BHI Weekly Newsletter Archives

When it came to deciding where drug giant AstraZeneca would expand its work making biologic medicines, there was no question the project would happen in Maryland, the company’s top U.S. official said this Wednesday. “I don’t know where else we would go in terms of innovation,” said Paul Hudson, AstraZeneca’s U.S. president as the company unveiled progress on its $200 million expansion in Frederick.

Circulomics Inc has been awarded a $1.5M Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) to develop its Ligo-miR microRNA assay platform. This award follows a previous $400k Phase I award and will create a comprehensive portfolio of Ligo-miR products designed to address broad swaths of the microRNA market.

Emergent BioSolutions announced that a new phase I study has begun at the University of Oxford that will evaluate the use of its modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) Ebola Zaire vaccine candidate as a prime boost to GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK – Analyst Report) Chimp Adenovirus type 3 Ebola vaccine candidate.

The study will enroll 38 volunteers and be conducted in the UK and is being supported by a grant from the Wellcome Trust and the UK Department for International Development. Emergent BioSolutions manufactured the supply of MVA Ebola Zaire vaccine candidate to be used in this phase I study.

On April 30, 2015, KeyGene USA, celebrated the opening of its new R&D facilities co-located at the University of Maryland’s Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) in Rockville, Maryland. The R&D facilities include offices, molecular biology labs, a state-of-the-art greenhouse and access to modern growth chambers, tissue culture facilities and other resources. KeyGene USA is part of KeyGene, a leader in molecular breeding and translational agriculture with its headquarters in Wageningen, the Netherlands. KeyGene USA’s research programs will primarily be focused on crops of significance to the North and South American markets.

Like almost everyone else, doctors and nurses now use smartphones on a regular basis. So what’s the best way for the healthcare industry to take advantage of that?

That was the theme of many of the projects being developed in this year’s DreamIt Health Baltimore program, an intensive four-month bootcamp for health-tech startups that began in January. For the second year in a row, Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Medicine co-sponsored the accelerator program in Baltimore, with the six startups setting up shop at an Inner Harbor work space.

Internet2 has announced the establishment of a new award, honoring the lifelong contributions of the chancellor of the University System of Maryland (USM). The Internet2 William “Brit” Kirwan Mentorship Award will be presented annually, beginning in 2016, to a member of the Internet2 community who embodies the spirit of Kirwan’s role as a mentor to countless professionals in the research and education (R&E) community. He is well known for his ability to connect people in higher education and inspire others, and for giving his time to serve the community. Kirwan, a long-time Internet2 supporter and member of its Board of Trustees, will step down from his USM chancellorship next month.

Funding: Biotechnology Investor Incentive Tax Credit (BIITC)

Maryland’s Biotechnology Investment Incentive Tax Credit (BIITC), created to assist the state’s early stage life sciences companies raise funding, is one of the most generous programs of its kind in the country. The program provides refundable income tax credits equal to 50% of an eligible investment to investors in qualified Maryland biotechnology companies (QMBCs). Although recipient companies must be based in Maryland, investors from outside the State (including outside the U.S) are encouraged.

Investments from $25,000 to $500,000 per individual investor are eligible, with a company limit of 15% of the annual budgeted credit amount ($1,800,000 of credit per company in FY2016 [July 1, 2015 – June 30, 2016]). To date, 75 companies have taken advantage of the program, receiving $69M in credits and later $450M+ in follow on investment.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a public-private partnership and innovation intermediary is seeking an energetic and motivated life science professional for the role of an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) with product development experience and subject matter expertise in the fields of neurology and neuroscience. The EIR will reside within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and will also support intramural and extramural initiatives on an as needed basis.

The EIR program was established at BioHealth Innovation to:

• Retain and bring entrepreneurial talent to the Maryland ecosystem
• Connect resources including institutions, technology assets, people and capital within Maryland that include federal institutions, labs, academic institutions, small businesses, disease foundations and the investor community
• Build/support sustainable life science startups that will add value within the healthcare system and also build upon the existing infrastructure

The EIR will work with BHI leadership to ensure that the activities and outcomes are aligned with BHIs strategic focus.

A mid-stage trial of Roche Holding AG’s experimental immunotherapy showed that it doubled the likelihood of survival for lung cancer patients with the highest levels of a specific biomarker.

The drug, known by the code name MPDL3280A, is part of a new class designed to help the body’s immune system fend off cancer by blocking a protein known as Programmed Death receptor (PD-1), or a related target known as PD-L1, used by tumors to evade the body’s defenses.

Luis Branco didn’t originally plan to head to the front lines of the Ebola crisis.

His Germantown-based startup, Zalgen Labs LLC, was testing its diagnostic kits in Sierra Leone last May for a different illness called Lassa Fever, which is endemic in West Africa and kills scores of people there every year. But then, Ebola began to spread.

As a serial entrepreneur who now runs an Israel-based platform that helps companies raise money from investors, Jon Medved has seen more than a few locales.

“If you’re looking for innovation outside of Silicon Valley in the states, you can really do no better than Maryland,” said Medved, the CEO of OurCrowd.

Continuing on its current investment spree, Chinese internet giant Tencent has now led a $750K seed funding round for Tissue Analytics, a tele-medicine app that guides you to take care of chronic wounds.

Existing investor DreamIt Health — the Philadelphia-based accelerator program which Tissue Analytics is an Alumni of (the startup got a pre-seed fund from the accelerator program), also participated in the round along with numerous other angel investors from Philadelphia.

A U.K. government-appointed review team into the issue of antibiotic resistance, headed by economist Jim O’Neill, has urged the global pharmaceutical industry to fund a $2 billion innovation fund to kick-start research into new antibiotics. O’Neill argues that without the fund, the incentive for major pharmaceuticals to develop new antibiotics is not there. This is due to the low return-on-investment and too great a focus on short-term profit-and-loss. The issue of “who pays for new antibiotics?” was recently posed by Magnus Steigedal, director of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s (NTNU) Strategic Research Area on Health, who came to a similar conclusion that the world cannot wait around for big pharma alone.

Forest City Enterprises and its partners on Friday will break ground on a $65.6 million, 165,000-square-foot building at 1812 Ashland Ave. that will be a hub for Johns Hopkins University’s efforts to commercialize research.

Construction is expected to be completed in August 2016.

In just three months, demand for lab and office space at the Johns Hopkins innovation hub, FastForward East, has exceeded supply. The FastForward program, designed to move academic findings through translational research into the commercial marketplace, was introduced to East Baltimore earlier this year in an interim facility in the Rangos Building at 855 N. Wolfe St. In that time, all of its offices and lab benches have been rented.

Currently, preparations are being made to expand FastForward East from 6,000 square feet to 25,000 square feet of office and lab space. This facility will be a part of a new seven-level, $65.6 million laboratory and office building development, 1812 Ashland.

The NIH is the premier biomedical research center for the world. Its 27 Institutes and Centers employ approximately 18,000 employees doing a vast array of jobs, all supporting efforts for a healthy nation. For information on the NIH mission, goals, and Institutes and Centers, visit NIH Overview

This position is located in the Transfer Technology Center (TTC) of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health. The candidate selected for this position serves as a member of one of the Technology Transfer Center Units with responsibility for advising on and performing the full range of services that facilitate the transfer of new technologies and research materials, particularly with the private sector, for further research or commercial development as appropriate. Works closely with industrial, academic and federal scientists in the development and execution of complex Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs). Manages and monitors the processes for handling CRADAs and potential inventions and licenses. Originates Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs), Confidential Disclosure Agreements (CDAs), Clinical Trial Agreements (CTAs), and other agreements required by the organizations serviced. Advises scientists on the suitability of each agreement for desired research project. Collaborates with the NIH Office of Technology Transfer to ensure that the interests of the NCI are represented in all technology transfer matters. Advises researchers and administrators on matters involving both domestic and foreign patent rights, policies and procedures. Participates in the development and conduct of educational programs designed to train NCI intramural and extramural scientists and administrative staff about inventions, patents, licensing, trade secrets, copyrights, and research and development agreements. Provides advice and guidance in resolving intellectual property issues in a variety of grants and contract initiatives. For more information, please visit http://ttc.nci.nih.gov/

The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland’s largest technology trade association, last night announced the winners of its 27th Annual Industry Awards. The celebration and ceremony, which took place at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center, was attended by more than 700 technology and business leaders from around the state.

“The breadth of accomplishments of this year’s award recipients is impressive – from the innovations being developed here in Maryland to the leadership of executives and educators to foster inspired workplace and school environments,” said Phil Schiff, TCM’s CEO. “We are proud to honor this year’s winners, which underscore the quality and value of the state’s technology and life sciences communities, and the importance of their work around the world.”

Soligenix, Inc. (OTCQB: SNGX) (Soligenix or the Company), a late-stage biopharmaceutical company developing products that address unmet medical needs in the areas of inflammation, oncology and biodefense, announced today that it has initiated a development agreement with Emergent BioSolutions to implement a commercially viable, scalable production technology for the RiVax™ drug substance protein antigen. RiVax™ is a vaccine candidate being developed to protect against ricin exposure. Soligenix will transfer the manufacturing processes and analytics to Emergent to conduct process development work that could potentially lead to a future commercial manufacturing collaboration.

Cancer is costly, pervasive and a growing problem for businesses.

It already accounts for between 10 percent and 15 percent of employers’ health costs. As employees work longer before retiring, the bill could get bigger. That’s why Johns Hopkins Medicine is launching a new program that could reduce the business costs of cancer by helping employees better prepare for and cope with it.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015 – Wednesday, July 15, 2015 – Bethesda, MD

MedCity ENGAGE is an executive-level event featuring the most innovative thinking from payers, providers, policymakers, health IT and beyond to highlight best-in-class approaches to one of the biggest challenges in healthcare: patient engagement. It will feature speakers discussing the current attempts to innovate in care delivery and reimbursement, along with the innovations that will form the backbone of technological infrastructure. We’re here to help.

If you have questions regarding registration contact events@breakingmedia.com

AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) announced that it has entered an agreement with Abbott (NYSE: ABT), a global healthcare company, to develop companion diagnostic tests to identify patients with severe asthma who are most likely to benefit from the investigational biological therapy, tralokinumab. To date, no companion diagnostic blood tests have been approved for use in asthma.

Under the terms of the agreement, Abbott will develop and commercialise diagnostic tests to measure serum levels of the proteins periostin and DPP4 (dipeptidyl peptidase-4), which have been identified as potential predictive biomarkers of up-regulated IL-13 in severe asthma. The tests will be developed in conjunction with AstraZeneca’s Phase III trial of tralokinumab, a potential treatment for patients with severe, inadequately controlled asthma, developed by the company’s biologics research and development arm, MedImmune. Periostin has been previously described as a potential biomarker for asthma1, and DPP4 is a novel and promising predictive biomarker identified by MedImmune.

A new phase 1 study has begun at the University of Oxford that will investigate the use of a modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) Ebola Zaire vaccine candidate (MVA EBOZ) as a prime-boost to GSK’s Chimp Adenovirus type 3 (ChAd3) Ebola vaccine candidate. The study, being conducted by the clinical research group of Professor Adrian Hill of the Jenner Institute, has received regulatory approval to begin from the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

May 31-June 3, 2015 – Washington, DC

Health Datapalooza is a national conference focused on liberating health data, and bringing together the companies, startups, academics, government agencies, and individuals with the newest and most innovative and effective uses of health data to improve patient outcomes.

A lot of people make news in the biopharma business. Few of them are influential.

Influence, simply put, is the ability to make your mark in such a way as to get other prominent people in this business to rethink the way they do business. Last year, that definition caused us to put GlaxoSmithKline’s ($GSK) Deirdre Connelly on the list for her plan to do away with sales quotas in the U.S. The influential idea then was that ethics had to come before numbers–a big issue at a company that has been challenged time and again by an unethical approach to business that spurred a series of sordid messes and a second take at a painful reorganization.

How many types of cells are there in the human body? Textbooks say a couple of hundred. But the true number is undoubtedly far larger.

Piece by piece, a new, more detailed catalogue of cell types is emerging from labs like that of Aviv Regev at the Broad Institute, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which are applying recent advances in single-cell genomics to study individual cells at a speed and scale previously unthinkable.

The 21st Century Cures bill advanced Thursday when The House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee sent the unanimously passed bill onto the full committee, which will address it next week.

The bill could potentially be enacted into law later this year.

Drug costs are astronomical – this we know.

But we don’t have a transparent, informed way of calculating – or understanding – the true costs of drug development, argued Dr. Jerry Avorn, a professor of pharmacoeconomics at Harvard University, in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine.

Awful patient experience, poor communication, increasing out-of-pocket costs. Investors assembled for a panel discussion of the future of investing in aging technology at the AARP Innovation@50+ focused more on pain points that could apply to healthcare generally not specifically to senior care.

Jody Holtzman, senior vice president of thought leadership at the AARP, moderated the panel.

What’s the difference between a “good” state for telemedicine and a “bad” one?

The American Telemedicine Association released two reports at its annual conference earlier this month in Los Angeles, a state-by state analysis of coverage and reimbursement policies for telemedicine services and another on physician practice standards and licensure in each state.

The angel investor market in 2014 had a slight correction in investment dollars and in the deal size. Total investments in 2014 were $24.1 billion, a decrease of 2.8% over 2013, according to the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire. A total of 73,400 entrepreneurial ventures received angel funding in 2014, an increase of 3.8% over 2013 investments. The number of active investors in 2014 was 316,600 individuals, an increase of 5.9% from 2013. The change in both total dollars and the number of investments resulted in a deal size for 2014 that was smaller than in 2013 (a decrease in deal size of 6.4% from 2013). These data indicate that angels were active investors in 2014 but at decreased valuations than in previous years, indicating a slight market correction in valuations. However, the $24.1 billion is a robust amount and is close to the market high of $26.0 billion that occurred in 2007.

Washington, D.C., mayor Muriel Bowser has named Matt Bailey the first director of technology innovation for the Office of the Chief Technology Officer.

The appointment is part of an effort to create innovative solutions to address the challenges that Washington, D.C., faces as a city, said Bowser in a release.

There seems to be something special about coworking spaces. As researchers who have, for years, studied how employees thrive, we were surprised to discover that people who belong to them report levels of thriving that approach an average of 6 on a 7-point scale. This is at least a point higher than the average for employees who do their jobs in regular offices, and something so unheard of that we had to look at the data again.

BHI issued a Commercial Relevance Award to three companies as part of the Invest Maryland Challenge, Maryland’s statewide business plan competition. The three companies each offer a differentiated product or service to the biohealth marketplace with an opportunity to provide significant commercial value to the health industry granting the the Commercial Relevance title..

Sickweather is a Batimore-based health information company that scans social networks for indicators of illness, allowing you to check for the chance of sickness as easily as you can check for the chance of rain.

Care Progress is a Bethesda-based company with a software platform to efficiently manage and treat cancer patients at home and maximize reimbursement through outcomes-based care management.

Tissue Analytics is a Johns Hopkins University spin-out that is transforming the common smartphone into a sophisticated medical imaging system.BHI will offer strategic consulting services with selected companies to support the growth of these businesses and doe do using our knowledge, network and process for assisting early-stage biohealth companies. BHI is pleased to continue to partner with the State of Maryland’s Invest Maryland Challenge to support the growth of emerging biohealth businesses.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a public-private partnership and innovation intermediary is seeking an energetic and motivated life science professional for the role of an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) with product development experience and subject matter expertise in the fields of neurology and neuroscience. The EIR will reside within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and will also support intramural and extramural initiatives on an as needed basis.

The EIR program was established at BioHealth Innovation to:

• Retain and bring entrepreneurial talent to the Maryland ecosystem
• Connect resources including institutions, technology assets, people and capital within Maryland that include federal institutions, labs, academic institutions, small businesses, disease foundations and the investor community
• Build/support sustainable life science startups that will add value within the healthcare system and also build upon the existing infrastructure

The EIR will work with BHI leadership to ensure that the activities and outcomes are aligned with BHIs strategic focus.

Congratulations to all the winners in the third InvestMaryland Challenge. All four will receive a $100,000 top prize from the Department of Business and Economic Development. Check out the rest of the prize winners in the list below, and an explanation of all the different prizes provided by sponsors and partners here.

Montgomery College offers Summer 2015 classes designed to meetyour entrepreneurial needs in support of your business ideas.

For Aspiring Entrepreneurs:

The Intentional Entrepreneur:

This one day class helps you identify your entrepreneurial skills and abilities, and addresses any concerns you may have about business ownership. This class is a must for anyone considering starting a business!

Monday, May 18, 2015 6–10 p.m.Saturday, July 11, 2015 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

For Early Stage Entrepreneurs:

New Venture:

Designed specifically for the entrepreneurs in the early stages of business development.

Wednesdays, June 3–August 5, 2015 6–9 p.m.

For more information, please contact Karen Ambrose, Program Director at 240-567-2592 or e-mail: karen.ambrose@montgomerycollege.edu

Don’t forget to register NOW for Wednesday’s T2 Speakers Series “Commercializing Innovations at Georgetown University” with Georgetown University Office of Technology Commercialization Director Ruchika Nijhara, Ph.D.

Tech Transfer Speakers Series is a free monthly program offered through the Gateway to Innovation: Montgomery Welcome Center for Federal and Academic Tech Transfer. For more information and additional calendar items, please visit TechTransferConnection.com. Engage with others in the tech transfer field by joining the Gateway to Innovation LinkedIn Group. Brought to you by: Montgomery County Department of Economic Development and the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer.

JOIN THE GATEWAY TO INNOVATION LinkedIn Group and start networking with other researchers, federal lab professionals, university technologists, investors, and many others in our area. Move your technology forward by reaching out and connecting!!

University of Maryland (UM) Ventures and Biomecite Diagnostics, LLC announced today the signing of an exclusive option by Biomecite Diagnostics for the rights from University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) to develop diagnostics to detect inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), such as ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD). Drs. Florian Fricke and James White developed the licensed technology while both were with the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS). The technology explores distinctive genomic variances in the populations of bacteria or microbiome found in the human gut to diagnose the closely related but differing gastrointestinal diseases, UC and CD.

Emergent BioSolutions of Gaithersburg has won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its hemophilia drug Ixinity.

The treatment, administered intravenously, helps control and prevent bleeding episodes and also is approved for use during surgery in adults and children 12 and older with hemophilia B, according to a company news release. Hemophilia B is a bleeding disorder caused by a mutation on the factor IX gene resulting in a deficiency of clotting factor IX in the blood, which controls bleeding.

The Montgomery County Business Hall of Fame will add four new members later this year, including a former space issues attorney turned health company CEO, a bank chairman, a barbecue expert and the chief executive of a hospital.

The following people have been named to the business hall of fame and are scheduled to be honored at an Oct. 27 event:

Photo Credit: Fortune Live Media – Flickr

Drug testing on humans and animals will be a thing of the past within two decades, United Therapeutics CEO Martine Rothblatt said Monday.

Soon, companies will test pharmaceuticals on silicon versions of the human body, entering drugs as code, she said.

Photo Credit: Fortune Live Media – Flickr

Gaithersburg-based molecular diagnostics company OpGen Inc. went public Tuesday, and saw its shares drop more than 20 percent during the day before closing at $4.85, down nearly 19 percent.

CEO Evan Jones said he’s not concerned. In the world of biotech, making money can take time.

QIAGEN N.V. (NASDAQ: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) announced today that it has expanded its relationship with BGI, the world’s largest genomics organization, to provide QIAGEN’s Ingenuity® Variant Analysis™ in integrated bioinformatics for all customers of BGI’s sequencing services.

Under the reseller agreement, BGI customers will receive sequencing data generated from their samples through Ingenuity Variant Analysis’ secure, cloud-based environment and gain access to its leading comprehensive gene variant data and genomic interpretation applications. BGI will provide Ingenuity Variant Analysis to customers in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, with plans to expand to other regions throughout the year. BGI collaborates with more than 10,000 organizations and 30,000 partners worldwide, providing sequencing services for thousands of research projects, including large-scale genome initiatives.

Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a global pharmaceutical company, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track Designation for cobiprostone, a locally acting chloride channel activator, for the prevention of oral mucositis. The FDA has also accepted the company’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application to initiate a phase 2 clinical trial of cobiprostone for the prevention of oral mucositis in patients suffering with head and neck cancer receiving concurrent radiation and chemotherapy.

I’ve known Edmund Pendleton from the University of Maryland as the Director of the D.C. National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps Node (a collaboration among the University of Maryland, Virginia Tech, George Washington, and Johns Hopkins). But it wasn’t until seeing him lead the first I-Corps class at the National Institutes of Health that I realized Edmund could teach my class better than I can. After seeing the results of 500+ teams through the I-Corps, the NSF now offers all teams who’ve received government funding to start a company an introduction to building a Lean Startup.

UNC and pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline are joining forces to try developing a cure for HIV/AIDS, with the British company pledging a five-year, $20 million contribution to the effort.

GSK is also chipping in a 10-person research team, to work with faculty members, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students attached to four different labs in UNC’s medical and pharmacy schools.

Kelly Chu stands at the front of the room and explains a complex spreadsheet displayed on a projector.

With precision she describes the discounted free cash-flow model she built of a food-services and construction company, and walks through its revenue-growth assumptions before making a recommendation on whether or not to invest.

Free, Open Entrepreneur Office Hours for University of Maryland Students, Faculty and Staff, and Regional Entrepreneurs with Bio or Tech-Based Startups or Ideas

Get answers now from experienced entrepreneurs and legal/business professionals on how to build a successful startup company. Receive free and impartial advice, brainstorm business strategies, investigate funding opportunities and learn about the vast resources available to entrepreneurs.

There is nothing like the sight of children to inspire hope, so it was only fitting that University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) President Jay A. Perman, MD, began his second annual State of the University Address on May 7 with a performance by the sixth-grade dancers from Southwest Baltimore Charter School.

But there was deeper meaning as well to their presence at his optimistic address “Renew the State. Repair the World” before an overflow crowd at the School of Nursing.

Welcome to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Strategic Visioning Forum. The Institute is gathering ideas for the most compelling scientific priorities in the four NHLBI Strategic Goals to address over the next decade.

Your opportunity to submit initial ideas to help the NHLBI Strategic Visioning process will close on May 15. Click on Submit a New Question or Challenge and don’t miss your chance to share your voice!

Since it seems that 1776 can’t go a week without making news, they just announced an Innovation Opportunity Program that they are launching with General Assembly. DC’s Mayor Muriel Bowser along with representatives from TDF Foundation, THEARC, Capital One, MedStar Health, and Microsoft were also on hand for the announcement.

On Tuesday, the Senate Health committee held a hearing on the promise of precision medicine. Last week, the House released draft legislation to support biomedical innovation. And following President Obama’s State of the Union in January, the White House unveiled the Precision Medicine Initiative, meant to provide funding to accelerate biomedical research.

What none of these things do directly is to curb the price of speciality drugs—including precision drugs—which cost Americans more than $80 billion in 2013, according to the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing.

The advent of connected devices and M2M is offering a tremendous opportunity for healthcare professionals. Near-ubiquitous mobile networks are allowing carers to diagnose, monitor, and communicate with patients with unprecedented speed and efficacy.

NextGen Angels recently announced plans to bring its brand of under-40, entrepreneur-friendly angel investors to 12 more U.S. cities, with plans for international expansion down the line.

I caught up with CEO Dan Mindus, who founded the group in 2012, about both the expansion and the venture market in the Greater Washington area. Based on our conversation, there are two important things about the local funding market that every entrepreneur should probably know:

Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong has some big ideas in healthcare, like a vision of a fully connected ecosystem that truly empowers patients to make informed choices about their own care, aided by supercomputers to crunch all the data, including highly complex genomic information. And he’s not afraid to toot his own horn every once in a while.

“We’ve created the Google of genome mapping,” Soon-Shiong, the multibillionaire entrepreneur behind the still-somewhat-mysterious NantHealth and parent company NantWorks, said Monday at the American Telemedicine Association annual meeting in Los Angeles.

Metro areas with strong startup ecosystems depend on success stories and market conditions that converge over time. In the best of circumstances, a regional community can become stronger than the sum of its parts, moving the needle for industries nationally – or even worldwide.

On Wednesday, big names from D.C.’s tech and business circles will come together at DC Inno’s State of Innovation event at Artisphere to discuss the area’s future for young startups. One of the hot topics for the evening will be exactly how an innovation ecosystem comes together. Tackling the question will be local leaders from Eastern Foundry, Video Blocks, Arlington Economic Development and Springboard Enterprises.

The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) today announced an agreement to feature Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funded early-stage biomedical companies in an expanded Innovation Zone at the 2015 BIO International Convention®. The Innovation Zone companies, focused on drug discovery, diagnostics and other therapeutic platform technologies, will have dedicated exhibit space and participate in BIO One-on-One Partnering™. Select companies will make 15-minute company presentations in the BIO Business Forum. The Innovation Zone will also feature six universities funded under the prestigious NSF Accelerating Innovation Research Program (AIR). This select group will demonstrate advanced biomedical prototypes that are very close to commercialization stage.

Physicians are not only becoming more proficient with EHRs, they are using their systems for more than just reference. That’s the conclusion of a new Accenture survey of more than 2,600 doctors in Australia, Brazil, England, Norway, Singapore and the U.S.

Interoperability is growing as well, albeit slowly. In 2015, for the first time, a majority of U.S. physicians surveyed by Accenture (51 percent) said they “routinely” access patient data from outside their organizations, up just slightly from 45 percent in 2012.

Of all the rumors ever to swirl around the world’s most valuable company, this may be the first that could involve spitting in a plastic cup.

Apple is collaborating with U.S. researchers to help launch apps that would offer some iPhone owners the chance to get their DNA tested, many of them for the first time, according to people familiar with the plans.

When it comes to the Puget Sound region’s biotech industry, is it more important to have big anchor companies or an ever-churning ecosystem of small innovators?

That was one of the questions posed to a panel of three biotech executives last week at an industry forum hosted by news website Xconomy at Fred Hutch.

Symbiomix Therapeutics today announced multiple milestones, including the closing of the third and final tranche of a $41 million Series A financing and positive results from a multi-center, randomized Phase 2 trial testing a single oral dose of SYM-1219 for the treatment of bacterial vaginosis (BV). Based on discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) at an End-of-Phase 2 meeting, the Company now is planning to submit the Phase 2 trial as one of two pivotal studies for a New Drug Application (NDA) filing in 2016. Simultaneously, the Company announced that the FDA recently designated SYM-1219 as a Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP). SYM-1219 is a novel drug candidate that contains secnidazole, an antibiotic with favorable pharmacokinetics that facilitate administration as a single-dose oral therapy.

Each time 81-year-old Bill Dworsky or his 80-year-old wife Dorothy opens the refrigerator, closes the bathroom door or lifts the lid on a pill container, tiny sensors in their San Francisco home make notes on a digital logbook.

The couple’s 53-year-old son, Phil, checks it daily on his smartphone. If there’s no activity during a designated time, the younger Dworsky gets an automated email, so he can decide whether to call or stop by. “This is peace of mind, really,” he says of the system he installed last year.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a public-private partnership and innovation intermediary is seeking an energetic and motivated life science professional for the role of an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) with product development experience and subject matter expertise in the fields of neurology and neuroscience. The EIR will reside within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and will also support intramural and extramural initiatives on an as needed basis.

The EIR program was established at BioHealth Innovation to:

• Retain and bring entrepreneurial talent to the Maryland ecosystem
• Connect resources including institutions, technology assets, people and capital within Maryland that include federal institutions, labs, academic institutions, small businesses, disease foundations and the investor community
• Build/support sustainable life science startups that will add value within the healthcare system and also build upon the existing infrastructure

The EIR will work with BHI leadership to ensure that the activities and outcomes are aligned with BHIs strategic focus.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (EBS) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved IXINITY(R) [coagulation factor IX (recombinant)], an intravenous recombinant human coagulation factor IX therapeutic for the control and prevention of bleeding episodes and for perioperative management in adults and children, >=12 years of age, with Hemophilia B. Hemophilia B is a bleeding disorder caused by a mutation on the factor IX gene resulting in a deficiency of clotting factor IX in the blood, which controls bleeding.

Gaithersburg company to use funds to add staff and upgrade equipment to meet demand

Angela Graham, President and CEO, accepts check from DED’s Valerie Fremont and Gene Smith Quality Biological, Inc., an industry leader in manufactured ready-to-use biological research tools, has been awarded an EDF Grant by the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development (DED) to support the expansion of their fulfillment operations. The award, funded from the Montgomery County Economic Development Fund (EDF), will be used to upgrade and modernize equipment needed to meet requirements from local and regional customers. The company, headquartered in Gaithersburg, plans to add 10 new jobs as part of the expansion.

Strand Life Sciences, a global genomic profiling company that uses next generation sequencing technology to empower cancer care, today announced it has opened its U.S. operations center in Aurora, Colorado. This opening is in support of the company’s recent launch of the StrandAdvantage pan-cancer genomic profiling service.

Available now to physicians, StrandAdvantage was designed to accelerate the analysis of therapeutically actionable cancer genes and match them to relevant FDA-approved targeted cancer therapies and open clinical trials without the need for multiple tests.

Results Published in Clinical Vaccine Immunology Compares AdVAV Favorably Against Only Currently Licensed Alternative

Vaxin Inc., a clinical stage vaccine development company, today announced that a recently published study demonstrated that utilizing a single vaccination with the company’s AdVAVTM intranasal anthrax vaccine performs as well as the currently licensed Anthrax Vaccine Absorbed (AVA; BioThrax®), which requires two vaccinations. AdVAV is administered via an intranasal route rather than the intramuscular route of AVA. Intranasal delivery is generally believed to be a superior vaccination route because the mucosal immune response is important for protection, particularly against respiratory diseases. The study found that protection from aerosolized anthrax after a single dose of AdVAV was no worse than the protection afforded by multiple doses of AVA. Importantly, AdVAV produced protective antibody titers with earlier onset and greater persistence than AVA, suggesting that AdVAV may offer both rapid and long-lasting protection with just a single dose.

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

The Company operates out of two Maryland-based facilities – in Gaithersburg and Woodbine where it operates as Spring Valley Laboratories, a unit of Noble Life Sciences, offering a range of GLP and non- GLP studies with a primary focus on GLP and large animal testing. Noble is AAALACi accredited, USDA licensed, OLAW compliant, FDA inspected and successfully audited by numerous clients.

The Position: The Director Account Development is a key position within the organization with significant prospects for career growth as the company continues to increase the breadth and scope of its business. This position reports directly to the President and is a member of the management team.

Twenty-four Maryland executives were named Maryland regional finalists for EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year.

The annual award program recognizes entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence in innovation, financial performance and commitment to their businesses. Winners will be announced June 25 at a gala at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront.

OrderUp Inc. CEO Chris Jeffery, Medifast CEO Michael MacDonald and Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake Inc. CEO Lisa Rusyniak are among the Baltimore-area business leaders named as finalists.

AstraZeneca has inked a development and commercialisation deal with Celgene for its haematology programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) candidate, MEDI4736.

Governor Larry Hogan today announced that he will sign into law 10 bills directly related to encouraging economic development and job growth in the state of Maryland. He will sign the bills into law at the next bill signing ceremony, to be held tomorrow, April 28, from 9 to 11 a.m.

“The following bills all address ways to improve the state’s business climate and make it easier for the hardworking men and women of our state to thrive and succeed,” said Governor Hogan. “The primary focus of my administration is to get Maryland open for business once again and create greater economic opportunity for our citizens, and I am proud to sign these bills into law.”

Given the complexity and difficulty of the challenges that government leaders face, encouraging innovation among their workers can pay dividends. Government-wide employee survey data, however, suggest that much more needs to be done to foster this type of culture at many federal organizations.

As bacterial infections are becoming more difficult to manage, new ways of targeting the pathogens have to be developed. Creating new antibiotics is one approach, but often the real issues is being able to identify which antibiotic will work. Today that takes days and involves guess work that often prevents a powerful early attack against the bacteria. Researchers at Johns Hopkins are now working on a new technology that will allow clinicians to identify the bacteria that is causing the infection and the antibiotic that will treat it.

Gaithersburg molecular diagnostics company OpGen Inc. intends to raise about $18.7 million in its initial public offering expected sometime this week.

That’s less than the $37.5 million the company indicated it would raise when it initially filed to go public last month. In their latest regulatory filing, officials said the company is offering 2.5 million units, each consisting of one share of common stock and one warrant to purchase one additional share of common stock within the next five years. OpGen anticipates an IPO share price of between $5.50 and $6.50.

U.S approval of GlaxoSmithKline’s newest respiratory inhaler continues the global drugmaker’s shift from the blockbuster drug Advair to a suite of drugs that will be assembled at the British company’s Zebulon manufacturing site.

GSK said Thursday the company and business partner Theravance won approval from the Food and Drug Administration to market Breo Ellipta for asthma. The drug had been approved in 2013 for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but it failed to win approval for sale to minors as GSK officials had hoped.

Montgomery College offers Summer 2015 classes designed to meet your entrepreneurial needs in support of your business ideas. For Aspiring Entrepreneurs: The Intentional Entrepreneur This one day class helps you identify your entrepreneurial skills and abilities, and addresses any concerns you may have about business ownership. This class is a must for anyone considering starting a business! For Early Stage Entrepreneurs: New Venture Designed specifically for the entrepreneurs in the early stages of business development. Please contact Karen Ambrose, Program Director at 240-567-2592 or e-mail: karen.ambrose@montgomerycollege.edu

CRISPR Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on translating CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology into transformative medicines, today announced the closing of a Series A and Series B financing totaling USD 89 million, including USD 35 million of new funding in the Series A and USD 29 million in the Series B. The oversubscribed Series A and Series B financings were led by strategic investors, SR One and Celgene Corporation, respectively, and included new investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Abingworth, alongside the Company’s founding investor, Versant Ventures.

CRISPR Therapeutics has also announced changes to its Board of Directors. Simeon George, SR One, Ali Behbahani, NEA, and Kurt von Emster, Abingworth, will be joining Brad Bolzon, Tom Woiwode, and Chief Executive Officer, Rodger Novak.

When George Scangos took the helm at biotech giant Biogen in 2010, he took a look around the company’s headquarters in the Weston, Massachusetts, suburb of Boston and thought, “What are we doing out here?”

Last year, the company celebrated the return of its headquarters to Cambridge’s Kendall Square, one of the capital cities of the biotechnology industry. The neighborhood’s 2.5 square miles are home to 130 life sciences companies, according to industry group Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, the densest concentration on the planet.

Alexandria is in the enviable position of having a commercial real estate portfolio including embedded development opportunities at the crossroads of the innovation economy – in Cambridge, Massachusetts, San Francisco, and other markets experiencing positive demand. This unprecedented demand from life science and tech tenants is giving ARE significant pricing power – as demonstrated by not only strong SS NOI for the quarter at 7.8% (vs 6.7% Q4 14 and 4.3% Q1 14) but also via the leasing spreads on renewal at 30.8% GAAP and 18.5% cash in Q1 15 and guidance for 2015 leasing spreads at 8-10%. Q1 leasing spreads skewed much higher than guidance given one lease at Tech Square in Cambridge that increased 100%. Given limited supply in Cambridge and the timing of deliveries, ARE may be in a position, as mentioned on the call, to push rents on its Kendall Square development buildings higher than original pro forma. In 2015, ARE is allocating capital 47% Cambridge, 25% Mission Bay/SoMa and 10% Torrey Pines/UTC with the balance in Manhattan and Other.

District investor group NextGen Angels has raised $1 million from 24 of its members to finance expanding to two more cities.

The local angel group, which currently boasts 85 members, has a similar presence in New York City and very recently set up a Boston location. CEO Dan Mindus told me Austin and Chicago are the next two cities on the list, with 10 more cities slated in the next 12 to 18 months. Those include Atlanta, Philadelphia, Seattle, Portland and San Diego.

U.S. legislators recently released a discussion draft of the medical innovation bill known as the 21st Century Cures Initiative. The legislation aims to hasten the discovery, development, and delivery of new medical devices and drugs, particularly for the treatment of thousands of diseases for which there are no cures.

The proposals in the draft include ways to revamp how agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) foster and regulate medical innovation in the U.S.

Having secured a funding boost for the National Institutes of Health in the 21st Century Cures legislation, House Democrats now say the Food and Drug Administration would be ill-equipped to handle the new burdens under the bill without more resources.

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, raised the matter during a hearing Wednesday on the latest iteration of the legislative package, which is intended to accelerate the pace of innovation in medical drug and device development.

Fresh from unveiling a $3.1B fund, New Enterprise Associates is the sole investor in a $3 million Series A round by MORE Health. The health IT startup wants to connect Chinese doctors and their patients with U.S. specialists across areas such as oncology, neurology, cardiology and pediatrics.

As part of its investment, Xiaodong Jiang, managing director for NEA China, will take a seat on the company’s board of directors. NEA has been in the China market for 12 years and has invested about $400 million in 20 companies there.

The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) is pleased to offer you a sneak peak at its new and improved branding. While the official unveiling of the new branding will take place at the 2015 national meeting, the FLC is eager to share exclusive insights into the new logo design and refreshed brand message with its members.

As the FLC looks forward to its 30th year after being chartered, the organization wanted to portray a more modern look and feel that reflects the progressive achievements and innovations of its member laboratories and research centers.

How well do you understand science?

Jon D. Miller, director of the International Center for the Advancement of Scientific Literacy at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, has been asking people in the United States and abroad that question since 1988.

The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) today released an update to two critical state policy reports which identified gaps in coverage and reimbursement, and physician practice standards and licensure.

“After ATA issued the State Telemedicine Gaps Reports last September, many state regulating bodies responded by looking at how their laws and regulations impact healthcare delivery in their state,” said Jonathan Linkous, CEO of ATA. “As a result of state actions across the nation, ATA reevaluated the indicators for each state and issued new reports. As before, we anticipate that these reports will serve as an incentive to increase the utilization of telemedicine to improve the accessibility, affordability and quality of healthcare.”

At DC Inno we are constantly on the look out for the next innovative local company. Over the past several months, one of the most interesting industries we have had the opportunity to cover is the virtual reality (VR) sector. Virtual reality is immensely cool and as a medium, it offers a host of exciting applications and uses. In the past, the technology was so expensive that it offered little to many consumers, but that is now changing. With the proliferation of new, consumer-targeted devices—like the Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear and Google Cardboard—more people are finally getting the opportunity to experience VR.

Bungalow Insurance won the $30,000 Perlman Grand Prize of the 2015 Wharton Business Plan Competition. The prize was awarded at the Wharton School’s annual Venture Finals on April 30, 2015, where student finalists received more than $128,000 in combined cash prizes and in-kind legal/accounting services.

Call it serendipity. When the management team behind Foundation Medical Partners decided to shift their investment strategy away from medical devices and therapeutics in favor of health IT, the name change to Flare Capital Partners coincided with an exit. IBM Watson snapped up its portfolio company Explorys in a big announcement at HIMSS this month. Explorys, a Cleveland Clinic spinout, is a predictive analytics company that amassed a huge amount of data to develop cognitive insights for clinical decision support.

“The timing was nice” but entirely coincidental, according to Flare Capital General Partner Michael Greeley who spoke to MedCity News in a phone interview Wednesday night.

1776 has made its second acquisition.

Just weeks after the surprise announcement of its Disruption Corp. purchase, the Washington, D.C., accelerator has acquired San Francisco-based Hattery, a co-working space that will give the company a foothold on the West Coast.

Women in tech in D.C. aren’t going anywhere. We’ve spent some time on these pages covering some amazing founders over the past two and a half years—Donna Harris, Carla Valdes, Glennette Clark, Shavanna Miller, Sara Capra and Veronica Eklund, Denise Tayloe, Elizabeth Bennett, and many, many others.

Here are three more Superwomen in Tech—a social marketer for one of D.C’s hottest startups, the president of DC Web Women, and the assistant director for open innovation in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy—that “get it.” They know that they are working in male-dominated industries. They go to work every day and do their jobs. They network. But they take the time to connect with other people—particularly other women, sometimes in a volunteer capacity—to ensure that the people they meet get what they need. And the tech scene is better because of them.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a public-private partnership and innovation intermediary is seeking an energetic and motivated life science professional for the role of an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) with product development experience and subject matter expertise in the fields of neurology and neuroscience. The EIR will reside within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and will also support intramural and extramural initiatives on an as needed basis.

The EIR program was established at BioHealth Innovation to:

• Retain and bring entrepreneurial talent to the Maryland ecosystem
• Connect resources including institutions, technology assets, people and capital within Maryland that include federal institutions, labs, academic institutions, small businesses, disease foundations and the investor community
• Build/support sustainable life science startups that will add value within the healthcare system and also build upon the existing infrastructure

The EIR will work with BHI leadership to ensure that the activities and outcomes are aligned with BHIs strategic focus.

A hallmark of Parkinson’s disease is the progressive loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons. We derived human neuroepithelial cells from induced pluripotent stem cells and successfully differentiated them into dopaminergic neurons within phase-guided, three-dimensional microfluidic cell culture bioreactors. After 30 days of differentiation within the microfluidic bioreactors, in situ morphological, immunocytochemical and calcium imaging confirmed the presence of dopaminergic neurons that were spontaneously electrophysiologically active, a characteristic feature of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons in vivo. Differentiation was as efficient as in macroscopic culture, with up to 19% of differentiated neurons immunoreactive for tyrosine hydroxylase, the penultimate enzyme in the synthesis of dopamine. This new microfluidic cell culture model integrates the latest innovations in developmental biology and microfluidic cell culture to generate a biologically realistic and economically efficient route to personalised drug discovery for Parkinson’s disease.

From Christy Wyskiel,Senior Advisor to the President, Johns Hopkins University

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that Neil Veloso will join Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures as the executive director of technology transfer, effective May 18, 2015.

Neil has extensive experience in technology transfer and commercialization. He has spent the last nine years of his career in a variety of roles at Cleveland Clinic Innovations (CCI) in Ohio. Currently, he is serving as the senior director of innovation management, a role in which he directs technology commercialization at Cleveland Clinic and at seven of CCI’s Innovation Alliance Partners. In this role, Neil focuses on commercialization strategy across a broad portfolio of both academic and hospital system assets. He manages a team that advises inventors, administers intellectual property, and promotes commercialization through licensing, new venture creation and the development of industry partnerships. Neil’s collaborative leadership style and ability to work with myriad constituents has been cited repeatedly as one of his great strengths by former colleagues and industry partners.   

Thursday, May 07, 2015 to Friday, May 08, 2015

The Atlantic Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics Summit is a first-of-its-kind event to showcase Maryland’s global leadership as an epicenter of vaccine innovation, development and commercialization. The Tech Council of Maryland is presenting this conference to bring together the industry’s foremost researchers and business leaders for the purpose of educating, sharing, and collaborating on important issues affecting the new generation of vaccines.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015, 02:00pm – 03:00pm

The landscape of potential customers for biomedical products can be complicated, with patients, providers and payers assigning different values to new technologies. Companies must navigate this landscape to find the individuals who will actually make the decision to purchase their products. In this webinar, entrepreneur and educator Rana Gupta will talk about how customers can not only help biomedical innovators to define the value proposition for their products, but can also guide and fund their product development work.

The end may be near for Montgomery County’s Department of Economic Development.

County Executive Ike Leggett, speaking in North Bethesda as a panelist during the Washington Business Journal’s inaugural On the Road event, announced Tuesday he intends to replace Montgomery County’s economic development agency with a public-private authority, along the lines of Fairfax County’s Economic Development Authority.

The Qiagen campus in Germantown is large, open and modern looking.

Its 25-acre site on Germantown Road houses a mostly glass office building connected to a newer addition that provides space for manufacturing and packaging the company’s biotech products.

The life sciences community presented a vision this week in which the Washington, DC region becomes a top 3 biotech hub by 2023. What role will economic development incentives play in achieving this status?

Industry, academic, nonprofit, investment and government partners participated in the Regional Biotech Forum: Growing Our Ecosystem, a program spearheaded by BioHealth Innovation, AstraZeneca, MedImmune and the Tech Council of Maryland and supported by BioMaryland, Virginia Bio, Montgomery County, MD among others.

ASTRAZENECA has paid $250m for the rights to develop an antibody that could help in the fight against cancer.

The pharmaceutical firm’s research and development arm MedImmune, which is based in Cambridge, has entered into an agreement with Innate Pharma that will allow it exclusive access to the company’s anti-NKG2A antibody.

AstraZeneca and its global biologics research and development arm, MedImmune, announced that they have entered into an exclusive collaboration agreement with Celgene Corporation, a global leader in haematological cancers, for the development and commercialisation of MEDI4736 across a range of blood cancers including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, myelodysplastic syndromes and multiple myeloma.

MEDI4736 is an investigational immune checkpoint inhibitor, directed against programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1). Signals from PD-L1 help tumours avoid detection by the immune system. MEDI4736 blocks these signals, countering the tumour’s immune-evading tactics. Within the collaboration, MEDI4736 will be assessed both as monotherapy and in combination with other AstraZeneca and Celgene potential and existing cancer medicines. Over time, the collaboration could expand to include other assets.

Real estate firms, which have traditionally been slow to innovate, are beginning to embrace new technologies to find clever solutions to old problems. This newfound openness comes as millennials start to enter the workforce, creating a need for tools that appeal to a tech-savvy customer base.

“It’s pretty fascinating when you think about we’re 75 percent millennials in maybe a dozen years. Clearly technology’s going to have an incredibly important impact on real estate; the operation of real estate and what the tenants do and how they do it,” said Joel Marcus, the CEO of Alexandria Real Estate Properties, an REIT that specializes in science campuses.

Among this year’s Mentors-in-Residence at Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures are a senior-level biomedical executive, a chief executive at a company developing novel treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, a two-time medical device industry Most Valuable Thought Leader and an American Pain Foundation chairperson.

These are just four of the 14 entrepreneurial leaders serving at Johns Hopkins as Mentors-in-Residence in 2015, the second year of the program. All 14 mentors this year are business leaders, entrepreneurs and development-driven experts with a passion for innovation and growth.

Since 2003, the Johns Hopkins Alliance for Science and Technology Development has brought faculty members and investors together for an annual daylong meeting to foster important biotechnical and pharmaceutical developments.

This year, 14 faculty members or teams of faculty members from The Johns Hopkins University and seven from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, presented work, as did eight startups affiliated with each university. Four Johns Hopkins University researchers received monetary awards for translational development of their inventions at the April 20 annual joint meeting of the alliance and the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s Commercial Advisory Board.

The University of Maryland (UMD) and MakerBot, a global leader in the desktop 3D printing industry, will be holding a grand opening of the new MakerBot Innovation Center at UMD on April 23, 2015. UMD is the first in the Big Ten, and the first in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan area, to launch a MakerBot Innovation Center – a large-scale 3D printing installation that is designed to empower university faculty, students and organizations to innovate faster, increase collaboration and compete more effectively. Grand opening festivities will begin at 2:00 p.m., Thursday, April 23, at the University of Maryland, Technology Advancement Program Building, 387 Technology Drive, College Park, Maryland, with speeches from university staff and representatives from MakerBot.

MaxCyte® Inc., the pioneer in cell therapies using scalable, high-performance cell transfection systems, today announces a strategic research collaboration with Johns Hopkins University (JHU) to develop unique Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies, which harness patients’ own immune systems to combat cancers.

MaxCyte’s unique approach to CAR cell therapy allows targeting of solid tumor cancers by enabling control over the on-target, off-tumor toxicity, which limits other CAR therapies to hematological cancers. MaxCyte achieves this by introducing the CAR construct as a transiently expressing messenger RNA (mRNA), thus allowing control of the duration of expression and toxicity against target antigens in normal tissue. This unique approach also avoids the cell expansion step required for standard approaches, dramatically reducing manufacturing time and expense for CAR therapies from days or weeks to a matter of hours.

How much venture capital money is out there for healthcare start-ups?

Apparently, quite a bit.

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, medical start-ups in the United States raised around $3.9 billion in venture capital during the first quarter of this year. Here are eight key trends from the report:

The University of Louisville announced today that a grant from the National Institutes of Health will combine with matching funds from the university to create a new $6.1 million initiative to commercialize discoveries made by UofL researchers.

UofL is one of just three institutions in the United States selected as a Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (REACH) by the NIH. The REACH award consists of $3 million over three years matched by an additional $3.1 million from UofL.

Pharmaceutical company Teva has offered to buy fellow drug maker Mylan in a deal that could be worth $40 billion.

In the proposal, confirmed yesterday (April 21), Teva offered Mylan $82 per share.

Last week, Mylan’s executive chairman Robert Coury dismissed rumours of a merger with Israel-based Teva.

The Food and Drug Administration is making as much as $1 million in grant funding available for mining a large database of electronic health records to conduct postmarket surveillance of drug safety.

The FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) will award a one-year grant by summer to a single bidder to develop “new analytic methodologies” to look for signs of pharmaceutical-related safety problems in the Mini-Sentinel Distributed Database, an FDA-funded pilot with access to 178 million medical records.

CORE PROGRAM APPLICATION DEADLINE 5 PM, FRIDAY, MAY 1ST

The Core Program is Leadership Montgomery’s (LM) hallmark program. It is a highly interactive and life-enriching nine-month course that makes a significant contribution to Montgomery County’s well-being by providing intensive hands-on study and in-depth discussion of current issues facing the County, including, transportation, education, public safety, business, planning, economic development, communities diversity and the arts. Click here to read about a session. Click here to see the session agendas.

What if the answer to reducing health costs of the most expensive patients stems from listening to the hunches of home care workers with little — if any — medical training?

That’s the premise tech startup Care at Hand Inc. used to predict and prevent an estimated $6.5 million in Medicare spending by reducing hospitalizations among aging patients in Massachusetts.

NO one who lived through the 1990s would have suspected that one day people would look back on the period as a golden age of bipartisan cooperation. But in some important ways, it was. Amid the policy fights that followed the Republican victories of 1994, President Bill Clinton and the new majorities in Congress reached one particularly good deal: doubling the budget for the National Institutes of Health.

The decision was bipartisan, because health is both a moral and financial issue. Government spends more on health care than any other area. Taxpayers spend more than $1 trillion a year for Medicare and Medicaid alone, and even more when you add in programs like Veterans Affairs, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Indian Health Service.

A few months into 2015, D.C.’s tech industry is continuing to prove itself a major region for venture capital investing interest. Based on an NVCA/PwC report provided to DC Inno, the District is ranked No. 9 among major U.S. regions for investments during Q1. In a quarter that saw vibrant deal flow and exceptional venture raises, the D.C. focused software sector did especially well by raising $220 million in investment dollars.

Wed, May 6, 2015 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT

This is an educational webinar on the NHLBI Phase IIB Bridge and Small Market funding opportunities to support continued development of SBIR/STTR Phase II projects focused on heart, lung, blood, or sleep technologies. The Small Market Awards support projects focused on rare diseases or for pediatric indications.

Phase IIB Bridge RFA-HL-16-009: http://1.usa.gov/1Deb9h5 Phase IIB Small Market RFA-HL-14-012: http://1.usa.gov/1p2cvbi

Presenters: Jennifer Shieh, PhD – NHLBI Small Business Coordinator Gary Robinson, PhD – NHLBI Business Development Advisor

The list of the top five health systems in the Baltimore area was static this year, with Johns Hopkins at No. 1 and Mercy Health Services at No. 5.

The data comes from our List of Health Systems in the Baltimore area, which is available to subscribers.

Tokai Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:TKAI), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel therapies for prostate cancer and other hormonally-driven diseases, today announced that scientists in the laboratory of Vincent Njar, PhD, at the University of Maryland School of Medicine presented preclinical data showing that galeterone and novel analogs of galeterone inhibited growth, survival and migration of human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cells.

These data were presented in a poster presentation titled, “Galeterone and Its Novel Analogs Induce Profound Anti-Cancer Activities in Human Pancreatic Cancer Cell Lines,” abstract number 1764, at the 2015 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Thanks to our back to back April/May sponsor, The University of Maryland’s Biotech Research and Education Program (BREP), who is sponsoring the upcomig event in Rockville on May 20th at the @AmericanTapRoom. BioBuzzMoCo events always draw an awesome crowd so join BREP for an awesome evening in the heart of the region’s growing BioHub.

he world’s first malaria vaccine, produced by GlaxoSmithKline, could be approved by international regulators for use in Africa from October.

The final trial data showed that the shoe, called RTS, S offered partial protection for children for up to four years.

United States-based New Enterprise Associates (NEA), which last week raised $3.1 billion in the world’s largest venture capital fund, is looking to step up investments in India after going slow over the past two-three years. The venture capital fund, which has backed start-ups such as daily deals firm Groupon and online storage service Box in the US, has said that it will look to sharpen its focus on technology related themes.

Virginia will create a new online portal where researchers can post information about their biotech projects — information employers can then use for recruitment and investment opportunities, Gov. Terry McAuliffe said Thursday.

It’s among several specific investments the state needs to make to create a stronger life sciences industry, McAuliffe said. He was at the THRiVE 2015 conference, which attracted 350 bioscience leaders from across the state, to talk about how to better merge the commonwealth’s strength in big data with its growing biotech industry. The portal was among multiple ideas raised by an eager group of business leaders who sought more support from the state in their efforts to commercialize their work.

George Mason University unveiled its new $40 million Advanced Biomedical Research building Thursday, signaling its expansion in genomics and precision medicine research.

The university simultaneously renamed its Manassas campus its Science and Technology campus.

The City of New York Early-Stage Life Sciences Funding Initiative represents an unprecedented public-private partnership across world-class academic institutions, industry leaders, top-tier investors, and the philanthropic community.

Established by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) with at least $50 million in matching funds from top-tier venture capital partners including Celgene Corporation, GE Ventures, and Eli Lilly & Company, the funding partnership will deploy a minimum of $150 million and seeks to launch 15 to 20 breakthrough ventures by 2020.

New Enterprise Associates has closed more than $3.1 billion in new capital for its 15th fund and a joint “opportunity fund,” the Chevy Chase venture capital giant said Wednesday.

The raise marks the fourth consecutive $2.5 billion-plus fund and brings the total capital under the firm’s umbrella since its 1977 inception to nearly $17 billion.

Venture firm New Enterprise Associates made some massive waves today on news that it’s closed its fifteenth – and largest – fund, which holds $3.1 billion. And a huge swath of that – 30 to 40 percent, according to Fierce – could likely be allocated to the healthcare space.

MedCity News reported initially on NEA’s plans to raise funds – it filed a document with the SEC in January indicating a $2.5 billion fundraise:

AstraZeneca today announced that MedImmune, its global biologics research and development arm, has entered into a collaboration to conduct clinical trials in immuno-oncology with Immunocore Limited, a privately-held UK-based biotechnology company.

Under the terms of the agreement, Immunocore will conduct a Phase Ib/II clinical trial combining MedImmune’s investigational checkpoint inhibitors MEDI4736 (anti-PD-L1) and/or tremelimumab (anti-CTLA-4) with IMCgp100, Immunocore’s lead T-cell receptor-based investigational therapeutic, for the potential treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma. MedImmune has an exclusive relationship with Immunocore for the development of IMCgp100 in combination with MEDI4736 and/or tremelimumab, and will have first right of negotiation for the future commercial development of these combinations for tumours expressing glycoprotein 100 (gp100), a tumour-associated antigen.

The field of blood study and blood-related product development is a small one, and the field of autotransfusion (blood recycling) is even smaller. It often seems like everyone knows everyone else. We’ve had a lot of great mentors in the blood space from afar, but it hasn’t been until we tapped into the inner workings of the Baltimore/DC area that we realized quite how small.

Just six weeks ago, we moved to the Charm City for the DreamIt Health Accelerator program from our medical device manufacturing home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We were looking for other resources and mentors in both the blood transfusion and global health community to take our company to the next level, and we’ve found them.

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) and the bwtech@UMBC Cyber Incubator announced today that continuous monitoring solutions provider DB Networks® will be the fifth cyber startup to graduate from the highly successful Cync Program. A ceremony marking the occasion is scheduled for next week during the RSA Conference 2015 in San Francisco, California.

OptioLabs of Baltimore joins Cync this month as the newest cyber startup accepted into the program since it began in 2011.

The Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS), created in 2007, is an inter-disciplinary, multi-departmental team of collaborative investigators within the University of Maryland School of Medicine led by Claire M. Fraser, Ph.D., one of the world’s preeminent genome scientists.

IGS uses large-scale, cutting-edge experimental and computational tools to better understand gene and genome function in health and disease, to study molecular and cellular networks in a variety of model systems, and to generate data and resources of value to the international scientific community.

Washington companies raised more venture capital funding in the first quarter than they have during the first three months of any year in more than a decade, building on momentum the industry mustered up late last year.

During the first quarter, 38 Washington companies hauled in roughly $329.9 million from venture capitalists, a 55 percent increase over the $212.5 million raised by firms in the region during the same period last year, according to the latest round of data from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. While that’s down slightly from a surge last quarter, in which investors poured $363.5 million into local companies, it’s well above last year’s sluggish quarterly average ($270.4 million) and the largest first-quarter haul since 2001.

The news broke just after midnight Thursday that D.C. tech accelerator 1776 would acquire Disruption Corp. — both its Crystal Tech Fund, which currently includes 12 portfolio companies, and the startup-focused, data-crunching software that formed the foundation of Paul Singh’s Crystal City enterprise.

It can’t be denied that 1776 has built a rather explosive brand since it first popped on the scene in 2013. President Barack Obama and United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron have toured the premises. Partnerships have been forged with several monster corporations (like Comcast and Microsoft) and, as of this week, two local municipalities (Montgomery and Arlington). Legions of startups work out of the District offices. And Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe will be speaking at Thursday’s formal announcement of the deal.

Baltimore may not have the startup mecca reputation of Silicon Valley or Boston, but it is one of the fastest growing tech talent markets.

The city’s tech talent pool grew by 42 percent between 2010 and 2013, making Baltimore one of the fastest growing tech talent markets in the country, according to a new report by CBRE, a commercial real estate brokerage. Only San Francisco and the San Francisco Peninsula reported a faster growth rate than Baltimore. Tech talent grew 44 percent in those areas.

Roche aims to have an immunotherapy cancer drug in 11 late-stage trials by the end of the year, the Swiss drugmaker’s head of medical affairs for oncology, Nico Andre, said at a conference on Monday.

The Basel-based company’s MPDL3280A, which is being tested in melanoma, as well as lung, bladder, kidney, bowel and blood cancers but has not yet been approved to treat any type of cancer, is the furthest developed of this class of drug. Some analysts have said such drugs could generate more than $30 billion in annual sales for the industry as a whole by 2025.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. made its first modest investment in Kendall Square about 14 years ago, developing a blocky five-story building it named The Science Hotel.

The building, on Memorial Drive, was designed to be an incubator for biotechnology startups as the industry was just emerging in East Cambridge. In the following years, biotech grew explosively in the Kendall Square area, and Alexandria grew, too.

In the face of growing criticism and impatience with the Meaningful Use EHR incentive program, National Health IT Coordinator Dr. Karen DeSalvo remains upbeat but aware of the tough work ahead to achieve the vision of a learning health system underpinned by a network of interoperable EHRs.

“Interoperability is a priority, but it is still just a means to an end,” De Salvo said Thursday morning in a keynote session on the last day of HIMSS15 at McCormick Place in Chicago. Without interoperability, it will be difficult to achieve healthcare payment and delivery reform, she added.

The tech incubator 1776 is a collegial place, with offices painted in lively colors, couches to greet visitors, and members who share seats, desks and the fixings for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

It’s an atmosphere carefully cultivated by its founders, Evan Burfield and Donna Harris, and it helped position the outfit as a caretaker, connector and capital provider for tomorrow’s big technology companies.

Blood draws typically require trained professionals to perform and can be both frightening and painful to patients. Tasso, Inc., a spinoff of the Unviersity of Wisconsin-Madison, has developed a device that can be applied by the patients themselves to nearly painlessly draw blood.

The device works thanks to capillary action, slowly pulling in blood through a tiny channel over a two minute period. Once the process is complete, the patient simply takes the device to a clinical lab for testing. Since current methods require refrigeration of blood samples during shipment, DARPA is giving Tasso $3 million to work with other firms to develop a way to extend to a week the time the blood samples can be safely stored at up to 140° F (60° C).

MAY 12, 2015, 2-3 pm ET

The landscape of potential customers for biomedical products can be complicated, with patients, providers and payers assigning different values to new technologies. Companies must navigate this landscape to find the individuals who will actually make the decision to purchase their products. In this webinar, entrepreneur and educator Rana Gupta will talk about how customers can not only help biomedical innovators to define the value proposition for their products, but can also guide and fund their product development work.

Lung disease lands thousands of patients in the hospital every year. And that’s where many of them stay, unable to breathe without a cumbersome respirator to help circulate air through their lungs.

Breethe Inc., a startup out of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, wants to change that experience. The company is developing a portable, artificial lung that will allow patients to continue treatment outside the hospital. Breethe on Monday announced it had finalized an agreement with UM Ventures, the university’s commercialization office, to license the technology behind its invention.

University of Maryland (UM) Ventures and Breethe, Inc. announced today that Breethe, an early-stage, Baltimore-based medical device company, has obtained exclusive rights to University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) intellectual property (IP) for the development of a wearable, portable blood pump oxygenator that will function as an artificial lung system for patients suffering from respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary collapse. Faculty at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) developed the core licensed technology, with Breethe also obtaining important supporting technology co-owned by UMB and University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) as part of the license agreement. The Breethe team plans to leverage the technology to bring the first wearable ‘out-of-hospital’ artificial lung system to market. UMB has made a $100,000 investment in Breethe through UM Ventures.

AstraZeneca’s global biologics R&D arm MedImmune has received fast track designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to develop MEDI8897, an investigational recombinant human immunoglobulin G1 kappa (IgG1κ) monoclonal antibody (mAb).

This monoclonal antibody is being examined for the prevention of lower respiratory tract illness (LRTI) caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants and young children.

All it takes is one hit. And Christy Wyskiel likes her chances.

Johns Hopkins University, where Wyskiel heads up technology commercialization, is among the institutions scrambling to transform more faculty research into startup companies, patents and licenses. Hopkins in 2014 reported $16.5 million in licensing revenue, but is still far behind universities that have been leaders in commercialization. Columbia University, for example, earned $150 million in licensing revenue last year.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a public-private partnership and innovation intermediary is seeking an energetic and motivated life science professional for the role of an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) preferably with product development experience related to cardiovascular, pulmonary, or hematological innovations. The EIR will reside within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and will also support intramural and extramural initiatives on an as needed basis.

The EIR program was established at BioHealth Innovation to:

• Retain and bring entrepreneurial talent to the Maryland ecosystem 
• Connect resources including institutions, technology assets, people and capital within Maryland that include federal institutions, labs, academic institutions, small businesses, disease foundations and the investor community
• Build/support sustainable life science startups that will add value within the healthcare system and also build upon the existing infrastructure

The EIR will work with BHI leadership to ensure that the activities and outcomes are aligned with BHIs strategic focus.

Funding and Research Opportunities

The following funding opportunity announcements from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest:

Notices:

• Notice of Potential Delays to NIH Issuing Awards in May 2015
• (NOT-OD-15-088) National Institutes of Health
• Racial and Ethnic Categories and Definitions for NIH Diversity Programs and for Other Reporting Purposes
• (NOT-OD-15-089) National Institutes of Health
• Reporting Publications in the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR)
• (NOT-OD-15-090) National Institutes of Health

Program Announcements:

• Administrative Supplements for Tobacco Regulatory Research on Tobacco Flavors and Flavorings (Admin Supp)
• (PA-15-183)
• National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, National Cancer Institute, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Office of Disease Prevention
• Application Receipt/Submission Date(s): Multiple dates, see announcement.

Please note that most links to RFAs, PAs, and Guide Notices will take you to the NIH Web site. RFPs will take you to FedBizOpps. Links to RFPs will not work past their proposal receipt date. Archived versions of RFPs posted on FedBizOpps can be found on the FedBizOpps site using the FedBizOpps search function. Under “Document to Search,” select Archived Documents.

National Institutes of Health
Food and Drug Administration
National Cancer Institute
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
National Institute on Drug Abuse
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Office of Disease Prevention
Application Receipt/Submission Date(s): Multiple dates, see announcement.

National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Karen B. DeSalvo, M.D., M.P.H., M.Sc., announced today the availability of $1 million in grant funds to support community projects for the Community Interoperability Health Information Exchange (HIE) Program. The funding will help support and enable the flow of health information at the community level, leading to better care and better health.

The Community Interoperability and HIE program will provide funds to up to ten community organizations, state or local government agencies, or other community groups. The awards will help unlock health information and better integrate community resources advancing better care and healthier communities.

In an effort to tap patient communities for insights on drug development, AstraZeneca has inked a five-year deal with PatientsLikeMe, according to a company statement.

Ed Godber, executive vice president of Life Sciences Ventures at PatientsLikeMe, said unlike most of its pharma collaborations, which have been with U.S. affiliates of drug companies, “this one integrates us into the engine of R&D globally. AstraZeneca is putting the patient voice and PatientsLikeMe into the DNA of their innovation process.”

To capitalize on the region’s significant human capital and resources driving health innovation, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) and ProductSavvy, in partnership with Montgomery County Department of Economic Development (DED), are launching a health technology accelerator program named, “Relevant Health.” The accelerator will consist of a five-month intensive program focused on preparing eight early-stage health-related businesses for pilot product testing and financing. The program is scheduled to launch in September 2015 and will be located in the Rockville Innovation Center, part of the Montgomery County incubator network.

BHI is a public-private partnership that’s been building programs to foster commercialization of health and life sciences assets in the Central Maryland region over the last three years.

Thursday, April 16, 2015, 03:00pm – 05:00pm

Event is open to Post-Docs & Professional Scientists currently work in the Therapeutic Areas of:

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

Event will include music, lawn games, hors d’oeuvres, drinks and a scientific “Speed Networking” session.

Thursday, April 16, 2015, 07:30am – 09:00am

This is the first in our series of roundtables on what you need to know as a startup and emerging companies in the Life Sciences industry. The allure of “free money” inspires many life science companies to pursue government funding as an alternative to traditional equity or debt based financing. Unfortunately, nothing is “free” and government funding comes with its own organizational, management, accounting and compliance costs. This roundtable will reference the issues a company should consider when pursuing government funding and strategies for mitigating them. Topics addressed will include: finding and winning funding that is aligned with your corporate strategy, efficiently creating the infrastructure to manage compliant government contracts, managing your government partners/clients, and negotiating appropriate contracts and IP rights. This talk will reference existing life science government contracts ranging from $5M to over $200M and present both successful strategies and pitfalls to avoid. We will also talk through where government funding has provided the finances and credibility to springboard companies in their corporate growth.

Monday, April 20, 2015, 07:30am – 05:30pm

The Abell Foundation and BioMaryland have generously donated grants to be awarded to select faculty and company presentations from Johns Hopkins or the University of Maryland, Baltimore. The presentations will be voted upon by the industry boards and guests based on their ability to be translated to a commercial product. Register today to receive an advance copy of the updated meeting program featuring the agenda, bios of the presenters and non-confidential summaries of the technologies.

New for 2015! BHI’s Funding Newsletter provides a monthly snapshot of biohealth funding opportunities from federal, state, local government, and private sources that could be relevant to advance your small business. BHI’s goal is to assist companies determine feasible non-dilutive funding pathways or government contract opportunities to enable biohealth businesses at multiple stages of development.

Please contact our Federal Funding Assistance program when seeking support for any of the opportunities.

Recent winners: Perceptive Navigation wins Phase II SBIR

Establishes centralized vaccines research and development center in Rockville

GSK, one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, announced today that they are expanding their operations in Rockville with the establishment of a centralized vaccines R&D facility.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) announced today that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has signed an agreement to extend and expand its entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR) program with BHI. Under the terms of the new agreement, BHI is providing the services of five EIRs to the NIH starting with two lead institutes: the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).

“BHI is excited to extend its existing relationship with NIH. By adding new EIRs within multiple institutes, we expand our ability to both support breakthrough technologies and to help identify new commercial opportunities working with national scientific experts,” said Richard Bendis, BHI President & CEO. “These new breakthroughs can then turn into new health-related products, many of which will come from the cutting-edge startup companies fostered by BHI that are focused on further enhancing the future of healthcare for all.”

British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline announced plans Thursday to open a new vaccine research center in Rockville by this fall, a project that could bring up to 700 new jobs to Montgomery County. The center — at the site of the former Human Genome Sciences, which Glaxo acquired in 2012 for $3.6 billion — would combine two Glaxo research facilities on the East Coast and is expected to employ 1,000 people by 2016, a company spokeswoman said.

Another startup-focused program from TEDCO is on the way. The U.S. Economic Development Administration awarded the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) an innovation grant this week. TEDCO will use the $500,000 i6 Challenge award to launch a program for commercialization of medical devices. The program, called Maryland Structure Efficient Professional Product Development (mdSTEPP), is aiming to create 5-7 new medical device companies a year. It’s another example of the state working to turn the research that emerges from Maryland’s hospitals, labs and other centers into profitable businesses. The announcement also comes as University of Maryland officials are looking to expand the institution’s BioPark in Baltimore, and Johns Hopkins University is finally making the investment in commercialization that many have long wanted.

CLARKSVILLE, MD–(Marketwired – Apr 6, 2015) – Neuronascent, a biopharmaceutical company developing non-invasive, neuron regenerative therapeutics aimed at reversing cognitive deficits in Alzheimer’s disease, today announced the closing of a round of financing for up to $1.2 million. Neuronascent’s human neuronal progenitor-based discovery platform identified a number of novel orally-available therapeutics that promote new neuron generation at the same time inhibiting loss of neurons. Proceeds from this first institutional investment will allow the development of Neuronascent’s lead Alzheimer’s candidate, NNI-362, to the point of first-in-human clinical testing. The Company expects to complete all IND-enabling studies in 2015, with the considerable support of the National Institute of Aging’s (NIA) Alzheimer’s Disease Translational Research Program.

The Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) named today 12 finalists in the InvestMaryland Challenge (IMC), the State’s international business competition. The Challenge brings together startup companies from a variety of industries with investors, advisors, successful entrepreneurs and other established members of Maryland’s entrepreneurial community. There are three finalists in each of four categories — Life Sciences, IT, Defense & Security, and Sustainability & Exploration. The winner of each will win a $100,000 top prize from the State’s Maryland Venture Fund. InvestMaryland Challenge partners have contributed another $300,000 in prizes that will be awarded to others in the field of 214 applicants. Winners of all awards will be announced April 28 at an event at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore.

Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals, Inc., announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted an orphan drug designation for the Company’s investigational compound, STP-206 (lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis), a live biotherapeutic being developed for the prevention of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in premature infants with very low birth weight less than or equal to 1,500 grams. The Company is currently conducting a multi-center, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase 1b/2a clinical trial for STP-206 at a number of different sites in the United States.

Strand Life Sciences today announced a partnership with MRI Global to open a reference laboratory in India and develop companion diagnostics.

The partners will conduct joint research to integrate Strand’s SmartLab informatics software with MRI Global’s mobile, rapid diagnostics laboratories. Strand will also act as a validation hub for new technologies that are developed, including point-of-care devices.

Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (“ITI”), a privately-held biotechnology company developing vaccines based on its proprietary LAMP technology, today announces that the National Institutes of Health has awarded ITI’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant application titled, “Development of Nanoplasmid LAMP-based Peanut Allergy Immunotherapy.” The work in this award will help the pre-clinical development of new and advanced therapeutic platforms for peanut allergies.

“The receipt of this grant provides validation and financial support to evaluate the innovative combination of MHC-II targeting of important peanut allergens delivered in a minimal plasmid DNA backbone. With NIH’s support, we look forward to designing and evaluating new plasmid-based constructs for their immunological activity and improved safety profile, which builds off of ITI’s considerable expertise in plasmid-based therapeutics for food allergies. This research has the potential to help the more than one million Americans who suffer from peanut allergies,” said Teri Heiland, Ph.D., Vice President of R&D, ITI.

Chief technology officer at Health and Human Services, Bryan Sivak, is leaving the agency and retiring from federal government at the end of April, according to a department memo.

During his four years at the agency, Sivak was an ardent proponent of using technology to innovate and provide better services, both for the civilians the agency serves and for the employees internally.

A Baltimore startup that’s developing a medical device to treat migraine headaches is in talks to be acquired by a global medical device company.

Baltimore’s eNeura Inc. has entered into an agreement with Orthofix International N.V. that gives the Texas medical device firm 18 months to decide whether it wants to acquire eNeura for $65 million. As part of the deal, Orthofix is giving eNeura a $15 million loan to support commercialization of its migraine management device, Spring TMS.

When serial entrepreneurs Greg Cangialosi and Dave Troy launched the Baltimore Angels in 2009, the small group of investors heard pitches from hopeful entrepreneurs in a cramped Baltimore conference room, with maybe a pizza and bottle of water to share. Six years later, the Baltimore Angels are a crew of 40 investors, making deals upwards of $100,000. As Baltimore’s startup scene grows, Cangialosi is tightening the screws on the Baltimore Angels to attract new members, raise more money, ink more deals and be a driving force in the city’s entrepreneurship community.

Thrasos Therapeutics, a biotherapeutics company focused on delivering new solutions for kidney disease, today announced that it has completed a $21M Series D financing led by BDC Capital and SR One with participation by all current investors. Thrasos’ Board of Directors will be expanded with the addition of Ela Borenstein, Managing Partner at BDC Capital Healthcare Venture Fund.

The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland’s largest technology trade association, today announced the finalists for its 27th Annual Industry Awards. Winners will be revealed at a celebration on May 13 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center. This year, the Industry Awards Celebration recognizes the achievements that inspiration can bring. Achievements in technology and life sciences that were nurtured locally, and grew to have a global impact.

BALTIMORE, April 1, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — University of Maryland School of Medicine Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, announced today that the School of Medicine (UM SOM) plans to establish a major new Institute for Global Health (IGH), bringing together decades of UM SOM research, treatment and vaccine development around the world, and expanding the School’s platform as the premier, leading center for global health research, treatment and prevention. The new Institute will focus on vaccine development and malaria research, and will house the UM SOM’s reconfigured Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) as well as a newly-formed Center for Malaria Research (CMR).

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), Vice Chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, this week continued her Maryland Jobs Tour at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). Senator Mikulski announced that she has introduced new legislation, the Accelerating Biomedical Research Act, to ensure NIH receives stable funding year after year to support community health, innovation and jobs across Maryland and the nation. Senator Mikulski was joined by NIH Director Dr. Francis S. Collins and NCATS Director Dr. Christopher P. Austin in touring the NCATS translational research facility to see first-hand state-of-the-art screening for potential new treatments and cures for diseases that can be delivered to patients faster.

Though the Terrapins men’s basketball team didn’t pass the second round of the NCAA tournament, this university found success in a different kind of bracket. This university was named the “Nation’s Greenest University” by SaveOnEnergy.com in its March Mania Bracket, taking on Kansas University, Duke University and the University of Virginia before defeating the University of Louisville in the championship. In the spirit of March Madness, SaveOnEnergy.com — an online energy comparison website — created March Mania to mimic the NCAA Division I basketball tournament. The tournament included 16 of the nation’s top men’s basketball teams and ranked them based on their green efforts, according to the March Mania website.

FastForward, the catalyst for the advancement and commercialization of Johns Hopkins innovations, will help drive business development. There will be some available space outfitted as a core lab facility with shared equipment. Approximately 115,000 SF of the building is already committed. An additional 53,000 SF of lab and office space is available. Additionally, there will be 2,000 SF of retail space that will open directly to the lobby and serve as the social hub for innovation activities in the building. This space will have 180 degree exposure to Ashland Avenue and Eager Park. The retail tenant can extend its outdoor operation onto the ground floor building terrace and into Eager Park.

For University of Maryland researchers, the last year has marked a series of new discoveries and innovations: a revolutionary nanopore battery with high storage capabilities, a language aptitude measuring system, and a national food safety database to improve safety measures in retail establishments, just to name a few. UMD will honor nine nominees for the most promising new inventions at the Celebration of Innovation and Partnerships event on April 29, held as part of the University of Maryland’s ’30 Days of EnTERPreneurship,’ a month-long celebration and exhibition of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Health and Human Services chief technology officer Bryan Sivak announced that he will step down from the job this month.

In so doing, Sivak is not just leaving the CTO position but also the entrepreneur-in-residence post he held simultaneously. Healthcare IT News Executive Editor Tom Sullivan spoke with Sivak in 2013 about disrupting government culture with both technology and modern business practices.

We’re back in Baltimore thanks to The University of Maryland’s Biotech Research and Education Program (BREP) who is sponsoring this BioBuzz networking event on April 9th at @HeavySeasAleHse. Join us to share an evening with BREP and Baltimore’s growing Biotech community. Heavy Seas Alehouse is located in a very accessible part of the city and has plenty of free street parking or a $4 garage directly across the street.

Mtech’s Biotechnology Research and Education Program (BREP) is the regions premier biotechnology, biopharmaceutical and biofuel research center, designed to bolster Maryland’s burgeoning biotechnology industry. The program consists of two core facilities dedicated to providing supplemental research to academia, government and industry.

Start-up accelerators have become a prominent feature of the entrepreneurship landscape in recent years. New programs appear nearly every month, and in many ways, accelerator participation has become a rite of passage for budding entrepreneurs. Yet, with the proliferation of programs, the newness of the phenomena, and little to no publicly available data on outcomes for the programs and affiliated start-ups, it is hard for entrepreneurs to determine which programs are most effective and, more importantly, which specific program would be the best fit for their particular start-up’s goals. With this challenge in mind, we set out over the last few years to both foster conversation about the accelerator model, and help entrepreneurs gain visibility into the strengths of individual programs.

Like plenty of science-oriented high school kids, Andrew Jin is interested in human evolution. But Jin, one of three $150,000 first-place winners in this year’s Intel Science Talent Search, took that interest further than most. For his project, the high school senior came up with machine learning algorithms that detect mutations in the human genome—mutations that could one day be used to develop drugs to combat diseases like HIV and schizophrenia.

The decline in first quarter digital health investment was a notable shift from the steadily rising levels since 2010. That’s probably the most striking development in StartUp Health’s latest report which otherwise highlighted some pretty consistent trends. In the the first three months of 2015, big data attracted the most investment (led by Health Catalyst, which raised $70 million). Plus, more venture capitalists are moving into the sector – at least 20 made two digital health investments. But the second half of the report, which looks at digital health subsectors and deals relevant to the graying market – ie. almost every aspect of consumer health – was a promotional, business-intelligence look at what’s happening with the constituents of one of its sponsors, AARP. Reading the report, I wonder if it really provides enough firepower for innovators to help that 50+ population.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced the first 26 recipients of the 2014 Regional Innovation Strategies program grants. Managed by the Economic Development Administration, the Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) program is designed to advance innovation and capacity-building activities in regions across the country through three different types of grants.

I’ve reached the stage of my career where I’ve been invited to give “career retrospective talks” to grad students and post-docs at academic institutions. It’s been an interesting and enjoyable experience meeting a new generation of young scientists and hearing what’s on their minds. After delivering my seminar and sharing lots of stories and advice, the discussion quickly turns to jobs: what’s available out there, and how do you get one?

We’re back in Baltimore thanks to The University of Maryland’s Biotech Research and Education Program (BREP) who is sponsoring this BioBuzz networking event on April 9th at @HeavySeasAleHse. Join us to share an evening with BREP and Baltimore’s growing Biotech community. Heavy Seas Alehouse is located in a very accessible part of the city and has plenty of free street parking and a garage directly across the street.

AstraZeneca and MedImmune, in Partnership with BioHealth Innovation, Inc. and Tech Council of Maryland, Convene Life Sciences Leaders from Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. to Support Growth of Regional Biotech Ecosystem

Gaithersburg, Md., March 30, 2015 – Today and tomorrow, more than 400 leaders from life sciences companies, academic institutions, nonprofit organizations, investment funds and government entities across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. will convene for the first Maryland Regional Biotech Forum. This event, hosted by AstraZeneca and its global biologics research and development arm, MedImmune, in partnership with BioHealth Innovation (BHI), Inc. and the Tech Council of Maryland, will be held at MedImmune’s corporate headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland. It was launched as part of a collective effort to grow the region’s biotech ecosystem and chart a course toward becoming one of the top three biotech hubs in the nation by 2023.

The Maryland Regional Biotech Forum agenda boasts an impressive lineup of more than 100 speakers and panelists, including Gerd Binnig, a Nobel Prize laureate in physics and Founder and CTO of Definiens; Rachel King, Chair of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of GlycoMimetics; more than 25 regional CEOs, including Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca; five university presidents from across the region; and leaders from federal institutions.

In addition, the region’s first Leaders of Tomorrow Summit will be held in parallel with day two of the Maryland Regional Biotech Forum, also at MedImmune’s headquarters. This event is the Mid-Atlantic region’s first student- and postdoc-led, cross-functional and inter-generational leadership summit, and is designed to engage and influence the next generation of biotech leaders and ignite innovation in the future bioeconomy.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a public-private partnership and innovation intermediary is seeking an energetic and motivated life science professional for the role of an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) with product development experience and subject matter expertise in the fields of neurology and neuroscience. The EIR will reside within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and will also support intramural and extramural initiatives on an as needed basis.

The EIR program was established at BioHealth Innovation to:

• Retain and bring entrepreneurial talent to the Maryland ecosystem
• Connect resources including institutions, technology assets, people and capital within Maryland that include federal institutions, labs, academic institutions, small businesses, disease foundations and the investor community
• Build/support sustainable life science startups that will add value within the healthcare system and also build upon the existing infrastructure

The EIR will work with BHI leadership to ensure that the activities and outcomes are aligned with BHIs strategic focus.

The Maryland General Assembly recently honored University System of Maryland (USM) Chancellor William E. “Brit” Kirwan with a special tribute. In both chambers of the General Assembly, delegates and senators on March 20 recognized Chancellor Kirwan for his 50 years of service to Maryland higher education.

House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Senate President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller offered separate tributes to Kirwan, who has served as USM chancellor since 2002 and announced in May 2014 that he will step down from his leadership position. Kirwan will remain as chancellor through June 30, 2015. University of Massachusetts System President Robert L. Caret will succeed him.

Biopharmaceutical venture capital investment climbed from $4.52 billion in 2013 to $5.29 billion in 2014, a 17% increase, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.

Joel Marcus, chief executive of Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc., has been in biotech since its early days. From 1984 to 1994, he had a law career with expertise in the biopharmaceutical industry that included time as general counsel and secretary of Kirin-Amgen Inc., a joint venture between Kirin Brewery Co. and Amgen Inc.

Maryland is no stranger to USGBC’s Top 10 States for LEED list, and every year it has a strong list of impressive LEED projects certifying across the state. Maryland was the third state in the nation for LEED in 2014 (2.7 square-feet of LEED certified space per resident) based on the strength of its 132 newly certified projects.

One project that stands out this year is Qiagen’s new North America headquarters building, which is important not only because of its impressive architecture, but also because of the building’s purpose and what projects like this one symbolize about the growing impact of the green building movement across the country. Qiagen uses its 66,735 square foot headquarters for new research in the field biotechnology as well as its North American manufacturing operations. Skanska USA, a Platinum level member of USGBC, served as the contractor on the Qiagen project, ushering the building toward LEED certification.

WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. (WX: Quote) announced that an Investigational New Drug or IND application for WuXi MedImmune’s novel anti-IL6 monoclonal antibody for rheumatoid arthritis has been accepted for review by the China Food and Drug Administration or CFDA.

In September 2012, MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, and WuXi AppTec formed the joint venture WuXi MedImmune Biopharmaceutical Co. Limited to develop and commercialize MEDI5117, a novel, investigational, long-acting monoclonal antibody for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, the first such collaboration in China between a global company and a Chinese company to develop novel biologics.

Swimtag and Brain Sentry were the winners at the 2015 Sports Technology Awards, at an event where wearable tech companies dominated the nominations.

The event, which is in its second year, is set up to recognise the technology that’s playing an increased role across sport – be it tracking, broadcasting or participation.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of Anthrasil Tuesday for treating inhalational anthrax alongside antibacterial drugs, triggering a $7 million payment to Emergent BioSolutions under a Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority contract.

A rare disease, inhalational anthrax occurs after an individual is exposed to an infected animal or animal products that have been contaminated. Infection is also possible when anthrax spores are intentionally released, leading to the inhalation of Bacillus anthracis. After the bacterium enters the body, it replicates and produces toxins, causing massive, irreversible injury to tissues. Damage can also be so severe that an infection can be fatal.

Gaithersburg-based Emergent BioSolutions Inc. is adding a $31 million contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to its ongoing work developing a next-generation anthrax vaccine.

The BARDA contract is for NuThrax, a vaccine that requires fewer doses, has a higher immune response and has no need for refrigeration.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its treatment for inhaled anthrax, triggering a $7 million milestone payment from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The company developed the treatment, Anthrasil, as part of a $160 million contract it signed in 2005 with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a part of the HHS.

Health for America is pleased to announce that Medstar will host the 2015-16 Health for America Fellowship in Washington D.C., in partnership with the global startup incubator, 1776.

The Fellowship will give a small group of exceptional young healthcare leaders the opportunity to put aside their day-to-day work and focus instead on finding high-impact, low-cost solutions for patients suffering from chronic diseases. Led by the MedStar Institute for Innovation (MI2), the 2015 Fellowship will give fellows broad access to providers, entrepreneurs, and other experts throughout MedStar, a regional not-for-profit health system advancing the practice of medicine through education, innovation and research.

Frederick City and the County have agreed to partner with the state to help Medimmune expand.

Last week, the County Council agreed to participate with the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development’s Maryland Economic Development Assistance and Authority Fund (MEDAAF) to provide a $1.5-million loan to Medimmune.

New Enterprise Associates expects to hold a final close next month.

Venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates has secured approximately $2.57 billion in capital commitments for its fifteenth fund, Fortune has learned.

Johns Hopkins brings to mind the renowned research university and hospital in Baltimore.

The latter has been the working home to such medical lights as neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who led a pioneering separation of twins born fused together at the cranium.

That these institutions are known primarily for the work they do, not for the person whose money gave them life, would sit just fine with their founding donor.

The National Institutes of Health has selected three new proof-of-concept hubs to help speed the translation of basic biomedical discoveries into commercial products, such as new drugs, devices, and diagnostics, to improve patient care and enhance health. The hubs are part of the NIH-supported Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hubs (REACH) program and will be funded at $9 million over three years.

AKT IP Ventures today announced the launch of a targeted $20 million incubation investment fund that will finance the creation and operation of IP-based businesses in the mobile, multi-touch, wearables, IoT, big data and medical technology sectors. As an incubator and operator of emerging IP-based businesses, AKT IP Ventures offers a unique, constructive and creative alternative to the litigation model of patent monetization. Employing a disciplined approach to bringing IP-based technologies to market, AKT IP Ventures turns patents into viable enterprises that create jobs, generate value and bring exciting new technologies and innovations into the marketplace.

Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB: PIRS)and The University of Melbourne today announced the receipt by the University of a research grant to further develop Pieris’ novel protein Anticalin®-brand therapeutic, PRS-060, in immunological diseases. The grant — which will support Pieris’ Australian subsidiary, Pieris Australia, and is disbursed by Australia’s peak medical research funding body, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) — totals more than $AUS 500,000 and covers activities to advance PRS-060 for inhaled delivery to treat asthmatics.

Funding and Research Opportunities

The following funding opportunity announcements from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest:

Notices:

• Request for Information (RFI): NHLBI Strategic Visioning – Developing the Research Priorities for the Next Decade
• (NOT-HL-15-252)

• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice of Change to Award Information Regarding Allowable Requested Direct Costs in PAR-13-316 “NHLBI Program Project Applications (P01)”
• (NOT-HL-15-256)
• 
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice of National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Participation in PAR-15-085 “Predictive Multiscale Models for Biomedical, Biological, Behavioral, Environmental and Clinical Research (U01)”
• (NOT-HL-15-257)

• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Requests for Applications:

• Genome Sequencing Program Coordinating Center (U24)
• (RFA-HG-15-019)
• 
National Human Genome Research Institute
Application Receipt Date(s): May 29, 2015