News Archive

Baltimore, Md. (Feb. 11, 2020) – The University System of Maryland (USM) COVID Research & Innovation Task Force today announced the six winning teams for its Public Health Challenge. Undertaken with the generous support of several local organizations, the Task Force in mid-December invited members of the USM community to take part in this multimedia challenge, seeking creative ways to highlight how USM students, members of the broader university community, and all Marylanders can stay safe and healthy while waiting for a vaccine.

GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday listed AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, widening access to the relatively inexpensive shot in the developing world.

“We now have all the pieces in place for the rapid distribution of vaccines. But we still need to scale up production,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, told a news briefing.

Image: FILE PHOTO: A vial of AstraZeneca coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine is pictured at St. Mary’s Hospital, in Phoenix Park in Dublin, Ireland, February 14, 2021. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Feb. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX), a biotechnology company developing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, and SK Bioscience, a vaccine business subsidiary of SK Group, today announced an expanded collaboration and license agreement. In addition to the already existing manufacturing arrangement, SK Bioscience has obtained a license to manufacture and commercialize NVX-CoV2373, Novavax’ COVID-19 vaccine, for sale to the Korean government. SK Bioscience will add significant production capacity under this new agreement. Novavax recently reported positive interim efficacy results for the vaccine candidate in an ongoing Phase 3 clinical trial in the United Kingdom and is also currently conducting a Phase 3 trial in the U.S. and Mexico.

Artificial intelligence is often depicted in popular movies and TV dramas as technology that is determined to take over the world. Just a few weeks ago, a new series on Fox premiered, highlighting “a rogue AI with the ability to constantly improve itself that may spell doom for humankind.”

A key component of America’s ability to innovate is its world-renowned system of higher education, which is the envy of the world.  owever, there’s room for improvement. Universities can do more to promote the inventive talents of their students and faculty. Recently, I discussed this potential — and the steps higher education institutions should take in order to realize it — in an interview with Korok Ray.

Korok is an associate professor at the Mays Business School of Texas A&M University and the director of the Mays Innovation Research Center. He’s also the author of the recent National Affairs article, “The Innovative University.”

Image: KOROK RAY – https://mays.tamu.edu/directory/korok/

Easy to manufacture and update, these new vaccines may be a powerful tool against emerging variants and other infectious diseases

Even the experts were startled by the remarkable success of the two first-of-their-kind messenger RNA vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech against COVID-19.

 Renée JG Arnold, John Reinhart, Don Rose, and Kwame Ulmer join Diverse Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR) Team

ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, February 8, 2021 – BioHealth Innovation Inc., (BHI), announces the addition of Renée JG Arnold, PharmD, RPh, President & CEO, Arnold Consultancy & Technology, LLC, John P. Reinhart, CPA, MBA, Co-founder and Board Member of the Thrive Center in Louisville, Kentucky, Don Rose, Ph.D., Special Advisor to Hatteras Venture Partners, and Kwame Ulmer, Principal at Ulmer Ventures to the growing Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR) team. The Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program at BHI aims to ensure that disruptive technologies receive all the resources required to transform the technology from a discovery into a commercially relevant product and eventually have a measurable impact on human health. The program was created to support scientists, early-stage startups, and licensed technologies to provide them with access to these resources. These four additions to the team will be working with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), specifically the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and the National Institute on Aging (NIH).

 “I am honored to welcome Renée, John, Don, and Kwame to our EIR Program,” said Richard Bendis, BHI President, and CEO. “Our relationship with NIH is very important and these four immensely talented individuals will help us support our commitment to the NIH and the Biohealth Capital Region.”

BALTIMORE and COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The University of Maryland achieved its highest ranking ever in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey for fiscal year (FY) 2019, placing 14th overall nationally and 8th among all public institutions in Research & Development (R&D) spending. For the first time, the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore were linked together as one research enterprise in the ranking, with combined research expenditures of $1.1 billion.