Closing the markets today with our friends from Vaccitech!
Based in Oxford, UK, Vaccitech develops vaccines and T cell immunotherapies to treat and prevent diseases of global importance.
Congratulations to CEO Bill Enright and #NasdaqListed $VACC on this week’s listing.
Image: https://www.linkedin.com
An ambitious push to create a “Global Pandemic Center” in suburban Maryland got a $500,000 boost Tuesday from the Montgomery County Council, which said the project could help drive the county’s post-pandemic economic recovery and foster resilience against the next major health crisis.
Spearheaded by the regional nonprofit Connected DMV, the center would involve scientists and policymakers from across the globe but operate primarily from the D.C. region, with a likely headquarters in Montgomery.
Image: Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D). (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
Boeing donated $50 million to help found Virginia Tech’s Innovation campus, a billion-dollar project area leaders hope will bring together power-players in the region — like Amazon — to boost economic growth and build a pipeline of STEM talent for businesses.
The university announced the multi-year gift in a celebratory press event on Tuesday, emphasizing how it will benefit underrepresented groups in tech fields, including women, people of color and low-income populations. The project draws attention for its location, two miles from Amazon’s HQ2 campus, near a future transit station and across the river from Washington D.C., but speakers focused on the promise the Innovation Campus has for students.
Image: Concept art for the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus’s academic building. (Virginia Tech)
Office real estate investment trusts (REITs) have been under pressure for the past year. The coronavirus pandemic has caused some investors to even question the concept of the office REIT. After all, if companies can work from home without much of a disruption, why will companies spend so much on expensive urban office space in the future?
The question has created headwinds for some office REIT operators. But while many office REITs saw big declines in income over the past 12 months, one office REIT appears to be bucking this trend.
PETERSBURG—Governor Ralph Northam today announced that AMPAC Fine Chemicals (AFC), a leading manufacturer of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) in the United States, will invest $25 million to expand its existing operation on North Normandy Drive in the City of Petersburg. Virginia successfully competed with California and Texas for the project, which will create 156 new jobs. Governor Northam joined company leaders, key partners, and local economic development officials at AMPAC’s Petersburg facility to make the announcement.
Barrier function of epithelia is crucial for maintaining homeostasis in the human body. Its disruption in organs such as the intestine, kidney, lung, skin, eye, or the blood– brain-barrier is a hallmark of numerous diseases and toxic effects.1–3 Studying epithelial barrier function is essential for understanding disease processes, development of new therapeutic treatments, and investigation of compound safety. Permeability of epithelia grown in vitro is therefore routinely evaluated by fundamental and pharmaceutical researchers alike. In addition, proper barrier function is an important prerequisite when studying transport phenomena across epithelia in vitro.
Image: https://pubs.rsc.org
After spending the past five years fostering economic development in Montgomery County, Sarah Miller is turning her attention to the biopharma industry and the BioHealth Capital Region. Starting May 3, Miller joined BioHealth Innovation, Inc. as Vice President of Economic Development.
Miller transitions to BHI from her previous role as Vice President of Strategy for the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC). In her new role, Miller will solely focus on economic development opportunities within the biopharma industry across Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. A laser-like focus on one industry will be new to Miller. She is no stranger to it, having worked in Montgomery County for the past several years. In her role with the MCEDC, Miller has worked with the development of the Germantown Innovation Center on the campus of Montgomery College campus in Germantown.
Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS @ Washington, DC: We did it! Persevering through a time of great challenge and change, today we’re happy to share that we’ve opened our doors in a thriving ecosystem, to entrepreneurs, early-stage companies and the life sciences community.
BETHESDA, Md., May 03, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Gain Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: GANX) (“Gain”), a biotechnology company focused on redefining drug discovery by using super-computational methods to target allosteric binding sites and guide enzymes back to their proper shape, today announced new pre-clinical data from its GBA1 Parkinson’s disease program. The findings were highlighted in a presentation at the XXVI International Association of Parkinsonism and Related Disorders (IAPRD) World Congress, a research conference dedicated to Parkinson’s disease and other disorders affecting muscle tone and motor control, being held virtually May 1-4, 2021.
Women Building Bio 2021 is just around the corner.
Save the date for September 30th to join our 6th year of Women Building Bio. An event always focused on advancing the bioscience through collaboration between industry and academia, researchers and innovators, professionals and decision-makers.
