News Archive

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has pledged a $350 million gift to Johns Hopkins University to support interdisciplinary research and student financial aid, a commitment that will push his lifetime donations to his alma mater to more than $1 billion, the university announced Saturday.

Hopkins officials said they believe that Bloomberg will become the first person to reach the $1 billion level of giving to a single U.S. institution of higher education — an assertion that’s hard to verify because many donors give anonymously to universities. It is also difficult to compare the dollar value of modern donations to those in earlier eras.

TCM is proud to announce that Governor Martin O’Malley will be the featured speaker at TCM’s Leadership Dinner.  The Governor will talk about Maryland’s knowledge economy, his legislative priorities and what’s in store for technology and biotechnology in 2013.  Our annual Leadership Dinner in Annapolis brings together the region’s technology and life sciences sectors to network and learn about important policy issues.   TCM will also share its legislative priorities for 2013.

We hope you can join us.  Last year we had over 150 executives, TCM’s Board of Directors and 50 members from the Maryland General Assembly in attendance.

Maryland is looking to build on the success of a biotechnology tax credit to bolster another industry here — cyber security.

Gov. Martin O’Malley proposed in his fiscal 2014 budget a new cyber security tax credit that would set aside $3 million to encourage cyber security companies to expand or set up shop in Maryland.

Venture capital firm SR One has launched “OneStart,” its first business plan competition, in association with Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable and Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst. OneStart is designed to inspire and encourage its participants to become the next generation of European bio- entrepreneurs. The £100,000 winner-takes-all prize will be the largest of its kind in the world. Uniquely, OneStart will actively connect individuals from a range of institutions and backgrounds.

OneStart is open to aspiring life science entrepreneurs age 35 and younger who are studying or working in Europe. The competition will be run in stages and cover four tracks: drug discovery, medical devices, diagnostics and health information technology. The competition will team up those who have developed a technology or idea, such as academics, with individuals who have complementary backgrounds and skills, e.g. business school students, or young professionals from pharma or biotech.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc., a pharmaceutical company, has initiated the Phase II clinical trial for NuThrax or AV7909, with the dosing of the first subject.

NuThrax, a next generation vaccine being developed as part of Emergent’s anthrax franchise, consists of Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed in combination with a novel immune stimulatory adjuvant, CPG 7909.

A £50m venture capital fund focusing on early-stage life science and health technology companies has been launched in Scotland.

Rock Spring Ventures said it had already secured commitments worth more than £25m from a range of investors.

Backers include the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering is collaborating with universities around the country on a project to create robots that work more efficiently with people. The National Science Foundation has funded the four-year, $3.5-million human-robot interaction research project, part of the National Robotics Initiative, a federal effort.   

“In the world of robotics, there are two natural extremes: the completely autonomous robot and the fully technically-operated robot,” says Gregory Hager, chair of the computer science department at the engineering school.

District-based Acceleprise, a business accelerator program for companies that sell technology or services to other companies or organizations, is expanding in an effort to serve more start-ups and raise its national profile.

Started last spring, the program is the brainchild of managing partner Sean Glass and partners Allen Gannett and Collin Gutman. In addition to a $30,000 investment, participating start-ups spend several months honing business models and products at the Acceleprise office.

In 1953, Cambridge researchers Watson and Crick published a paper describing the interweaving ‘double helix’ DNA structure – the chemical code for all life.

Now, in the year of that scientific landmark’s 60th Anniversary, Cambridge researchers have published a paper proving that four-stranded ‘quadruple helix’ DNA structures – known as G-quadruplexes – also exist within the human genome. They form in regions of DNA that are rich in the building block guanine, usually abbreviated to ‘G’.