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Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) today announced a partnership to develop therapeutics to treat an inherited form of muscular dystrophy.

The goal of the new agreement is to develop a small-molecule-based medicine to potentially reverse facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, or FSHD, by inhibiting the activity of a protein that is incorrectly expressed by the DUX4 gene in people with the disease. The protein activity is what damages muscle cells and leads to progressive muscle weakness and atrophy in FSHD patients.

New Enterprise Associates has co-led an $11 million first round investment in Galera Therapeutics Inc., a biotech company focused on the development of breakthrough drugs targeting oxygen metabolic pathways in cancer, fibrosis and other human diseases, the company announced.

New Enterprise Associates and Novartis Venture Fund (NVF) co-led the round with Correlation Ventures also investing. Proceeds will be used to expand clinical development of Galera’s small molecule therapeutics.

A set of new initiatives put forward in further detail Friday by the National Institutes of Health could have far-reaching implications for faculty members, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers conducting biomedical research.

The plans, first proposed in June by three working groups, are intended to strengthen and shape the biomedical research work force in the coming decades, focusing especially on diversity issues and on training for rising postdoctoral researchers and graduate students.

Many details of how the goals would be pursued are still unclear, although the NIH on Friday approved a rough implementation plan. The plans, likely to be enforced through grant guidelines, will encourage institutions to adopt individual development plans for all research trainees, and require them to track outcomes for all research trainees, from undergraduates through postdoctoral researchers. They would also create a new grant program for innovative approaches to research training, increase stipends for postdoctoral students, and provide more funding for grants to encourage research independence sooner.

Maryland’s TEDCO and a team of entrepreneurs are planning to launch a new $20 million cybersecurity fund early next year, according to Executive Director Robert Rosenbaum.

The state-sponsored investment group plans to formally announce the cyber fund in January. Rosenbaum declined to name the sponsors, whom he described as “a couple of young guys that built a fairly large cybersecurity company and sold it.” The capital — assuming they are successful in raising it — would be used to invest in early-stage cyber startups, both those building products and those selling services, he said.

A Hunt Valley venture capital firm is the first to receive funds from the state’s new $84 million InvestMaryland program.

Grotech Ventures will receive $12 million to invest in early-stage companies. If the recipients are successful, Grotech will return 100 percent of the principal investment and 80 percent of its profits to the state’s general fund.

This week’s announcement marks the next major step for the program, a key economic development initiative of Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) that the General Assembly approved in 2011. The state raised the $84 million this year through an online auction of tax credits to insurance companies that operate in Maryland.

GLAXOSMITHKLINE (GSK) has been ranked top of the Index in 2012 for the third time after scoring high in four categories including general access to medicine management, research and development activity, capability advancement and drug donation and philanthropy.

The Country Manager for Ghana, Manu Otuo, commenting on the development, welcomed the publication of the third Access to Medicine (ATM) Index, which measures the performance of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies on their efforts to improve access to medicine and healthcare in developing countries.

Doctors at Johns Hopkins University are experimenting with a breakthrough surgical procedure that will hopefully help combat Alzheimer’s disease.

According to a report by Johns Hopkins Medicine , doctors implanted one of the devices Thursday. The medical team at Johns Hopkins was the first to perform this surgery in the United States

The procedure involves placing a pacemaker of sorts on the brain. The device works similarly to a pacemaker for the heart but instead it stimulates the brain. The same procedure is used to battle Parkinson’s disease.

Children’s National Medical Center researchers hope the general public’s generosity can fill in the gaps left by dwindling governmental and philanthropic support.

Following a business trend that is exploding in the technology and nonprofit medical community, Children’s Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation launched in late November a “crowdfunding” initiative — the process of raising small amounts from a massive pool of individuals, often nationwide and mostly through online and social media routes.

Date: December 12, 2012 3:30-5:30pm

Presenters: Steven M. Ferguson, CLP, Deputy Director, Licensing and Entrepreneurship, NIH Office of Technology Transfer and Mark Rohrbaugh, J.D., Ph.D., Director NIH Office of Technology Transfer 

Come hear the story behind the NIH Office of Technology Transfer winning the 2012 Deals of Distinction™ Award, one of the most prestigious for technology transfer that was just presented to NIH by the Licensing Executive Society on October 17th  at their Annual Meeting in Toronto, Canada.   The award was given to NIH along with the University of Illinois at Chicago and Gilead Sciences  for license agreements granted to the Medicines Patent Pool, a newly established initiative of UNITAID, an international organization established to grant licenses for the generic manufacture and purchase of drugs against HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.  In making the award the Licensing Executives Society cited this model partnership as “an innovative endeavor in facilitating access to HIV treatment in developing countries” and one that “showcases the success of public-private partnerships to improve availability of medicine”.