News Archive

There are a lot of rare diseases that strike a small number of people and some of them are actually novel maladies that have to be identified and studied. The National Institutes Of Health (NIH) has just begun a new program to help doctors work with such patients, combining resources at leading institutions across the country to identify the genetic causes of various conditions. Seven centers, including the NIH headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, are participating in the Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) for which a patient portal, called UDN Gateway, has been setup to recruit potential study subjects. Additionally, two DNA sequencing centers will be involved in providing genomic information gathered from patient samples.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University have developed a low-cost diagnostic tool, slightly larger than a coffee mug, that detects chlamydia within 30 minutes.

Scientists hope the apparatus, unofficially called mobiLab, will improve screening for the common and often symptomless sexually transmitted disease that, if left untreated, can cause permanent damage to a woman’s reproductive system and lead to fatal ectopic pregnancies.

QIAGEN N.V. today announced its latest initiative to increase global access to advanced cervical cancer screening technologies for women most in need. It includes the commercial launch of QIAGEN’s CE marked careHPV Test and the introduction of a new CE marked self-collection claim for its sampling device, the digene HC2 Collection Device.

The careHPV Test is the first HPV diagnostic specifically designed for regions with limited healthcare infrastructure. As such, the test enables the worldwide implementation and expansion of HPV-based cervical cancer screening, including in areas where women are not screened otherwise. Human papillomavirus or HPV is the primary cause of cervical cancer.

For years, Maya Nieder suffered from severe developmental delays, including difficulty communicating and hearing loss. She endured multiple operations and countless tests before exome sequencing revealed a mutation in her genes that had never been seen before. For Maya and her family, the power of sequencing her DNA found an answer and ended a four year search for the cause of her medical illnesses. Maya was the world’s first crowdfunded gene discovery innovated through Rare Genomics Institute.  Now her parents know the cause, and they can stop searching.

There are a lot of rare diseases that strike a small number of people and some of them are actually novel maladies that have to be identified and studied. The National Institutes Of Health (NIH) has just begun a new program to help doctors work with such patients, combining resources at leading institutions across the country to identify the genetic causes of various conditions. Seven centers, including the NIH headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, are participating in the Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) for which a patient portal, called UDN Gateway, has been setup to recruit potential study subjects. Additionally, two DNA sequencing centers will be involved in providing genomic information gathered from patient samples.

When: Thursday October 15, 2015 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM EDT

Where: Growlers, 227 E Diamond Ave Gaithersburg, MD 20877

We are excited to be returning to Growlers in Gaithersburg on October 15th for BioBuzz MoCo with our Sponsor The Biomedical Research Institute (BRI). BRI is a nonprofit organization committed to improving global health through a variety of research and service activities. For over 60 years BRI has been an integral component of the federal government’s aim to reduce the global health burden posed by infectious diseases in developing nations. BRI has made significant contributions focusing initially on cryobiology, subsequently on malaria, and more recently on schistosomiasis, a deadly parasitic disease with over 200 million people affected and a quarter million deaths a year.

Let’s stop the worrying right now. Baltimore city has its own network of growing innovation clusters.

That doesn’t take anything away from the county or the rest of Maryland or the broader mid-Atlantic region, for that matter. It’s just that it needs to be said that Baltimore’s old urban core is having a revival — and technology, creative and web businesses are playing a real role.

The Frederick County Council has voted to financially support the expansion of MedImmune’s Frederick manufacturing plant, a project the company says will bring 300 new jobs.

The Frederick News-Post (http://bit.ly/1Kmya4R ) reports that, in a 6-1 vote, the County Council on Tuesday approved the county’s $3.8 million contribution to a $6.8 million conditional loan for MedImmune’s expansion. The agreement guarantees the AstraZeneca-owned firm certain tax credits and access to county resources over the next decade.

Multiple drugs to combat bioterrorism threats and other life-threatening bacterial infections will be developed under a public-private partnership agreement between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and AstraZeneca, a global biopharmaceutical company.

The partnership agreement with AstraZeneca uses Other Transaction Authority granted to the Secretary of HHS under the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act of 2006. The agreement becomes the second such strategic alliance ASPR’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has forged with a private company to develop a portfolio of drug candidates with dual uses in treating illnesses caused by bioterrorism agents and antibiotic-resistant infections.

Inovalon INOV, +4.11% a leading technology company providing advanced, cloud-based data analytics and data-driven intervention platforms to the healthcare industry, today announced it will partner with The Center for Health Information and Decision Systems (CHIDS) at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business Collaborative on research efforts that will focus on how digital solutions can be more effectively deployed to address outcomes such as patient safety, healthcare quality, efficiency in healthcare delivery and a reduction in health disparities.