News Archive

In 2011, when the University System of Maryland Board of Regents was considering a merger of the College Park and Baltimore campuses of the University of Maryland, we supported the idea. The pure-research-focused flagship in College Park and the professional school campus in Baltimore had little combined activity and were missing key potential opportunities for cross-disciplinary scholarship and teaching and for economic development. Given how crucial the knowledge economy is to Maryland’s future, we urged leaders to look past parochial concerns and take advantage of the opportunities a combined university could provide.

Opdivo from Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY) followed Merck’s ($MRK) Keytruda onto the market, but the immuno-oncology drug quickly overtook its rival and has never looked back. It just today won recommendations in Europe for two more indications. But while it leads the race, analysts say there are still opportunities for Keytruda and drug candidates from others to close the gap in a market that is projected to reach $40 billion in annual sales.

Fast Company magazine recently named the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory as one of the world’s most innovative companies of 2016 for building the bionic man, one arm at a time.

The publication highlighted APL’s DARPA-funded Revolutionizing Prosthetics program and specifically recognized its breakthrough Modular Prosthetic Limb project, which is the world’s first artificial limb controlled by neural impulses.

Health Datapalooza is a national conference focused on liberating health data, and bringing together the companies, startups, academics, government agencies, and individuals with the newest and most innovative and effective uses of health data to improve patient outcomes.

Business Innovation Network startup Nexercise owners Ben Young and Greg Coleman struck a deal with investor Mark Cuban for $1.5 million in exchange for 10% equity stake in the company and $1.5 million unsold advertising inventory in credit. Their app Sworkit is in the number one position in the Apple store for health and fitness and was a recent featured story on Washington Business Journal’s website.

Rani Therapeutics, headquartered in San Jose, Calif., announced it had closed on its latest funding round, now totaling more than $70 million. Existing investors included Novartis (NVS), Google Ventures, Buttonwood, GF Ventures, KPC Pharmaceuticals, inCube Ventures and VentureHealth. New investors include AstraZeneca (AZN), Virtus Inspire Ventures, and Ping An Ventures. Rani focuses on a development platform to allow biologic drugs that are typically injected to be taken orally. Drugs that fall into this category include TNF-alpha inhibitors, interleukin antibodies, basal insulin and GLP-1.

The grand vision of Walt Disney — one of the most innovative entrepreneurs of all time — was simply to make people happy.

Walt further believed that if you can dream it, you can do it. While the priorities and technologies have changed, it was Walt’s original vision that led to Disney’s greatest innovations. Think about them: from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world’s first full-length animation feature (1937), to Tiki Room opening and introducing the first electro-mechanical robots (1963), to modern Disney stores adopting Apple Pay.

In March and April, entrepreneurs can take a tour of Baltimore-area incubators, and pick up some knowledge on running a startup in the meantime.

Camp Inc. is a six-stop event that’s set to move through Baltimore, Towson, Baltimore County and Columbia.

Physicians and biomedical engineers from Johns Hopkins report what they believe is the first successful effort to wiggle fingers individually and independently of each other using a mind-controlled artificial “arm” to control the movement.

The proof-of-concept feat, described online this week in the Journal of Neural Engineering, represents a potential advance in technologies to restore refined hand function to those who have lost arms to injury or disease, the researchers say. The young man on whom the experiment was performed was not missing an arm or hand, but he was outfitted with a device that essentially took advantage of a brain-mapping procedure to bypass control of his own arm and hand.

Inova Health System will launch a $100 million venture fund dedicated to precision medicine. The Falls Church-based health system plans to announce the initiative Thursday as part of an Obama administration event unveiling federal funding and highlighting private-sector commitments in the nascent science.