524th Edition, September 7, 2022

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September 7, 2022

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Brett Shealy, Executive Director -Life Sciences Banking with J.P. Morgan, joins Rich Bendis on BioTalk

Brett Shealy, Executive Director of the Life Sciences Banking Team with J.P.Morgan, joins Rich Bendis on BioTalk to discuss his Career, BioHealth Investment, and the upcoming 2022 BioHealth Capital Region Forum/Investment Conference/Crab Trap.

Listen now via Apple https://apple.co/3cK8ScJ, Google https://bit.ly/3etce4h, Spotify https://spoti.fi/3cNdIpo, Amazon Podcasts https://amzn.to/3eucMXi, or TuneIn https://bit.ly/3Rj8wIJ

White House to award $52.9 million grant to Va. Biotech authority

The Richmond region has won a $52.9 million federal grant to create a hub for research and advanced manufacturing of essential medicines and pharmaceutical ingredients.

The White House announced the grant to the Virginia Biotechnology Research Partnership Authority on Friday. It is among 21 projects that will receive grants from the Build Back Better Regional Challenge, using a $1 billion fund created under the American Rescue Plan Act to generate economic opportunities in disadvantaged communities that need them.

The grant will support six projects in the proposed Advanced Manufacturing Pharmaceutical Cluster, an initiative aimed at bringing new manufacturing opportunities to Petersburg, supporting research at the Virginia Bio + Tech Park in Richmond and boosting work by the Medicines for All Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University to build a national supply of essential medicines.

Click here to read more via Richmond.com

Rockville biotech Shuttle Pharmaceuticals shares climb 373% on first day of trading – Rockville Economic Development, Inc

On its first day as a publicly traded company Wednesday, Rockville-based Shuttle Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SHPH) saw its shares climb a staggering 373% to close at $38.48. At one point late Wednesday, its shares were trading at above $65 — up more than 700% from their opening price.

In after-hours trading Wednesday, the stock was down about 17% from its close and trading around $32 a share.

The eye-popping gains came on a day when all the major U.S. stock indexes fell.

Kurt Newman to retire as Children's National Hospital CEO – Washington Business Journal

The first time Kurt Newman walked into the Children’s National Hospital atrium as a thirtysomething surgical fellow in 1984, he felt like he was home. He didn’t want to leave.

Nearly four decades later, Newman is announcing his retirement as the D.C. pediatric hospital’s president and CEO.

Image: Dr. Kurt Newman, president and CEO of Children's National Hospital, has spent 11 years in the role. EMAN MOHAMMED

Sanofi offloads smallpox vaccine business to Emergent BioSolutions in $125M deal | Fierce Pharma

Emergent BioSolutions is set to add the only FDA-approved smallpox vaccine to its portfolio through a $125 million deal with vaccine giant Sanofi Pasteur.

The agreement means Emergent will inherit an existing CDC contract to build the national stockpile. That 10-year, $425 million contract has around $160 million left to be fulfilled before it ends in 2018. Emergent expects to negotiate a multiyear renewal as part of its involvement in the U.S. government’s counter-bioterrorism effort.

Emergent BioSolutions Initiates Phase 1 Study Evaluating Lassa Virus Vaccine Candidate

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Sept. 06, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE: EBS) today announced that it has dosed the first participant in its Phase 1 study evaluating the safety and immunogenicity of EBS-LASV, a recombinant VSV-vectored Lassa virus vaccine candidate being developed for prevention of disease caused by Lassa virus infection. Emergent and CEPI (the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) are co-funding this program.

“Over the last 24 years, Emergent’s mission to protect and enhance life and commitment to help mitigate public health threats have remained unchanged,” said Kelly Warfield, Ph.D., SVP for research and development at Emergent BioSolutions. “We are proud to deploy our product development and partnering capabilities to address emerging infectious diseases like Lassa fever, for which there is currently no approved vaccine or therapeutic, and to advance our pipeline for patients.”

QIAGEN announces winners of 2022 Young Investigator Awards

The competition nurtures young scientists around the globe
QIAGEN-Verogen generously donated a combined instrument and reagents prize package worth up to $ 60,000
Three young forensic scientists have been recognized for work in human identification (HID) and forensics

Germantown, Maryland, and Hilden, Germany, September 5, 2022 — QIAGEN today announced the winners of its second Young Investigator Awards (YIA). The winner and two runners-up were recognized for their outstanding scientific work using next-generation sequencing (NGS) in human identification (HID). The competition encourages and supports new generations of forensic scientists who show potential to make a lasting impact on human identity and forensics. The three finalists were honored during the International Society for Forensic Genetics (ISFG) Congress in Washington D.C.

The 2022 Young Investigator Award went to Maria Martin Agudo, a PhD candidate at the Department of Forensic Sciences (Forensic Genetics Research Group), Oslo University Hospital in Norway. Haley Omeasoo from The University of Montana, USA and Chiara Fantinato from the Department of Forensic Sciences, Oslo University Hospital, Norway, were the two runners-up. All three finalists received all-inclusive invitations to the International Society for Forensic Genetics (ISFG) Congress.

Ampel BioSolutions Enters MDx Market With Lupus, Dermatology Gene Expression Assays | Genomeweb

GENOME WEB, CHICAGO, IL, September 1, 2022 – – After nine years in business, precision medicine company AMPEL BioSolutions is broadening its market from pharmaceutical companies to healthcare providers and their patients.

This summer, the firm had an early-access release of a series of gene expression tests coupled with analysis and clinical decision support, starting with LuGene®, a blood test for systemic lupus erythematosus, and DermaGene®, a skin biopsy test to differentiate between several dermatological conditions including psoriasis, scleroderma, and atopic dermatitis.

Equity Incubator at the Universities at Shady Grove – Fall 2022 Application

Thank you for your interest in joining the Entrepreneurship Lab Equity Incubator at the Universities at Shady Grove! We will be accepting teams and individuals. You may apply individually, although we recommend having at least one other team member.

For this program, we are inviting individuals who identify with a gender, racial/ethnic, or other identity which, historically has not been dominant in receiving entrepreneurship support. We do this because we aim to create a collaborative, diverse cohort of entrepreneurs that can contribute unique perspectives in a supportive environment as we foster new venture formation and growth.

Download the PDF

Click here to learn more.

VIPC’s Virginia Venture Partners Invests in Jeeva to Help Increase Patient Diversity in Clinical Trials – EIN Presswire

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES, August 31, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — Virginia Venture Partners, the equity investment program of Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC), today announced an investment in Manassas, Va.-based Jeeva. Jeeva provides a scalable eClinical Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that helps sponsors and contract research organizations (CROs) accelerate flexible clinical operations while minimizing burden on site staff and patients. Jeeva will use this investment towards commercialization of the SaaS platform to accelerate therapy development for therapeutic areas such as rare diseases, immunology, and oncology in the U.S. and in emerging markets such as Latin America and India, where the company has recently established strategic partnerships.

Nvidia to build the U.K.'s fastest supercomputer for AI drug-hunters at GSK, AstraZeneca and more | Fierce Biotech

Through a new partnership with GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and the U.K.’s National Health Service, the chip maker Nvidia plans to build Great Britain’s most powerful supercomputer—and dedicate its use to artificial intelligence research in healthcare.

Dubbed Cambridge-1, the machine is designed to deliver 400 petaflops of performance, or 400 quadrillion floating-point calculations per second.

When presented with dense systems of linear equations used in AI—such as simulations of molecular models and chemical interactions among potential drug compounds—it is expected to provide 8 petaflops of supercomputing power, ranking it number 29 on the list of the world’s fastest.

Image: Nvidia's Cambridge-1 is expected to come online before the end of the year as the most powerful supercomputer in the U.K. and the 29th fastest in the world. GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca are slated as the first to receive access. (Nvidia)

The fate of the SBIR program hangs in the balance of the next month | Federal News Network

In about 30 days, one of the longest running and most successful small business programs will expire.

The House will have 14 days in September with votes scheduled to reauthorize the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program when it returns to Washington, D.C. after Labor Day. Meanwhile, the Senate reconvenes on Sept. 6 and doesn’t spell out how many days it plans to be in D.C. and voting on bills.

To be sure, the fate of the SBIR program hangs in the balance of what Congress can do by Sept. 30.

UNH Research Finds Angel Investor Behavior Can Be Influenced by Ego | UNH Today

DURHAM, N.H.—Angel investors—wealthy individuals who provide essential funds for start-ups—often invest under conditions of extreme uncertainty. While their funds can be vital to early-stage ventures, researchers at the University of New Hampshire found that angels’ egos can play a significant role in their investment decisions—the bigger the ego, the larger and more diverse the deal and the lower the number of co-investors.

5 trends VCs, investors and founders are talking about right now | Silicon Valley Bank

Startup founders and investors are looking at what could be a murky investment outlook over the next few months or quarters. Slowing markets, rising interest rates and turmoil abroad has caused fluctuation in the markets. While the tech sector may continue providing growth opportunity long term, the near term may also be volatile enough that many founders and investors might be forced to take a different path than originally planned.

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