Researchers in the University of Maryland (UMD) Fischell Department of Bioengineering (BIOE) Jewell Laboratory are using quantum dots – tiny semiconductor particles commonly used in nanotechnology – to decipher the features needed to design specific and effective therapies for multiple sclerosis (MS) and other autoimmune diseases. Their findings were published this week as the cover story of Advanced Functional Materials.
A transformative cancer therapy based on modified immune cells has lured doctors, companies, and patients alike, but many are hitting a frustrating roadblock: generating enough of these chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells to meet surging demand. The situation is fluid, with shortages cropping up in some places and easing in others. Doctors, meanwhile, are grappling with how best to distribute the experimental therapy among very sick patients in clinical trials.
MassChallenge marked the end of its first digital health cohort PULSE@MassChallenge with assurances from Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker that the Commonwealth would back a second class of digital health businesses and provide funding for health technology innovation center TechSpring. Health technology businesses with eye tracking technology for concussion detection, virtual reality to reduce social isolation for nursing home residents and a telehealth alternative to ambulance radios were among the 31 participants in the inaugural class to be singled out at the Boston event.
The Omnibus solicitation of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have been released with submission dates of September 5, 2017 and January 5, 2018. The solicitation is for both SBIR and STTR applications for NIH, and SBIR proposals for CDC and the FDA.
To fill a pair of life-sciences buildings on the East Side it built during the past decade, Alexandria Real Estate Equities recruited big pharmaceutical companies, like Eli Lilly and Roche, as anchor tenants. Now the firm is focusing on startups it hopes will spur the next wave of growth at its Alexandria Center for Life Science campus.
The firm today announced lease deals for roughly half its year-old, 15,000-square-foot LaunchLabs incubator. Most of the 13 tenants emerged from local academic and research institutions including New York University, Columbia, and the New York Genome Center. The products being explored include tissue implants from 3-D printers, drugs to heal scar tissue and genetically engineered organisms augmented with synthetic chromosomes.
The contractor must have experience and expertise coordinating entrepreneurial training programs for biomedical innovators over a minimum of three (3) years.
The contractor must have an understanding of concepts in medical device innovation and design, as well as commercialization processes and strategies.
The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and the University of Maryland, College Park have granted Cellth Systems exclusive licensing rights for the commercial development of cell-tethering technology that allows real-time analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), which has important applications in cancer treatment. In addition, Cellth announced today that TEDCO, an independent organization assisting and funding Maryland’s startup community, has awarded the company $150,000 through its Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII) program.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded a University System of Maryland institute a $6 million grant to develop a vaccine for the hepatitis C virus.
The Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research will conduct the grant-funded research over a five-year period. The institute is a joint research enterprise between the University of Maryland, College Park, the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors on Friday approved an academic affiliation with the Inova Health System Foundation that includes a research institute and a UVA School of Medicine regional campus.
Global Genomics and Bioinformatics Research Institute UVA and Inova, along with partner George Mason University, will recruit investigators to work in collaborative teams on genetics and genomics, bioengineering, systems biology of disease, developmental biology and computational biology. The goal: make scientific discoveries that can be turned into new treatments, drugs and devices that improve the health of patients across Virginia and beyond.
Few issues are more foundational to driving improvements in human health than creating productive, progressive relationships between clinical medicine and the biopharmaceutical industry. The big public health problems that humanity faces today — including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and metabolic and infectious disease — will not be solved by either sector working in a silo. But the interface between the two has never been more tense. Legitimate concerns over conflict of interest that have resulted in overly extreme preventative policies are a central cause. It is time for all parties to revisit those policies and replace them with rules that recognize both true conflicts and true confluences of interest. They are essential to forging the strong collaborations that are worthy of society’s trust.
