BHI Weekly News Archives

This invitation-only event is free for executive level biotech leaders and is presented by BioHealth Innovation, VirginiaBio, Paragon Bioservices, Inova, University System of Maryland and MedImmune/AstraZeneca. Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC set the bar high for biotech innovation. So please join us for our Annual BioHealth Capital Region Forum that will highlight the accomplishments of today and chart our successes of tomorrow.

We are excited to bring you an exceptional line up of speakers. The program will feature sessions that focus on Advancing Science and Accelerating Innovation.

The University System of Maryland announced this month the launch of its Maryland Momentum Fund, which will provide $25 million to support startups formed within the system.

The university system has already committed $10 million to the initiative, and is working alongside the University of Maryland, Baltimore County as well as UM Ventures — a joint research and innovation program between this university and the University of Maryland, Baltimore — to obtain the remaining $15 million from local venture capitalists and angel investors, said Julie Lenzer, UM Ventures co-director.

The National Cancer Institute has picked the Johns Hopkins Montgomery County Campus as the site for a new laboratory building for its epidemiology and genetics researchers.

The planned 70,000-square-foot building will bring together about 134 scientists and employees now working in separate facilities in Gaithersburg and Frederick, about 25 miles apart.

Patients everywhere take their medication with emocha.

This World TB Day, we want to say thank you to our partners around the world who are uniting to #EndTB.

Patients across three continents are using the emocha platform to facilitate TB treatment, and we’re proud to support hundreds of healthcare workers as they fight to eradicate TB.

Public health departments in California, Maryland, Texas, Missouri, Washington, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico have adopted emocha’s video DOT platform for active and latent TB monitoring. Sites in Australia, India, and Mexico have also implemented the technology, proving that video DOT is an effective strategy for combating global TB.

On Tuesday, March 7, 2017, the University of Maryland (UMD) Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices and RTI International (link is external) welcomed nearly 150 representatives of Maryland’s medical device ecosystem to a daylong event focused on bringing products from invention to market in the state. The event, Medical Device Innovation in Maryland: from Technology to Lab to Market, took place at the UMD campus in College Park, and culminated with a tour of the soon-to-be new home of the A. James Clark School of Engineering: A. James Clark Hall.

“This is the start of an incredibly exciting time for biomedical devices in Maryland – and you’re here at the beginning,” University of Maryland Provost Mary Ann Rankin told attendees.

Millions of bodies suffer a loss of soft tissue — namely skin or muscle — each year. It can result from trauma, natural aging, or even surgery, like a mastectomy for breast cancer patients. Typically, the only option to repair such damage is surgery, and transferring tissue from one part of the body to another.

Symbiomix today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for filing the Company’s New Drug Application (NDA) for its lead investigational product candidate Solosec™ (secnidazole oral granules), an innovative antibiotic designed to treat bacterial vaginosis (BV). In accordance with the FDA’s priority 6-month review designation, the agency has established a user-fee goal date under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) of September 17, 2017. Symbiomix submitted the NDA filing in January 2017.

Solosec™ is a potent, next-generation, investigational 5-nitroimidazole antibiotic with enhanced pharmacokinetic properties, which will be the first and only single-dose oral therapy approved for BV if approved by the FDA. The FDA previously designated Solosec™ as a Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) for the treatment of BV and granted it Fast Track designation, which made Solosec™ eligible for priority review and at least 10 years of market exclusivity.

The co-founders of a Johns Hopkins-backed startup had personal motivations for developing better health care tracking technology.

The mother of Sathya Elumala, who is CEO of Multisensor Diagnostics, suffers from multiple chronic health conditions and spends time in hospitals almost every month. Gene Fridman, the company’s chief technology officer, lost a sister who had a chronic condition that wasn’t detected soon enough.

The University of Maryland University College is tearing itself apart — on purpose.

The university, which gets nearly all of its funding from tuition revenue, has long relied on enrolling large numbers of students associated with the military for financial stability. After teaching students at military bases across Asia and Europe for decades, the university was quick to realize the potential of the internet and became a pioneer in the field of distance education.

May 18, 2017 – 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. – Hilton Baltimore

Join Governor Hogan for the first Maryland Governor’s Business Summit. Explore topics on human capital, global trends and business strategy. Connect with a wide array of Maryland’s business leaders.

Newsflash: The Association of University Technology Managers met in Hollywood, Fla., and had its own Final Four last week.

All of the finalists of the conference’s pitch competition had a common bond: They each had ties to Maryland universities such as Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland. All four also received funding from TEDCO’s Maryland Innovation Initiative.

Across the commonwealth, families are feeling squeezed by stagnant wages and rising costs. Too many Virginians are working part-time instead of full-time; too many college graduates are working in jobs that don’t require a four-year degree.

Virginia’s anemic economic growth rates have trailed the national average for five straight years. We even fell to the bottom ten states for economic growth in 2014. More people are moving out of Virginia than moving in. Our tax climate ranking fell to 33rd in 2017. We’ve dropped out of the top 10 on the CNBC list of Best States for Business, after being number one just five years ago.

GlaxoSmithKline and Regeneron have given their backing to a new project that will use patient data held by the UK Biobank.

The firms will get free access to the samples in return for covering the cost of sequencing it and, after a period of exclusivity, they will then allow the data to be plugged back into the resource for wider use.

Eli Lilly and Company has publicized plans to invest $850 million in the United States throughout 2017.

The media release, delivered Friday, follows a meeting between Lilly executives, federal, state and local government officials at Lilly Technology Center in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Once again, more than three-quarters of U.S. venture capital (VC) dollars went to companies in California, New York and Massachusetts in 2016, according to data from the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)/CB Insights’ Moneytree Report Explorer. Approximately 53.3 percent of all VC capital went to California companies, down nearly 4.4 percent from the states peak in 2014 (57.7) and down 3.9 percent from 2016. While California’s share declined, both Massachusetts and New York saw increases in their share of VC dollars invested:

Get a sneak peak of the Mobile eXploration Lab (MXLab) – the country’s largest, most advanced mobile STEM laboratory! MdBio is launching the MXLab for the 2017/2018 school year, and we want to give teachers across the state the first chance to see the lab in action and provide feedback on our activities for Maryland high schools.

Join us at one of five events across the state to get a sneak peek of the MXLab plus a hands-on teacher professional development activity for your classroom.

What’s next for the pharmaceuticals industry, amid digital disruption and rapid technological advances? McKinsey’s Martin Dewhurst sat down for a wide-ranging conversation with David Epstein of venture firm Flagship Pioneering to explore ways the sector could shift in coming years. In this interview, part of our Biopharma Frontiers series on how the pharmaceutical industry is evolving and how leaders can adapt, Epstein discusses the next horizon of innovation, critical elements of an effective business, and the kind of culture he tries to foster. An edited transcript of their conversation follows.

Host: UM BioPark & Wexford + Technology

Location: UM BioPark Life Sciences Conference Center, 801 W. Baltimore Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201

Date: March 30, 2017 – 5:00pm to 6:30pm

Please join the BioPark’s Monthly Networking Event along with collegues from the Maryland Proton Treatment Center. Mingle with MPTC leadership and staff, BioPark tenants, and UMB faculty and staff.

Vaccines may be available for pneumococcal infections, but none of them, including the widely used Prevnar 13, can cover all strains. SutroVax is one of the startups trying to solve that problem, and today raised $64 million to test its approach in humans.

New investors Frazier Healthcare Partners and Pivotal bioVenture Partners led the Series B financing round for Foster City, CA-based SutroVax. Also participating in the round were earlier investors Abingworth, Longitude Capital, Roche Venture Fund, and CTI Life Sciences Fund. In addition to the $60 million Series B investment, SutroVax says the earlier investors are also putting another $4 million into the company.

Pulmocide raised $30.4 million in a Series B round of financing to support the early clinical development of its lead inhaled drugs against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and pulmonary aspergillosis. The fundraising round was led by new investor SR One and included the Longwood Fund and existing investors SV Life Sciences, F-Prime Capital, Johnson & Johnson Innovation–JJDC, and Touchstone Innovations.

Patients could one day self-administer vaccines using a needleless, pill-sized technology that jet-releases a stream of vaccine inside the mouth, according to a proof-of-concept study conducted at UC Berkeley.

The study did not test vaccine delivery in people, but demonstrated that the technology, called MucoJet, is capable of delivering vaccine-sized molecules to immune cells in the mouths of animals. The technology is a step toward improved oral vaccine delivery, which holds the promise of building immunity in the mouth’s buccal region of cells, where many infections enter the body. When patients hold the MucoJet against the inside of their cheek, the device releases a jet stream that directly targets the buccal region. This region is rich in immune cells but underutilized in immunology because of the challenge of efficiently penetrating the thick mucosal layer in this part of the oral cavity with existing technologies, such as the oral spray often used for influenza vaccination.

Dear Friends of CONNECTpreneur:

I hope everything is well! This is a “Last Call” for our April 4 Big Idea CONNECTprenuer SPRING FORUM at the Hyatt Regency in Bethesda, MD. We expect over 500 CXOs, founders, entrepreneurs, angel investors, etc., and we will be completely SOLD OUT again. So, please sign up now! We have unparralled CXO to CXO networking, plus an amazing program: Fireside chat with DAVID TRONE, Co-Founder and Owner, Total Wine & More Awesome Entrepreneur “War Stories” Panel (moderated by GLEN HELLMAN (aka Mr. Cranky), angel investor and CEO of Driven Forward) featuring:· NIGEL JONES, CEO of Koolspan and Managing Director of TWJ Capital· BETH MALONEY, President of Palladian Partners· D.P. VENKATESH, VP of Broadsoft and CEO of mPortal PLUS 9 awesome early stage companies will present their companies.

The National Science Foundation’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program provides small business with equity-free funding to conduct research and development (R&D) work and de-risk technology for commercial success. The NSF SBIR program accepts innovative proposals that show promise of commercial and societal impact in almost all areas of technology.

SBIR Phase I proposals are expected to undertake R&D with the aim of establishing technical feasibility or proof of concept. Successful applicants will receive a grant of up to $225,000 over a period of 6 to 12 months (the period to be decided by the company).

Successful SBIR proposers will receive funding about 6 months after the solicitation deadline. Companies that receive a Phase I award are eligible to apply for a Phase II award (award amount up to $750,000; duration 2 years).

In order for America to maintain its innovative and technological competitive advantage, it is imperative that current policy design favor high growth formation through the catalytic means of institutional financing. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs have historically served as crucial financing to help de-risk early-stage technology development and enable validation that encourages follow-on private institution capitalization. With new trends in the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, advanced materials, genomics, environmental sustainability, renewable energy, national security, and many other areas evolving over the years ahead, national governments bear the responsibility for helping seed the inventive fire that enables economic growth as we move forward.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2017, 8:30 AM – 12 PM | WASHINGTON, DC

If you do business with the government, you are a target for cyber-attacks!

If you are a government contractor, join us to learn how to implement a strong and cost effective cybersecurity program that will strengthen your company’s cybersecurity posture and help you meet requirements necessary to do business with the federal government. As an attendee, you can receive two customized assessments to help identify your company’s level of exposure: (1) a mini cyber-risk review from CyberRx that will assess your company’s cyber capabilities within the Cybersecurity Framework; and (2) a threat intelligence assessment from Wapack Labs that can help to identify if your organization has been or will be the victim of an attack. Space is limited. Register today.

Friday, April 14, 2017 7:30 AM – 9:30 AM

Bethesda Marriott – 5151 Pooks Hill Road Bethesda, MD 20814

With the transition to the Trump administration, change is coming rapidly in the form of legislative proposals, regulations (or repeal thereof), and policy statements. How will all this affect the ability of tech companies to raise the capital they need to grow. Amid this shifting ground, we’ve asked an expert panel of our own Maryland technology companies to talk about their recent successes and challenges in raising capital and their outlook for the ability of Maryland technology companies to do the same. Our panel, moderated by David Straut of Wells Fargo, includes two long-time local tech CFOs who have had recent success raising money and the Director of the Maryland Venture Fund, which oversees investments in approximately 50 local technology ventures

Financial Executives Forum: FEF is devoted to peer-to-peer connections and programs that highlight the latest topics of interest for the region’s leading business and financial executives. FEF encourages participants to connect as well as learn from some of the area’s preeminent executives, policymakers and thought leaders.

Please join the Maryland Women’s Business Center for an Open House at our Rockville office.

Learn about our program and expanded services

Celebrate and meet MWBC clients who are growing their businesses

Meet our business counselors from Montgomery, Frederick and Prince George’s Counties

Network with local government officials, women entrepreneurs, sponsors, partners, and the local business community.

And, if you’ve been thinking about entering our 2017 StartRight! Women’s Business Plan Competition, it’s a great opportunity to ask past participants and winners about the process.   

Light refreshments will be provided by MWBC clients.

There is no cost to attend, but RSVPs are requested. Click the register button below.

For questions or more information, contact Donna Gallagher, donna@marylandwbc.org, 301-315-8091. 

Wednesday, March 29, 2017, 02:00pm – 04:00pm

USDA ARS and the USDA SBIR program formed a partnership to encourage USDA SBIR applicants to develop research collaborations with ARS scientists and/or to license ARS technologies. The purpose is to increase the likelihood of success by providing both money and technologies to small U.S. businesses. The relevant language in the SBIR’s “Request for Application” states: “Additional factors that will be considered in the review process include whether an application involves a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with a USDA laboratory, or a license to a USDA technology, or is a resubmission.”

This webinar will include an overview of the USDA SBIR program and crafting a competitive SBIR proposal. Also an overview of ARS and how to develop a successful research collaboration (CRADA) with an ARS scientist and/or license an ARS technology will be discussed. The webinar will address coordinating the statement of works in an ARS CRADA and a USDA SBIR proposal.

March 31st, 2:30-4:30pm

Join us to learn more about bioscience as an industry and career opportunities available in Montgomery County

Presentation on BioScience + Tour of Montgomery College BioLab for staff and partners working with job seekers

To RSVP, email Heather Henry at hhenry@worksourcemontgomery.com

You thought the Shark Tank was tough? The second annual BioHealth Capital Region Crab Trap is now accepting applications!

Submit your application for a chance to be named the company with the most commercial potential at the BioHealth Capital Region Forum.

Grand Prize:  $10,000, Incubation Space in Prince William County, VA or Montgomery County, MD, Business Mentoring

Deadline for entries is March 31st – Finalists will be announced by April 7th

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) today announced that it has signed a two-year contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a division within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response, valued at $100 million for the delivery of BioThrax® (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed) to the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS). This contract satisfies BARDA’s notice of intent to sole source BioThrax that was issued on December 8, 2016 and is separate from and in addition to the company’s $911 million BioThrax procurement contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). BioThrax pricing under this BARDA procurement contract is the same as BioThrax pricing under the CDC follow-on contract.

“Emergent is pleased to support BARDA in its efforts to enhance the nation’s preparedness against the threat of anthrax,” said Adam Havey, executive vice president and president biodefense division at Emergent BioSolutions. “Emergent is committed to developing and manufacturing preparedness solutions that address our customers’ needs to protect against a broad spectrum of public health threats.”

Pharmaron, a fully integrated contract research organization offering R&D services to the life sciences industry, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement under which Pharmaron will acquire a majority stake in Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories Clinical Pharmacology Center, Inc. (“SNBL CPC”) in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. This clinical center is a leading provider of moderate and highly complex Phase I/II clinical development services for the life sciences sector. Current shareholder Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, Ltd. (SNBL) (TSE:2395) will retain a minority stake in the business following the transaction.

Monday, April 3, 2017 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM EDT

SMC Campus Center 621 West Lombard Street Elm Room A & B Baltimore, MD 21201

The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Network (EIN) is pleased to present the 1st annual Entrepreneurship and Innovation Expo at University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Join us for a half day event celebrating all of the entrepreneurial and innovative endeavors at UMB. Events will include talks entrepreneurs at the student, faculty and student levels as well as a keynote presentation from the UMB Presidents White Paper Fellows. Other events will include tabling sessions from local entrepreneurial entities and groups.

A new 40,000-square-foot accelerator space for Johns Hopkins is officially online in East Baltimore, and set to be home to nine startups by April.

FastForward is housed in the newest, $65 million building in the Hopkins biotech park, at 1812 Ashland Ave. It was designed to help young companies with all of their growing business needs, from conference rooms to office space to lab space. The new space replaces the former six-office hub near the Hopkins medical campus.

Digital health leader WellDoc® and the Healthy Trucking Association of America (HTAA) announced today their partnership to help truckers living with diabetes. Additionally, WellDoc unveils its consumer diabetes health app, BlueStar® C, which is designed to aid individuals living with diabetes to manage their chronic condition.

Both organizations, through this initial launch, will introduce BlueStar C to truckers and fleets at the Mid-America Trucking Show (MATS) in Louisville, Kentucky, which takes place from March 23-25. Renegade Radio Nashville (RRN) is also partnering with HTAA and WellDoc, as the national media partner for BlueStar C. RRN’s President and COO Jack Aponte (also known as on-air personality “Captain Jack”) will join the HTAA and WellDoc teams at the MATS Booth (#76 173) to help introduce BlueStar C to truckers and fleets in attendance at the meeting. Access to and set up for BlueStar C will be available at MATS for the trucking audience.

Tue, March 21, 2017, 7:30am-10:30am

The March EAGB Breakfast Series panel features leaders who are shaping the future of economic development through placemaking strategies and innovation districts. The EAGB invites you for breakfast and an engaging discussion on this topic of particular interest to the Greater Baltimore region. The Breakfast Series seeks to shine a light on the region’s assets and share the wisdom of its thought leaders – including those from industry, government and education. Join us!

The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) today announced the appointment of Marco Chacón, PhD, as Assistant Vice President, Industry Alliances. In this role, Dr. Chacón, a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive and entrepreneur, will work with the Office of Research and Development, UM Ventures, and University of Maryland BioPark teams, leading special projects to grow the BioPark tenant base and strengthen the University’s research collaborations with industry.

“Marco is a distinguished scientist, entrepreneur, and biopharma CEO who has spent many years working as a valued member of the UM BioPark community,” said James L. Hughes, Vice President and Chief Enterprise & Economic Development Officer and president of the corporation that manages the UM BioPark. “His accomplishments leading a successful contract development and manufacturing organization, along with his deep industry and government connections, make him a superb addition to our team at UMB.

The 2017 Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards publicly recognizes achievements by current clients and graduates of Maryland incubators and provides a forum for the nominees to increase their visibility in the business, technology and investment communities.

Business incubators support new and early-stage businesses in Maryland. In 1986, the first public incubator was established at the University of Maryland in College Park. Recognizing the economic challenges facing new companies, business incubators are facilities that provide reasonable market rents, shared services and technical assistance to start-ups and early-stage companies, including manufacturing, biotech, service and technology firms.

A pair of medicine and nursing alumni have made a $1.5 million gift to the University of Maryland’s Health Science & Human Services Library to establish a health care innovation center.

The center intends to provide an encouraging environment where doctors, medical students, nurses and other practitioners think in new ways about how to improve the doctor-patient relationship as a means of improving health care delivery, according to university officials who announced the funding Thursday.

University of Maryland Colony Ballroom, Stamp Student Union April 12, 2017 4:30-6:30 pm

Please join us to honor inventors, entrepreneurs, innovators, and partners.

The Trump Administration’s skinny budget proposal released today calls itself, “A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again.” From the information contained in the document, it is clear the Administration does not view science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship and the economic development efforts built around those activities as the path forward to making “America great again.” The program eliminations and drastic cuts are not the way to move the country forward economically. So what is behind this proposal? Two things: 1) a fight over the proper role of the federal government in the economy, and 2) a negotiating tactic to attempt to lull advocates into thinking program survival or lesser cuts are a victory. A full community response is needed and all of us must get off the sidelines and on to the playing field.

SineWave Ventures wants to bring money and ideas together. Vornado’s got the office space to make it happen. And Arlington County wants to back the pairing to boost jobs, tax revenue and the economy.

The three are working together on The Venture Hub, which will locate at Vornado Realty Trust’s (NYSE: VNO) 2231 Crystal Drive in Crystal City — the same building where stalwart incubator 1776 leases space.

Under Armour has hired a former General Motors executive to serve as chief innovation officer.

Clay Dean, who will help the Baltimore sports apparel brand shape its global innovation vision and strategy, will work from the Baltimore headquarters and report to Kevin Haley, president of category management and innovation, the company said Monday.

The University of Maryland is planning to expand entrepreneurship space and activities at its campus in Baltimore, and a new innovation center on the southwest side of the city is part of the plans.

The aim is to open a new space during the summer, UM Ventures Director Jim Hughes said at a President’s Symposium event at the UMB campus. The location of the new space has yet to be finalized.

If you are a seed, early stage or start-up high technology company in the areas of Life Sciences, Biotech, Alternative Energy or Cyber Security, then you do not want to miss this seminar. This year the MWBC is rolling out a new Advanced Technology Program, and we want you to join us for our FREE introductory session on the resources that will help you grow. We will feature a panel discussion with representatives from TEDCO, MTECH, and MD Department of Commerce to discuss competition, alternate sources of funding, tech transfer/licensing, and commercialization. Also to be featured are incubator programs and their services in Montgomery, Frederick and Prince George’s Counties. This informative seminar will acquaint you with resources and programs that will help lay out a strategic approach for your company to take it to the next level. Register today as space is limited.

The Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) Program provides funding for university-based research projects that help Maryland companies develop technology-based products, combining the creative expertise of Maryland’s university faculty with the drive of the state’s entrepreneurs and companies. Up to $100,000 per year is available for each project.

Tue, April 4, 2017 7:00 AM – 11:00 AM EDT Add to Calendar LOCATION

Hyatt Regency Bethesda, One Bethesda Metro Center (7400 Wisconsin Ave) Bethesda, MD 20814

The Big Idea CONNECTpreneur Spring Forum BETHESDA April 4, 2017

First time attendees use code “LORE” for 40 percent off!

“The Best Networking Event in the MidAtlantic.”

This will be our 23rd consecutive SOLD OUT event over the last 5 years! Over 70% of previous attendees surveyed say that CONNECTpreneur is the “Number One” tech and investor event in the Mid-Atlantic region!

DCInno calls CONNECTpreneur “The Best Networking Event in DC” and a “NETWORKING JACKPOT” of the Region’s TOP Entrepreneurs, Business Leaders, CXOs, Angels, and VCs.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM

Old Town Pour House, 212 Ellington Blvd, Gaithersburg, MD 20878

The Maryland Tech Council (MTC) is hosting our inaugural Young Professionals Society event at Old Town Pour House in Gaithersburg. Join us for a networking cocktail reception to meet and mingle with other young professionals in Maryland.

The Maryland Tech Council’s Young Professionals Society advances young professionals through leadership and professional development, networking opportunities, educational events and community outreach. The society strengthens the life science and technology communities in Maryland by providing an opportunity for collaboration among these two industries.

The Mid-Atlantic Life Sciences Showcase is quickly becoming the show to attend. We have had overwhelming interest in this show and we’ve made improvements again this year. The show features:

Over 75 exhibitors expected from all areas of the biotech and pharmaceutical industry including: universities, manufacturing, research, government, suppliers, and more.

It’s fair to say we’ve entered a new era in biotech and pharma. Whether it’s diagnostics, drug development or medtech; informatics, mathematics and machine learning are marching their way in. Biology is being digitized. Big Data is taking population-wide information and distilling it down for treatment plans at an individualized scale.

The science within startups is evolving.

On an afternoon in early February, Richard May, the head of a new Baltimore nonprofit, stands braced against the wind and sketches out a vision for West Baltimore. It begins here, on a blighted section of North Avenue not far from the Maryland Institute College of Art, where a graveyard of a public housing project, unoccupied for almost two years, is currently being torn down.

A growing tech industry is often considered the ultimate sign of a healthy local economy. By that measure, the Bay Area still stands at the top of the heap in the United States, but our survey of the metropolitan areas with the strongest tech job growth turns up some surprising places not usually thought of as tech meccas.

The Da Vinci Surgical System is a set of four robotic arms that are controlled by a surgeon, mimicking and miniaturizing their hand gestures.

It allows for more precision and dexterity, while reducing blood loss and tissue damage.

When Americans think about U.S. leadership in the world, they often think of military power, famous presidents, or economic achievement. But they might be less likely to name an area in which the United States has led the world for decades: science.

From lifesaving vaccines for devastating diseases like smallpox and polio, to novel materials like semiconductors and superconductors, to robotic rovers that can explore Mars, science has made possible discoveries that revolutionized the world, and much of it started right here in the United States.

Amid the uncertainty surrounding immigration laws, five of the city’s colleges are teaming up in an effort to help foreign student entrepreneurs stay in Chicago to build their startups.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to announce this afternoon that Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, the Illinois Institute of Technology, Loyola University Chicago and Northwestern University each will adopt global entrepreneur-in-residence programs.

Wed, Mar 29, 2017 2:00 PM – 4:30 PM EDT

USDA ARS and the USDA SBIR program formed a partnership to encourage USDA SBIR applicants to develop research collaborations with ARS scientists and/or to license ARS technologies. The purpose is to increase the likelihood of success by providing both money and technologies to small U.S. businesses. The relevant language in the SBIR’s “Request for Application” states: “Additional factors that will be considered in the review process include whether an application involves a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with a USDA laboratory, or a license to a USDA technology, or is a resubmission.”

This webinar will include an overview of the USDA SBIR program and crafting a competitive SBIR proposal. Also an overview of ARS and how to develop a successful research collaboration (CRADA) with an ARS scientist and/or license an ARS technology will be discussed. The webinar will address coordinating the statement of works in an ARS CRADA and a USDA SBIR proposal.

Bill Schmidt, Managing Partner of Cultivation Capital’s Life Science Fund, is optimistic about the future of Life Science investment in St. Louis. He said, More capital is flowing in St. Louis, with us, BioGenerator, RiverVest Venture Partners, Lewis & Clark Ventures, Ascension Ventures, iSelect Fund, St. Louis Arch Angels, Missouri Technology Corporation, and others. And, we are starting to get attention from upmarket VC firms on the coasts, which is great, as our companies are going to need it.”

For industries that depend on innovation, sustaining it is a constant challenge. This is particularly the case in biopharmaceuticals, where turning molecules into medicines is notoriously fraught with risk, and failure.

When one of us (Vivek) and his team launched Roivant Sciences in 2014 and began developing treatments for Alzheimer’s disease — they were determined to learn from the pharma industry’s innovation issues and build a more sustainable innovation engine. After extensive assessment, they settled on two initiatives: realigning incentives for employees and systematically introducing outside talent and practices.

I’m in the process of writing an e-book for publication this summer called A Bold Approach to Grants Research. This book encourages grantseekers to challenge their thinking when it comes to identifying funders for a particular program or project.

I am writing this book because I think we often get stuck in a rut when it comes to seeking support. We tend to drift toward those grantmakers who have supported us in the past, or grantmakers we think should have supported us! We rely on the regional community foundation, or the family fund that is most active in our area. We turn to those two or three businesses that seem to support everything (even if it is a small amount). It is hard to break out of this mold not only because we are familiar with these grantmakers, so approaching them seems easier, but also because we really don’t know where else to look or how to think about funding in a different way.

March 23rd

Join us at the Sinai Hospital BioIncubator in Baltimore on March 23rd for 2 great events. First hear from Yair Flicker, CEO of SmartLogic, who will share advice on hiring your first 10 employees. Then, stick around for some great networking at the BioBuzz event. Come for one, or come for both, just don’t miss it! 

Event Details:

4-5:30 pm: Distinguised Speakers Series featuring Yair Flicker

Topic: How Not to Hire Your First 10 Employees: Lessons from the Trenches (Sinai Hospital Board Room)

5:30-7:30 pm: BioBuzz Networking @ the Sinai BioIncubator

Location: Sinai Cafeteria

If you are an emerging biotech or life science company, the Sinai Hospital BioIncubator could be the ideal solution for your laboratory needs.

Their Mission as a business incubator is to improve human health by bringing together emerging businesses, innovative technologies and leading physicians. The future of healthcare is here and they invite you to be a part of it.

March 23rd

One of the most important and difficult jobs for startup founders, entrepreneurs, and CEOs is raising money. This workshop is built on the foundations of Pitch Creator, an online self-paced learning resource for CEOs to develop their pitch. Join us for an in person experience to ask questions, get feedback, meet the experts and build your strongest pitch. Over a two-part series we will guide you through an efficient process of developing an effective pitch, while also explaining the “why” behind many of the topics so you will be able to adapt your presentation to your audience and over time as your business changes.

NextGen Venture Partners, a young, Washington, D.C.-based venture firm that’s quarterbacked by a handful of investors but fueled financially by a network of hundreds of part-time investors who help with its portfolio, has raised $22 million for its debut fund. (This if you don’t count a $1 million pool of capital that it raised from its network in 2015.)

We had a quick chat with Jon Bassett, one of the firm’s five partners, late last week to talk about what NextGen is trying to create. That conversation has been edited for length.

Many global cities want to be named the next tech innovation hub. But who’s really in the running?

It’s a question on which there are myriad perspectives and theories — the latest taking the form of a survey by professional service company KPMG. The company recently released part one of it’s yearly technology industry innovation survey (now in its fifth year) — a survey of over 800 “global technology industry leaders” in which KPMG asks about the changing landscape of tech. Part one the survey explores “the rise of new ecosystems of incubators, accelerators, and venture capital alongside government incentives across the world.”

The Next Step: VC Investment Update

Entrepreneurs, investors and others: Join the NVTC Small Business and Entrepreneur Committee for the second part of this practical series on raising investment capital. This expert panel will feature some of the most active VCs investing in Greater Washington region companies. The panelists represent active venture investors who have participated in venture rounds in the last year in Greater Washington and are looking to make more investments. The panel will discuss their recent experiences, their desired investee profiles and offer practical advice on raising venture stage capital.

Moderator:

Norm Snyder, CPA, Partner, Aronson LLC

Speakers:

J.S. Gamble, Co-Founder, Blu Ventures Todd Klein, Managing Director and CIO, SWaN & Legend Ventures Adam VeVerka, Director- Business Development, NewSpring Capital Kristin Gunther, Vice President, Revolution Growth

REGENXBIO Inc. (RGNX), a leading biotechnology company focused on the development, commercialization and licensing of recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy based on its proprietary NAV® Technology Platform, today announced that Kenneth T. Mills, President and Chief Executive Officer, will present at the Cowen and Company 37th Annual Health Care Conference on Wednesday, March 8, 2017 at 10:40 a.m. ET at the Boston Marriott Copley Place in Boston. In addition, REGENXBIO representatives will be holding one-on-one meetings at the conference.

A live webcast of the presentation can be accessed in the Investors section of REGENXBIO’s website at www.regenxbio.com. An archived replay of the webcast will be available on the same website for approximately 30 days following the presentation.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM

National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) 9700 Great Seneca Hwy Rockville, MD 20850

Recent, high-profile hotel hacks have brought increasing attention to the hospitality sector and its cybersecurity challenges. While hospitality organizations have long supported the internal flow of information and data (e.g. allowing a hotel guest to charge dinner from the hotel restaurant to his/her room), technological improvements and customer demands have pushed hotels to offer increasing amenities, such as free Wi-Fi or mobile check-in. Through collaboration with the hospitality industry, the NCCoE is developing an example solution to help organizations strengthen the security of their property management system to better protect the business against network intrusion, data breach, fraud loss, and damage to reputation, while continuing to allow customers and guests to utilize and appreciate a hotel’s technological amenities. Join us for a lively discussion on the unique trends and challenges to improving cybersecurity in the hospitality sector.

Wed, April 5, 2017 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT

Institute for Bioscience & Biotechnology Research 9600 Gudelsky DriveRockville, MD, Maryland 20850

From patient engagement to data analytics, the Health IT space is one of the hottest sectors in healthcare today. Join our next SoPE event and learn from developers, investors and entrepreneurs how to best get your innovative idea from inception to consumers while anticipating and avoiding the common pitfalls you are bound to encounter along the way.

Moderator: Jeffrey N. Hausfeld MD, MBA, Founder and Chairman – Society of Physician Entprepreneurs, Chairman of the Board and Chief Medical Officer – BioFactura, Inc.

You thought the Shark Tank was tough? The second annual BioHealth Capital Region Crab Trap is now accepting applications!

Submit your application for a chance to be named the company with the most commercial potential at the BioHealth Capital Region Forum.

Grand Prize:  $10,000, Incubation Space in Prince William County, VA or Montgomery County, MD, Business Mentoring

Deadline for entries is March 31st – Finalists will be announced by April 7th

The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) today launched DrugCostFacts.org, a new interactive web tool designed to help healthcare stakeholders gain a better understanding of the true facts surrounding drug costs, spending and value.

The site features a series of commonly asked questions—ranging from “Why are some drugs expensive?” to “What role do PBMs, insurance companies and wholesalers play in determining what patients pay for their drugs?”—and then answers these questions using infographics, videos and interactive tools. The site also has additional research and reading materials for those who want to dive deeper into these issues. The tool is mobile responsive, allowing users to access information on their phones and tablets.

Scott Gottlieb, a former deputy commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the agency, according to an emailed statement from the White House.

Gottlieb, 44, served in several senior positions at the FDA during the George W. Bush administration. He has talked extensively about how to lower the cost of prescription drugs by modernizing the agency’s approval process and speeding cheaper generic competitors to market.

American University’s Business In the Capital Initiative (BCI), in cooperation with BioHealth Innovation, Johns Hopkins University, MedImmune and area governments and universities, is conducting a study of BioHealth Exports in the Washington Region. As part of the study, BCI is seeking input from area life science companies which are either currently exporting products or services– or are not exporting but would like to do so in the near future. The study goals are to increase exports of life science products and services into the global health care markets, and to identify and remedy the barriers to entry to the global healthcare markets for BioHealth Capital Region companies.

To make this exercise a success, we are seeking life science companies in Maryland, Virginia and D.C. to participate in a survey. Participating companies will be interviewed either in person or via voice. Confidentiality of companies and the information they choose to provide is assured. To participate, contact Prof. Erran Carmel at carmel@american.edu or 202-885-1928.

This invitation-only event is free for executive level biotech leaders and is presented by BioHealth Innovation, VirginiaBio, Paragon Bioservices, Inova, University System of Maryland and MedImmune/AstraZeneca. Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC set the bar high for biotech innovation. So please join us for our Annual BioHealth Capital Region Forum that will highlight the accomplishments of today and chart our successes of tomorrow.

We are excited to bring you an exceptional line up of speakers. The program will feature sessions that focus on Advancing Science and Accelerating Innovation.

At University of California Berkeley researchers have developed an innovative new way of delivering vaccines that may one day be an option over scary, and slightly painful, needle injections. The MucoJet device is a pill that, when pushed against the cheek, releases its cargo in the form of a microjet. The pressure generated is enough to push large molecules through the mucosal layer and into tissue that’s usually highly concentrated with immune cells.

The conviction that competitive differentiation will require effective digital initiatives has led many life-sciences companies to create a new leadership role, chief digital officer (CDO), to guide their digital initiatives.

To understand how these leaders see the digital future and how they are managing for success, we spoke to CDOs and their equivalents at ten pharma companies. These conversations suggest three imperatives for digital efforts: focus on the team applying the tools, not on the tools themselves; make bold, disruptive bets; and optimize the portfolio of initiatives to achieve company priorities, while taking finite resources into account.

The Illinois Science and Technology Coalition (ISTC) today released new data showing record growth in entrepreneurial activity at the state’s universities as part of its Illinois Innovation Index, which reports on the key metrics of the state’s innovation economy. The report found that during the past five academic years, students and faculty at Illinois universities created 804 startups through technology licensing, entrepreneurship programs, competitions and other university initiatives. A record number of these startups, nearly 500, are also staying in the state.

USDA ARS and the USDA SBIR program formed a partnership to encourage USDA SBIR applicants to develop research collaborations with ARS scientists and/or to license ARS technologies. The purpose is to increase the likelihood of success by providing both money and technologies to small U.S. businesses. The relevant language in the SBIR’s “Request for Application” states: “Additional factors that will be considered in the review process include whether an application involves a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with a USDA laboratory, or a license to a USDA technology, or is a resubmission.”

This webinar will include an overview of the USDA SBIR program and crafting a competitive SBIR proposal. Also an overview of ARS and how to develop a successful research collaboration (CRADA) with an ARS scientist and/or license an ARS technology will be discussed. The webinar will address coordinating the statement of works in an ARS CRADA and a USDA SBIR proposal.

When Subra Suresh was tapped to lead the National Science Foundation (NSF), in 2010, he saw that many of the pathbreaking discoveries developed through the agency’s grants weren’t finding their way to the marketplace, so he sought to foster better links between government and industry.

This, of course, was not an entirely new idea. Over the years, there have been numerous efforts, ranging from the Bayh-Dole Act, of 1980, to numerous initiatives to revamp technology transfer offices within government agencies, but nothing really seemed able to speed new discoveries out of the labs and into the marketplace.

Knowledge of an individual’s skin condition is important for pressure ulcer prevention. Detecting early changes in skin through perfusion, oxygen saturation values, and pressure on tissue and subsequent therapeutic intervention could increase patients’ quality of life drastically. However, most existing sensing options create additional risk of ulcer development due to further pressure on and chafing of the skin. Here, as a first component, we present a flexible, photonic textile-based sensor for the continuous monitoring of the heartbeat and blood flow. Polymer optical fibres (POFs) are melt-spun continuously and characterized optically and mechanically before being embroidered. The resulting sensor shows flexibility when embroidered into a moisture-wicking fabric, and withstands disinfection with hospital-type laundry cycles. Additionally, the new sensor textile shows a lower static coefficient of friction (COF) than conventionally used bedsheets in both dry and sweaty conditions versus a skin model. Finally, we demonstrate the functionality of our sensor by measuring the heartbeat at the forehead in reflection mode and comparing it with commercial finger photoplethysmography for several subjects. Our results will allow the development of flexible, individualized, and fully textile-integrated wearable sensors for sensitive skin conditions and general long-term monitoring of patients with risk for pressure ulcer.

The Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM) today announced the release of its 2016 annual data report, offering an in-depth look at trends and metrics for the cell therapy, gene therapy, tissue engineering and broader global regenerative medicine sector.

Using data provided by ARM’s data partner Informa and compiled and analyzed by ARM’s staff, the report details industry-specific statistics and trends from more than 730 leading cell therapy, gene therapy, tissue engineering and other regenerative medicine companies worldwide. Key features of the report include total financings for the sector, partnerships and other deals, clinical trial information, major clinical data events, current legislative and regulatory priorities and ARM’s strategic priorities for 2017.

One of the most important and difficult jobs for startup founders, entrepreneurs, and CEOs is raising money. This workshop is built on the foundations of Pitch Creator, an online self-paced learning resource for CEOs to develop their pitch. Join us for an in person experience to ask questions, get feedback, meet the experts and build your strongest pitch. Over a two-part series we will guide you through an efficient process of developing an effective pitch, while also explaining the “why” behind many of the topics so you will be able to adapt your presentation to your audience and over time as your business changes.

Objectives

Participants will:

Develop a concise and impactful opening sentence to communicate what is most important about their business

Create an Investment Summary (“Read Me” pitch) to provide to investors in advance of presenting

Understand that the Investment Summary is a highly distilled business plan that covers the topics potential investors are most interested in, and serves to summarize that information in a way that makes it easy for investors to quickly read and comprehend key aspects of your venture

Formalize a Foundation Slide Deck (“Listen to Me” pitch) in a purposeful order that makes the most sense to the investor

Understand the “why” of each slide and the order they are in

Join us at the Sinai Hospital BioIncubator in Baltimore on March 23rd for 2 great events. First hear from Yair Flicker, CEO of SmartLogic, who will share advice on hiring your first 10 employees. Then, stick around for some great networking at the BioBuzz event. Come for one, or come for both, just don’t miss it!

Event Details: 4-5:30 pm: Distinguised Speakers Series featuring Yair Flicker Topic: How Not to Hire Your First 10 Employees: Lessons from the Trenches (Sinai Hospital Board Room)

5:30-7:30 pm: BioBuzz Networking @ the Sinai BioIncubator Location: Sinai Cafeteria

American University’s Business In the Capital Initiative (BCI), in cooperation with BioHealth Innovation, Johns Hopkins University, MedImmune and area governments and universities, is conducting a study of BioHealth Exports in the Washington Region. As part of the study, BCI is seeking input from area life science companies which are either currently exporting products or services– or are not exporting but would like to do so in the near future. The study goals are to increase exports of life science products and services into the global health care markets, and to identify and remedy the barriers to entry to the global healthcare markets for BioHealth Capital Region companies.

To make this exercise a success, we are seeking life science companies in Maryland, Virginia and D.C. to participate in a survey. Participating companies will be interviewed either in person or via voice. Confidentiality of companies and the information they choose to provide is assured. To participate, contact Prof. Erran Carmel at carmel@american.edu or 202-885-1928.

You thought the Shark Tank was tough? The second annual BioHealth Capital Region Crab Trap is now accepting applications!

Submit your application for a chance to be named the company with the most commercial potential at the BioHealth Capital Region Forum.

Grand Prize:  $10,000, Incubation Space in Prince William County, VA or Montgomery County, MD, Business Mentoring

Deadline for entries is March 31st – Finalists will be announced by April 7th

Submit an Application »

Just Confirmed: Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to Present Keynote April 19th

This invitation-only event is free for executive level biotech leaders and is presented by BioHealth Innovation, VirginiaBio, Paragon Bioservices, Inova, University System of Maryland and MedImmune/AstraZeneca. Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC set the bar high for biotech innovation. So please join us for our Annual BioHealth Capital Region Forum that will highlight the accomplishments of today and chart our successes of tomorrow.

We are excited to bring you an exceptional line up of speakers. The program will feature sessions that focus on Advancing Science and Accelerating Innovation.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017 | 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

University of Maryland: College Park, MD. Jeong H. Kim Engineering Bldg. (#225), Room 1107: Kay Boardroom In-person attendance only!

This one-day event will highlight the latest trends in medical devices and technologies and feature resources in the state that help bring products from invention to market. Topics include bioelectronics, cybersecurity for medical devices, convergence of devices and drugs, big data, robotic prosthetics, and additive manufacturing applications. Organizations representing Maryland innovation, entrepreneurial, funding, regulatory, and product scale-up resources will be there to discuss ways that they work with the medical device community.

This event is sponsored by the University of Maryland Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices, Maryland Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the Maryland Department of Commerce, Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC), FLC Mid-Atlantic Region, National Institute for Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership , and TEDCO.

You and your colleagues are invited for a sneak peek at the country’s largest, most advanced, mobile STEM laboratory! After five years of planning and eight months of construction, MdBio’s new mobile laboratory, the Mobile eXploration Lab has finally arrived in Maryland and we are ready to show it off!

Please join us for an open house onboard the MXLab. MdBio’s team will be available to give tours of the nearly 1,000-square foot facility, answer questions, and show off the newest in mobile education tools and technology.

Tuesday, March 7 | 4-6 PM

Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus

9601 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850 (corner of Key West Avenue & Broschart Road)

Ample free parking is available.

State and local governments invested $3.8 billion in R&D at institutions of higher education in FY 2015, with the top ten states accounting for $2.3 billion – roughly 59.4 percent of overall spending, according to an SSTI analysis of NSF data. From FY 2011 to FY 2015, total spending remained relatively unchanged (0.1 percent decrease). Over that same period, colleges and universities in 25 states reported increased expenditures from state governments, while 25 and the District of Columbia reported declines. This edition of Useful Stats examines how institutions of higher education report changing state and local investments in R&D.

Celebrate Your Organization’s Excellence in 2017!

Each year, UEDA members compete for our prestigious Awards of Excellence, which recognize outstanding, leading-edge higher education projects and initiatives promoting economic development and engagement. Never content to rest on our laurels, however, last year saw a significant revamping of the Awards program to reflect UEDA’s ongoing research on economic development and engagement in higher education. We hope you will join us!

A prototype online platform that uses real-time visualization and viral genome data to track the spread of global pathogens such as Zika and Ebola is the grand prize winner of the Open Science Prize (link is external). The international team competition is an initiative by the National Institutes of Health, in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). The winning team, Real-time Evolutionary Tracking for Pathogen Surveillance and Epidemiological Investigation (link is external), created its nextstrain.org (link is external) prototype to pool data from researchers across the globe, perform rapid phylogenetic analysis, and post the results on the platform’s website. The winning team will receive $230,000 to fully develop their prototype with NIH awarding $115,000 to the U.S. members of the winning team, and the Wellcome Trust and HHMI also contributing $115,000 to the winning team.

Imagine you are a local technology startup looking to manufacture a tiny air quality sensor that can be incorporated into an iPhone to dramatically improve public health. This is a potential billion-dollar market, but you need access to specialized and expensive semiconductor testing and evaluation labs to scale up the technology.

Large semiconductor manufacturers aren’t located in Maryland, so where do you go? California’s Silicon Valley? New York and its semiconductor cluster in Albany?

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), an urban office REIT uniquely focused on collaborative life science and technology campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, today announced that Alexandria LaunchLabs® has selected a leading-edge group of life science startups as its first member companies. Alexandria LaunchLabs is New York City’s first-in-class, highly affordable, full-service wet laboratory and office co-working space, which provides unique access to Alexandria’s early-stage investment capital. Alexandria LaunchLabs’ member companies will also have full access to Alexandria’s world-class network and a highly amenitized campus, including a state-of-the-art conference, event and meeting space; two farm-to-table restaurants and a fully equipped fitness center.

In addition, Alexandria Venture Investments, its strategic venture capital arm and one of New York City’s largest providers of early-stage life science venture capital, made its first New York City-based investment of 2017, leading the Series A financing for Applied Therapeutics Inc. Applied Therapeutics, a biotech company with technology licensed from Columbia University, is focused on developing transformative drugs in areas of high unmet medical need.

Join us at the Sinai Hospital BioIncubator in Baltimore on March 23rd for 2 great events. First hear from Yair Flicker, CEO of SmartLogic, who will share advice on hiring your first 10 employees. Then, stick around for some great networking at the BioBuzz event. Come for one, or come for both, just don’t miss it!

Event Details: 4-5:30 pm: Distinguised Speakers Series featuring Yair Flicker Topic: How Not to Hire Your First 10 Employees: Lessons from the Trenches (Sinai Hospital Board Room)

5:30-7:30 pm: BioBuzz Networking @ the Sinai BioIncubator Location: Sinai Cafeteria

The George Washington University and the Technology Commercialization Office are pleased to invite you to the 2017 Innovation Competition!

The Technology Commercialization Office (TCO) is showcasing promising and impactful GW research with commercial potential. This event provides a forum for idea sharing between GW researchers, entrepreneurs, and members of the venture community, as well as the opportunity to present technologies available for licensing to a panel of experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and industry professionals. Finalists will pitch their technologies for a chance to win $30,000 in prizes!

In this historic city by the sea in northeast Brazil, burn patients look as if they’ve emerged from the waves. They are covered in fish skin — specifically strips of sterilized tilapia.

Doctors here are testing the skin of the popular fish as a bandage for second- and third-degree burns. The innovation arose from an unmet need. Animal skin has long been used in the treatment of burns in developed countries. But Brazil lacks the human skin, pig skin, and artificial alternatives that are widely available in the US.

The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) is now accepting submissions for its 2017 edition of the Federal Laboratories & State and Local Governments: Partners for Technology Transfer Success publication.

The State & Local Governments (S&LG) publication showcases the significant regional value that comes when state and local government entities and federal laboratories form strategic partnerships. Help us raise awareness about the impact federal labs can have on their surrounding areas by submitting your laboratory’s S&LG success stories for publication!

The FLC S&LG Committee encourages multiple success story submissions per region or agency. For examples of previously published success stories, view the 2015 S&LG publication.

There was a remarkable moment during Donald Trump’s historic address to Congress last night. The president, attacking what he called a “slow and burdensome” regulatory process at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), highlighted a heart-rending story about Megan Crowley, a young woman suffering from a rare medical disorder who was among the speech’s attendees. (Notably, the address was delivered on the night of Rare Disease Day.)

The chunk of the federal budget that includes most of the U.S. government’s spending on basic science would shrink by 10.5% in 2018 under a plan outlined today by President Donald Trump and administration officials.

It is unlikely that all civilian science budgets would see cuts under the proposal—and some could even get increases. But the spending blueprint, which would have to be approved by Congress, highlights the financial pressures that civilian research agencies will face as Trump and the Republican majority in both houses of Congress attempt to carry out campaign promises to raise defense spending while reining in the rest of federal spending.

Anyone who has lost a loved one to pancreatic cancer knows the devastating speed with which it can affect an otherwise healthy person. TED Fellow and biomedical entrepreneur Laura Indolfi is developing a revolutionary way to treat this complex and lethal disease: a drug delivery device that acts as a cage at the site of a tumor, preventing it from spreading and delivering medicine only where it’s needed. “We are hoping that one day we can make pancreatic cancer a curable disease,” she says.

The NHS has been a godsend to the British people since its introduction in 1948 – with the free healthcare it has provided ensuring hundreds of millions of people have been able to live longer and healthier lives.

Such is the impact of the scheme, a tribute was paid to it during the opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympic Games – an honour reserved for only the most impactful and important moments in a host nation’s history through the ages.

Of all five scenarios proposed by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker for the way forward after Brexit, the real scenario is Number 3: “Those who want more do more,” which is another way of saying that the EU will be multi-speed, EURACTIV.com was told.

The Commission published today its White Paper (1 March) on the future of the EU-post-Brexit.

The Daily Record has named BioHealth Innovation Inc., (BHI) President and CEO Richard Bendis a 2017 Influential Marylander. Mr. Bendis is one of 51 Influential Marylanders who were selected by the publication for their significant contributions to their respective fields and leadership in the state.

“It’s an honor to be chosen as an Influential Marylander by The Daily Record. BHI has been working with our partners and other key stakeholders to help make Maryland a leader in the BioHealth Capital Region,” said Mr. Bendis. “Our success in supporting over 800 companies, scientists, and entrepreneurs since 2012 is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the entire BHI team.”

Click here to view all of the 2017 Influential Marylanders Honorees.

You thought the Shark Tank was tough? The second annual BioHealth Capital Region Crab Trap is now accepting applications!

Submit your application for a chance to be named the company with the most commercial potential at the BioHealth Capital Region Forum.

Deadline for entries is March 24 – Finalists will be announced by April 6 – Regional Biotech Forum Event: Panel Presentation is on April 20

Apply Now!

SSTI submitted a letter to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) in response to a request for information on the Institute’s investments in early translational research. The letter recommends partnerships and initiatives NHLBI could develop to improve identification of commercializable discoveries, strengthen business and technical development, and facilitate the scaling of innovations and spin-outs. These suggestions are grounded in examples of work by SSTI members. Read the full letter on ssti.org.

On March 1, FastForward 1812 will welcome its first lab tenants. The 15,000-square-foot space boasts BSL2 wet labs; cell culture microscopy and cold storage rooms; shared scientific instruments and more.

Tuesday, March 7th 8:00am—5:00pm

This one-day event will highlight the latest trends in medical devices and technologies and feature resources in the state that help bring products from invention to market. Topics include bioelectronics, cybersecurity for medical devices, convergence of devices and drugs, big data, robotic prosthetics, and additive manufacturing applications. Organizations representing Maryland innovation, entrepreneurial, funding, regulatory, and product scale-up resources will be there to discuss ways that they work with the medical device community.

This event is sponsored by the University of Maryland Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices, Maryland Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the Maryland Department of Commerce, Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC), FLC Mid-Atlantic Region, National Institute for Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership , and TEDCO.

April 12-May 24

The Angel Venture Forum is changing the way we meet and screen companies!

Over the past few years, angel investors have been placing more capital into fewer companies. Only the top 5%-7% of companies that pitch investors actually receive the funds they’re looking for. Entrepreneurs educated in the capital formation process have the best chance of success. The Angel Venture Forum is one of the top educational series on the topic.

The Maryland Department of Commerce; the University of Maryland, Baltimore; Hood College; Washington College; and Stevenson University have endowed a total of $8.3 million in four new research professorships. The endowments were made through the Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative (MEI), a state program created to spur basic and applied research in scientific and technical fields at the colleges and universities. The schools raised $4.3 million in private funding for each chair and Maryland Commerce approved matching grants of $4 million to support the endowments.

“The groundbreaking research coming out of these colleges and universities is addressing key issues impacting our communities today, from cancer research to sustainable food systems and biofuels,” said Maryland Commerce Secretary Mike Gill. “We are proud to partner with these world-class institutions to keep our state on the cutting edge of technology and discovery.”

Symbiomix today announced it has hired David L. Stern, MBA, a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive with over 20 years of experience leading the commercialization of treatments in women’s health and fertility, as Chief Executive Officer of the company.

Mr. Stern joins Symbiomix on the heels of the company’s recent submission of a New Drug Application (NDA) with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its drug candidate Solosec™, an innovative antibiotic designed to treat BV. The company hired Taunia Markvicka, PharmD, MBA, as Chief Commercial Officer in 2016 and has been rapidly preparing for the commercialization of Solosec™.

INNOVA-CON 4.0 is bringing its members another great opportunity to meet in person and connect with luminaries in the innovation profession. The meeting, at Booz Allen Hamilton’s awesome Innovation center in Washington D.C. is this years location. Content will focus on how to use strategies and methods of innovation to create value. In addition, for the first time this year, we will be live-streaming the event for those who do not have a budget to get to Washington.

For the first time ever, the World Health Organization has drawn up a list of the highest priority needs for new antibiotics — marching orders, it hopes, for the pharmaceutical industry.

The list, which was released Monday, enumerates 12 bacterial threats, grouping them into three categories: critical, high, and medium.

Innovative solutions to wound care, technologies to relieve a strained health care system, a pill that could reverse type 2 diabetes. The path to developing and bringing these and other discoveries and innovations to market runs through the FastForward 1812 innovation hub.

Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures opened the 23,000-square-foot flagship space shortly after New Year’s Day. The first tenants began occupying office and co-working spaces the third week of January, and lab tenants will move in March 1. Startups have leased much of the available space already, and what remains has been strategically left empty to accommodate growth among the 18 startup tenants and the arrival of new startups.

Some big ideas seem to appear out of nowhere, but in 2008 Chuan He deliberately went looking for one. The US National Institutes of Health had just launched grants to support high-risk, high-impact projects, and He, a chemist at the University of Chicago in Illinois, wanted to apply. But he needed a good pitch.

He had been studying a family of proteins that repair damaged DNA, and he began to suspect that these enzymes might also act on RNA. By a stroke of luck, he ran into molecular biologist Tao Pan, who had been investigating specific chemical marks, called methyl groups, that are present on RNAs. The pair worked in the same building at the University of Chicago, and began meeting regularly. From those conversations, their big idea took shape.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017 3pm to 5pm Salisbury University – Academic Commons

How do you know if you’ve created something unique? What’s the best way to protect your ideas? These questions and more will be answered during a free Intellectual Property Workshop. Meet IP professionals and entrepreneurs. Learn the latest intellectual property and innovation protection strategies as well as tips on everything from trademarks and copyrights to patents and trade secrets.

Get a sneak peek of the country’s largest, most advanced mobile STEM lab. Please join us for an Open House onboard MdBio’s new mobile laboratory, the Mobile eXploration Lab.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017 |  4 – 6 PM  

Johns Hopkins University Montgomery Parking Lot

9601 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850

Corner of Key West Avenue & Broschart Road. Ample free parking available.

March 14-15, 2017, Washington, DC

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), in collaboration with the Chamber of Digital Commerce announces a health standards and data innovation Code-a-Thon. Code-a-Thon contestants will use open source distributed ledger technology and health-specific standards to address one of the following health IT Tracks:

The Big Idea CONNECTpreneur Forum is a Community of over 5000 CEOs, Entrepreneurs, VCs and angels, CXOs and other business leaders in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

Each quarterly CONNECTpreneur Forum mashes up 400+ top founders, investors and business leaders for a morning breakfast event featuring awesome networking, newsmaking speakers, and a showcase of 7-8 exciting early stage companies.

This UNIQUE EVENT is like NONE OTHER in our region, due to the high quality of our attendees and participants, as well as our programming and unprecedented networking.

Most of the attendees are INVITATION ONLY, and we strictly limit service provider participation in order to maximize the experience for our Attendees and Sponsors.

Immunomic Therapeutics’ is pleased to announce five finalists for the Cancer Discovery Incubator Award.

Immunomic’s unique incubator award offers the selected innovator an opportunity to develop a proof-of-concept experiment in their laboratories. Additionally, the winner will be gifted funding, lab equipment and a unique mentorship with the Immunomic executive team for one year. The goal is to empower the innovator to conduct proof-of-concept experiments and ultimately, help the winner attract funding, partnerships, and fuel growth.

Gaithersburg-based NexImmune, a biotech developing immunotherapy treatments for cancer, has been acquired by a consortium of big-name biotech veterans and investors.

MagBio Genomics, Inc. announces the launch of its new Blood STASIS™ 21- ccfDNA tube for venous whole blood collection and room temperature stabilization of circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA).

The Blood STASIS 21-ccfDNA is a direct draw whole blood collection system that contains a proprietary reagent that prevents post-collection release of genomic DNA from white blood cells, resulting in efficient and accurate recovery of ccfDNA with minimal genomic DNA (gDNA) contamination leading to more informative and quality data.

Thursday, Feb 23 Vigilant Bioservices Open House (UMB Biopark) Come explore our Biorepository then join us for the UMB BioPark Holiday Happy Hour! Tours are from 1:00-5:00pm

Vigilant Bioservices provides GMP storage solutions for Biotech organizations, including outsourced temperature controlled storage and risk mitigation/business continuity services.

If you demand a return on the cost of quality, we offer peace of mind knowing your biomaterials are safe.

OncoImmune, Inc. today announced that is has closed on a $15.0 million Series A round of fundraising led by 3E Bioventures Capital (“3E”).

The new capital will be used primarily to develop a novel clinical stage asset targeting the CD24-Siglec pathway that regulates host inflammatory response to tissue injuries, which has broad implications in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, cancer and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). OncoImmune will continue clinical testing of its lead clinical product, CD24Fc, in a Phase II trial for the prevention of acute GvHD following myeloablative allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant. CD24Fc has received orphan drug designation for GvHD in both the US and Europe. The funding will also support development of other immuno-oncology (IO) assets with a focus on solid tumor targeting monoclonal antibodies, cancer vaccines, and immunotherapy-related adverse events.

You thought the Shark Tank was tough? The second annual BioHealth Capital Region Crab Trap is now accepting applications!

Submit your application for a chance to be named the company with the most commercial potential at the BioHealth Capital Region Forum.

Deadline for entries is March 24 – Finalists will be announced by April 6 – Regional Biotech Forum Event: Panel Presentation is on April 20

Apply Now!

Get a sneak peek of the country’s largest, most advanced mobile STEM lab. Please join us for an Open House onboard MdBio’s new mobile laboratory, the Mobile eXploration Lab.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017 |  4 – 6 PM  

Johns Hopkins University Montgomery Parking Lot

9601 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850

Corner of Key West Avenue & Broschart Road. Ample free parking available.

Join Sinai Hospital BioIncubator on Thursday, February 23, 2017, for the second seminar of our Distinguished Speaker Series, sponsored by TEDCO. Keynote speaker Jeff Gibbs, a member of our Innovation Council, will be speaking about the FDA and regulatory affairs.

Event information: When: Thursday, February 23, 2017 from 4:00-5:30pm Location: 2401 W. Belvedere Ave., Baltimore, MD 21215 Room: Phyllis and Leonard J. Attman Board Room (Sinai Hospital Board Room) Parking: Please park in the general hospital parking visitor’s lot, located outside the main entrance of the hospital. This will give you the easiest access to the Phyllis and Leonard J. Attman Board Room.

About The Speaker

Mr. Gibbs is a Director at Hyman, Phelps & McNamara, P.C., Washington, DC, the largest law firm specializing in Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issues. Prior to entering private practice, he served as Associate Chief Counsel for Enforcement at FDA. Mr. Gibbs is currently the chairman of the Food and Drug Law Institute, and he previously served as a member of the George Mason University Human Subjects Review Board. He has written and spoken extensively on FDA issues. Mr. Gibbs graduated from Princeton University and New York University School of Law.

The Washington DC/Baltimore Chapter of Women In Bio is presenting a program to learn about how bioscience discoveries move from the bench to the market. The route from discovery to market is not linear. Our panelists will relay their experiences with clinical trials, manufacturing, and marketing and will discuss how each of these aspects interacts along the way. Whether you are looking to enter the world of bench to market or are just curious about the process, this will be an informative and fun event. Moderated by Lynn Johnson Langer, Program Director, Sr. Lecturer, Johns Hopkins University, our panel includes the following individuals:

• Neta Nelson – Associate Director, Clinical Operations & Project Management, Technical Resources International, Inc.
• Maura Kahn – Vice President, Business Development and Marketing, Noxilizer, Inc.
• Kathy Webb – Senior Director GMP Operations, Paragon Bioservices, Inc.

Date/Time: Thursday, February 23, 2017 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. EST

Venue: Johns Hopkins University – Montgomery Campus 106-110 A&R Building 9601 Medical Center Drive Rockville, MD 20850

The products that make cities “smart” will be developed, tested and perhaps scaled in our backyard.

A partnership of the Herndon-based Center for Innovative Technology, D.C.-based Smart City Works and 22 CityLink, the master developer of the Gramercy District smart city planned for Ashburn, is accepting applications for its initial cohort of companies in Smart City Works @ Herndon.

Welcome to the fifth edition of the U.S. Chamber International IP Index, “The Roots of Innovation.” This year’s index recognizes the indispensable role of intellectual property (IP), in facilitating innovative and creative activity on a socially transformative scale.

Each economy in the Index presents a unique IP profile. As this Index has grown from 11 economies in its first edition to 45 in the current publication, it has become exceedingly clear that just as elections matter, so do IP policy choices. These choices are not simply a matter of East versus West, developed versus less-developed, or rich versus poor. Rather, the Index represents a broad spectrum of sovereign policy choices. Those choices have important consequences for each economy’s innovative and creative success, and for the collective welfare of all the world’s citizens.

The Big Idea CONNECTpreneur Forum is a Community of over 5000 CEOs, Entrepreneurs, VCs and angels, CXOs and other business leaders in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

Each quarterly CONNECTpreneur Forum mashes up 400+ top founders, investors and business leaders for a morning breakfast event featuring awesome networking, newsmaking speakers, and a showcase of 7-8 exciting early stage companies.

This UNIQUE EVENT is like NONE OTHER in our region, due to the high quality of our attendees and participants, as well as our programming and unprecedented networking.

Most of the attendees are INVITATION ONLY, and we strictly limit service provider participation in order to maximize the experience for our Attendees and Sponsors.

Tuesday, March 7th 8:00am—5:00pm

This one-day event will highlight the latest trends in medical devices and technologies and feature resources in the state that help bring products from invention to market. Topics include bioelectronics, cybersecurity for medical devices, convergence of devices and drugs, big data, robotic prosthetics, and additive manufacturing applications. Organizations representing Maryland innovation, entrepreneurial, funding, regulatory, and product scale-up resources will be there to discuss ways that they work with the medical device community.

This event is sponsored by the University of Maryland Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices, Maryland Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the Maryland Department of Commerce, Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC), FLC Mid-Atlantic Region, National Institute for Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership , and TEDCO.

Niche-specific content is usually not readily available through regular generic search engines. One example is the academic and scholarly content. While running a search query about an academic topic through a generic search engine such as Google would probably render fairly decent results, it, however, usually takes digging into so much fluff before finally landing on relevant results. This is where having access to topic-specific search engines comes in handy. Such search engines do not only provide specific content tailored to the topic under study but their content is more likely to be reliable and authoritative. To this end, we have compiled this list of excellent academic search engines that teachers, student researchers and academics can use to quickly locate and access scholarly works and publications. We have only included what we believe are the most relevant and popular titles out there. If you have other suggestions to add to the list please share with us on our Facebook page.

March 14-15, 2017, Washington, DC

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), in collaboration with the Chamber of Digital Commerce announces a health standards and data innovation Code-a-Thon. Code-a-Thon contestants will use open source distributed ledger technology and health-specific standards to address one of the following health IT Tracks:

What’s the best way to build a startup? Bootstrap it, raise little or no VC funding, and (ideally) sell it for hundreds of millions—or billions—of dollars, according to two venture capitalists.

That’s what they did at least. Andrew Farquharson, now the managing director of InCube Ventures in San Jose, CA, was the chief operating officer of Almeda, CA-based Operon Technologies when it sold to European nucleic acid company Qiagen in an all-stock deal worth around $110 million in 2000. Farquharson and his co-founders tried, but failed, to raise venture funding and instead were able to bootstrap.

Illumina Accelerator, the genomics-based company creation engine focused on building early stage genomics startups welcomes three new companies to its fifth funding cycle. Since its inception in 2014, Illumina Accelerator has helped startups validate and create next-generation sequencing applications and bring those solutions to market. To date, Illumina Accelerator has invested in 13 startups working to advance breakthrough applications in genomics.

After listening to hundreds of startup pitches, and reading even more business plans, most new venture investors develop their own favorite list of “red flags” that signal the beginning of the end of their interest. Others, like Guy Kawasaki, have irreverently called some of these “entrepreneur lies,” but I prefer to think of them as innocent enhancements or omissions that can kill your deal.

At any rate, here is my own list of red flags, from my years of experience advising and investing in aspiring entrepreneurs, which cause me to lose interest and start looking for a way out the door:

In order to address the unmet needs and create opportunities that benefit patients with rare disease in India, a group of volunteers created a not-for-profit organization named Organization for Rare Diseases India (ORDI; www.ordindia.org). ORDI plans to represent the collective voice and advocate the needs of patients with rare diseases and other stakeholders in India. The ORDI team members come from diverse backgrounds such as genetics, molecular diagnostics, drug development, bioinformatics, communications, information technology, patient advocacy and public service. ORDI builds on the lessons learned from numerous similar organizations in the USA, European Union and disease-specific rare disease foundations in India. In this review, we provide a background on the landscape of rare diseases and the organizations that are active in this area globally and in India. We discuss the unique challenges in tackling rare diseases in India, and highlight the unmet needs of the key stakeholders of rare diseases. Finally, we define the vision, mission, goals and objectives of ORDI, identify the key developments in the health care context in India and welcome community feedback and comments on our approach.

If you’re learning how to develop CRADAs or have ever wished for an easy guide, take our newest free e-course! “The CRADA Developer’s Guide” is now available to take at your own pace in our Learning Center!

The CRADA is one of federal tech transfer’s most powerful tools. This course helps you understand the process and considerations for developing and managing a good CRADA, including:

When to choose a CRADA How to craft a CRADA Managing a CRADA Troubleshooting strategies.

A group of scientists and their supporters are set to march Sunday in Boston’s Copley Square in an event they’ve dubbed “a rally to stand up for science” in the Trump years.

Inside a large nearby convention center, meanwhile, the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the United States’ largest general scientific society, has featured speeches and panel sessions further underscoring the sense that under President Trump, scientists could face wide-ranging political conflicts and challenges, and will have to decide how to meet them.

A record number of biotechnology, life sciences and other tech-related companies with a presence in New Jersey stand to benefit from private investments spurred in part by tax credits approved by state officials last year — a sign the Garden State continues to serve as the nation’s medicine chest.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority announced Tuesday it has approved 251 applications from “angel investors” who are eligible for state income-tax credits to help offset the more than $96 million in private funding they funneled to Garden State tech firms during 2016 — the highest annual total since the program launched three years ago.

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has a suggestion for humans who want to stay relevant in a future of artificial intelligence: merge with the machines.

“Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence,” Musk said at the World Government Summit in Dubai, according to CNBC. “It’s mostly about bandwidth, the speed of the connection between your brain and the digital version of yourself, particularly output.”

The Baltimore Ravens Innovation Challenge at Light City is a live pitch competition where six startup companies will present in front of a panel of judges to win a year-long marketing package with a value of $200,000 from the Baltimore Ravens.

The Competition will take place during the SocialLab@LightCity – April 6, 2017. Labs@LightCity will bring together national and local thought leaders and engaged, inspired citizens from diverse backgrounds to explore cutting edge concepts for sparking social change.

A discounted ticket for friends of Light City is now available for $99 (a discount of $50). Use the code LCFriends50 when checking out and your discount will be automatically applied to your registration. You may also share the code with friends who you believe would want to join the conversation, vote during the Pitch Competition, learn and have a real impact on the Labs, Baltimore, and beyond!

Hot off the (online) presses: the first annual Year-End Market Report produced by MCEDC. How does the employment rate in Montgomery County compare to the state? What are the biggest business highlights from last year? How does the future look for the county? Find these answers, and more.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) today announced that it has received a task order from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) valued at up to $30.5 million to develop monoclonal antibody therapeutics for viral hemorrhagic fever. This task order will utilize the company’s Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (CIADM) facility located in Baltimore, Maryland. Using monoclonal antibodies from Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., the company will conduct technology transfer of process materials and information, perform process and analytical method development, execute small-scale production runs, and perform cGMP cell banking leading to cGMP manufacture of bulk drug substance. The task order consists of a 36-month period of performance with a base task order valued at $7.4 million and options that, if executed, will bring the total task order value over three years to up to $30.5 million.

Which state has the nation’s most research-intensive economy? California? Massachusetts? North Carolina?

Actually it’s Maryland. A greater portion of Maryland’s economy comes from private, federal, and university research spending than any state (with the exception of rural New Mexico with its two large federal labs). But not enough of us recognize that.

Researchers from the University of Maryland College Park (UMD) and Baltimore (UMB) campuses have developed a blood test that could help doctors more quickly diagnose schizophrenia and other disorders. Their study, “Redox Probing for Chemical Information of Oxidative Stress,” was recently published in the journal Analytical Chemistry.

“We hope our new technique will allow a more rapid detection and intervention for schizophrenia, and ultimately lead to better outcomes,” said Gregory Payne, one of the authors and a joint professor with UMD’s Fischell Department of Bioengineering (BIOE) and the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR).

Gynecological surgery device developer SurgiGyn said today it inked an exclusive license arrangement with the University of Maryland, Baltimore for laparoscopic surgical device technology developed at the University.

The Baltimore, Md.-based company said it also closed a seed round of funding from UM Ventures and a private investor, with funds slated to support accelerated development of its uterine electrosurgical device

On the first two days of February, I testified before Maryland legislative committees in support of Governor Larry Hogan’s FY 2018 budget proposal for the University System of Maryland (USM).

Governor Hogan has proposed state support for USM of $1.35 billion. This is an increase of $26.6 million — or approximately 2 percent — over the final FY 2017 budget, which includes the November Board of Public Works reduction of $14.2 million.

Build the MoCo STEM community by attending this free event for educators from pre-K to college, business leaders and employers, County Councilmembers, county government leaders and service providers, industry practitioners, interested parents and students. We are showcasing best practices, laying out a vision and asking for input on an effective STEM engagement strategy for Montgomery County.

12:30pm – 1pm: Networking and STEM Demonstrations

Orgenesis Inc. (OTCQB: ORGS), a fully-integrated cell therapy and contract development and manufacturing company, announced that its Belgian subsidiary, Orgenesis SPRL, has received the formal approval from the Walloon Region, Belgium (Service Public of Wallonia, DGO6) for a budget of EUR 12.3 million ($12.8 million) support program for the GMP production of AIP cells for two clinical trials that will be performed in Germany and Belgium. The project support will be for a period of three years commencing on January 1, 2017.

Of the approved amount, a total of EUR 3.3 million is budgeted for a development work at our Belgian-based subsidiary, MaSTherCell S.A.

Funding and Research Opportunities

The following funding opportunity announcements from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest:

Notices:

• Impact of Washington, DC Area Federal Office Operating Status on NIH Grant Application Due Dates
• (NOT-OD-17-041)
• National Institutes of Health
• Notice of NIA’s Participation in PA-17-101 “Research on the Health of Women of Underrepresented, Understudied and Underreported (U3) Populations – An ORWH FY17 Administrative Supplement (Admin Supp)”
• (NOT-AG-17-004)
• National Institute on Aging
• NHLBI Priorities for HIV Research and Funding
• (NOT-HL-17-486)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice of NLM’s Participation in PA-17-101 “Research on the Health of Women of Underrepresented, Understudied and Underreported (U3) Populations An ORWH FY17 Administrative Supplement (Admin Supp)”
• (NOT-LM-17-004)
• National Library of Medicine

Thursday February 16, 2017 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM EST

Join BioBuzz and founding sponsor The Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus at Growlers in Gaithersburg on February 16th for our 1st networking event of 2017. The Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus offers part-time graduate courses in several disciplines, including education, biotechnology and liberal arts. Students attend classes in the evenings and on Saturdays, enabling them to hold full-time jobs during the day. Depending on the degree area, students can fully complete their coursework in Montgomery County. Other students take some courses in Baltimore and/ or online.

Scientists are no strangers to having their work questioned by lawmakers, and now they are fighting back.

On April 22, scientists and their supporters will hold a March for Science to advocate for science and evidence-based research in policies. The main march will be held in Washington, D.C., and satellite marches will be held in other cities, as they were with the Women’s March the day after the inauguration. And the march’s organizers say they aren’t just fighting for more funding for science, or more influence in policy, but also to raise awareness about the type of research they’re doing.

The recent flurry of activity around the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has many people confused about where it stands, and what the employer’s obligations are. The following summarizes the activity so far.

Legislative Repeal Activity

A popular meme suggests that the Senate voted to eliminate virtually all of the provisions of the ACA, including the ability to obtain insurance in spite of pre-existing conditions, the requirement to cover adult children up to the age of 26, etc. This is not the case.

The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) issued the following statement regarding President Trump’s comments today supporting biopharmaceutical innovation:

“We look forward to working with President Trump and his team to enact policies that ensure better access to and affordability of today’s medicines and the vision the President laid out in his inaugural address ‘….to free the earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow.’ The ideas the President laid out in his meeting today–policies that would cut unnecessary regulation, enforce fair trade, increase competition, support small companies’ ability to attract capital and strengthen and promote market-based solutions–are ideas that BIO has been advocating for and working to build consensus on with others in the healthcare system. They will go a long way toward ensuring that patients have affordable access to today’s innovative medicines and that our companies have the policy and regulatory environment they need to bring a new generation of breakthrough medicines to our children and grandchildren.

Thursday, February 23, 2017 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. EST

Johns Hopkins University – Montgomery Campus 106-110 A&R Building 9601 Medical Center Drive Rockville, MD 20850

Washington DC/Baltimore Chapter of Women In Bio is presenting a program to learn about how bioscience discoveries move from the bench to the market. The route from discovery to market is not linear. Our panelists will relay their experiences with clinical trials, manufacturing, and marketing and will discuss how each of these aspects interacts along the way. Whether you are looking to enter the world of bench to market or are just curious about the process, this will be an informative and fun event. Moderated by Lynn Johnson Langer, Program Director, Sr. Lecturer, Johns Hopkins University, our panel includes the following individuals:

• Neta Nelson – Associate Director, Clinical Operations & Project Management, Technical Resources International, Inc.
• Maura Kahn – Vice President, Business Development and Marketing, Noxilizer, Inc.
• Kathy Webb – Senior Director GMP Operations, Paragon Bioservices, Inc.

To the Editor:

We the undersigned, founders and leaders of biotech companies, write to express our deep concern and opposition to the executive order signed by President Donald Trump on January 27, 2017, barring the entry of citizens from seven countries into the United States1.

The United States is the world’s greatest developer of medicines and new inventions to ameliorate and cure intractable diseases, a status achieved through massive investment in private and public companies, academia and R&D. Most importantly, our success has been founded on the creativity and dedication of our most precious resource—our people.

Tuesday, March 7th 8:00am—5:00pm

This one-day event will highlight the latest trends in medical devices and technologies and feature resources in the state that help bring products from invention to market. Topics include bioelectronics, cybersecurity for medical devices, convergence of devices and drugs, big data, robotic prosthetics, and additive manufacturing applications. Organizations representing Maryland innovation, entrepreneurial, funding, regulatory, and product scale-up resources will be there to discuss ways that they work with the medical device community.

This event is sponsored by the University of Maryland Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices, Maryland Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the Maryland Department of Commerce, Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC), FLC Mid-Atlantic Region, National Institute for Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership , and TEDCO.

After listening to hundreds of startup pitches, and reading even more business plans, most new venture investors develop their own favorite list of “red flags” that signal the beginning of the end of their interest. Others, like Guy Kawasaki, have irreverently called some of these “entrepreneur lies,” but I prefer to think of them as innocent enhancements or omissions that can kill your deal.

At any rate, here is my own list of red flags, from my years of experience advising and investing in aspiring entrepreneurs, which cause me to lose interest and start looking for a way out the door:

In order to address the unmet needs and create opportunities that benefit patients with rare disease in India, a group of volunteers created a not-for-profit organization named Organization for Rare Diseases India (ORDI; www.ordindia.org). ORDI plans to represent the collective voice and advocate the needs of patients with rare diseases and other stakeholders in India. The ORDI team members come from diverse backgrounds such as genetics, molecular diagnostics, drug development, bioinformatics, communications, information technology, patient advocacy and public service. ORDI builds on the lessons learned from numerous similar organizations in the USA, European Union and disease-specific rare disease foundations in India. In this review, we provide a background on the landscape of rare diseases and the organizations that are active in this area globally and in India. We discuss the unique challenges in tackling rare diseases in India, and highlight the unmet needs of the key stakeholders of rare diseases. Finally, we define the vision, mission, goals and objectives of ORDI, identify the key developments in the health care context in India and welcome community feedback and comments on our approach.

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has a suggestion for humans who want to stay relevant in a future of artificial intelligence: merge with the machines.

“Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence,” Musk said at the World Government Summit in Dubai, according to CNBC. “It’s mostly about bandwidth, the speed of the connection between your brain and the digital version of yourself, particularly output.”

Last month, we outlined our top 10 do’s and don’ts for getting your Phase I NIH proposal in shape and ready to submit before the April 5 deadline. This month we continue that theme by presenting what we have determined, over years of reviewing proposals, to be our top 10 brilliant ideas or stupid mistakes for Phase II proposals. Here are our favorites:

In labs testing how brain implants could help people with physical disabilities, tales of success can be bittersweet.

Experiments like those that let a paralyzed person swig coffee using a robotic arm, or that let blind people “see” spots of light, have proven the huge potential of computers that interface with the brain. But the implanted electrodes used in such trials eventually become useless, as scar tissue forms that degrades their electrical connection to brain cells (see “The Thought Experiment”).

President Donald Trump’s new health secretary took office Friday after becoming the latest Cabinet nominee to eke out a confirmation victory in the bitterly divided Senate.

Vice President Mike Pence administered the oath of office to Tom Price, of Georgia, at the White House hours after the Senate confirmed him 52-47 in a party-line vote. That roll call came in the dead of night, thanks to Democrats’ tactic of forcing prolonged debates to broadcast their opposition to Trump and his team.

Cuddles, kisses, and caring conversations. These are key ingredients of our close relationships. Scientists are finding that our links to others can have powerful effects on our health. Whether with romantic partners, family, friends, neighbors, or others, social connections can influence our biology and well-being.

Build the MoCo STEM community by attending this free event for educators from pre-K to college, business leaders and employers, County Councilmembers, county government leaders and service providers, industry practitioners, interested parents and students. We are showcasing best practices, laying out a vision and asking for input on an effective STEM engagement strategy for Montgomery County.

12:30pm – 1pm: Networking and STEM Demonstrations

1pm – 4pm: Panels and Discussion

MCPS Superintendent Jack Smith to speak at 1:15pm

As part of REDI’s 20th Anniversary, we’ve created a new retention program aimed at solidifying relationships with the City’s leading businesses: Rockville Key Visits, or RKVs for short.

REDI is joined on the monthly visits by representatives of the Mayor & City Council, our Board of Directors, and partner economic development organizations.

RKVs are arranged with businesses that are major employers, operating in a priority industry, and/or exhibiting fast growth potential. The program creates an open line of communication to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the local business community, which benefits all parties through a regular exchange of information and resources.

The first RKV took us to Supernus Pharmaceuticals, which focuses on developing and commercializing products for the treatment of central nervous system disorders and employs over 160 in its Rockville headquarters. As a major employer operating in the region’s important biotech cluster with strong potential for growth, Supernus was a great visit to kick off RKV!

Thursday, February 16, 2017, 05:00pm – 07:00pm

Join BioBuzz and founding sponsor The Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus at Growlers in Gaithersburg on February 16th for our 1st networking event of 2017. The Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus offers part-time graduate courses in several disciplines, including education, biotechnology and liberal arts. Students attend classes in the evenings and on Saturdays, enabling them to hold full-time jobs during the day. Depending on the degree area, students can fully complete their coursework in Montgomery County. Other students take some courses in Baltimore and/ or online.

Growlers

227 E Diamond Ave

Gaithersburg, MD 20877

The volume of startups says a lot about an area’s viability.

But as that number keeps growing, it’s worth considering which of those companies are “real.” It helps people who track startups (like, say, journalists) keep tabs on the next big companies coming out of Baltimore.

The black sports bra and matching leggings that Under Armour began selling Monday don’t look particularly distinctive from the rest of the workout attire on its website.

But, in fact, the garments are different in a key way: They were made in the United States, marking a key milestone in the company’s ambitious bid to significantly rethink its manufacturing strategy.

Nestlé announced last week it is moving its US headquarters from California to Arlington, Virginia. We see similarities to other recent headquarters moves, yielding lessons for communities seeking to attract or retain these high profile activities.

Date: February 22, 2017

Time: 7:30 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. Registration and Networking 8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. Program

Curious about Lean Startup? What does it really mean and why is everyone talking about it? Lean is a way of thinking that can shorten cycles for developing products and business startups. It is a logical, scientific approach that helps businesses and entrepreneurs draw distinct lines between the fuzzy dream in their head and the reality on the ground. Best of all it teaches us how to create a deep, lasting relationship with the most important person our business will ever know: our customers.

Come join moderator Bob Smith, a serial entrepreneur and Lean Startup instructor and a panel of experienced Lean practitioners as they provide an overview of the process and how it can be used during any phase of the business life cycle; startup to new product development.

Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) is a prevalent and highly lethal condition affecting stem cell transplant recipients. Unfortunately, biopsies are a painful, invasive and slow procedure that cause discomfort to patients and does not yield rapid results. The National Cancer Institute seeks licensees to commercialize this improved method for detection of diseases that are characterized by the presence of rapidly-dividing cells using deuterated water as a label for dynamic measurement of in vivo cellular kinetics.

The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer congratulates the winners of its 2017 Awards. With over 90 nominations submitted this year’s competition was fierce, which made our judges’ task of selecting winners an unenviable one. We thank our winners, and their competitors, for a great job in realizing the technology transfer potential within their laboratories.

The awards will be presented on Wednesday, April 26, 2017 at the FLC National Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. To register for the meeting and/or awards ceremony, visit meeting.federallabs.org.

Men whose prostate cancer comes back after surgery are more likely to survive if, along with the usual radiation, they also take drugs to block male hormones.

The finding, published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, comes from a long-running study that experts say will help clarify treatment for many patients.

President Donald Trump wants to remake the Food and Drug Administration. And he happens to have a “fantastic person” in mind to do it, he said Tuesday — someone who will turn the agency into an industry-friendly shop that cranks out new cures on the double.

With over 75 scientific ventures to its name, Flagship’s startup network has now generated 16 IPOs and $19 billion in aggregate value over 17 years.

Things were going well, but Flagship Pioneering (formerly Flagship Ventures) still felt the need for a name change in December of last year.

Tuesday, February 28, 2017, 07:00am – 11:00am

The Big Idea CONNECTpreneur BALTIMORE Forum

“The Best Networking Event in the region.”

Over 70% of previous attendees surveyed say that CONNECTpreneur is the “Number One” tech and investor event in the Mid-Atlantic region!

DCInno calls CONNECTpreneur “The Best Networking Event in the region” and a “NETWORKING JACKPOT” of the area’s TOP Entrepreneurs, Business Leaders, CXOs, Angels, and VCs.

Presented by Tech 2000 and LORE Systems, this UNIQUE EVENT is like NONE OTHER in our region, because of the high quality of our attendees, speakers and presenters. 

And YES, the networking is unprecedented!

Thursday, February 09, 2017, 08:00am – 05:00pm

Combining motherhood and a career is a juggling act, and was even more so before the breast pump. Women didn’t always have access to pumps in the workplace, however nowadays many breastfeeding mothers rely on a breast pump when returning to work to help extend breastfeeding and the work/life balance. Join us as Debra Kurtz, President, Kurtz Consulting Inc, discusses:

• the history of breast pump innovation
• how these class II medical devices assist with maternal employment
• leverage user insights to drive product requirements and IP strategy
• the opportunities we have to improve health products, advance employee benefits, and improve work/life balance  for future generations of women