The Montgomery County Council gave final approval Tuesday to an ambitious land-use plan designed to spur creation of a new science-focused town center in the county’s long-neglected eastern sector.
The White Oak Science Gateway Master Plan envisions housing, retail and a hub for medical and life-sciences research adjacent to the Food and Drug Administration headquarters at Route 29 and Industrial Parkway. The plan also adjusts zoning and land-use regulations with the goal of energizing new residential construction and commercial renewal in the White Oak and Hillandale communities.
What do you need to turn a brilliant idea into a business? “A good morale boost,” says Abhishek Motayed, Founder and President of N5 Sensors, Inc. of Rockville. Motayed had that boost this month when N5 Sensors received two Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards totaling $250,000. The grants came from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) towards N5 Sensors work developing low-power, computer chip-size benzene, carbon monoxide, and ammonia sensors.
Johns Hopkins researchers Aleksander Popel and Jordan Green knew their research could serve a greater purpose outside their laboratory. But without any business experience, they knew they couldn’t do it alone.
With help from Hopkins’ tech transfer office and the Maryland Innovation Initiative, a state grant fund that invests in research projects with commercialization promise, the pair’s biomedical research is now a company — AsclepiX Therapeutics. The company is developing a better way to treat eye conditions caused by blood vessel abnormalities. Macular edema, which is common among people with diabetes and can lead to blindness, is an example.
Image: Jaclyn Borowski – At left, Niranjan Pandey, senior director of research and development, and Eric Bressler, research specialist, work in the lab at AsclepiX Therapeutics.
Qiagen has agreed to partner with AstraZeneca to develop a liquid biopsy-based companion diagnostic test to accompany one of the pharmaceutical company’s lung cancer drugs.
Building on a master framework agreement signed by both companies in 2013, the partnership will involve the creation of a diagnostic test that analyses plasma samples to assess EGFR mutation status in non-small cell lung cancer patients.
Opticul Diagnostics has won a BioMaryland Center grant to work on a medical device with a France-based company that would immediately identify microorganisms in a wound at a point-of-care setting, such as a hospital.
The device would be used on burn injuries and cutaneous wounds. The rapid identification of the bacteria in the wound would allow for quicker patient treatment.
Opitcul Diagnostics, based at Johns Hopkins University’s Montgomery County Campus, is collaborating with Diafir of Rennes, France. The two companies have received funding through a partnership between BioMaryland Center and Medicen Paris Region.
Innovators and startups pride themselves on being creators of disruptive technologies. We expect them to introduce game-changing solutions that improve our quality of life and enable administrations to govern better.
But the journey from innovative solution to government adoption is far from easy and can seem impossible for smaller companies with cutting-edge technologies.
Regardless of your stance on Obamacare and Maryland’s Medicare waiver, you can’t ignore that health reform and technology are creating many opportunities for innovation. The BBJ is looking for those innovators. Please click below for contest information.
SBA Awards Montgomery County Chamber Community Foundation grant to conduct veteran small business training course
ROCKVILLE, MD – The Montgomery County Chamber Community Foundation (MCCCF) is pleased to announce that the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) will support MCCCF in providing technical training to veteran-owned businesses seeking federal procurement opportunities. Through a Cooperative Agreement with SBA, the Foundation’s National Center for Veteran Institute for Procurement (VIP) will expand and host three training sessions a year (over a twelve month period) to support up to 150 service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB) and veteran-owned small businesses (VOSB) to attend the program.
With plans to couple Johns Hopkins Medicine’s research cachet and Kaiser Permanente’s population health prowess, the two health giants announced a new “strategic collaboration” on Tuesday.
Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States and Hopkins officials say they will collaborate on patient care by sharing data from electronic medical records and developing better health care models based on evidence of what’s worked best. Kaiser will work closely with Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, which is part of the Johns Hopkins network.
A $10.7 million grant to the University of Maryland School of Dentistry and the University of Maryland School of Medicine will fund the collaborative study of biomarkers associated with sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia, in hopes of finding new ways to predict the infection and developing new vaccines or treatments. The five-year grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is the renewal of a previous $12 million, five-year grant awarded in 2009, bringing the project’s total to $22.7 million.
In these times of tight budgets and rapidly evolving science, we must consider new ways to invest biomedical research dollars to achieve maximum impact—to turn scientific discoveries into better health as swiftly as possible. We do this by thinking strategically about the areas of research that we support, as well as the process by which we fund that research.
Millions of people make a living without ever setting foot in an office. Particularly in technology, companies are moving away from just outsourcing rote tasks to remote workers and toward building entirely distributed teams. One leader is Elance-oDesk, the largest online marketplace for freelance talent. In addition to providing a platform for distributed and part-time work, the company practices what it preaches. Telecommuting in the United States increased by as much as 79% (paywall) between 2005 and 2012.
The Global Innovation Index (GII) report, jointly produced by Cornell University, Insead and Wipo every year, has become a leading source of reference on innovation.
The theme of GII 2014, released on the 18th of July, is ‘Human factor in innovation’. The report covers 143 economies around the world and ranks them on a score of 0-100, using 81 different indicators to gauge innovation capabilities and results. Consistent with the rankings of the past GII reports, the top ten economies in the global innovation index 2014 are Switzerland, UK, Sweden, Finland, Netherland, USA, Singapore, Denmark, Luxemburg and Hong Kong (China), all high income countries, hence pointing towards a clear income-innovation link.
According to the latest research out of Johns Hopkins, a new blood test could predict a person’s risk for suicide through their DNA. The blood test would rely on genetics and offer many who are afflicted with mental illness and their doctors a new option in detecting suicidal behavior.
Genome scientist and entrepreneur J. Craig Venter is best known for being the first person to sequence his own genome, back in 2001.
This year, he started a new company, Human Longevity, which intends to sequence one million human genomes by 2020, and ultimately offer Web-based programs to help people store and understand their genetic data (see “Microbes and Metabolites Fuel an Ambitious Aging Project”).
Image: http://www.technologyreview.com – J. Craig Venter
Education technology, or ed-tech, is getting big in Baltimore and local experts think Maryland has a shot at being a leader in this technology niche.
But it won’t happen overnight.
“I think we have a unique opportunity to build an ecosystem,” said Frank Bonsal III, an ed-tech venture capitalist who leads Towson University’s business incubator. “An ecosystem takes 20 years to build. We’re on year three.”
Image: Jaclyn Borowski – Andrew Coy, executive director of the Digital Harbor Foundation, says students should play a bigger role in growing ed-tech.
When it comes to raising capital for a tech startup, savvy entrepreneurs know how important it is to hustle. From trying to attract the attention of VCs to appearing on television shows like ABC’s Shark Tank, these days when it comes to raising cash, everyone is out to get their share.
However, you may be surprised to learn that in this high-tech world, one very traditional institution is looking for smart entrepreneurs to give money to. Aspiring entrepreneur, meet the Small Business Administration (SBA).
Maryland Health Secretary Dr. Joshua Sharfstein will step down in January to join Johns Hopkins University.
Sharfstein’s move comes as Maryland is trying to revamp its failed health exchange in time for November open enrollment and as Gov. Martin O’Malley’s administration winds down.
Image: Nicholas Griner Maryland Health Secretary Dr. Joshua Sharfstein is stepping down in January and will join Johns Hopkins University.
The FLC planner visually communicates the outstanding research and development efforts of the federal laboratory system. Images and captions tell the story of the technology’s scientific relevance and potential impact.
Printed annually, the planner is distributed to over 10,000 recipients, including members of Congress, scientists, researchers, agency representatives, laboratory directors, technology transfer professionals, students, academia, and members of industry.
The following funding opportunity announcements from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest:
NIH Guide Notices:
Notice on Annual Reporting Requirements and Revised Financial Closeout Requirements for NIH Administrative Supplements Awarded to Recover Losses Due to Hurricane Sandy under the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act (NOT-OD-14-112) National Institutes of Health
Notice of NHLBI Discontinuation of Grant Program “Ancillary Studies in Clinical Trials (R01)” (NOT-HL-14-232)National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Notice to Extend the Response Date for the NOT-HL-14-030 “Request for Information (RFI): NHLBI Whole Genome Sequencing Project (NHLBI-WGS)” (NOT-HL-14-233)National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Program Announcements (PA):
NHLBI Career Transition Award for Intramural Fellows (K22) (PAR-14-302) National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Application Receipt/Submission Date(s): Multiple dates, see announcement.
The 2014 UEDA Awards of Excellence finalists have been chosen and the competition this year is at an all time high. Each year, universities and organizations across North America submit nominations for innovative programs that focus on developing economic prosperity in their communities and beyond. A panel university and economic development professionals have chosen 19 finalists from the group of nominated projects.
The UEDA awards are designed to help accelerate these programs by recognizing cutting edge initiatives, and to promote their adoption by other universities and communities. Program categories include: Community Connected Campuses, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Collaboration, Research and Analysis, Talent Development.
The healthcare system in the U.S. is a slow-moving, slow-changing beast, but it’s also riddled with inefficient parts that beg for data-driven reinvention. That’s created huge opportunities for startups — and some of them are already seeing the payoff. The Affordable Care Act and accompanying legislation like the HITECH Act have lit a fire under the movement to rethink they way we deliver and pay for healthcare. Accordingly, investment in the digital health space has accelerated in 2014; at the end of June it totaled $2.2 billion, already exceeding 2013’s total funding just halfway through the year.
Report: “Safe Science: Promoting a Culture of Safety in Academic Chemical Research”
Author: Committee on Establishing and Promoting a Culture of Safety in Academic Laboratory Research
Organization: National Research Council
Summary: The National Research Council formed a panel of university lab-safety experts after a series of campus accidents, including several deaths, emphasized that academic labs have a far worse safety record than their corporate counterparts do.
For years the standard operating procedure for the medical device world has been: Bring good tech to patients and be rewarded by the market. Healthcare reform and particularly the consolidation of doctor practices is making this model obsolete. Now the challenge is more along the lines of “Justify your existence.”
Device companies have to revamp the traditional business model to show how their products save money and help patients in the long term.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ditching handshakes in favor of more informal fist bumps could help cut down on the spread of bacteria and illnesses, according to a study released on Monday.
The study in the American Journal of Infection Control found that fist bumps, where two people briefly press the top of their closed fists together, transferred about 90 percent less bacteria than handshakes.
Image: By The U.S. Army (Fist bump) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
We all struggle for a moment of insight. Whether you’ve been banging your head against the wall for days or just woke up to a problem this morning, the desire for a creative boost is a powerful one. It’s the same feeling that plagues writers facing a blank page or advertisers developing a brand’s next campaign—and learning how to achieve it can have a profound impact. Here are some tips to avoid your next headache or create something the world has never seen before:
BioHealth Innovation (BHI) is a regionally-oriented, private-public partnership functioning as an innovation intermediary focused on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Maryland.
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