News Archive

Under the agreement, GSK will provide ‘fill and finish’ manufacturing capacity at its Barnard Castle facility in the North East UK. Fill and finish comprises the completion stage of vaccine manufacturing, in which vials are prepared for the final vaccine, before it is packaged and distributed for us.

Novavax’s NVX-CoV2373 vaccine candidate has shown strong efficacy in Phase 3 clinical trials, with data showing that it is 96.4% effective against the original Covid-19 strain and 86.3% effective against the UK variant.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (April 8, 2021) – Dr. James Crowe, Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine, has been named winner of the 2021 SEC Faculty Achievement Award for Vanderbilt University, the SEC announced on Thursday.

A board certified pediatric infectious diseases physician and viral immunology researcher, Dr. Crowe is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Inventors. He is a named inventor on approximately 100 patents and patent families for vaccines and antibodies. His research interests are in the human immune response to infection, and his work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, agencies within the U.S. Department of Defense and numerous foundations. He has been published in journals such as Nature, New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of the American Medical Association.

Image: https://www.thesecu.com

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Testing remains a key factor in reaching the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. But, what happens if you test positive for the virus?

For many, it’s a waiting game and an unsettling experience in finding out the possible range of symptoms That’s an issue one Maryland-based biotech company is hoping to solve.

IES Life Sciences and the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore are teaming up to determine how severe a COVID-19 case could become and even what type of symptoms a patient could have.

“I hope that it will eliminate the fear that is associated with getting a positive [COVID] test,” Dr. Robert Figliozzi, Director of Research and Development at IES Life Sciences, said.

She calls herself a hotel brat — but she also owns an RV.

Image: Dr. Christine Dingivan is president and CEO at Emmes. © EMAN MOHAMMED

FREDERICK, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The Maryland Tech Council (MTC) announced today it will receive a $378,000 federal CARES Act grant to significantly expand its Business Continuity Task Force to assist more entrepreneurs in Maryland as they navigate COVID-19’s economic impact. Awarded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the grant enables MTC to expand the task force’s mentoring services to tech and life science businesses in the City of Baltimore, Baltimore County, and Prince George’s County at no cost.

The task force pairs tech and life science executives with experienced mentors who specialize in finance, accounting, engineering, innovation, and founders issues. The goal is to provide these entrepreneurs free and practical advice on leading a business through economic uncertainty from experts who navigated crises like the 2008 recession.

In tiny tubes filled with strands of human DNA, Robert Figliozzi carefully extracts what could be breakthrough science in the fight against the coronavirus.

The samples are mixed and sorted into data through machines. Figliozzi then identifies what are called biomarkers, indicators that predict the severity — even what type — of COVID-19 symptoms a patient will have.

“That, hopefully, will lead to those individual patients getting the right types of therapy and medical attention that they need,” said Figliozzi, a lab coordinator at the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore.

University of Maryland (UMD) bioengineers reached a new milestone in their efforts to design an immunotherapy strategy to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) and other autoimmune diseases. The team’s findings, published this month in ACS Nano, used nanomaterials to manipulate inflammatory pathways that might one day help slow or reverse MS without compromising a patient’s immune system. 

Nearly 2.5 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with MS, an autoimmune disease that causes the body’s immune system to wrongfully attack myelin, the insulation that surrounds and protects nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord. When this happens, nerve fibers and cells are damaged, leading to a loss of motor function and other neurological complications that greatly impact the patient’s quality of life.

Image: Dr. Robert “Smitty” Oakes (front) and Dr. Christopher Jewell (back)

Long home to federal institutions like the National Institutes of Health and leading universities, suburban areas like Montgomery County have long been home to a cluster of talent and companies working to commercialize pharmaceuticals, biotech and medical devices. Then came the pandemic. The federal government needed to invest in new treatments to stop the spread of COVID-19. In Maryland, the companies around the NIH and FDA figured prominently in the solution, as many had expertise that left them poised to jump into the fight.

(BOSTON) – CARB-X is awarding Novel Microdevices, Inc. of Baltimore, Maryland, USA, up to $3.6 million in non-dilutive funding, and, subject to available funding, up to an additional $10.2 million if certain project milestones are met, to develop a new rapid molecular test to diagnose sexually-transmitted bacterial infections, including Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Novel’s new device would diagnose infections in about 25 minutes from a vaginal swab or urine sample, and detect antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including those resistant to ciprofloxacin and 3rd generation cephalosporins, the only antibiotics that are still effective as treatments for most strains of the gonorrhoeae bacteria.

Image: https://carb-x.org