News Archive

WALTHAM, Mass. and DUBLIN, Aug. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Q32 Bio, a clinical stage biotechnology company developing biologic therapeutics to restore immune homeostasis, and Horizon Therapeutics plc (Nasdaq: HZNP), today announced that they have entered into a collaboration and option agreement to develop ADX-914 for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.

ADX-914 is a fully human anti-IL-7Rα antibody that re-regulates adaptive immune function by blocking signaling mediated by both IL-7 and TSLP. Q32 has recently completed a biomarker-enabled Phase 1 study characterizing pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and safety of ADX-914 that demonstrated pharmacological effect on T cells in healthy volunteers. Q32 expects to initiate a Phase 2 trial in atopic dermatitis later this year and is planning to initiate a Phase 2 trial in a second autoimmune disease next year.

The world hasn’t seen commercial supersonic travel in nearly 20 years since the Concorde was retired in 2003, but all that is about to change with the development of a new, environmentally friendly airliner.

Meet Overture – the world’s fastest airliner that was developed by Denver-based Boom Supersonic.

Image: https://nypost.com

UMBC will expand its work boosting diversity in academia from Maryland to the national level through a new NSF INCLUDES Alliance: Re-Imagining STEM Equity Utilizing Postdoc Pathways (RISE UPP). The RISE UPP Alliance, anticipated to officially launch in fall 2022, is modeled after the AGEP PROMISE Academy, a high-impact initiative co-led by UMBC that supports faculty diversification in the biomedical sciences across University System of Maryland (USM) institutions.

Image: Albin O. Kuhn Library (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)

It was a pleasure to welcome Congressman David Trone, Senator Ben Cardin, Senator Chris Van Hollen and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership Director Laurie Locascio to our new facility in Frederick this week and to see Ellume’s #manufacturing capabilities first-hand.

Ellume’s Frederick facility provides a sustainable U.S. domestic industrial base for #diagnostics production and stands ready to respond to any future surge in #COVID19 demand, while accelerating #innovation to develop solutions for future public health needs. A multimillion-dollar automation program is underway to further enhance the production capability of the facility.

Maryland is home to a number of STEM entrepreneurs with quality projects and the skills to succeed. What entrepreneurs often lack are the right connections and access to funding, which is especially true for women-led life sciences start-ups.

“In 2021, women founders raised just 2% of venture capital money and only 23% of biotech CEOs are women said Margia Argüello, formerly with the Maryland Department of Commerce’s Office of Life Sciences.

Image: The three busy female founders of innovative life science startups CarrTech, NasaClip and PerSoN Clinic took time to share what TEDCO’s Builder Fund and other TEDCO resources have meant to their companies.

The arc of the technology transfer profession can be tied to the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 in the United States and similar enabling legislation from across the globe. This week  a new transformational law was passed – the CHIPS and Science Act – supporting U.S. semiconductor production and catalyzing research and development in many key technology areas and in new innovation regions of the country. Most importantly, this new law has a key provision titled “Planning and Capacity Building Awards” (Sec. 10391), which authorizes an unprecedented $3.1 billion to support technology transfer capacity building for research institutions.

Five months after the Australian-based biopharmaceutical company Ellume opened its first U.S. location in Frederick, the facility is scaling up its production of at-home COVID-19 tests by starting to automate the manufacturing process.

U.S. Rep. David Trone and U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin visited the sprawling campus along Executive Way on Tuesday afternoon for a tour of the company’s production capabilities and a town hall meeting with its employees.

Image: https://www.fredericknewspost.com – Staff photo by Ric Dugan