as a flagship public school, with its red-brick buildings and its state-of-the-art labs, library and fitness center.

Wait, can this be true? From a new report by 1776, “a global incubator and seed fund,” comes this startling claim: “Boston is the #1 city in the U.S. for fostering entrepreneurial growth.”

Boston, not Silicon Valley? Really? This chart from the reports seems to say otherwise:

Helping individuals returning from incarceration pay for housing, mentoring high school students to build robotic cars, and providing a system to reuse dorm furnishings and supplies are among the winning ideas to emerge from the latest round of online crowdsourcing on the Johns Hopkins Idea Lab.