News Archive

The National Institutes of Health is challenging science innovators to compete for prizes totaling up to $500,000, by developing new ways to track the health status of a single cell in complex tissue over time. The NIH Follow that Cell Challenge seeks tools that would, for example, monitor a cell in the process of becoming cancerous, detect changes due to a disease-causing virus, or track how a cell responds to treatment.

“Advances in cellular analysis promise earlier diagnosis and improved therapies for diseases, from cancer to Alzheimer’s,” said James Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., director of NIH’s Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI). “These prizes will also help to stimulate new businesses and economic growth in our biomedical communities.”

For the third year in a row, Johns Hopkins has been recognized as one of the nation’s best college campuses for dining.

Hopkins ranks second on the list of the “Best Colleges for Food in America” compiled by the website The Daily Meal, up from a No. 42 ranking a year ago. The site praised JHU’s commitment to sustainability, the diversity of food offerings, and its special programming, including on-campus cooking classes and food and wine pairings for seniors.

For an incubator set on changing perceptions of where startups need to be to succeed in regulated sectors such as healthcare, education and energy, the decision to set up 1776 in Washington D.C. was a smart move. Mentors abound in a city where lawmakers, think tanks, regulators and Fortune 500 companies come to do business. In a phone interview, co-founder Donna Harris talked to MedCity News about its approach to finding and working with startups.

Harris co-founded 1776 in 2012 with Evan Burfield. Harris had previously worked at Startup America Partnership (which later changed its name to UP America) as managing director, and before that she was Vice Chair of Interpoint. Burfield founded netDecide and Synteractive.

A unique summer internship program established by the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) and funded in part by the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), has enabled 12 students to work across disciplines in a community setting.

Based at the Rockville, Md., campus where UMB offers a growing array of programs, the eight-week internship was conducted within the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Four graduate and eight undergraduate students experienced interdisciplinary teamwork by visiting several service agencies throughout Montgomery County.

Luminal, a Frederick and D.C.-based cloud management startup, on Thursday announced a $10 million Series B round led by New Enterprise Associates.

Joining NEA are prior investors Core Capital Partners and the Maryland Venture Fund. The latest financing brings Luminal’s total funding to $13.8 million.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been used for thousands of years to prevent and treat disease and promote wellness.  But, in many western countries, there had been historic resistance to its use because it “was not supported by rigorous scientific study.”

That’s not true today.

Digital health has a pretty erratic grade point average, or so says Dana Mead, a parter at venture firm Kleiner Perkins, Caufield & Byers. He outlined and graded what he called the five most important elements of the digital health ecosystem at Qualcomm Life‘s Connect2014 conference this week in San Diego, and this is how he slices it:

1. Access to Capital – A

Looking at data over the last quarter, Mead said that about $700 million in funding has been raised in digital health. That’s more than medical device startups raise, about two-thirds of what pharma and biotech raise and about a third of what software/IT companies raised in the same time period. So, not a bad showing for digital health, Mead said.

The Rockville Science Center has found a temporary office home in the midst of an ongoing search for a permanent facility.

The science center’s administrative office, previously at the VisArts at Rockville center, moved this month to the Johns Hopkins University’s campus in Rockville.

Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals (Sigma-Tau) has signed an exclusive US license agreement with Ireland-based Crosscare, to market and distribute Colief Infant Drops for the treatment of colic.

As part of the deal, Sigma-Tau will be responsible for the sales, marketing and distribution of Colief in the US.

Sigma-Tau has planned a re-launch of Colief at healthcare professionals as well as consumers in August 2014.