News Archive

In 2013, Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels laid out 10 goals, grouped under four priorities, that add up to one vision the university seeks to achieve by the year 2020. Now the Johns Hopkins community is invited to review the Ten by Twenty progress report, which was released today, to see where Johns Hopkins stands on its ambitious path for the future.

From the beginning, Daniels said that the plan is bold and the road is not an easy one. The original Ten by Twenty report outlines a number of challenges, including the need for interdisciplinary research and education in a highly decentralized environment; changing expectations for undergraduate education; declines in research and clinical funding; and pressing economic needs in Baltimore and communities across the country.

The Food and Drug Administration said it approved United Therapeutics Corp’s drug to treat neuroblastoma, a rare cancer that typically occurs in children below 5 years.

Unituxin is the first drug approved to treat high-risk neuroblastoma patients who have a greater chance of tumors recurring or progressing after chemotherapy.

Help with Proposals and Matchmaking

We strongly suggest that you meet with a member of the MIPS staff before writing your proposal, even if you are familiar with the MIPS program.  A staff member can advise you on planning a proposal and assist you with submitting the application.  A preliminary review could be invaluable; for example, some applicants fail to include readily available information that might make the difference in qualifying for an award.

MIPS personnel and other professionals in the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) can assist companies in finding and selecting appropriate faculty researchers for the companies’ projects.

Silicon Valley may have coined the ‘big data’ buzzword, but genomic scientists have been working with massive datasets for decades. Due to recent breakthroughs in DNA sequencing technology, genetics is moving from the laboratory into the market, and just about everyone is taking a keen interest.

In January, President Obama requested $215 million to fund his precision medicine initiative — $130 million to back a national research program that will track the data of 1 million volunteer donors, and another $70 million for a National Cancer Institute initiative to identify the genetic drivers of cancer.

The Centers for Disease Control recently acknowledged for the first time three digital health programs for their ability to help counter the onset of Type 2 diabetes, leading to better outcomes and reduced spending.

The three digitally-centered programs that were recognized include startups Omada Health and Noom Health, as well as DPS Health, which was founded in 20014. All three programs aim to assist in the prevention or management of chronic diseases, ranging from obesity and diabetes and nutrition and weight loss.

The Universities at Shady Grove (USG) officially broke ground on the campus’s second parking structure, a $20 million “green” garage to support the USG’s addition of the Biomedical Sciences and Engineering Education Facility.

The  garage will open in early 2016 and is being funded by Montgomery County, according to a press release about the event. The new parking will support the planned addition of a 220,000-square-foot biomedical sciences and engineering academic complex, which is scheduled to begin its construction in 2016 and open in fall 2018.

The total potential payout for the winner will be $2 million — pocket change for the biggest defense company on the globe. And yet, Lockheed Martin Corp. is leading one of 25 teams in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s annual Robotics Challenge. And it’s the only large contractor to do so.

The teams will vie for a chance to win one of three cash prizes totaling $3.5 million at the DARPA Robitics Challenge finals — the second crop of 14 teams, many of which are international, was just added last week. The finals, which will take place June 5-6 at Fairplex in Pomona, California, will require robots to attempt a circuit of consecutive physical tasks, with degraded communications between the robots and their operators.

MorphoSys AG (FSE: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX, OTC: MPSYY) and Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE: EBS) today announced the initiation of a Phase 1 clinical study to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and clinical activity of MOR209/ES414 in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Under the terms of the companies’ co-development and commercialization agreement, the achievement of this milestone triggers a payment of US $ 5 million by MorphoSys to Emergent.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s State of the City Address will take on economic issues Monday, touting job creation and introducing initiatives like a $1 million innovation fund, doubled Small Business Resource Center budget and new online maps tracking development projects. Expect the mayor to compare economic conditions in the city today to those that existed when she first took office in 2010. She plans to note a drop in unemployment and a rise in jobs before pitching new and expanded programs geared toward boosting businesses, city officials said.