News Archive

An entrepreneurial culture is alive and well in the nation’s capital, bolstered by a wave of successful startups of various shapes and sizes that are creating jobs and improving the world. In pursuing continued economic growth that is not dependent upon federal funds, the D.C. community must focus on encouraging and supporting more entrepreneurs. One clear path to accelerating the evolution of a startup culture, highlighted by the University of Maryland’s recent recognition as the top public university for technology entrepreneurship in the 2013 StartEngine College Index, is through our local institutions of higher education. Their curricula, access to space and technology, and vast alumni networks make universities the perfect home for entrepreneurship, and their efforts to create a new generation of entrepreneurs need our community’s support.

Illumina Inc. is launching what it bills as the world’s first genomics incubator, saying it has teamed up with technology billionaire Yuri Milner and Silicon Valley Bank to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in startups.

The San Diego maker of genome sequencing equipment said that it plans to offer aspiring genomics businesses both funding and access to lab equipment. Work would take place in the San Francisco Bay Area.

These top venture capitalists don’t wait for biotech startups to come to them. They create companies themselves.

The path to greatness in biotechnology runs through a vale of tears. Mark Levin wants to remember that.

For Marie Johnson, coming up with a better way to detect coronary artery disease is both a business and a personal mission.

Johnson is CEO of AUM Cardiovascular, a Minnesota medical device company that’s developing a potentially cheaper, simpler, eight-minute test to detect signs of coronary artery disease — the primary cause of heart attack.

Just what is a “National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence,” anyway?

I’ve heard this question muttered repeatedly, in one form or another, in the course of covering the ongoing bio vs. cyber dispute over the future of the William Hanna Center for Innovation at Shady Grove.

Cangene Corporation (“Cangene”) (TSX: CNJ) today announced that the Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued a final order approving the Plan of Arrangement for the previously announced acquisition of Cangene by Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE: EBS). Under the court-approved Plan of Arrangement, Cangene shareholders will receive US$3.24 per share (C$3.56(1) per share) in cash, for an aggregate purchase price of US$222 million (approximately C$244 million(2) ).

Cangene previously announced that the waiting period mandated under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 in connection with the transaction expired on January 28, 2014. On February 12, 2014, the Plan of Arrangement was approved by approximately 99.95% of the votes cast at a special meeting of Cangene’s common shareholders, which constituted more than 90.1% of the outstanding Cangene common shares.

Federal and Maryland officials signed an agreement on Tuesday with the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg to develop new cyber security technology and provide opportunities for students in the state.

The agreement plans to expand on a February 2012 collaboration agreement signed by NIST, Maryland officials and Montgomery County officials to establish the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence.

Epidarex Capital, a leading international early-stage life science venture capital fund, has invested in Confluence Life Sciences Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the rapid discovery and development of drugs to address unmet needs in cancer and chronic inflammatory disease.

Confluence’s innovative KINect Technology Platform enables the identification and development of new protein kinase drugs in a fraction of the time of other approaches.  Confluence’s team of world-class drug developers has created a pipeline of drug candidates which focus on creating kinase inhibitors targeting hard-to-treat cancers.  Confluence’s lead program targets the kinase TAK1, which is important in cancer cell transformation, metastasis, tumor growth and drug resistance, especially in pancreatic and other cancers such as breast and colon.

University of Maryland (UM) Ventures and Harpoon Medical, Inc. announced today that Harpoon Medical has obtained exclusive rights to a portfolio of technologies for cardiac valve repair from the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). The licensed technology was developed in the Division of Cardiac Surgery at The University of Maryland School of Medicine. A $200,000 award from the BioMaryland Center and a $50,000 BioMaryland LIFE (Leading Innovative Faculty Entrepreneurs) Prize supported the company’s early development efforts. Since the company’s formation in early July 2013, the Harpoon Medical team has secured more than $300,000 in competitive grants and additional award funding from the BioMaryland Center and TEDCO.

“Harpoon Medical is a particularly exciting UMB startup and the minimally invasive technology for mitral valve repair – without the need to open the chest or stop the heart – has the potential to dramatically improve patient care,” said Phil Robilotto, the University’s Assistant Vice President, Office of Technology Transfer. “Harpoon’s management team has a well-established track record, and Harpoon has already made significant progress on both the product development and fundraising fronts.”

Here in Washington, we woke up to a thick blanket of snow from the largest snowstorm of an already active winter season.  The federal government, schools and stores have closed. It got me thinking about what a snow day can tell you about your office, agency or company. It’s a good test that reveals a lot about how you are organized, your technology and your culture.

At my company, we regularly work across multiple client sites, at home, in our D.C. office and in multiple states—snow or no snow. Flexibility is one of our core values. So when a snow day hits, we just keep going. It’s not that different than any other day working from home except for the parents of young children whose schools are closed.