News Archive

In a move that takes concierge medicine to a whole new level, human genome pioneer J. Craig Venter on Tuesday unveiled a venture that combines whole genome sequencing with advanced clinical technologies to provide comprehensive health exams for self-paying customers.

The venture, called Health Nucleus, was formed as part of Human Longevity Inc., also known as HLI, the company Venter founded 19 months ago (with an initial $70 million in venture funding) to provide whole genome sequencing and other diagnostic services.

MedImmune is the newest member of the Human Vaccines Project, which will help to accelerate the research and development of vaccines and immunotherapies for infectious disease and cancer.

Incubated at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the Human Vaccines Project is an ambitious new public-private partnership seeking to transform the future of global disease prevention and treatment by solving the primary scientific obstacles impeding the research and development of new vaccines and immunotherapies. Endorsed by 35 leading vaccine scientists, the Project brings together top academic research centers, and government, non-profit and industry research and development efforts into a global consortium.

A $300 million worldwide licensing agreement announced last week between Immunomic Therapeutics and Astellas Pharma to develop treatment for a wide range of allergic diseases, including peanut allergies, is the largest deal ever to come out of Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, the patent, licensing, and technology commercialization arm of the university.

The agreement, first announced Thursday night, centers on the LAMP-vax technology, which was originally developed by Thomas August, Drew Pardoll, and others at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and licensed in 2006 to Immunomic Therapeutics, a biotech company based in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Can aging be slowed by using gene therapy to make permanent changes to a person’s DNA?

One Seattle-area woman says she has tried exactly that. Her claim has entangled some high-profile American academics in a strange tale of do-it-yourself medicine that involves plane flights to Latin America, an L.A. film crew, and what’s purported to be the first attempt to use gene therapy to forestall normal aging.

DNA doesn’t just coil in the iconic double helix immortalized in every high school biology textbook. It also loops into a menagerie of fantastical shapes, new research finds.

By revealing the hidden shape of DNA, the new insights could provide a more detailed look at the workings of drugs such as chemotherapeutic agents, which interact with DNA.

Attracting mid- to large-sized medical device companies through established innovation hubs is the biggest key to growing Baltimore into a major medical device technology sector, according to a report released today by the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech).

“Baltimore already has many of the pieces in place to support innovation hubs and a thriving medical device community,” said Martha Connolly, director of Mtech Baltimore. “This study is important because we believe Baltimore is well-positioned to be a leading center for medical devices. The expertise of the University System of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University in engineering and medicine provide great capabilities for this sector.” 

WHEN: Tuesday, October 20, 2015 | 6:30pm-8:30pm WHERE: Johns Hopkins East, 1101 East 33rd Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218 | 3rd Floor Conference Room.

Learn how to secure National Institutes of Health SBIR/STTRs for your high-tech bio-innovation.

Dr. Doswell lead JUICE Money wins for high-tech minority companies and HBCUs such as: 3 NIH SBIR/STTR grant awards in 2015.

• 3 NIH SBIR/STTR grant awards in 2015.
• 1 DOD RIF grant award in 2015.
• 1 CASIS grant award for testing innovation onboard the International Space Station in 2015.
• 1 Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII) Phase II award for Morgan State University in 2015.
• 1 Maryland Space Grant Consortium Award for Morgan State University in 2015.
• Secured Maryland TEDO awards.
• Secured a Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) award
• Secured NSF STTR Phase I/II awards.
• Helped fund the Robotics Technician Program at Baltimore City Community College

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2016 FLC awards. One of the most coveted honors in the technology transfer field, the FLC awards have been presented to over 200 federal laboratories since their inception in 1984. To reflect the diversity in scope and number of technology transfer efforts undertaken by federal laboratories and their partners, seven categories of awards will be presented.

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield will award $3 million to nonprofits or government organizations to develop new programs using telemedicine to improve health care access in the Maryland, Northern Virginia and D.C.

CareFirst’s request for proposals is looking for innovative programs that can address gaps in access to telemedicine services. The money will be awarded to programs over the next three years.

OpGen, Inc. an early-stage commercial molecular testing and bioinformatics company, today announced that new data from a study with its Acuitas [(R)] Resistome Test were presented on October 10 as an oral abstract at IDWeek 2015 by Michael Lin, M.D., M.P.H., an infectious disease physician and assistant professor of medicine at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. The conference was held October 7 to 11 in San Diego. Dr. Lin and fellow researchers demonstrated how an Acuitas Resistome-based surveillance system can identify potential outbreaks to improve infection control, underscoring the need for healthcare facilities to implement use of molecular-based surveillance systems to detect potential outbreaks that may be caused by multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs). The research was conducted under the support of the CDC Prevention Epicenters Program and affiliated with the REALM project, a multi-hospital voluntary surveillance network for monitoring multidrug-resistant organisms among Chicago hospital intensive care units and long-term acute care hospitals.