News Archive

After decades as a technological laggard, medicine has entered its data age. Mobile technologies, sensors, genome sequencing, and advances in analytic software now make it possible to capture vast amounts of information about our individual makeup and the environment around us. The sum of this information could transform medicine, turning a field aimed at treating the average patient into one that’s customized to each person while shifting more control and responsibility from doctors to patients.

The question is: can big data make health care better?

The implications of the world’s largest collaborative biological project in the year 2000—the Human Genome Project-combined with the Big Data revolution in the medical sciences holds out tremendous promise for human health. Recognizing the imminent need for the next generation of bioinformatics and genomics tools, four academic entrepreneurs from the prestigious Indian Institute of Science co-founded Strand Genomics Inc. (Strand). “Our focus is on personalized clinical genomics and molecular diagnostics. To address the grand challenge of the “$1000 genome and million dollar interpretation”, we have developed a clinical genomics interpretation and reporting platform, StrandOmics,” says Vijay Chandru, Ph.D, Co-founder, Chairman and CEO, Strand.

NextNav LLC, the bicoastal location services venture launched by XM Satellite Radio founder Gary Parsons, announced on Thursday a $70 million Series D funding led by New Enterprise Associates and Oak Investment Partners.

The eight-figure round is the latest high-dollar financing for NextNav, which two years ago reported a $50 million raise from Columbia Capital. Columbia also joined in the most recent round, alongside Telcom Ventures and Goldman Sachs Investment Partners.

Maryland companies raised $64 million in venture capital funding this spring, with some of the biggest payouts flowing to Baltimore cybersecurity startups.

That’s according to the latest MoneyTree report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. The report, which uses Thomson Reuters data, tracks money flowing to startups and later-stage firms across the country.

Former state economic development secretary Aris Melissaratos is leaving Johns Hopkins University for a job where he’ll have more power.

Melissaratos, who had been with Hopkins for seven years, on July 17 joined Stevenson University as interim dean of the Brown School of Business and Leadership. Melissaratos said he has always had an interest in academia and now will be able to play a leading role in preparing students to join the local workforce.

Baltimore-based Cerecor has gathered up the first half of a $33 million B round, with plans to devote much of that money to a midstage development program for an experimental depression therapy recently punted by a restructuring Merck ($MRK).

In documents filed with the SEC, the biotech noted that it has raised $16.2 million of a planned $33.2 million round. New Enterprise Associates, Apple Tree Partners and MPM Capital led the round, which is also going to fund R&D efforts on its catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitor platform for conditions “characterized by impairment of executive function and working memory.”

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has revealed proposed designs for its new corporate headquarters and global research centre in Cambridge, which is scheduled to open in late 2016.

The plans for the new facility, which will be located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC), include designs for the global centre, an R&D enabling building and an energy centre.

Analytical Informatics, Inc,  a portfolio company of the New Ventures Department of the University of Maryland, Baltimore is one of the semifinalists in 43North, the world’s largest business idea competition.   43North will award $5 million in cash prizes and is setting out to turn the best new business ideas from around the globe into reality.  The top award is $1 million, with six $500,000 awards and four $250,000 awards. There were with 6,932 applications from 96 countries and all 50 U.S. states.  That got boiled down to 2,603 qualified submissions and 113 semifinalists.  Analytical Informatics, Inc was the only Baltimore and Maryland based company selected.  

More than 80% of U.S. consumers conduct online research prior to making everyday purchases. This is a statistic that is growing, and extends beyond products to include services and, finally, even healthcare. With the abundance of information available, consumers are empowered–they want to be as informed as possible when selecting physicians, but how does someone navigate through the overwhelming results of Google searches and decide how to best make a decision as important as selecting a healthcare provider? I think most people would agree that selecting a physician and selecting where to have dinner have highly differing degrees of importance when it comes to online research.