News Archive

ATCC, the premier global biological materials resource and standards organization, announces today that it has been selected by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) to provide vital cell lines to academic, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology organizations committed to speed a cure for Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s disease is a chronic, degenerative neurological disorder that affects one in 100 people over age 60. While the average age at onset is 60, people have been diagnosed as young as 18. Recent research indicates that at least 1 million people in the United States, and more than 5 million worldwide, have Parkinson’s disease.

MacroGenics said today it has regained full global rights to the Phase I cancer compound enoblituzumab (MGA271), after Servier opted not to exercise its option to develop and commercialize the B7-H3-targeting monoclonal antibody in Europe and other countries under a four-year-old collaboration.

That collaboration generated a $20 million upfront payment from Servier and could have resulted in up to $450 million for MacroGenics.

Personal Genome Diagnostics, a Baltimore company that analyzes cancer patients’ genes to improve treatment and diagnosis, has received a $21.4 million venture capital investment led by New Enterprise Associates.

The company plans to use the money to sell more of its technology to sequence and analyze genes in biopsy samples.

When the demand for hospital beds exceeds the supply, doctors might have to turn patients away. But a computer model developed by University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University researchers might help doctors better determine how many patients will be discharged and how many beds will be available on any given day.

“Hospitals tend to be highly utilized,” said Sean Barnes, an operations management professor involved with the model, “which means it can be hard to bring in new patients.”

Relevant Health, a health-tech accelerator based in Rockville, announced and welcomed its inaugural cohort Tuesday.

The seven selected startups will begin their five-month program this week. According to the press release, the program will involve “intensive product development focus,” with the aim of “enabling [the startups] to improve their skills to define, develop, position and launch a viable health tech product.”

Are you planning your career path or currently transitioning between careers? If you attended last January’s webinar on “Career Development,” and would like to have in-person insights from career coaches and recruiters perspective, join us at the Montgomery College (Germantown Campus) where we will host:

• Rosemary Sisco, Principal Recruiter at Kelly Government Solutions
• Ashley Bowman Clouser, Executive Recruiter at Search Solution Group
• Cecilia Matthews, Director of Human Resources at MedImmune

These professionals will provide career advice on such skills as elevator pitches and making successful presentations. They will also present tips, methods, and resources for conducting a job search.

Recently, at the annual Dreamforce Conference in San Francisco, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella declared a new era in computing defined by wearable devices. “People keep asking the question what’s next after the smartphone? There are early signs of it, things you wear on your wrists, in your ear and on your eyes,” he said. 

ClearPath Development Company (ClearPath) announced today the launch of its second vaccine company, NVC (Nosocomial Vaccine Corporation), with the support of its partner, Astellas Pharma Inc.  The partnership between ClearPath and Astellas was established to support the goal of building a global vaccine franchise and launched its first company, RSV Corporation (RSVC), in December 2013.  NVC has initiated research collaborations with two partners to develop a nosocomial vaccine; Affinivax Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.); and the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (Baltimore).  The research collaboration will utilize Affinivax’s proprietary vaccine platform, Multiple Antigen Presentation System (MAPS), to develop vaccines that prevent bacterial nosocomial infections, also referred to as healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).

Mid-Atlantic Bio Angels (MABA) announces today that Sisu Global Health (http://www.sisuglobalhealth.com) was voted as “Best in Show” at MABA’s 1st Pitch Life Science event, which took place at the Cira Center on September 30, 2015. Sisu is a medical device developer with a pipeline of products designed to address challenges unique to emerging markets. Hemafuse, the Company’s first product, is an alternative to donor blood and could benefit 20 million cases in Africa ($600 million) each year.

According to Carolyn Yarina, CEO of Sisu, Healthcare systems in emerging markets struggle because 80% of medical technology is designed for 10% of the world’s population. Our products solve that problem by commercializing surgical devices that can effectively lower costs and can be used in countries where both urban and rural medicine must be supported by effective design, logistics and available medical infrastructure.

D.C. tech accelerator 1776’s new Crystal City location is designed to be a mixture of old and new — everything from the reclaimed wooden furniture and reused light fixtures to the brand new industrial kitchen and tech-heavy collaboration spaces.

Even the 27,000-square-foot space was recycled, thanks to 1776’s acquisition of the Disruption Corp. incubator, but the space has since undergone significant renovations. Co-founder Donna Harris took me on a tour of the new spot, which she said has been reimagined and rebuilt since June to foster a sense of community among 1776’s nearly 300 members in the D.C. area.