News Archive

Fifty years ago this month, I chanced to hear the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. I was a mild-mannered kid with a speech impediment and a love of math. That day, I was focused on solving math problems, not issues of justice and equal rights. But King broke through to me when he said this: If the children of Birmingham march, Americans will see that what they are asking for is a better education. They will see that even the very young know the difference between right and wrong.

I chose to march, and found myself among hundreds of children jailed for five terrifying days. Mind you, I was not a brave child. But even at 12 years old, I believed and hoped that my participation could make a difference.

Chevy Chase-based New Enterprise Associates stands to reap a fortune from Tableau Software Inc.’s newly public stock, which is up about 60 percent in its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange Friday.

NEA is the single biggest venture backer of the Seattle-based data analytics company (NYSE: DATA). The firm sold 1 million shares of Tableau stock in the offering, and is holding on to another 18.5 million shares, or about 37 percent of the company. With Friday’s pop, that stake is valued at more than $900 million.

A District advisory committee OK’d bids from Johns Hopkins Medicine and MedStar Health to build costly proton therapy centers on Thursday, leaving both just one step from final approval to proceed on the high-tech cancer treatment programs.

It wasn’t, however, a clean victory for either. The committee rejected a key part of Hopkins’ plan and asked for additional details about both nonprofit system’s outreach to under-served neighborhoods.

America urgently needs a national, research-based effort to empower all undergraduates and help more of them, particularly underrepresented minorities, graduate with science and engineering degrees, said Freeman Hrabowski, III, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) during the 2013 William D. Carey lecture.

Hrabowski addressed the 38th Annual AAAS Forum on Science and Technology Policy on 2 May 2013—fifty years to the day after he had participated in the historic Birmingham Children’s March, which was inspired by the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “I wanted a better education,” Hrabowski said of his participation in that 1963 event. “All children really do want to be well-educated.”

The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), the state’s largest technology trade association with more than 400 biotechnology and technology members employing more than 200,000 in the region, announced at its 25th annual Dinner and Awards Celebration last night that Doug Doerfler was elected as chairman of TCM’s board. Doerfler was the association’s vice chairman and succeeds Larry Letow, who has served as chairman since 2010. TCM also named four current board members to executive leadership positions.

“I am honored to continue serving TCM at such an important and promising time,” said Doerfler. “Our members have become the catalysts of Maryland’s dynamic economy, creating new, high-paying jobs and discovering breakthrough technologies that can change our world. We may come from diverse backgrounds, but a single mission unifies us: creating a healthier, safer world with game-changing innovations right here in Maryland. I especially thank Larry Letow for his outstanding board leadership these past three years. He has positioned TCM, our membership and Maryland for a very bright future.”

The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland’s largest technology trade association with more than 400 biotechnology and technology members employing more than 200,000 in the region, last night announced the winners of its 2013 TCM Awards. The 25th annual celebration was attended by more than 750 technology and business leaders from around the state.

“Maryland is ripe with innovative companies – from ones focused on high tech and IT solutions that make businesses and governments run smoothly and securely, to biotech companies that are developing cutting-edge cures for serious diseases,” said Doug Doerfler, chairman of TCM’s Board and founding president and CEO of MaxCyte, Inc. “Winners of the 2013 Tech Awards exemplify this broad cross section of individuals and companies that make up the Tech Council membership and are key to driving advances in all aspects of technology.”

As a follow up to a $1 billion initiative last year that funded projects across the nation designed to improve outcomes and save money in the healthcare system, the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services today announced a second, $1 billion round of Health Care Innovation Awards.

According to CMS, funding will be awarded to provider groups, health systems, payers, states, public-private partnerships, for-profit organizations or any other parties that have developed innovative payment and delivery models to improve population health, quality of care and cost efficiency.

Having recently stressed that oncology is a core therapy area for its research, AstraZeneca is moving three of its cancer compounds into Phase III trials.

First up, MedImmune, AstraZeneca’s biologics R&D arm, has enrolled the first patient in a late-stage study of moxetumomab pasudotox. It is sponsored by the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program at the US National Cancer Institute (NCI), and will evaluate the CD22 immunotoxin as a potential treatment in adults with hairy cell leukaemia who have not responded to or relapsed after standard therapy.

Entrepreneur Magazine has named Maryland the No. 1 state to start a new business, with neighboring Virginia following close behind at No. 3.

The California-based magazine cited the state’s Maryland Entrepreneurs Resource List — which connects experts with startups — and the University of Maryland Baltimore County’s initiative to find and train female entrepreneurs in choosing the state for the top position.