News Archive

RICHMOND, VA. (December 16, 2020) ‐ BRAINBox Solutions today announced it is beginning enrollment in its pivotal clinical trial, HeadSMART II (Head injury Serum markers and Multi-modalities for Assessing Response to Trauma), of the company’s concussion diagnostic and prognostic test, BRAINBox TBI. The multi-national, multi-site trial, which will enroll up to 2,000 patients, aims to generate data to support an application for regulatory clearance by the U.S. FDA.

The BRAINBox TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) test will be the first objective test designed to assist in the diagnosis of concussion and provide an assessment of the risk of chronic injury. The FDA has granted the test Breakthrough Device designation.

“We do not have a validated objective method to determine an early TBI diagnosis. While a head CT identifies anatomic abnormality, it does not predict post-concussive symptoms or disability at the time when interventions change outcomes. We need an early objective test,” said W. Franklin Peacock MD FACEP, the Principal Investigator of the study. Dr. Peacock is Professor of Emergency Medicine and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

In the Spring of 2020, members from seven university tech transfer offices met with partners from six venture capital firms to discuss challenges both parties routinely face when working on life science deals together. Below is the resulting set of best practices, meant to benefit universities and VCs more broadly. Individuals interested in sharing feedback on the below guidelines should contact techventures@columbia.edu and include their name, organization, and work email. Please note that not all of these recommendations may be appropriate for startups outside of the life sciences. Comments and feedback will be posted at the bottom of this page. 

The hemafuse set contains a big syringe, which acts as the collection barrel, a nozzle connected to a filter on the syringe pulls the blood in while sieving the clots.

With a push, the blood is redirected through another tube, connected to the same syringe and operated by a stopcock, to the blood bag for transfusion back to the patient.

Image: Dr Gerald Osei-Owusu with the hemafuse medical device – https://dailyguidenetwork.com

As health agencies across the US rush to distribute the first round of COVID-19 vaccines, a new online tool aims to track their progress.

A dashboard hosted by Johns Hopkins University shows how many doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered across the US, according to publicly available data published by state health agencies and aggregated by the Centers for Civic Impact.

The US Food and Drug Administration said Monday it has approved a genetically modified pig whose body doesn’t make a component that can trigger allergies in people.

The pigs should produce meat that is safe to eat, and organs and tissues safe for transplants and for the other biomedical uses for people allergic to the compound — a sugar found on the surface of animal cells known as alpha-gal, the FDA said.

BALTIMORE — The Maryland Department of Commerce is partnering with the Maryland Business Innovation Association to launch the Maryland Business Innovation Challenge, a program aimed at bringing together the state’s corporate community with local innovators to solve real-time business challenges.

Image: https://www.myeasternshoremd.com

The 20-year-old company’s first product tackles certain breast cancers.

Image: Dr. Scott Koenig is president and CEO of Rockville biotech MacroGenics. JOANNE S. LAWTON

Celebrating 20 years of supporting women-led companies and industry transformation, Springboard Enterprises announces Natalie Buford-Young as its first CEO. Buford-Young will work alongside Springboard President and co-founder Amy Millman, broadening the breadth and depth of the organization. 

To date, Springboard’s portfolio numbers 819 women-led companies, which have created $27.2 Billion in value.  

In her role, Buford-Young will be responsible for leading Springboard’s mission to accelerate the growth of entrepreneurial companies led by women through access to essential resources and a global community of experts. An accomplished and innovative corporate executive, entrepreneur, and community builder, Buford-Young joins from Deloitte, where she served as Managing Director of Market Development for Deloitte’s venture capital, private equity and emerging private company practices.

Qiagen North American Holdings has announced plans to renovate and expand its U.S. headquarters and R&D and manufacturing facility in Montgomery County, Md.

More specifically, Qiagen plans to renovate its 146,000-square-foot facility at 19300 Germantown Road in Germantown, Md., to accommodate expanded production of testing products for COVID-19 and other diseases, as well as lease additional space in the area.

Image: Image by DarkoStojanovic via Pixabay.com