Great news in the happiest season of the year. We’ve published our 3D neuronal models for drug screening in Nature Scientific Reports and we received a grant with Pittsburg University for liver-on-a-chip. Of course we’re looking forward to meet you at the SLAS2017 in Washington and at the ISSCR in Basel. And Christmas would not be Christmas without our warm wishes for the holiday season and the year 2017. We’re definitely looking forward to it!
BioHealth Innovation inked a pair of recent deals to run incubators in Montgomery County.
The Rockville-based organization that works to help health and life sciences startups in the region is set to manage the Germantown Innovation Center and the Rockville Innovation Center. It’s the first foray into running incubators for the public-private partnership, which also helps startups coming out of UMB and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.
In an effort to accelerate growth in the cybersecurity and health technology industries in Montgomery County, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) has partnered with The MITRE Corporation of McLean, Virginia—a not-for-profit corporation that operates federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs), including the National Cybersecurity FFRDC.
BHI will serve as the primary manager for the Rockville Innovation Center (RIC), which is home of BHI’s health tech startup accelerator, Relevant Health. MITRE will provide the resident RIC start-up companies technical mentorship and insight into the most pressing cybersecurity challenges facing business and government today. This collaboration is an extension of a strategic initiative recently launched by MITRE to act as an innovation bridge between the private and public sectors.
The RIC will support start-ups and attract early-stage technology companies within these key technology sectors to graduate companies into commercial spaces in Montgomery County in a few short years.
Dr. Harsha Rajasimha has over 15 years of experience and widely recognized in the field of systems biology, Genomics BigData analytics, rare diseases and precision medicine for cancer. Dr. Rajasimha is currently global head of life sciences R&D IT solutions for Dell. He co-directs the center for metabolic and rare diseases at George Mason University. Before this, he led the global strategy and business development for Strand Life Sciences, a CAP/CLIA laboratory and Bioinformatics powerhouse for precision medicine, between 2013 and 2016.
A serial entrepreneur, Dr. Rajasimha founded Jeeva Informatics Solutions (www.Jeevadx.com) in 2013, a BigData Informatics Company that received the ‘Bioscience Company of the Year 2014’ award from Montgomery County, MD. He is co-founder and board member of the non-profit organization for rare diseases India (www.ordindia.org) and established mechanisms to accelerate rare disease diagnosis, public health policies and accessibility of treatments for patients in India. Dr. Rajasimha has led the development of some of the largest genomics projects including PathogenPortal, Pathosystems resource integration center, Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG), LIMS implementation at the FDA Office of Regulatory Affairs, architected Genome Explorer® a web-based platform for next-generation sequencing (NGS) data analysis for Genome International Corporation and Cyberinfrastructure development for National Eye Institute’s genomics program. His contributions to the NGS program were recognized by NEI director’s innovation award in 2012.
An accomplished scientist, Dr. Rajasimha has authored over 15 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and is often invited speaker at international conferences. He has contributed to global standards initiatives such as BioPAX, DELSAGlobal, personalized medicine coalition, and the global alliance for genomics and health. He earned baccalaureate degree in computer science engineering from Bangalore University, Masters in Computer Science & Bioinformatics and Doctoral degree in interdisciplinary program genetics, bioinformatics and computational biology from Virginia Tech.
BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) announced today that the Maryland Economic Development Corporation (MEDCO), who is the agent for Montgomery County, has selected BHI to manage the Germantown Innovation Center (GIC) located within the Pinkney Innovation Complex for Science and Technology at Montgomery College (PIC MC). The Germantown Innovation Center was previously managed by the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development, which transitioned into the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) on July 1, 2016.
Additionally, BHI and PIC MC have signed an agreement to work collaboratively on business incubation and company recruitment at the PIC MC—a 20-acre integrated academic, business and research campus.
Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer, On Demand Pharmaceuticals / BHI EIR
Jarrod Borkat is a 15-year veteran in the biopharmaceutical industry and currently the Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer with On Demand Pharmaceuticals. He joined MedImmune in 2010, and served as Senior Director/Head, Global External Partnerships & Collaborations. In this role he was responsible for establishing and overseeing global strategic collaborations with universities, non-profit organizations and government entities, across all the therapeutic areas relevant to MedImmune. His team led the creation of several multi-million dollar collaborations, including one with Johns Hopkins University and one with University of Maryland. Prior to this role, Jarrod led the Portfolio Strategy & Management function for MedImmune, helping the organization optimize its R&D portfolio. Before joining MedImmune, Jarrod worked at Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for 11 years, rising through the ranks in the sales and commercial organization. During his time at BI, he spent two years in Germany, working at their corporate headquarters, leading the global commercial strategy for their CNS franchise. His last position prior to leaving BI was Director of U.S. Marketing, HIV. Jarrod has won multiple awards throughout his career, including being recognized as an industry “Top 25 Direct-to-Consumer Marketer of the Year” in 2007. He is also active in several industry organizations and has served on industry-related panels. In addition to his professional accomplishments, Jarrod serves on the Kentlands Board of Trustees and the Kentlands Community Foundation Board. He also ran a marathon on all 7 continents with his father, making them the first father/son duo to have accomplished this challenging endeavor. Jarrod earned an M.B.A. from Kennesaw State University, with concentrations in finance and marketing, and earned a B.S. in Biology from the University of Georgia.
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At a moment in which nucleic acid vaccines are seeing a resurgence, Immunomic Therapeutics has developed a cutting-edge technology for DNA vaccination. The Company is commercializing LAMP-Vax, a breakthrough immunomodulation platform that has the potential to transform the rapidly growing allergy and cancer immunotherapy markets. ITI has already executed three commercial partnerships – two with Astellas Pharma and one with Geron/Asterias. The Company believes these partnerships provide important validation of its scientific platform and partnering strategy. Initial license payments received exceed $300 million and pending milestone payments exceed $55 million. Additionally, ITI will receive double-digit royalties on allergy products, a market with multi-billion-dollar potential. ITI achieved this agreement while retaining the rights to the LAMP-Vax platform for other applications, including cancer immunotherapy. |
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In Africa, the team building Sisu Global Health is stepping up the introduction of its blood transfusion device. In Baltimore, the team is posting fundraising gains.
Sisu recently raised $500,000 from the Camden Partners Exelixis Fund, CMO Katie Kirsch said.
Principal, BioEnterprises LLC
Dr. Jesse Baumgold attended Oberlin College, and obtained his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Rochester Medical Center. His academic career included 12 years of basic biomedical research at the NIH, and an appointment as Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Radiology at The George Washington University Medical Center. He published over 50 scientific papers in the field of receptor-mediated signal transduction, 4 patents, and landed well over a million dollars of grant support. In 1994, Dr. Baumgold founded Receptor Biology Inc which was the first American company to produce and cell GPCR reagents to the drug discovery community. In 2004, he founded Applied Cell Sciences which provided GPCR products and cell culture services to the drug discovery community. Applied Cell Sciences merged with Cleveland-based ChanTest Corporation in 2009 and Dr. Baumgold currently serves as a Vice President for Product Services. He retains his passion for entrepreneurial companies and is on the Board of Directors of Plasmonix Inc and a member of the Dingman Angels, Active Angels and the Chesapeake Emerging Opportunities club.
