
Almost four years after the launch of the Ten by Twenty vision plan, Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels today invited the university community to explore a second update on the institution’s progress and share feedback.

Almost four years after the launch of the Ten by Twenty vision plan, Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels today invited the university community to explore a second update on the institution’s progress and share feedback.

No two stem cells are identical, even if they are genetic clones. This stunning diversity is revealed today in an enormous publicly available online catalogue of 3D stem cell images. The visuals were produced using deep learning analyses and cell lines altered with the gene-editing tool CRISPR. And soon the portal will allow researchers to predict variations in cell layouts that may foreshadow cancer and other diseases.

Big funding deals across a number of industries propelled the D.C. area to one of its best first quarters in recent venture capital memory, setting the stage for a strong 2017.

April 27-28, 2017 – Washington, DC
Secure your spot today at the 8th Annual Health Datapalooza, the gathering place for people and organizations creating knowledge from data and pioneering innovations that drive health policy and practice. The Datapalooza takes place April 27-28, 2017 in Washington, D.C.
Join us at this exciting event and gain new knowledge on the use of health data to improve health outcomes, learn about the newest, most innovative and effective uses of health data, and network with peers offering diverse voices and perspectives in the field.

New techniques for improving plants and animals promise to reshape virtually every aspect of the relationship between humans and our environment for the better. Safer and more sustainable crops have already made enormous contributions to the economy and the environment, and genetically improved livestock and companion animals are close behind. Discovery of more precise, predictable, and easily used techniques derived directly from nature is dramatically accelerating this progress. But fears of the new have led to calls in many nations for “precautionary” regulation, which risks stifling agricultural innovation without any showing of need or benefit. There is a better way.

The National Cancer Institute has picked the Johns Hopkins Montgomery County Campus as the site for a new laboratory building for its epidemiology and genetics researchers.
The planned 70,000-square-foot building will bring together about 134 scientists and employees now working in separate facilities in Gaithersburg and Frederick, about 25 miles apart.

Despite only coming into life two years ago, Pfizer and NEA-backed upstart Vtesse has already seen its rare disease candidate VTS-270, for Niemann-Pick disease type C1, nab the coveted FDA breakthrough tag, and has now been bought out by Maryland-based biotech Sucampo.
The deal sees the biopharma pay $200 million upfront in cash and stock, with the pair also seeking to set up a new foundation, after the deal is signed, “to support research related to NPC disease.” Both will pay into this new organization.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Tagrisso (osimertinib; AstraZeneca) for the treatment of patients with metastatic epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) T790M mutation-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as detected by an FDA-approved test, whose disease has progressed on or after EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy.

Silver Spring-based biotech United Therapeutics Corp. (NASDAQ: UTHR) lost a recent challenge to one of its lead patents for its flagship drugs.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board found that all of the local company’s claims for the particular patent — which impacts its lead products for treating pulmonary arterial hypertension such as Remodulin, Tyvaso and Orenitram — are not patentable.

When President Trump proposed a cut of nearly 20 percent in support for the National Institutes of Health, many wondered how the administration would even attempt to find such reductions. The answer emerged in the congressional testimony last week of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who argued the government could save billions without hurting research by cutting back on the overhead reimbursements to colleges and universities.