News Archive

Fundrise, a crowdfunding start-up that finances commercial real estate projects for investors, will be debuting its latest offering on Wednesday morning on its site: a vacant commercial building on 1539 7th Street NW, in Washington, DC that the developer hopes to turn into a boutique retail site. The project is $2 million and $350,000 will be available to the general public.

This will be Fundrise’s 18th project and while in many respects it is similar to the ones that came before it, there is something new. Maryland residents can invest in the project–in as little as $100 increments—for the first time. Prior to this, these projects were only open to DC and Virginia residents.

You may remember him best for his hit song “She Blinded Me With Science,” which rose to No. 5 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart in 1982, but Thomas Dolby is more than just an ’80s pop star with an interest in blending technology with sound. He is a legendary artist who has been on the forefront of digital music. Now, the synthpop musician will have a chance to share his passion with students by serving as Johns Hopkins University’s first Homewood Professor of the Arts, a position that will allow him to create a new incubator on campus for technology in the arts.

Governor Martin O’Malley announced today that the State, through the BioMaryland Center, has awarded nearly $1.5 million to seven innovative life sciences companies and one educational institution through its Biotechnology Development Awards program. The companies, which received up to $200,000 each, will use the funding to accelerate the commercialization of a wide range of treatments and technologies; including a device that detects concussions in youths engaged in sports; a tool that takes a minimally invasive approach to mitral valve repair; and a drug to reduce eye injections for macular degeneration. An award was also given to a Johns Hopkins University researcher who is developing a device to lessen certain risks involved with cardiac ablation.

China Fortune Land Development Co., Ltd. (CFLD), a leading expert in investment and operation of industrial zones in China, officially launched a high-tech incubator in Silicon Valley on February 28. The incubator marks a new way to upgrade China’s industries, a new platform to connect Chinese and US high-tech industries and a key step of CFLD’s global expansion.

The US has the richest technological resources, the most sophisticated educational system, and the best innovative environment in the world. It fosters a large number of international giants and innovative startups that provide services and products to customers around the world.

Eight projects aimed at bringing new technology to market will share almost $1.5 million from the state’s BioMaryland Center.

Seven life sciences companies and Johns Hopkins University were selected for the awards. Each will receive up to $200,000. The funding will go toward developing new, commercial uses for technology and research findings.

Johns Hopkins University and MedImmune, one of the largest biotechnology companies in the region, have teamed up for an innovative, $6.5 million research collaboration, and eight students in the Master’s in Biotechnology Enterprise and Entrepreneurship practicum are directly involved. They will be doing their practicum projects with MedImmune.

“The partnership between JHU and MedImmune is a wonderful opportunity for MBEE students to gain real-world experience,” said Lynn Johnson Langer, director, Enterprise & Regulatory Science Programs for the university’s Center for Biotechnology Education. “Their work will be highly valuable to the company, and a great learning experience for the students. Truly a win-win.”

Phlebotomy. Even the word sounds archaic—and that’s nothing compared to the slow, expensive, and inefficient reality of drawing blood and having it tested. As a college sophomore, Elizabeth Holmes envisioned a way to reinvent old-fashioned phlebotomy and, in the process, usher in an era of comprehensive superfast diagnosis and preventive medicine.

That was a decade ago. Holmes, now 30, dropped out of Stanford and founded a company called Theranos with her tuition money. Last fall it finally introduced its radical blood-testing service in a Walgreens pharmacy near company head­quarters in Palo Alto, California. (The plan is to roll out testing centers nation­wide.) Instead of vials of blood—one for every test needed—Theranos requires only a pinprick and a drop of blood. With that they can perform hundreds of tests, from standard cholesterol checks to sophisticated genetic analyses. The results are faster, more accurate, and far cheaper than conventional methods.

March 13th, 2014 8:00am-10:00am at the Shady Grove Innovation Center, 9700 Great Seneca Highway, Rockville, MD 20850

The Maryland/Israel Development Center and The Tech Council of Maryland invite you to join us on March 13, 2014 at 8:00 am, for an informational session to discuss business growth opportunities for U.S. companies nterested in potential partnerships with companies in Israel.

A representative of the Israel Bi-national Industrial R&D Foundation (B.I.R.D Foundation) will be presenting information on the foundation’s technology collaboration grants of up to $1 million. If you are working with a company in Israel or could be looking to partner with one, you could be eligible. Join us to learn about the application process and timelines.
You will also have an opportunity to hear about an upcoming Israel trade mission. This is a great way to explore partnership opportunities with Israeli companies. Learn about a trade mission to Israel’s premier Innovation Conference — featuring Israel’s renowned Biomed Conference side-by-side with a groundbreaking High Tech Conference.

The recent federal mandates for healthcare information technology have increased demand on the field, boosting the need for educated and knowledgeable staff for health IT projects. But with the emergence and recent popularity of graduate education in healthcare informatics, we are seeing an influx of students entering these programs who do not have clinical or information technology backgrounds.

These individuals have a great desire to work in informatics and recognize the enormous impact the field can have on healthcare, but they lack the hands-on experience that many employers seek. Some of these students have even reported challenges getting hired after obtaining their master’s degree, for lack of ‘experience.’

Dennis Truong and Jody Crane have reinvented the traditional house call.

The Kaiser Permanente doctors are responsible for the creation and implementation of a new program called HouseCalls, in which patients can schedule 20-minute appointments with physicians via video. The foray into mobile health saves the patients a visit to urgent care centers and saves those centers money, the doctors said. It’s just one new initiative underway at the national health provider aimed at improving care while lowering costs.