News Archive

ANNAPOLIS, MD—Governor Larry Hogan today commended the nearly 40 Maryland life sciences companies that are working on developing and manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics, improving diagnostic tests, and providing clinical research and technological support to ensure safe and effective health care delivery.

The University System of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University have also dedicated millions of dollars toward research, testing, and clinical trials. The University of Maryland School of Medicine recently began phase 3 trials of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Maryland’s 8th Congressional District has the highest proportion of science and engineering jobs in its workforce out of any district in the United States, according to a new report from the Information Technology Industry Council.

About 4.6% of the jobs in the district — which encompasses parts of Montgomery, Frederick and Carroll County — are in science and engineering, but the report found that the median U.S. district has less than 1% of such jobs.

“5 Questions With……” is a weekly BioBuzz series where we reach out to interesting people in the BioHealth Capital Region to share a little about themselves, their work, and maybe something completely unrelated. This edition features 5 Questions with Judy Costello who is Managing Director of Economic Development for BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI).

Judy Costello is Managing Director of Economic Development for BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI). Prior to joining BHI, she served as Director of the Maryland Department of Commerce’s Office of BioHealth and Life Sciences and as Deputy Director of the department’s BioMaryland Center. In these positions, she has worked to grow the region’s biohealth cluster by supporting industry recruitment and retention, commercialization, workforce, non-dilutive and dilutive fundraising, international soft landing, partnership, and promotion activities. She previously served as Executive Director of the Business Alliance for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Maryland’s Department of Health announced Thursday it will partner with 13 hospitals around the state to launch an antibody study on unused blood samples. It’s part of a new program to incorporate antibody testing into the state’s continued strategy to fight COVID-19.

The News4 I-Team first asked about that strategy in May, when Virginia began posting its antibody testing details online, with positive and negative results listed by local health district. In mid-July, Maryland provided the I-Team with data showing more than 81,000 Marylanders had been antibody tested through private vendors.

GAITHERSBURG, MD, AUGUST 18, 2020 — MaxCyte, Inc., a global cell-based therapies and life sciences company, today announces the expansion of subsidiary CARMA Cell Therapies’ ongoing Phase I intraperitoneal delivery and dose-escalation trial of MCY-M11, its lead anti-mesothelin CAR-PBMC cell therapy candidate. The expansion will involve a new parallel cohort of patients and the initiation of two additional clinical sites.

The new parallel Phase I cohort will evaluate intraperitoneal delivery of MCY-M11 at escalating doses in additional patients with relapsed/refractory ovarian cancer and malignant peritoneal mesothelioma, with the addition of a preconditioning regimen of cyclophosphamide prior to MCY-M11 infusion. This parallel Phase I cohort with preconditioning will progress independently from the ongoing evaluation of MCY-M11 in the existing no-preconditioning Phase I cohort. The MCY-M11 Phase I trial will also allow for multiple treatment cycles where indicated for both future preconditioning and no-preconditioning patients.

The biotechnology company Novavax will soon begin the second phase of human testing for its COVID-19 vaccine.

The so-called phase 2b clinical trial will include a group of 2,665 healthy adults in South Africa, as well as a group of 240 adults with HIV who are considered medically stable but whose immune responses may differ from individuals without HIV, according to a statement released by Novavax on Aug. 17. HIV advocacy groups have pushed for people with HIV to be included in clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines, as companies like Moderna and Pfizer initially said they would exclude volunteers with the infection, Science Magazine reported. 

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted cities across the country with varying force. New York City has been hardest hit, and it’s no secret that the Big Apple is going to be one of the places that will have the most challenging time bouncing back from the coronavirus pandemic, no matter when things subside. But which cities will have the best coronavirus recovery? And which other cities will struggle? Moody’s Analytics has issued a report that examines the potential to recover from coronavirus among the top 100 metro areas in the US—and while some of the results are to be expected, some are more surprising.

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Aug. 24, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX), a late stage biotechnology company developing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, today announced that the first volunteers have been enrolled in the Phase 2 portion of its ongoing clinical trial to evaluate the immunogenicity and safety of NVX-CoV2373, Novavax’ COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The Phase 2 clinical trial expands on the age range of the Phase 1 portion by including older adults 60-84 years of age as approximately 50 percent of the trial’s population. NVX‑CoV2373 is a stable, prefusion protein made using Novavax’ nanoparticle technology and includes Novavax’ proprietary Matrix‑M™ adjuvant.

The OrganoPlate® Graft is the first in vitro cell culture platform that allows vascularization of 3D tissues like spheroids, organoids, and tumors in vitro.

In this webinar, you will learn:

Limitations of current models How to build 3D vascularized tissues How to form vascular beds in vitro How to add 3D microtissues in the OrganoPlate Graft How to set up available assays How to get started in your lab

Image: https://go.mimetas.com