Biomātrica®, Inc., a world leader in ambient temperature biological stabilization technologies, and ATCC, the premier global biological materials resource and standards organization, today announce the completion of a licensing agreement. According to the agreement terms, Biomātrica will supply ATCC with DNAstable® and RNAstable® reagents for the stabilization of DNA and RNA standards.
A JOLT of caffeine can boost memory, according to a study that provides a scientific motive for students slurping coffee, tea or energy drinks when cramming for exams.
A team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, found that caffeine enhances certain memories for at least a day after they were formed.
Evidence for caffeine as a memory booster has been anecdotal until now.
Our community relies on the current crop of PhD researchers to develop the insights, theories and tools to shape the future of innovation management thinking and action. The ISPIM Innovation Management Dissertation Award, sponsored by John Wiley & Sons and Innovation Leaders will reward this endeavour. Authors of the best three PhD dissertations that are completed in 2013 will be able to attend the ISPIM 2014 Conference in Dublin for free. Additionally, the winner will receive a prize of EUR 4000, and the runners-up EUR 2000 each, courtesy of Innovation Leaders, John Wiley and Sons and ISPIM.
Who are the entrepreneurs pushing hardest for technology advances that will connect patients with better healthcare? They’re people like Sean Duffy, who’s using the Web to help people make behavioral changes that could head off Type 2 diabetes at his startup Omada Health, and Joanne Rohde, whose company Axial Exchange is building systems that help patients stay in touch with their doctors before and after office visits.
That’s according to Rock Health, the San Francisco-based accelerator and seed fund for Health IT entrepreneurs, which named its 2013 “Top 50 in Digital Health” honorees at a downtown ceremony last night. The event helped to kick off the week-long J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference and was co-hosted by Goldman Sachs, Silicon Valley Bank, and Fenwick & West.
Who knew elephant sharks held potential answers for health problems such as osteoporosis and poor immune systems?
An international team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Germany discovered new insights into human health by sequencing the elephant-shark genome.
MIMETAS and Galapagos will collaborate to develop miniaturized 3D cell culture models that mimic specific aspects of human diseases. These models will be applied to the identification and improvement of novel compounds. Dr. Richard Janssen, Senior Director of Target Discovery at Galapagos, states: “The MIMETAS platform is the first to combine organ-on-a-chip technology with our high throughput screening of primary human cells. As we see it, OrganoPlates™ make 3D culture as straightforward as traditional cell culture.”
Dr. Jos Joore, MIMETAS’ CBO underscores this notion: “This agreement is a crucial step forward for MIMETAS and for the organ-on-a-chip field in general. Galapagos sets an example as one of the first drug discovery companies worldwide to implement innovative organ-on-a-chip technologies. This collaboration helps us to further validate our technology, by enabling development of unique novel compounds with unique human disease models.”
Nationally, startups seeking venture capital at an early stage saw another great year in 2013 with an abundance of active seed investments being made. And according to data released by CB Insights last week, of the seed investors making deals with young companies in 2013, three D.C.-based VCs were some of the most active. Among the likes of West Coast seed powerhouses 500 Startups and Andreessen Horowitz, Washington-area CIT GAP Funds, New Enterprise Associates and Fortify.vc were ranked in the top 60 venture capital funds for most active nationally.
One way pharma giant Johnson and Johnson stays ahead of the competition is via its network of Innovation Centers where researchers are working on new approaches to cardiovascular issues, infectious diseases, neuroscience, and more.
The centers are located in San Francisco, Boston, London, and Shanghai – and this week the company announced that Israel was joining the family, in the form of an incubator J&J will be opening in Rehovot, near the Weizmann Institute. Working together with several other partners, the company said, the new incubator “is the latest in a series of recently announced collaborations to fuel entrepreneurship in the world’s scientific hot spots.”
Entrepreneur Office Hours for University of Maryland Students, Faculty and Staff, and Regional Entrepreneurs with 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.
DATE: Tuesday, January 14, 2014
PLACE: Room 1103, Technology Advancement Program building (directions)
REGISTER: Schedule an appointment here to guarantee your time slot. Walk-in appointments are also available.
Happy New Year! Thanks to two recent, major life sciences announcements spotlighted in Site Selection magazine, Montgomery County shows that our biotech sector is well-poised for accelerated growth in 2014!
The December 2013 Site Selection web exclusive features details on the attraction of Brazilian-based Brace Pharmaceuticals’ new U.S. headquarters to the County’s Rockville Innovation Center and its plans to invest $200 million. Brace is focused on the late stage clinical development of pharmaceutical products with the potential for near-term commercialization.
