News Archive

The I-Corps™ at NIH program, supported by President Obama’s Strategy for American Innovation, aims to support biomedical innovation and translation, with the goal of expediting the development and commercialization of a range of technologies to address the leading causes of death and disability in the United States. I-Corps™ participants will receive lessons on how to build a scalable business model as well as entrepreneurial trainings, and mentorship opportunities. In addition, modest funding will be provided to teams to assist them in translating their ideas from the lab into a viable product on the market and to help them avoid common failure points.

NHLBI Small Business programs support the development of new technologies from lab to market.

The NIH will host a webinar on the I-Corps™ at NIH program to provide information about the program, eligibility, benefits, and how to apply. Participants will also be offered an opportunity to engage with program leaders. Registration for the webinar is free, but required.

Three years into President Wallace Loh’s campus-wide initiative to engage students of all majors in innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E), the University of Maryland has been named a Top 25 School for Entrepreneurship Studies by The Princeton Review. 

In the 2016 rankings released today and featured in the December issue of Entrepreneur Magazine, UMD climbed 11 spots from last year to No. 10 for undergraduate entrepreneurship education. This marks the fifth consecutive year that UMD has been named a top 25 program, and the first time the university has ranked in the top 10.  UMD also ranked No. 6 among public universities and No. 18 for its graduate program.

Lupus is a poorly-understood autoimmune disorder that is characterised by joint pain and swelling, rashes on the skin and extreme fatigue, with some patients experiencing intermittent flare-ups which can lead to severe and even life-threatening symptoms.

GSK reported new phase III data on a new subcutaneous formulation of its market-leading Benlysta (belimumab) product – which was approved as in one-hour infusion formulation for SLE in 2011, the first new therapy for the disease in five decades.

British biopharma startup NightstaRx, which develops gene therapy for inherited retinal dystrophies, just closed out a $35 million Series B led by New Enterprise Associates. The funding will help NightstaRx advance several gene therapies into human trials, as well as expand its existing clinical program for the treatment of choroideremia.

The company’s approach to gene therapy  involves harnessing an adeno-associated viral vector to deliver a corrective gene into patients with inherited progressive blindness. Specifically, to treat choroideremia, NightstaRx delivers a wild-type copy of the Rab-escort protein 1 (REP-1) gene (AAV2-REP1) straight into the retinal cells.

The University of Maryland BioPark is looking to add another building that would feature a biotech incubator as its anchor.

Real estate firm Wexford Science + Technology is seeking public financing for a future building at 873 W. Baltimore St., which would be key in attracting a new branch of the Massachusetts-based Cambridge Innovation Center to Baltimore, officials say.

GenArraytion, Inc., is pleased to announce the successful completion of a project for the optimization of five separate MultiFLEX™ molecular assay panels for the identification of over 65 infectious disease targets of world-wide US military concern.  The project was in support of the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense’s (JPEO CBD) Global Biosurveillance Technology Initiative (GBTI), which is working to improve the biosurveillance capacity for the Department of Defense to systematically deploy an infectious disease testing capability to improve detection capacity while connecting these labs to a networked analytics and communication hub, JPEO provides worldwide users with timely, actionable, and operationally valuable information enabling a more effective response to a health crisis anywhere in the world.  The MultiFLEX molecular assays are infectious disease panels with 12 to 20 individual molecular targets for fever causing and vector born microorganisms of military concern across the globe. The tests are designed to work on the Luminex MagPix instruments which have been distributed to the military area labs around the world.

Please join us on November 12, 2015 at 8:00 a.m. for our monthly WIB Meet-Up at the Institute for Genome Sciences, 801 West Baltimore St. Room 602. Drs. Linda Yaswen-Corkery and Julie Wu will continue our “Lean In” discussion using the “What Works for Women at Work” series.

Anyone is welcome – there is no charge and you don’t have to be a member of Women In Bio to attend. Please also feel free to circulate to friends & colleagues. For those off UMB campus, there is on street parking and a garage at Poppleton & Baltimore Streets.

Each year the Tech Council of Maryland recognizes three outstanding individuals in the fields of technology, life science, and education. These individuals have made outstanding contributions to the success of the community. Please mark your calendar and join us on March 21, 2016 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center for a celebratory dinner. The 2016 honorees are:

STEVE CASE Chairman and CEO, Revolution LLC; Co-Founder, America Online and Chairman, The Case Foundation

ROBERT FISCHELL Inventor/Physicist; Professor of Practice, Fischell Department of Bioengineering

MARTINE ROTHBLATT Chairman and Co‐CEO of United Therapeutics Corporation (UTHR); President and CEO of its Lung Biotechnology public benefit company

Mast Therapeutics, Inc. (NYSE MKT: MSTX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company leveraging its molecular adhesion and sealant technology (MAST) platform to develop novel therapies for sickle cell disease, heart failure, and stroke, today announced that Peter Greenleaf has been appointed to the Company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Mr. Greenleaf brings to Mast Therapeutics’ Board of Directors over 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, including a track record of effective leadership through periods of significant growth and extensive global commercial operations, strategic planning, and product development expertise.