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GAITHERSBURG, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Adaptive Phage Therapeutics (APT), a clinical-stage biotechnology company founded to provide an effective therapeutic response to the global rise of multi-drug resistant (MDR) pathogenic bacteria, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared its Investigational New Drug (IND) application for the clinical development of PhageBank™, a personalized bacteriophage therapeutic for the treatment of MDR and complicated bacterial infections. The Phase 1/2 trial represents the first study of an expanding phage library under FDA allowance for a multi-site study of intravenous administration and/or bladder instillation of phage therapy. Beginning in Q2, APT will enroll patients at up to three clinical sites for the evaluation of PhageBank for the treatment of complicated and chronic recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs).

Baltimore health tech startup b. well Connected Health has raised a $16 million round as it looks to accelerate its growth.

The Series A round was led by UnityPoint Health Ventures, the venture capital arm of UnityPoint Health, an Iowa-based health system. Other investors include Wisconsin-based community health system ThedaCare and Well Ventures, a subsidiary of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., according to a release. The five-year-old company has previously raised $11.5 million in seed funding, bringing its total funding to over $27 million. In 2018, b. well also raised a total of $8.2 million in convertible debt funding from more than 60 investors.

Last Wednesday, the House Science Committee, Subcommittee on Research and Technology, invited Under Secretary of Commerce and Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Dr. Walter Copan to testify before the Subcommittee on reauthorizing the agency. NIST was last authorized in 2016 as part of the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act. Director Copan’s testimony covered each of the technologies the Trump Administration is collectively referring to as “industries of the future,” including Quantum Information Science, Artificial Intelligence, 5G, Advanced Manufacturing, and Biotechnology. He specifically commented on how NIST catalyzes partnerships between industry, academia, government, and other organizations to promote U.S. innovation and economic competitiveness.

BALTIMORE — Two Johns Hopkins microbiologists have developed an in-house coronavirus screening test that may soon allow the health system to test as many as 1,000 people per day.

Karen Carroll, M.D., and Heba Mostafa, M.B.B.Ch., Ph.D are the microbiologists leading this.

“We will be able to diagnose more cases. This will allow the control of exposure,” said Mostafa, assistant professor of pathology and director of the molecular virology laboratory at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Image: Photo by: Johns Hopkins Medicine

The Food and Drug Administration has given an emergency approval to a test made by Swiss drug and diagnostics maker Roche for detecting the Covid-19 virus.

The company said Friday that the FDA had approved an emergency use authorization, or EUA, to its Cobas SARS-CoV-2 test. The test is designed to use nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab samples to detect the coronavirus using Roche’s Cobas 6800 and 8800 lab-testing systems. The systems are designed to provide thousands of results over a 24-hour period, the company said.

QIAGEN (NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced it will develop a new QIAstat-Dx test kit to differentiate the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus from 21 other serious respiratory infections and will receive advanced development support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR). Accelerated development of the QIAstat-Dx test kit further expands QIAGEN’s global mobilization for the emergency, which already includes a dramatic increase in production of components for a full range of U.S. and international testing protocols.

It’s at the center of some of the most groundbreaking work to advance human ingenuity in the region — and save lives. And, economically, it’s been home to some of the biggest news about M&A activity, venture capital and job growth. When it comes to growing industries, the life sciences sector is among the most impactful in the area. Spanning hospital research labs and manufacturing centers where production takes place, harnessing living cells to create new treatments and other biotech, biomedical and pharma work is happening in a footprint that knits together Baltimore, the Maryland suburbs, D.C. and Northern Virginia.