News Archive

University of Maryland, Baltimore campus President Jay A. Perman, M.D., and University of Maryland School of Medicine Dean E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., wish to announce the establishment of a new center to unite research scientists and physicians across disciplines. The center will employ these interdisciplinary connections to enhance the use of cutting edge medical science such as genomics and personalized medicine to accelerate research discoveries and improve health care outcomes. Participants in the new University of Maryland Center for Health-Related Informatics and Bioimaging (CHIB) will collaborate with computer scientists, engineers, life scientists and others at a similar center at the University of Maryland, College Park campus, together forming a joint center supported by the M-Power Maryland initiative.

University of Maryland School of Medicine Dean E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., with the concurrence of President Perman, has appointed as co-director of the new center Owen White, Ph.D., Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health and Director of Bioinformatics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Institute for Genome Sciences.

Emory University has launched a public-private drug development enterprise that will transition scientific discoveries more rapidly and efficiently from university laboratories into the marketplace. The new venture is expected to help address worldwide drug development and commercialization needs.

Drug Innovation Ventures at Emory, LLC (DRIVE) is a not-for-profit company separate from, but wholly owned by Emory.

On Tuesday, GE Healthcare announced plans to invest $2 billion over the next five years on the development of software for health systems and applications, Healthcare IT News reports.

To develop the software, the company will work with the GE Software Center of Excellence in San Ramon, Calif., in addition to several other research and development firms across the world (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 6/12).

On May 31, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reissued its Omnibus Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs in order to implement venture capital provisions of the SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2011.

HHS notice NOT-OD-13-071 will allow small business concerns that are majority-owned by multiple venture capital operating companies (VCOCs), hedge funds and/or private equity firms to apply for the NIH SBIR program and compete for up to 25 percent of NIH’s SBIR set-aside in the Omnibus FOA or any other NIH SBIR funding announcement issued hereafter. With this notice, NIH is the first agency to elect to use its authority under Section 5107 of the reauthorization to make awards to majority-owned firms, signaling new and significant opportunities for venture capital in the future.

UK pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca plc (LSE:AZN) is the second bidder for the dedicated biotech incubator being set up by the Chief Scientist’s incubator program at the Ministry of the Economy, sources inform “Globes.”

The company will bid for the incubator tender against a consortium of OrbiMed venture capital fund and healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ).

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius opens Health Datapalooza IV with an emphatic introduction speech asking those in attendance to continue driving more ideas and innovation in data and information exchange to improve the future of the US health system.

The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore (EAGB) and Maryland Department of Business of Economic Development (DBED) have announced the creation of Advance Maryland, a business program designed to support growth companies, an integral component in the prosperity and sustainability of local economies. Advance Maryland was established to provide resources targeted to second-stage companies.  These companies are growth-oriented and have moved beyond the startup phase. They are at the forefront of job creation and critical to vibrant economies. In contrast to traditional business assistance which focuses on finances, business plans and operational issues,

Advance Maryland addresses strategic growth challenges, from developing new markets and refining business models, to gaining access to competitive intelligence. “Maryland has a plethora of organizations and resources devoted to the startup community, but we are limited when it comes to resources for second stage companies. The statistics show how essential it is to recognize these companies and make the necessary tools available to support their growth,” stated Jen Gunner, COO of EAGB and Co-Program Manager of Advance Maryland. Youreconomy.com states that between 1995 and 2009, second-stage companies represented eleven percent of U.S. establishments, but generated more than thirty six percent of jobs and thirty eight percent of sales.

Histogenics Corp., a regenerative medicine company that combines cell therapy and tissue engineering technologies to develop highly innovative products primarily for orthopedic tissue repair, today announced the appointment of Peter Greenleaf to Chief Executive Officer.

Bringing over 20 years of experience in the biotechnology industry to Histogenics, Mr. Greenleaf most recently served as President of MedImmune, the worldwide biologics arm of AstraZeneca. During his tenure, he presided over the expansion of MedImmune’s extensive growth and pipeline and spearheaded industry-leading business development and venture deals. Mr. Greenleaf also served as the President of MedImmune Ventures, overseeing more than $300 million in investments in early stage portfolio companies. Prior to becoming President, Greenleaf led the development of the company’s global marketing and portfolio organizations and managed the broader commercial, corporate development and strategy functions.

The D.C. region is home to some 765,000 jobs that require knowledge in science, technology, engineering and math, representing 27 percent of the overall workforce, according to a report released Monday by the Brookings Institution. Only Silicon Valley ranked higher in percentage of STEM labor.

Greater Washington has consistently ranked near or at the top of the nation in STEM job rankings, owing largely to the federal government and the contracting industry surrounding it, which grew rapidly following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The region also boasts a substantial cluster of commercial tech companies – many of them situated along the Dulles corridor and Interstate 270 – as well as a small but growing software startup scene.

Almost a quarter of the jobs in the Baltimore-area are science, technology, engineering and math positions, according to a new report by the Brookings Institution.

A total of 281,730 local STEM jobs account for about 23 percent of workforce in the Baltimore-Towson region. Baltimore ranks eighth out of 100 metropolitan areas for its concentration of STEM jobs in the Metropolitan Policy Program study released Monday by the Washington, D.C., think tank.