News Archive

The University of Maryland (UM) BioPark and UM Ventures announced today that Advanced Metrics, a successful early-stage UM, Baltimore (UMB) startup has moved from offices on the University’s campus to the BioPark. Advanced Metrics is leveraging software development and data expertise to provide solutions for the healthcare industry. It has moved quickly into commercialization since establishment only a year ago. Two employees will develop the company’s technologies at the BioPark. The company also has additional staff in Mountville, Pennsylvania.

“Moving to the UM BioPark allows us to grow in an innovation-rich environment, where a variety of scientific companies operate,” said Steven Herr, Ph.D., CEO of Advanced Metrics. “We aspire to be innovative and agile, and to work in a smart way for healthcare practitioners and families. Moving to the BioPark and surrounding ourselves with innovative peers is an ideal step towards accomplishing our

BD Diagnostics, a segment of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), a leading global medical technology company, announced today that it received 510(k) clearance and Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) Waiver from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the BD Veritor™ System for Rapid Detection of Group A Strep . This is the first commercially available rapid Group A Strep test system that incorporates a digital result to receive CLIA Waiver. The new assay is cleared for use in hospitals, outpatient clinics and other patient-care settings.

Group A Strep is the most common bacterial cause of pharyngitis. More accurately determining the etiology of pharyngitis can help providers make more appropriate antibiotic treatment decisions.

William G. “Bill” Robertson plans to leave his post as president and chief executive of Gaithersburg-based health system Adventist HealthCare in April to lead MultiCare Health System, a not-for-profit organization based in Washington state.

Robertson has led Adventist — one of the largest private employers in Maryland, with more than 6,200 employees — since 2000. His last day will be April 4, Adventist HealthCare Board of Trustees Chairman David E. Weigley announced Monday.

Twenty-somethings can be a tough crowd to please. They’re glued to their smartphones, opinionated, and entirely dependent on technology. When facing an illness, they’ll jump head-first into the information-abyss of a Google search. By the time they make it to the doctor’s office, they’ve already digested 15 academic studies and 10 online articles.

As the Pew Center points out, this hyper-connected behavior is a double edged sword — on the one hand, millennial patients have the resources to be their most empowered and informed. The problem? These young information-seekers risk falling prey to poorly researched online articles, bad advice on social media, and the impulse to self-medicate to avoid expensive ER visits. Not to mention, some members of this demographic are deluded enough to think that they’re ‘too healthy for healthcare.’

NexImmune, an immunotherapy company developing products for the treatment of cancer, today announced a new scientific publication by NexImmune co-founder Dr. Jonathan Schneck and colleagues that provides an important advance in the use of its proprietary Artificial Immune (AIMä) Technology for cellular therapy of cancer.  The study, published this week in ACS Nano, demonstrated the use of nanoparticle artificial Antigen Presenting Cells (aAPC), a key component of the AIM technology, with applied magnetic fields to activate and expand naive, normally poorly responsive T cell populations.  Significantly, activated cells were highly effective for treating cancer in a mouse model system.   

Activating naive T cells has been a key, but elusive goal of immunotherapy as these cells are more effective than differentiated T cell subtypes for treating cancer.  Once activated, naive T cells have a higher proliferative capacity and a greater ability to generate strong, long-term T cell responses important for immunotherapy. Thus, this study describes a novel approach whereby AIM aAPC can potentially be coupled to magnetic-field-enhanced activation of T cells to increase the yield and activity of antigen-specific T cells expanded from naive precursors, thereby improving cellular therapy for cancer.   

20/20 GeneSystems, Inc. (“20/20”) announced today that the National Cancer Institute has awarded the company a cost-sharing Phase II Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) contract to develop, optimize, and validate (analytically and clinically) a test to help predict whether a patient with advanced stage kidney cancer (renal cell carcinoma) is likely to benefit from anti-angiogenic therapy. The anticipated end result is a diagnostic test that will indicate to oncologists the appropriate treatment for patients.

AnthroTronix (www.atinc.com), an award-winning research and development (R&D) company that designs human-inspired products that define the future of mobile technology, recently awarded the Department of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine a subcontract to use AnthroTronix’s technology to study ways to improve clinical care in the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). This subcontract is in support of a U.S Army Rapid Innovation Fund project at AnthroTronix.

Researcher Adam Kaplin, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, will lead the research. The subcontract supports the work designed to enhance patient care, specifically related to the application of AnthroTronix’s Defense Automated Neurobehavioral Assessment (DANA), mobile brain vitals health assessment tool.

Discovery Communications – Monday, March 31, 2014

Please join Montgomery County’s business, nonprofit, philanthropic, government, education and resident leaders in a discussion about building the workforce of the future.   

To begin, Montgomery Moving Forward is focusing on jobs – learning together, advocating together and experimenting together– so that more residents achieve self-sufficiency, more local businesses find qualified workers, more communities contribute to and share in countywide prosperity and so the County can establish lasting pathways to success for our changing community.   Symposium Planning Committee: representatives of A Wider Circle; CollegeTracks; Community Foundation for Montgomery County/Community Foundation for the National Capital Region; Jewish Social Service Agency; Identity; LAYC/Maryland Multicultural Youth Center; Montgomery Business Development Corporation; Montgomery Coalition for Adult English Literacy; Montgomery College; Montgomery County Collaboration Council for Children, Youth and Families; Montgomery County Council; Montgomery County Department of Economic Development, Workforce Services Division; Montgomery County Public Schools; Universities at Shady Grove; Workforce Solutions Group 

Scott Block has always been interested in entrepreneurship. As an undergraduate , he looked for opportunities to get involved in start-ups at the University of Maryland, and he helped a few other students build Web applications for their own business ideas. Over time, he saw how difficult it was for those entrepreneurial students to connect with others like them on campus.

Two other students, Avi Eisenberger and Justin Searles, shared Block’s frustration. The three decided to work together to solve the problem by creating a place for student entrepreneurs to come together online, share ideas and track their ventures. The team created a platform and app called VentureBoard.

UCSF and electronics giant Samsung are establishing a center for digital health care innovation, they said Friday, an endeavor that seeks to accelerate the development of mobile technologies for preventive health care.

The lab, to be located on UCSF’s Mission Bay campus, will function as a kind of cross-cultural exchange, the rare kind of space where technologists and innovators will be able to validate technologies like smartphone apps or wearable sensors alongside top medical researchers. At the same time, researchers and clinicians will be able to funnel ideas through Samsung designers and engineers.