BHI Weekly News Archives

As part of the White House’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative, today, SHARE For Cures (www.SHAREForCures.org) launched a technology platform and study aimed to gather a better understanding of the real-world use of novel cancer immunotherapy drugs.

SHARE For Cures’ new SHARE platform will easily and securely gather clinical, wellness, lifestyle, and patient-reported data about cancer immunotherapy use, side effects and benefits. Once gathered, the data will enable researchers to better understand how these new therapies are being used outside of clinical trials, as well as the health impact of specific drugs on real-world patients.

The Johns Hopkins University earned $58 million in licensing revenue in its 2016 fiscal year, three times more than in the prior year.

Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, the university’s commercialization office, attributed the spike in part to a major sublicensing deal between one of its portfolio companies, Immunomic Therapeutics, and Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas Pharma.

NATURE OF WORK

The Senior Grants and Contracts Manager will be tasked with the preparation, drafting, review and negotiation of contractual agreements with a special emphasis on agreements that support biomedical research initiatives and partnerships. S/he should have a strong customer service orientation and be able to identify process improvements so that transactions are completed with the right balance of efficiency and risk mitigation. S/he will report to the Director of Operations but will serve the contracting needs of colleagues across the Foundation. Strong writing, analytical and organizational skills must be matched with a sense of flexibility, entrepreneurial spirit and good cheer.

October 27, 2016 – Arnold & Porter LLP, 601 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC, 20001

The Washington DC/Baltimore Chapter of Women In Bio is presenting a program to learn about board service in the public and private sectors. If you are a budding entrepreneur looking to develop a board, this is the event for you. If you were recently named to a board and want to know more about your responsibilities, this is the event for you. If you want to start a business/nonprofit and need to know how to set up a board, this is the event for you.

Moderated by Mr. Yusuf Azuzullah, Chairman Board of Directors, Global Board Advisors Corp (GBAC), panelists include:

• Ms. Rachel King, CEO and President of GlycoMimetics, Inc.
• Ms. Lily Qi, Assistant Chief Administrative Officer, Montgomery County Office of the County Executive
• Ms. Sharon Ayd, Chief Scientific Officer and Senior VP Pharmaceuticals, Regulatory Compliance Associates Inc.

Technologists and entrepreneurs are reshaping cities like Baltimore with companies that bring new residents and products that change how we interact with the landscape. With a new mayor set to take office in Baltimore following the November 8 general election, it’s worth considering what the tech community wants to see at City Hall.

Ike Leggett says he will not seek a fourth term as Montgomery County executive.

Leggett, a former Howard University law professor who became the county’s first African American councilman and county executive, first announced publicly Sunday he would not run again at a fundraiser for an anti-term-limits group.

The Rockville biotech says two versions of its ADHD drug could serve a potential $7 billion market.

Historically prizes have been surprisingly effective at kickstarting innovation, will Deloitte’s XPRIZE do the same?

Curing cancer is the holy grail of the medical and scientific communities, but a simple prize could make a whole lot of difference.

Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 5:30 PM – Columbus Center 701 East Pratt Street Baltimore, MD

1st Pitch Life Science is coming to Baltimore for the first time. Hear what happens AFTER a start-up company presents to an investor group! Usually after a pitch, the investors have a closed-door discussion to decide whether the opportunity merits further investigation and possible investment. 1st Pitch Life Science (http://www.1stpitchlifescience.com) offers presenters and audience members the chance to hear what happens in those closed-door discussions, and to learn what really matters to investors.

BioBuzz and Elite Sponsor the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) are excited to announce a special event that lands right in the middle of the Oktoberfest season. Flying Dog Brewery will be our guest as we bring together the worlds of biotech and beer to show how closely related they really are. We are proud to have BioBuzz Double Helix Sponsors CRB and BREP along with Azzur IT as Co-Sponsors for this event.

Before the general networking begins, Flying Dog CEO, Jim Caruso, and COO/Head Brew Master, Matt Brophy will be on the IBBR Auditorium stage from 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. to speak about the company and everything that goes into the process of brewing their beer.

Supported by a $9 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, a multidisciplinary team led by Johns Hopkins researchers has begun looking for new ways to attack one of the scariest traits of this disease: its frequent refusal to stay in one place.

The new funding, to be allocated over a five-year period, will enable scholars in physical sciences, engineering, applied mathematics, cancer biology, and other disciplines to pool their expertise to solve stubborn cancer-related mysteries.

We’re pleased to announce the release of the Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures fiscal year 2016 annual report – for the first time in digital format! Last year, we took tremendous strides in realizing our mission to benefit people around the world through innovation and to invigorate the local Baltimore economy. We saw a record number of disclosures, significant growth in our corporate partnerships, the creation of more startups than ever before, and substantial progress on the buildout of new state-of-the-art facilities. While we’re proud of our accomplishments, there’s more to do. We are using the facts and figures in this report to identify the paths that led to success and to develop strategies that build upon our progress.

The National Science Foundation has awarded $3.45 million over the next five years to renew its Innovation Corps program D.C.-area node to support entrepreneurship. George Washington University works alongside three additional collaborating institutions to train entrepreneurial student and faculty researchers and help them bring their discoveries to market.

The innovation hubs, known as I-Corps nodes, provide research infrastructure and training that help researchers transition fundamental science and engineering discoveries to the marketplace, according to NSF. The nodes also support I-Corps sites nationwide and offer seven-week I-Corps curriculum to their teams.

On Jan. 20, 2015, about 30 minutes into his State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama said the words that would set in motion a health research initiative that could exceed the scope of any that has come before it.

Obama told listeners that he was green-lighting the launch of the Precision Medicine Initiative, a program two decades in the making that would begin where the groundbreaking Human Genome Project left off.

The Clark Charitable Foundation gifted Johns Hopkins University $15 million to provide financial aid and create a new academic program for undergraduate engineering students.

The gift honors the late A. James Clark, a former trustee of the university and of Johns Hopkins Medicine and former CEO of Clark Enterprises and Clark Construction Group LLC, one of the country’s largest privately held general building contractors. It is the largest endowed scholarship gift ever given to the university’s Whiting School of Engineering.

Today CosmosID announced participation in Vice President Biden’s National Cancer Moonshot, which aims to accelerate progress in preventing, diagnosing, and treating cancer. CosmosID will provide access to its automated bioinformatics platform, MetaGenID, for five cancer microbiome research studies (valued at $150,000) to understand how the microbiome (i.e. oral, gut, and skin) contributes to development of specific cancers.

Facing federal and state pressure to raise retention and graduation rates, dozens of colleges and universities are developing analytics tools to help students make better decisions about everything from courses to social activities.

Purdue University has notified its 7,300 incoming freshman about a new web application that could help them better acclimate to life on campus. Administrators at the West Lafayette, Ind., school view the software as a critical tool for an institution whose graduation rate hovers at around 50 percent.

PricewaterhouseCoopers published its quarterly MoneyTree Report Friday showing that startups of all stripes garnered a total of $10.6 billion through 891 deals nationwide. However, the deal value and the number of deals fell 36 percent and 25 percent respectively from the same quarter last year.

Venture capitalists invested $19.6 million in Maryland companies in the third quarter, the lowest total in any quarter since 1997.

The total investment represents a 76 percent decrease from the second quarter and is down 86 percent from the third quarter last year, according to a MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data provided by Thomson Reuters.

An affiliate of Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. (NYSE: ARE), an urban office REIT based in Pasadena, Calif., has purchased Torrey Ridge Science Center in San Diego’s Torrey Pines submarket. Walton Street Capital and SteelWave sold the campus to Alexandria for $182.5 million.

Torrey Ridge Science Center is a Class A life science campus leased to companies such as Regulus Therapeutics, Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Nitto BioPharma, Interpreta and BP Technology Ventures. The three-building, 291,799-square-foot campus was 87 percent leased at the time of sale.

MD Start, a European medical technology accelerator, announced Thursday that it has raised $11.5 million to create and fund four new French companies that can fulfill unmet needs in the medical device market.

The round was led by French Tech Acceleration Fund managed by Bpifrance, a French public investment bank. Other returning investors were French venture capital firm Sofinnova Partners, Dublin-based Medtronic, and LivaNova, a London-based medical device company.

Wed, Nov 16, 2016 at 6:00 PM

Five Top Intellectual Property Legal Experts and a Room Filled with Life Science and Healthcare Entrepreneurs…what could possibly happen?

Strategies for Start-ups (and Non-Start-ups) to Maintain, Protect and Unlock their Intellectual Property

The workshop is intended for non-lawyers to understand IP issues and answer questions on just about every aspect of IP including; Copyrights, Trade Secrets, Trademarks, Patents, licensing, IP Due Diligence, IP Strategy, etc.

Redwood City, California-based medical device company Relievant Medsystems Inc has raised $36 million in funding. New Enterprise Associates led the round with participation from Canaan Partners, Emergent Medical Partners and Morgenthaler Ventures.

A partnership between the University System of Maryland and Prince George’s County schools led to increased student interest in STEM fields, higher scores on the science portion of Maryland State Assessments and more students entering STEM fields in college, according to the project’s final report.

The USM’s Math Science Partnership Minority Student Pipeline aimed “to expand the minority student pipeline in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in higher education, by employing strategies engaging STEM faculty, teachers, undergraduates and high school students,” the report read. The USM’s Education Policy and Student Life Committee reviewed the report on Sept. 20.

I have just downloaded the app Uberstand to my phone — the “revolutionary” app that seamlessly converts academics into a standing reserve of mobile, on-demand, adjunct knowledge providers. The app is designed to meet the real-time needs of institutes of higher learning and their customers, who often find themselves operating with a knowledge deficit, or what the industry terms a “need-to-know.”

PlantVax, Inc. has been contracted by a tier one US defense contractor as the primary supplier of Recombinant Human Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in support of a Program of Record chemical warfare disclosure spray. The disclosure spray is a first-of-its-kind plant derived enzyme-based sensor that users apply to wide surfaces, enabling rapid visual indication of chemical warfare agents. The spray requires the high expression and stability levels in the AChE that PlantVax specializes in providing. The end product is the first product of its kind that is able to utilize a recombinant, plant-expressed AChE.

Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (ITI) and Nature Technology Corporation (NTC) announce today that they have entered into a new license agreement. The licensing of NTC’s RNA-OUT™ and HyperGro™ technology is part of ITI’s expansion into developing nucleic acid immunotherapies for cancer.

ITI believes that LAMP-Vax immunotherapy platform has the potential to transform nucleic acid vaccine therapy. Although additional studies are needed to confirm clinical benefit, LAMP-Vax has the potential to specifically direct the cancer antigen into a processing part of the cell for more efficient presentation to the immune system. Last year, this approach gained important commercial validation when Immunomic Therapeutics entered into significant licensing agreements with Astellas Pharma Inc., totaling over $315 million in upfront payments, as well as potential future milestones and royalty payments.

The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded Emergent BioSolutions a five-year, $198.7 million contract to further mature the development of an anthrax vaccine in preparation for a Food and Drug Administration license.

The HHS office of the assistant secretary for preparedness and response’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and Emergent BioSolutions will work to validate the effect of the vaccine candidate NuThrax and verify its safety as part of the contract, HHS said Friday.

AstraZeneca’s global biologics research and development arm MedImmune has entered into a licensing agreement with Allergan for the global rights to MEDI2070, which is currently in a Phase IIb clinical trial for moderate-to-severe Crohn’s disease and ready for Phase II for ulcerative colitis. Under the terms of the deal, Allergan will make an upfront payment to AstraZeneca of $250m for the exclusive, worldwide licence to develop and commercialise the drug.

Marriott Hotels is jumping on the accelerator bandwagon with the launch of TestBED for early-stage startups.

The group is looking for startups with products or services that further the traveller experience and are ready to go to market.

This month, we talk with David Narrow, chief operating officer of Baltimore startup Sonavex, which is developing a patent-pending, ultrasound-based system that pinpoints potential postsurgical blood clots.

Narrow started developing EchoSure, Sonavex’s ultrasound system, with Devin O’Brien Coon in 2012, when they were both in their first semester of Johns Hopkins’ biomedical engineering graduate program at the Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design.

As a not-for-profit corporation that manages federally funded research and development centers for the government, MITRE is an ideal organization to host challenges. We do not market or manufacture goods and have no financial investment in the results. Our goal is to work with industry, academia, and government to find solutions that benefit all stakeholders and provide our federal sponsors with the capabilities they need to be successful in their missions.

Working across a wide range of government agencies gives MITRE a broad view into the challenges these agencies face, including the challenges that agencies share. We select our Challenge topics on the basis of this knowledge, looking for gaps that need to be filled.

The National Science Foundation awarded a $3.45 million grant to the University of Maryland to expand research as part of the NSF’s innovation program, said university Associate Vice President for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Dean Chang.

The grant, part of the NSF’s I-Corps Nodes program, is intended to promote the growth of research and entrepreneurship so that it may be applied on a larger scale, said Chang, the grant’s recipient. The grant is slated to go into effect in the beginning of 2017, Chang said.

Suburban Maryland’s tech cluster is among the top 10 biotech regions in the U.S, ranking at No. 6 based on talent, funding availability and its real estate, according to a new report from real estate brokerage JLL.

“The region is the healthiest it has been in about a decade because of tenant growth, number of life sciences companies, mergers and acquisitions, a lowering vacancy rate and rising rental rates,” said Pete Briskman, a managing director in JLL’s Bethesda office. “However, that could also mean fewer opportunities in the future.”

A reception for friends and alumni in the Baltimore
corporate community to connect with the University of
Maryland, College Park

Under Armour is partnering with a California tech company to provide more people with access to nearby fitness classes nationwide directly through the MyFitnessPal application.

Through the partnership with San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based Mindbody Inc., millions of MyFitnessPal users in the U.S. will be able to search, book and pay for classes at tens of thousands of fitness studios in the Mindbody network. Classes include indoor cycling, martial arts, boxing and yoga.

Mark Cuban has had a bumpy relationship with the healthcare community, but his approach seems to be evolving with a recent step into the world of healthcare venture capital.

According to Inc., the Shark Tank host is the latest to note the issues with healthcare’s middlemen, and has decided to do something about the problem by specifically targeting pharmacies. Cuban describes his vision as a world without the Main Street staple of modern healthcare delivery, predicting that “over the next 15 to 20 years, medicine will be so personalized there will be no drugstores.”

BioBuzz and Elite Sponsor the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) are excited to announce a special event that lands right in the middle of the Oktoberfest season. Flying Dog Brewery will be our guest as we bring together the worlds of biotech and beer to show how closely related they really are. We are proud to have BioBuzz Double Helix Sponsors CRB and BREP along with Azzur IT as Co-Sponsors for this event.

Before the general networking begins, Flying Dog CEO, Jim Caruso, and COO/Head Brew Master, Matt Brophy will be on the IBBR Auditorium stage from 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. to speak about the company and everything that goes into the process of brewing their beer.

Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 5:30 PM – Columbus Center 701 East Pratt Street Baltimore, MD

1st Pitch Life Science is coming to Baltimore for the first time. Hear what happens AFTER a start-up company presents to an investor group! Usually after a pitch, the investors have a closed-door discussion to decide whether the opportunity merits further investigation and possible investment. 1st Pitch Life Science (http://www.1stpitchlifescience.com) offers presenters and audience members the chance to hear what happens in those closed-door discussions, and to learn what really matters to investors.

Chief technologist at the United States Small Business Administration doesn’t immediately sound like the most exciting title, which is part of why after three years, G. Nagesh Rao prefers to be known as the Geek In Residence. He’s responsible for coordinating and leading programs to boost entrepreneurship via the SBA and in partnership across nearly a dozen federal agencies as with the Small Business Innovation Research program. But Rao ranges far beyond just his job. He’s an advisor for half a dozen entrepreneurship related groups including local organizations like Village Capital and LAUNCH, a group jointly run by Nike and a handful of federal agencies.

As midterm season reigns on, Howard University’s administration still has one question left to answer: when exactly is its upcoming tech incubator opening?

At the beginning of the school year, those close to the project said they would be opening the incubator in fall 2016. Now, as of Wednesday, that date has been revised; the incubator won’t open until at least early 2017.

Although progress has been made, there is no denying the biotech industry continues to have a large gender gap. Women hold only 16 percent of the senior management posts at the top pharma companies, and of senior executive positions at emerging companies — the 10 companies that raised most in venture capital A rounds in 2014 — only 12 (17 percent) were filled by women.*

Accelerate Baltimore, Emerging Technology Centers’ seed accelerator program, landed $250,000 from the Abell Foundation to help fund its sixth year.

The four-month accelerator program gives each participating company $25,000 in seed funding, free office space, access to an advisory team, instructional programming, mentors and connections to potential investors. The program ends with a Demo Day, attended by angel investors and venture capitalists.

The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) announced today the Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CRCF) Request for Proposals (RFP) for FY2017. The solicitation opens today and Letters of Intent (LOIs) are due by Thursday, November 10th. Award announcements are planned for early June 2017.

The CRCF grows Virginia’s economy by supporting high-potential technology commercialization projects at Virginia’s public and private colleges and universities, the private sector and nonprofit research institutions. A single solicitation for $2.8 million will be offered in FY2017, with five programs available for funding: Commercialization, SBIR Matching Funds, STTR Matching Funds, Matching Funds and Eminent Researcher Recruitment.

Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook, and his wife, the pediatrician Priscilla Chan, announced plans last month to spend $3 billion over the next decade fighting diseases. Mr. Zuckerberg and Dr. Chan said they hoped their project — including a $600-million investment in the Biohub, a new physical lab space for universities in the Bay Area — would help scientists and engineers cure, prevent, or manage all diseases by the end of the century.

Startup incubator 1776 has selected Accenture (NYSE:ACN) to provide guidance and insights to its growing roster of digital health startups.

“1776 is thrilled Accenture is with us in the mission to drive health care into the future,” said Evan Burfield, 1776 cofounder & co-CEO. “There is so much opportunity to improve health care dramatically, but it can’t be done unless talented new entrepreneurs and prestigious established institutions work closely together.”

Wed, October 5, 2016, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM, Relevant Health Rockville, Maryland

Learn from the experts in the fields of Legal, Finance, Biotech, and Regulatory Affairs as to what to look out for and how best to avoid those pitfalls. Bring your personal stories to share with other SoPE members and connect with healthcare innovators and entrepreneurs with a passion for bringing new technologies to our patients.

Bethesda-based health technology company RightEye LLC has acquired exclusive rights to tests it says could help doctors diagnose autism and Parkinson’s disease earlier and more accurately than ever before.

Next Proposal Deadline October 14, 2016

BioFactura, Inc., an emerging Maryland biopharmaceutical research and manufacturing company, announced today entry into a non-exclusive license agreement with Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTA), a biotechnology company specializing in the characterization and engineering of complex drugs, relating to one of the biosimilar product candidates that Momenta is developing. As part of this non-exclusive license agreement, BioFactura is developing a cell line using its NS0-based StableFastTM Biomanufacturing Platform, a proprietary system to rapidly generate stable cell lines that have the potential to lower cost, produce follow-on biologics and are single-use technology compatible. The companies are actively working together to further optimize productivity. Momenta has the right to obtain an exclusive research and commercial license to StableFastTM for clinical development and commercial manufacture of the undisclosed biosimilar product candidate.

BrainScope Company Inc. scored a big win last week when it received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration to market a new medical device that assesses traumatic brain injuries.

The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore is set to develop a plan focused on growing jobs in the region through innovation districts.

EAGB received a $233,500 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration for the effort. It will allow the organization to take inventory and map incubators and other areas of clustering that already exist in the city, as well as in Baltimore County. The roadmap would have several layers, bringing in demographics and other features.

Sanaria Inc. today announced it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Fast Track designation for its preventative vaccine for malaria, Sanaria® PfSPZ Vaccine. Sanaria believes its PfSPZ Vaccine is the only malaria vaccine to have ever received this distinction.

According to the FDA, “Fast Track is a process designed to facilitate the development, and expedite the review of drugs to treat serious conditions and fill an unmet medical need. The purpose is to get important new drugs to the patient earlier.” A drug (or vaccine) that receives Fast Track designation is eligible for Accelerated Approval and Priority Review,which can considerably speed the time to market.

A mobile health company with Johns Hopkins roots earned the $50,000 top prize Thursday at Beta City’s daylong startup showcase and pitch competition in Baltimore.

Tissue Analytics, founded by JHU biomedical engineering graduates Kevin Keenahan and Josh Budman, presented its mobile application designed to help doctors and nurses track wound healing. It was one of eight startups to present business plans, according to The Baltimore Sun.

AstraZeneca’s global biologics research and development arm MedImmune has entered into a licensing agreement with Allergan for the global rights to MEDI2070, which is currently in a Phase IIb clinical trial for moderate-to-severe Crohn’s disease and ready for Phase II for ulcerative colitis. Under the terms of the deal, Allergan will make an upfront payment to AstraZeneca of $250m for the exclusive, worldwide licence to develop and commercialise the drug.

Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 5:30 PM – Columbus Center 701 East Pratt Street Baltimore, MD

1st Pitch Life Science is coming to Baltimore for the first time. Hear what happens AFTER a start-up company presents to an investor group! Usually after a pitch, the investors have a closed-door discussion to decide whether the opportunity merits further investigation and possible investment. 1st Pitch Life Science (http://www.1stpitchlifescience.com) offers presenters and audience members the chance to hear what happens in those closed-door discussions, and to learn what really matters to investors.

Maryland lawmakers voted in March to unite the University of Maryland and the University of Maryland, Baltimore. This legislation, which aims to increase the prestige of the university system, goes into effect today. The MPowering the State partnership between the two schools paves the way for new initiatives to bring more funding to the campuses and attract more businesses and services to each respective community.

Johns Hopkins University will relocate its original FastForward business incubator in April from the Stieff Silver building near the university’s Homewood campus on Wyman Park Drive to nearby R. House at 301 W. 29th St. in Remington.

FastForward R. House will be smaller — about 9,000 square feet of office, meeting and lab space, compared to its 13,000-square-foot space at Stieff Silver — but gives Hopkins an opportunity to move its startups into a space designed with startups in mind.

Looking over a cross-section of members of the region’s tech community, real estate developer David Cordish, Gov. Larry Hogan and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake stood on a stage and spoke of the importance of startups and entrepreneurs for job creation.

Rawlings-Blake talked about how the new coworking space they were gathered to open, called Spark Baltimore, was a sign that “smart, young people from around the country are trying to move here.” After they flipped the switch on the ceremonial lightbulbs, Cordish, whose firm developed the space, raised both arms in celebration, as if celebrating a championship.

Universities are the secret weapon of national startup hubs like Silicon Valley and Boston. And over the last few years Baltimore has done its best to follow suit.

Consider spaces like Johns Hopkins’ FastForward incubator, the University of Maryland BioPark and IMET’s Harbor Launch incubator, and even accelerator programs like Dreamit Health Baltimore. These are all spaces where research takes the leap into commerce.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded five new grants to teach entrepreneurship and to support research and innovation at regional hubs across the United States under its Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) program.

The innovation hubs, known as I-Corps nodes, provide the research infrastructure and training to help researchers transition fundamental science and engineering discoveries to the marketplace. They also support a number of I-Corps sites across the country and deliver a seven-week I-Corps curriculum to the I-Corps teams.

The 2017 FLC Awards is now open for nominations. One of the most coveted honors in the technology transfer field, the FLC Awards have been presented to over 200 federal laboratories since their inception in 1984. Many of our winning technology transfer efforts have gone on to become products and devices that are indispensable in our daily lives, including:

• Digital mammography to detect breast cancer (2002)
• Rechargeable lithium batteries (2004)
• Plug-and-play Ethernet adapter for high-speed downloads of files, music and videos (2005)
• Gardasil™ vaccine against Human Papilloma Virus (2007)
• Proton therapy system used to treat prostate cancer (2008)
• Robotics used to improve vehicle manufacturing and safety (2011)
• Apple trees developed to resist diseases and insect damage (2015)
• Truck side guards that help prevent collisions with pedestrians and cyclists (2016)

Last week researchers released the first results from the UK Biobank Imaging Study, a massive effort that ultimately aims to scan the brains of 100,000 people and use the data in conjunction with detailed health information to investigate disease progression during aging. The findings from their first 5,000 subjects offer an early peek at an enormous data set that includes a treasure trove of health information from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and other measures. The study is one of several projects worldwide taking a population-level approach to better understand diseases, and is part of an ongoing movement in neuroscience toward global, collaborative brain research.

Today, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced $10 million in awards to 10 “Big Data Spokes” projects to initiate research on specific topics identified by the Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs (BD Hubs).

Project topics range from precision agriculture to personalized education. The data spokes reflect the unique priorities and capabilities of the four BD Hubs, which represent consortia from the Midwest, Northeast, South and West of the country.

As the child of a military physicist, Richard Lifton was forced to move around a lot, from Washington D.C., to Albuquerque, New Mexico to Ankara, Turkey. As an adult he settled in Connecticut, where he became a renowned geneticist at Yale University.

Now he’s on the move again, relocating to New York, where he faces perhaps his biggest challenge yet: serving as president of one of the city’s famed research institutions, Rockefeller University, and in so doing taking over for Marc Tessier-Lavigne, someone widely seen as igniting the city’s biotech scene.

BioFactura, Inc., an emerging Maryland biopharmaceutical research and manufacturing company, announced today entry into a non-exclusive license agreement with Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTA), a biotechnology company specializing in the characterization and engineering of complex drugs, relating to one of the biosimilar product candidates that Momenta is developing. As part of this non-exclusive license agreement, BioFactura is developing a cell line using its NS0-based StableFastTM Biomanufacturing Platform, a proprietary system to rapidly generate stable cell lines that have the potential to lower cost, produce follow-on biologics and are single-use technology compatible. The companies are actively working together to further optimize productivity. Momenta has the right to obtain an exclusive research and commercial license to StableFastTM for clinical development and commercial manufacture of the undisclosed biosimilar product candidate.

WeddingWire Inc., the leading global online marketplace for the wedding and event industry, has announced plans to expand its corporate headquarters in Montgomery County.

Currently located in Chevy Chase, WeddingWire is confirmed to lease a total of 68,000 square-feet of space in the county to accommodate its continued growth. As part of the expansion, the company plans to add 200 new jobs to its existing workforce of more than 350 local employees.

The next CONNECTpreneur event is September 28 at the Hyatt Regency Bethesda. More info at connectpreneur.org

There’s a 40% discount code just for eBiz Alert subscribers: Enter CODE: MOCO when you register at http://connectpreneursept2016.eventbrite.com.

This event’s Fireside guest is Seth Goldman, Founder and TeaEO, Honest Tea.

There will be a terrific VC panel including Moderator: Eric Koefoot, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Public Relay, CEO and Publisher, US News Ventures, Founder and CEO, Five Star Alliance; AJ Jaghori, CEO Solebrity; Founder HelloLoCo; Beth Johnson, Founder and CEO, RP3 Agency; Jeannette Lee, Founder and CEO, Cyper; Founder and CEO, SYTEL.

Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 5:30 PM – Columbus Center 701 East Pratt Street Baltimore, MD

1st Pitch Life Science is coming to Baltimore for the first time. Hear what happens AFTER a start-up company presents to an investor group! Usually after a pitch, the investors have a closed-door discussion to decide whether the opportunity merits further investigation and possible investment. 1st Pitch Life Science (http://www.1stpitchlifescience.com) offers presenters and audience members the chance to hear what happens in those closed-door discussions, and to learn what really matters to investors.

You and your company team will be competing against other biotech companies to win the coveted BioBowl Trophy and bragging rights! Come out, Team Build and Network with some friendly competition!

Date: Thursday, October 13, 2016 Time: 4:00 – 6:30 PM (TBC) Location: Bowlmor – 15720 Shady Grove Rd, Gaithersburg MD 20877

For more info, please contact Sarah Meisheid at MeisheidS@medimmune.com or 301-398-2431

Next Proposal Deadline October 14, 2016

Market-driven new technology and innovation leads to new products and new jobs. Creating jobs in innovative Maryland companies is what the Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program has been doing for 27 years: bringing the inventive minds and extensive laboratory resources of the University System of Maryland (USM) to bear on creating the new products that feed the growth of Maryland businesses. Since the program’s inception in 1987, MIPS–enabled products have generated sales of $30.3 B. MIPS is nationally recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration as a model program for best practices in transferring technology and is a proven program that contributes significantly to job creation and high tech product development in Maryland.

TEDCO announced today its Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII) program has awarded $18 million to more than 180 commercialization projects and 45 start-up companies since its inception in late 2012. Awards were given across a variety of industries, including therapeutic, software, medical devices and engineering.

“MII is the only program in Maryland that supports the transition of technology from the academic research laboratory through product development to commercialization in a start-up company,” says John Wasilisin, President and COO. “The program has been a game changer for innovators at Maryland’s research universities to take the next step in becoming entrepreneurs.”

Date: September 30 – October 1, 2016 – 20200 Observation Drive, Germantown, MD 20876

Collaboration and Innovation in Bio, Medical, & Pharmaceuticals

You are cordially invited to the Korea – US Cooperative Conference for Life Science (KUCCLS). The main goals of KUCCLS 2016 are to:

The two-day conference will attract over 250 biotechnology and life science leaders in Korea & US, who join together for networking and partnering meetings to discover new opportunities and promising partnerships in the area of R&D, commercial business of Bio, Medical, and Pharmaceuticals. Seats are limited. Register today!

For Martine Rothblatt, nothing is off limits. Not even death.

The founder of Sirius XM Satellite Radio and United Therapeutics Corp. (NASDAQ: UTHR) is the quintessential innovator who lives life asking the question: “Why can’t we?”

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

For over 10 years the Sartorius Stedim Upstream & Downstream Forum has provided an exciting venue for presentations, networking and discussions focusing on the latest applications and technologies.

This year the event continues to build the collaborative bridge between Upstream/Downstream Bioprocessing by bringing specialists from your peer group who will share their experience by presenting best practices, applications and techniques to address the bottlenecks at the interfaces of upstream and downstream. Seize the opportunity of this unique venue and book both events as a package.

The Department of Health and Human Services has entered strategic partnerships with a Roche Group subsidiary and The Medicines Co. to develop antibiotics against multi-drug resistant infections.

HHS’ office of the assistant secretary for preparedness and response forged the partnerships with the two companies through other transaction authority under the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act of 2006, HHS said Wednesday.

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health landed a $95 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to analyze data from a program aimed at understanding how the environment influences health beginning in the womb.

The University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) has received $4,999,994 in federal funding through the National Science Foundation (NSF) to increase the number of minority students graduating with degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

The funding was announced by U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) on Wednesday.

The Medicines Co on Wednesday said it will receive up to $132 million in U.S. government funding for development of new antibiotics to fight drug-resistant infections, seen by health officials as a critically important need.

At Microsoft’s research labs around the world, computer scientists, programmers, engineers and other experts are trying to crack some of the computer industry’s toughest problems, from system design and security to quantum computing and data visualization.

A Pasadena-based real estate company that has grown into a world-class developer for science and technology campuses is expanding its reach into the life science industry.

Alexandria Real Estate equities — an urban office real estate investment trust that was founded in 1994 — has put up buildings in virtually every major city where life sciences are studied in the United States, according to Xconomy.

NEA Partner Sara Nayeem, MD will serve on the Best Legal Frameworks for VC Investments Panel on Thursday, September 22 in DC at the International Bar Association Meeting.

The International Bar Association programme will feature more than 200 substantive legal sessions, workshops and panels, including topics on current events and contentious issues facing the profession. The committee sessions will offer the chance to hear from the best experts in the field. The conference will also feature sessions presenting the lessons and achievements of each of my Presidential Task Forces: on Climate Change Justice and Human Rights, the Judicial Integrity Initiative, Human Trafficking, and Independence of the Legal Profession.

Precision medicine is fundamentally changing the way therapies are being developed. Its targeted, customized approach to health care has a widespread impact on everything from genomics to medical devices, and as a result it is creating new business models for enterprises across the sector. Importantly, precision medicine provides the backdrop for researchers as they explore how genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors interact in our bodies to foster health or develop disease.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his pediatrician wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, announced this week that their Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will fund a $3 billion effort to cure all diseases. Mark Zuckerberg announced in December 2015 that he was going to give away 99 percent of his wealth. But instead of forming a traditional charity, he bequeathed his Facebook shares to his own Limited Liability Corporation, called the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Herndon, Va.-based cybersecurity startup accelerator Mach37 has unveiled the five companies chosen for its fall cohort. The startups will get $50,000 investment and spend 90 days in intensive programming where mentors will help them learn how to get their products to a market-ready point, teach them how to attract private investors and prepare for scaling up their companies. The program also serves to connect the startups with some of the very people who might be the potential investors.

Virginia Bio, the statewide non-profit association representing the life science industry in the Commonwealth of Virginia, announced that it will support the growth and expansion of the Biosciences industry via its upcoming September 29 event, Women Building Bio: The XX Factor. Virginia Bio is actively collaborating with academic institutions as well as regional and global businesses to expand the industry’s footprint in the Commonwealth and beyond. As a partner in the BioHealth Capital Region campaign inclusive of Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, Virginia Bio is focused on accelerating the region’s progress towards the goal of becoming “top 3 by 2023” among the biotech clusters in the U.S.

It would raise the stakes even higher, but that didn’t stop Jay Flatley, Illumina’s then chief executive, from sending in vials of his own saliva and blood to the company’s newly opened lab. It was January 2009, and Illumina’s scientists were about to embark on their first mission to sequence a whole human genome.

This comprehensive lecture/laboratory course is ideal for those bench and research scientists who have a fundamental background in PCR and are looking to gain a thorough understanding of and hands-on exposure to the Real Time, Quantitative and Digital PCR processes.

Learn from the experts in the fields of Legal, Finance, Biotech, and Regulatory Affairs as to what to look out for and how best to avoid those pitfalls. Bring your personal stories to share with other SoPE members and connect with healthcare innovators and entrepreneurs with a passion for bringing new technologies to our patients.

David Petr, who has been hired to guide economic development in Montgomery County, said the county has what it needs to compete against rival Fairfax County: a quality work force.

“The true benefit of doing business here is the quality of talent,” Petr said Tuesday after a meeting with the Montgomery County Council.

Altimmune, Inc., a clinical stage immunotherapeutic company, today announced that Christine Brennan, PhD, Principal at Novartis Venture Fund, has joined its Board of Directors effective immediately. Dr. Brennan replaces Florent Gros from Novartis Venture Fund.

“We are extremely pleased to welcome Dr. Brennan to our Board. She has an impressive background in the biopharmaceutical industry, and her experience and guidance will be invaluable as we continue to advance the clinical development of our three drug candidates,” said Bill Enright, President and Chief Executive Officer of Altimmune. “We would also like to thank Mr. Gros for his service to Altimmune over the past year.”

IDT Biologika, a globally integrated manufacturer of vaccines and biopharmaceuticals, announces today the one-year anniversary celebration of its first U.S. contract manufacturing facility in Rockville, Maryland. The state-of-the-art facility offers custom, end-to-end solutions to support the manufacture of viral and microbial vaccines (live and attenuated), gene and cancer therapies, and therapeutic proteins. IDT commemorates its first anniversary with a special program and tours of its facility for local political leaders and members of the biopharmaceutical industry.

The Gaithersburg research and development arm of AstraZeneca said it would begin filing a new request for Food and Drug Administration approval for its biologics annually starting this year.

Two Maryland-based companies are racing to get a vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to market–and one just picked up a regulatory boost.

MedImmune, AstraZeneca’s ($AZN) biologics research and development arm, announced on Thursday that the FDA is fast-tracking its RSV vaccine, MEDI8897. It joins Novavax ($NVAX), which received FDA fast-track designation for its candidate in November.

GlaxoSmithKline’s experimental vaccine to prevent the intensely painful condition known as shingles remained 90 percent effective in people over age 70 even four years after receiving the injection, according to data published on Wednesday.

Crosstown rivals Novartis ($NVS) and Roche ($RHHBY) will be neck and neck for the No. 1 spot in pharma sales till 2022, with Roche ahead by a nose at the finish line, according to a new market analysis. Along the way, a 6.3% annual growth rate industrywide will take global prescription drug sales past the $1 trillion mark.

Alexandria Real Estate (NYSE:ARE) is about as successful a Wall Street story as you’ll find. Started in 1994 as what management fondly recalls as a garage startup, the company now is one of the most successful and unique REITs on the market today. What makes the company so special is that Alexandria was the first REIT to focus exclusively on life science and biotechnology clients, specifically in the most prime real estate markets: Boston, San Francisco, New York City, etc.

Former New York mayor and businessman Michael Bloomberg is giving $300 million to the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health to help fight drug addiction, obesity and gun violence.

The next CONNECTpreneur event is September 28 at the Hyatt Regency Bethesda. More info at connectpreneur.org

There’s a 40% discount code just for eBiz Alert subscribers: Enter CODE: MOCO when you register at http://connectpreneursept2016.eventbrite.com.

This event’s Fireside guest is Seth Goldman, Founder and TeaEO, Honest Tea.

The 2016 Steering Committee of the Montgomery County Executive Hispanic Gala (MCEHG) announces that Montgomery County Public Schools Assistant Principal Vilma C. Nájera will be the recipient of the “Educator of the Year” Award to be presented during the gala celebration on September 22, 2016 at The Fillmore Silver Spring.

Ms. Vilma C. Nájera is an Assistant Principal at Springbrook High School and one of the county coordinators for the Minority Scholars Program. Through her work last year at Springbrook, there was an increase in the number of Hispanic males graduating. She also launched the Minority Scholars Program at Springbrook.

The Minority Scholars Program, MSP, is a group of student leaders that focuses on closing the achievement gap at their schools and county wide.

The University of Maryland School of Medicine tested out its first Zika vaccine shots Tuesday, in hopes to further research that could lead to a vaccine used around the world.

The vaccine was developed by the National Institute of Health, which chose three places to test, first in their labs in Bethesda, then at the U of M School of Medicine, and finally at Emery University in Atlanta.

The University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore announced details Tuesday of a joint national security academy.

Officials said the academy, which would be located in College Park, will enable them to expand their current programs in cybersecurity, law, criminology and counterterrorism.

Tech star and billionaire Steve Case has been hammering home one idea for the last few years — that the future of tech and startups rests outside of the traditional Silicon Valley ecosystem and in the fertile plains of America’s heartland.

Now, with less than a month until his fifth “Rise of the Rest” tour, he sees that idea gaining traction.

Digital health technology leader WellDoc announced today it has entered a commercial partnership agreement with LifeScan Inc., one of the Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Care Companies (JJDCC) and a world leader in blood glucose monitoring, to deliver across the United States a best-in-class digital health solution for Type 2 diabetes. The companies will integrate WellDoc’s clinically validated BlueStar® diabetes management platform and mobile application, which is the first digital therapeutic approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for adults who live with Type 2 diabetes, with LifeScan’s OneTouch Verio Flex™ blood glucose monitoring system with built-in Bluetooth® Smart Technology and the OneTouch Reveal digital system. The combined offering will seek to create a comprehensive, data-driven and payer-reimbursed program for Type 2 diabetes management.

GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE/NYSE: GSK) today announces a series of agreements with Aspen (JSE: APN) aligned with GSK’s strategy of simplification through focusing on core therapeutic areas.

GSK will divest its anaesthesia portfolio to Aspen for £180 million plus milestones of up to £100 million. In addition to this divestment, GSK and Aspen have entered into parallel agreements to terminate their collaboration in Sub-Saharan Africa and for Aspen to exercise its option to acquire GSK’s remaining thrombosis business in certain retained markets.

Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University and the University of Virginia were among the top Washington-area universities making an appearance on U.S. News and World Report’s 2017 Best Colleges edition released Tuesday.

$248 million in cash from Sanofi, and the same amount in a capital contribution by Verily (not in cash) have breathed life to a new company — Onduo — where the two equal partners will wage battle with a formidable enemy: diabetes.

Everyone likes to talk about innovation, but how can you stop simply talking about and start driving real innovation in biotech? We looked at some of the most ground-breaking, silo-busting movers and shakers around to bring you the “Top 5 Ways to Innovate in Biote

Innovation. What does it mean to you?

That’s a great question — and one that we are setting out to answer in several ways at the Washington Business Journal.

2016 INNOVATION SHOWCASE

Joint Annual Meeting Johns Hopkins Alliance for Science & Technology Development and the University of Maryland, Baltimore Commercial Advisory Board

October 6, 2016 / 7:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Helping patients means transparency and clarity

Every day, thousands of Americans hear the dreaded “c word” from their doctor. I know the fear and the numbness that sets in with the cancer of a loved one.

What happens next can make the difference between life and death. If there’s a treatment that can help, there’s hope. But for some people, hope is a clinical trial that will ultimately determine whether a new therapy can slow or stop their cancer.

The National Institutes of Health plans to consolidate several locations in suburban Maryland into a pair of adjacent buildings in Bethesda after wrapping up a roughly nine-month search for alternatives in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.

California Life Sciences Institute (CLSI) today announced the appointment of Heather Shane to build and lead the CLSI CARB-X accelerator, which will provide non-dilutive funding, business support and subject matter expertise to companies with innovative antibiotic product candidates. The Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) is the world’s largest public-private partnership focused on tackling one of the greatest modern threats to public health — antibiotic resistance. CARB-X will commit $50 million during the first year, and at least $350 million over five years, toward preclinical research and development with the aim of accelerating antibiotic product development over the next 25 years. CLSI is the non-profit partner of the California Life Sciences Association (CLSA), and supports the foundations of innovation – workforce development, STEM education and entrepreneurship – that have made California home to the world’s most prominent life sciences ecosystem.

Accenture has announced the creation of the Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge, which aims to bring together startup firms and prominent life sciences and health companies to address challenges including access, affordability, transparency and security.

From Mark Suster:

“I recently read a blog post by Beezer Clarkson, Managing Director of Sapphire Ventures about why entrepreneurs should care about from whom their VC funds raise their capital. I spent a bunch of time thinking about this position — especially since Beezer is an investor in Upfront Ventures. There are a lot of things I think entrepreneurs should care about when raising from a VC:”

Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation (Tekes) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a partnership that will enable Finland to utilize Watson cognitive computing to help doctors improve the health of its citizens, and strengthen and develop the Finnish innovation and business ecosystem in the fields of health and well-being. To facilitate the collaboration, IBM intends to establish a Watson Health Center of Excellence in Finland, the first Nordic Healthcare Competence Center, and the first National Imaging Center of Excellence outside the United States in Finland. These centers are expected to employ 150 people over the next few years.

At first glance, Moderna Therapeutics looks like the most enviable biotech startup in the world. It has smashed fundraising records and teamed up with pharmaceutical giants as it pursues a radical plan to revolutionize medicine by transforming human cells into drug factories.

But the reality is more complicated.

Verily, Alphabet’s life sciences group, is investing big in developing technologies for the millions of people worldwide with diabetes.

Verily announced today that it is teaming up with pharmaceutical giant Sanofi to fund and spin out a new venture, Cambridge, Mass.-based Onduo, which is focused on helping clinicians and their patients manage the disease. The companies have tapped a new CEO to lead the startup, trained emergency-medicine physician Joshua Riff, from United Healthcare-owned Optum.

Recently there have been numerous articles and editorials understandably scrutinizing the increases in pricing of EpiPen produced by Mylan, a generic drug company. The strong reaction to the behavior of Mylan and a few other companies is threatening to impede the ability of R&D-focused innovator companies to provide innovative, life-changing new therapies to patients.

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Creating a tech invention with global potential is an ambition that many of us harbor but only relatively few are able to actually achieve.

So for the co-creators of a device that monitors newborn baby vital signs and improves their chances of survival in parts of the developing world, the sense of achievement in getting their startup idea off the ground is bolstered further by a feeling of real pride in doing work that could save thousands of lives.

Altimmune, Inc., a clinical stage immunotherapeutic company, today announced that Christine Brennan, PhD, Principal at Novartis Venture Fund, has joined its Board of Directors effective immediately. Dr. Brennan replaces Florent Gros from Novartis Venture Fund.

“We are extremely pleased to welcome Dr. Brennan to our Board. She has an impressive background in the biopharmaceutical industry, and her experience and guidance will be invaluable as we continue to advance the clinical development of our three drug candidates,” said Bill Enright, President and Chief Executive Officer of Altimmune. “We would also like to thank Mr. Gros for his service to Altimmune over the past year.”

Digital health technology leader WellDoc announced today it has entered a commercial partnership agreement with LifeScan Inc., one of the Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Care Companies (JJDCC) and a world leader in blood glucose monitoring, to deliver across the United States a best-in-class digital health solution for Type 2 diabetes. The companies will integrate WellDoc’s clinically validated BlueStar® diabetes management platform and mobile application, which is the first digital therapeutic approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for adults who live with Type 2 diabetes, with LifeScan’s OneTouch Verio Flex™ blood glucose monitoring system with built-in Bluetooth® Smart Technology and the OneTouch Reveal digital system. The combined offering will seek to create a comprehensive, data-driven and payer-reimbursed program for Type 2 diabetes management.

D.C.-based Danaher Corp. (NYSE: DHR) is buying California molecular diagnostics company Cepheid Inc. (NASDAQ: CPHD) for about $4 billion in cash.

The $53 per share price represents a 54 percent premium on its Friday closing price of $34.42 per share. The deal, expected to close in the fourth quarter, would constitute a sizable addition to Danaher’s $8.2 billion life sciences and medical testing and equipment business.

ExeGi Pharma, LLC announced the launch of the new probiotic formulation, Visbiome™ and Visbiome™ Extra Strength. Visbiome contains the pioneering probiotic blend developed by Professor Claudio De Simone, M.D., Ph.D. (the “De Simone Formulation”), and it has the same strains, in the same concentrations and proportions, and is therapeutically equivalent to the VSL#3®1 probiotic blend produced before January 31, 2016. Visbiome, a medical food, delivers anti-inflammatory probiotic bacteria in high concentrations, normalizing the gut flora and providing sustained relief from symptoms of multiple gastroenterological conditions including ulcerative colitis, chronic pouchitis and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

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. Up to $100,000 per year is available for each project.

Upcoming Information Sessions

Date: Thursday, September 8Time: Noon-1 p.m.Location: Chesapeake Innovation Center, 2288 Blue Water Blvd., Building 300, Suite 310, Odenton, MD 21113

Date: Wednesday, September 14Time: 3-5 p.m.Location: Frostburg State University Sustainable Energy Research Facility (SERF), 5 Technology Drive, Frostburg, MD 21532

Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University and the University of Virginia were among the top Washington-area universities making an appearance on U.S. News and World Report’s 2017 Best Colleges edition released Tuesday.

GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE/NYSE: GSK) today announces a series of agreements with Aspen (JSE: APN) aligned with GSK’s strategy of simplification through focusing on core therapeutic areas.

GSK will divest its anaesthesia portfolio to Aspen for £180 million plus milestones of up to £100 million. In addition to this divestment, GSK and Aspen have entered into parallel agreements to terminate their collaboration in Sub-Saharan Africa and for Aspen to exercise its option to acquire GSK’s remaining thrombosis business in certain retained markets.

$248 million in cash from Sanofi, and the same amount in a capital contribution by Verily (not in cash) have breathed life to a new company — Onduo — where the two equal partners will wage battle with a formidable enemy: diabetes.

Everyone likes to talk about innovation, but how can you stop simply talking about and start driving real innovation in biotech? We looked at some of the most ground-breaking, silo-busting movers and shakers around to bring you the “Top 5 Ways to Innovate in Biote

In opening a recent interview with Under Armour (NYSE:UA) founder and CEO Kevin Plank, the commentator described Plank as “next.”

As perhaps the most high-profile member of a cohort of younger CEOs, Plank’s overwhelming success in starting and growing Under Armour has become the stuff of business lore. Here are a few of Plank’s top quotes on a host of subjects including business, entrepreneurship, and leadership.

Gov. Larry Hogan will travel to Israel later this month in an effort to attract more overseas businesses to Maryland, particularly in the areas of biotechnology and cybersecurity.

BIO released the new report “Advancing the Biobased Economy: Renewable Chemical Biorefinery Commercialization, Progress, and Market Opportunities, 2016 and Beyond,” documenting substantial, ongoing growth in the renewable chemical industry and outlining federal and state policies that support the industry.

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:

• Notice of NCCIH’s Participation in PA-16-414 “Innovation Corps (I-Corps) at NIH Program for NIH and CDC Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Grantees (Admin Supp)”
• (NOT-AT-16-003)
• National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
• Notice of Clarification to NHLBI’s Policy Regarding Total Years of Support for K24 Funding
• (NOT-HL-16-442)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice of Technical Assistance Webinars for Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) FOAs: RFA-RM-011, RFA-RM-012, RFA-RM-013, RFA-RM-014, RFA-RM-16-015, RFA-RM-016, and RFA-RM-017
• (NOT-RM-16-028)
• NIH Roadmap Initiatives
• Notice of New Expiration Date for RFA-RM-16-013 “Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa): Ethical, Legal, and Societal Issues (ELSI) Research Program (U01)”
• (NOT-RM-16-029)
• NIH Roadmap Initiatives

Requests for Applications:

• Maximizing the Scientific Value of the NHLBI Biorepository: Scientific Opportunities for Exploratory Research (R21)
• (RFA-HL-17-022)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Mandates for the provision of telemedicine have driven insurance companies and employers to jump into arrangements with pre-smartphone era companies like Teladoc, MD Live, and American Well.

The Georgetown-based Halcyon Incubator celebrated the commencement of a new cohort on Thursday with another announcement — two years ago, to the day, the incubator itself was launched. In that time, S&R Foundation COO Kate Goodall informed the gathered crowd, the incubator has served 32 ventures, which have raised a collective $10 million in funding and “impacted” 2 million lives around the world.

Startups in the medical device industry are on pace for an uptick in financing, thanks to interest from private market investors, including corporates. We put together a periodic table of medical device companies to highlight promising startups, industry categories, exits, and active investors in the category.

Let’s face it, cells generally like having company, forming communities with other cell types to make complete tissues. However, quite often, researchers isolate cells from their 3-D environments, creating 2-D models that don’t always replicate complex biology.

The Biomedical Research Institute (BRI), founded in Rockville, MD in 1968, is a not-forprofit research institute that emphasizes basic research in schistosomiasis. BRI expanded its subsidiaries in 1985 to include the Association of Entrepreneurial Science (AES), an incubator for startup scientific companies that brings scientists and basic research findings into the realm of commercial markets. AES brings together all the accompanying business skills required for profit making entrepreneurs to bring scientific products and services to the marketplace.

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Smart money VCs are on pace to participate in fewer cybersecurity deals through the end of this year, compared to 2015. This year, through Q2’16, the top two dozen smart money VCs participated in nearly 30 cybersecurity funding rounds — deals that totaled $657M in aggregate.

The Next Phase of the FLC Awards is Here – 2017 FLC Awards

The 2017 FLC Awards is now open for nominations. One of the most coveted honors in the technology transfer field, the FLC awards have been presented to over 200 federal laboratories since their inception in 1984. Many of our winning technology transfer efforts have gone on to become products and devices that are indispensable in our daily lives.

This free event brought to you by BioHealth Innovation is to gather interested small businesses seeking funding from the NCI SBIR grants program.

Connect with NCI SBIR program managers

Hear about the current NCI contract solicitation

Learn about additional support from BioHealth Innovation

When: Wednesday, September 7, 2016 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM

Where:Germantown Innovation Center 27201 Goldenrod Lane Germantown, MD 20876

RSVP: jorozco@scheerpartners.com

Attendance is limitied to BioHealth companies. The parking at the GIC can handle 20 non-resident companies labeled in the GIC reserve spaces. Others will be ticketed.

RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB: RGRX) (“the Company” or “RegeneRx”), a clinical-stage drug development company focused on tissue protection, repair and regeneration, today announced that it has received notice of Intent to Grant a patent from the European Patent Office for the treatment of patients with MS. The patent covers use of the Company’s proprietary molecule Thymosin beta 4 (Tβ4) in a composition for treating or reducing deterioration of, injury or damage to tissue due to MS. The patent expiry is January 13, 2026.

In addition to exploring existing drugs for multiple indications, United Therapeutics (UTHR) has been actively investing in research and development (or R&D) programs involving novel technologies. These are targeted toward pulmonary arterial hypertension (or PAH), cancer, and the orphan disease bronchopulmonary dysplasia (or BPD).

Maryland is a leader in National Institutes of Health funding for biomedical research and in venture capital investment for bioscience-related companies, according to a recent study from the Biotechnology Innovation Organization.

The bioscience industry employs more than 34,000 people in Maryland, and the average annual wage for a bioscience worker in the United States reached $94,543 in 2014, according to the report.

The National Creativity Network (NCN) is pleased to announce the winner of the 2016 USA Creative Business Cup – Kitchology of Germantown, MD. Kitchology (www.kitchology.com) is the first company to create an integrated social cooking platform for the estimated 160 million people dealing with special diets and the suppliers who sell to them. It allows consumers to overcome the limitations imposed by food restrictions, and makes it easy for like-minded cooks to find each other. Kitchology applies machine learning to nutrition science, profiling and social curation to help the home cook match and modify recipes to satisfy the challenges of food allergies, intolerances, and special diets. Kitchology enables meal planning based on ingredients previously used and explored, personalized ingredient substitutions, purchasing with intelligent shopping lists, step-by-step cooking, and fosters influencer relationships.

With concerns over a continued Zika outbreak growing, the Food and Drug Administration has given Roche Holdings emergency approval to use one of its Zika blood testing kits.

The approval, which lasts as long as the emergency is ongoing, will allow for testing of the virus through Roche’s LightMix Zika rRT-PCR test, which has not been approved by the FDA yet.

A day in the life at Startup Village is hectic with the University of Maryland students and alumni working on business projects from 8 a.m. to as late as midnight. It’s not uncommon for collaborators to crash on the couch, said David Engle, co-founder and executive director of Startup Village and a 2015 spring graduate of this university.

Submit your proposal today for the “Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids!” competition. Up to six prizes totaling $250,000 will be awarded to the winning presentations at the 4th Annual Pediatric Surgical Innovation Symposium in Washington, DC hosted by the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children’s National Health System.

One of the great scientific challenges is to understand the human brain. Research teams around the world are gathering data at breakneck speed on everything from the brain’s connectome and the way it computes to the nature of brain disease and how it can be better diagnosed and treated.

It’s time once again to pick the members of the tech community who should win a coveted Baltimore Innovation Award.

This is a chance to recognize organizations and individuals who are innovating and growing Baltimore’s tech community. See all of last year’s award winners here.

Bertin launches the first digital Night Vision Device providing smart fusion for accurate threat and target. Developed in partnership with Photonis Technologies, FusionSight® is a world- first compact monocular that combines a low light full color image sensor with a thermal image sensor.

Eli Lilly ($LLY) has been doubling down on its efforts to invent new animal vaccines–opening a 48,000-square-foot research facility near its Indianapolis headquarters, for example, that its animal health division, Elanco, will use for R&D. On the production-animal side of the business, Elanco’s bread and butter until now has been cattle and swine products, but the company is looking to expand into a rapidly growing corner of food production where it has had virtually no presence: aquaculture.

The Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine received a $14.4 million grant for HIV research.

The grant, awarded by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), will fund research aimed at tackling a significant scientific challenge in HIV vaccine research – the inability to produce long-lasting antibodies to protect against the infection.

Supernus announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted tentative approval to the supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) proposing a label expansion for Trokendi XR (topiramate) extended-release capsules to include prophylaxis of migraine headache in adults.

Twenty accomplished female life sciences executives will comprise the first ever cohort of Women In Bio’s Boardroom Ready program, the organization announced today. The women will spend five days this fall at George Washington University completing a new executive-level board certification training program to prepare them to join corporate Boards of Directors.

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca’s agreement to sell much of its antibiotics business won’t impact operations at MedImmune, its Gaithersburg-based research and development arm, officials confirmed Wednesday.

In an ongoing effort to improve the experience of doing business in and/or with Montgomery County, County Executive Ike Leggett is inviting the business community to identify opportunities for streamlining and simplifying rules and regulations for businesses, and for improving the County government’s services to businesses. Your anonymous and confidential feedback will help us identify areas where change will have a positive impact. Thank you for participating.

Johns Hopkins Medicine has launched the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Zika Center, where medical professionals focus on caring for patients with the Zika virus. The center is touted as the first multidisciplinary Zika center in the world.

Phil Magrogan, PMP, SCP4, ITIL Senior Program Manager Leidos

Agile represents a widely adopted set of principles that apply to small scale teams – typically 7 to 9 developers. Several authors have published frameworks, techniques, and methods for applying agile principles to large organizations – over 100 developers. Now that we have a few years of experience in applying agile to large scale organizations it is time to look back at what works and what doesn’t work so that large organizations can leverage good practices and avoid pitfalls performing with agile at scale.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday issued emergency authorization for a Zika diagnostics test from Swiss drugmaker Roche, skirting normal approval channels as the regulator moves to fight the disease’s spread.

Thomas Luginbill knows what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. He spearheaded the founding of a campus organization when he was an undergraduate, helped start a family-run contracting business and co-created a start-up technology venture while studying for an MBA. This self-described “serial entrepreneur” has been named as director of the College of Southern Maryland’s newly formed Entrepreneur and Innovation Institute (EII).

AstraZeneca announced it will sell the full commercialization and development rights of its late-stage small molecule antibiotics business to Pfizer, while AstraZeneca focuses on developing therapies for other main areas, according to a press release.

Life sciences investor Sofinnova Ventures is raising fund number 10 in what, as FierceBiotech notes, appears to be its largest fund to date. A previous fund, dating back to 2014, raised $500 million.

Before we start, long time readers know, we have no interest in trying to influence your political views or voting allegiance (not that we could). So please don’t look for “hidden meanings” or agendas. If we have something to convey, we will come right out and say it.

We could have done several SBIR Insiders over the eight weeks, but none of them would have had much value because every time I thought we had something important to report, the story would change and the relevance of the Insider issue would have been moot.

Steve Klasko, president of Thomas Jefferson University and CEO of Jefferson Health, is the author of We Can Fix Healthcare: The Future Is Now, with Wharton adjunct professor Gregory P. Shea and Michael Hoad. In the book, the authors propose 12 disruptive transformations to the health care industry.

Klasko stopped by the Knowledge@Wharton Show on Sirius XM channel 111 with Nishad Rahman, a medical student at Jefferson, to talk about this changing industry.

More and more big firms are bringing young talent in-house in the hope that they will bring fresh ideas along with them and infuse new vigor into their companies. German pharma giant Bayer is also following this trend.

Health systems in developed countries face a twofold challenge: ensuring financial sustainability and improving quality. Digitization can help health systems achieve both these objectives and unlock substantial value through lower spending and superior healthcare delivery.

After decades of inconclusive results, researchers backed by Pfizer and Massachusetts General Hospital revealed that they had identified several genetic markers associated with depression earlier this month. It was the largest study of its kind, using data from more than 120,000 people.

In 2011, a supercomputer won $1 million on Jeopardy! In 2016, that same supercomputer is tackling a challenge quantified not in millions of dollars but in millions of cancer patients.

The goal is to use Watson’s natural language processing to mine the medical literature and a patient’s records to provide treatment advice. And this month the Watson computer system is drastically expanding its reach—from one hospital in Thailand to six in India and a planned 21 more in China.

Precision Medicine is gathering pace, driven by leaders from across healthcare, academia, Big Pharma, government, technology innovators and more. In the past year the investment of both time and resources into this exciting new area has grown exponentially with exciting projects and initiatives springing up across the globe.

For the first time Phacilitate has gathered all of these influencers and industry innovators together into the Top 50 Big Data Influencers in Precision Medicine eBook.

Chevy Chase venture fund New Enterprise Associates upped its bet on ThreatQuotient, a Reston-based cybersecurity analytics start-up, in a $12 million investment announced Tuesday.

ThreatQuotient operates a set of data analytics tools for corporate cybersecurity analysts, meant to help sort through the millions of data points that might predict the next hack. The company was founded in 2013 by two technologists working out of AOL’s Fishbowl Labs incubator in Sterling, Va., and chief executive John Czupak joined in late 2015.

The company, which employs more than 300 people at its plant in Ulverston, was praised for its work helping tackle diseases in both the western and developing world.

This list appeared in prestigious American publication Fortune, which has its headquarters in New York City.

Summer is a good time to review investment activity for pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the year so far and a new report shows that there’s still life for life science IPOs.

While driving and listening to National Public Radio one day, Justin Kao heard about the discovery of a “sweet tooth gene” that makes you more likely to crave sweets. “Oh my God,” thought Kao, who has always loved cookies. “I would pay $5 to know if I had that.”

Today’s medicines can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. The story of how two companies set prices for their costly new drugs suggests that the way we determine the value of such treatments will help decide the future of our health-care system.

This free event brought to you by BioHealth Innovation is to gather interested small businesses seeking funding from the NCI SBIR grants program.

• Connect with NCI SBIR program managers
• Hear about the current NCI contract solicitation
• Learn about additional support from BioHealth Innovation

When: Wednesday, September 7, 2016 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM

Where:Germantown Innovation Center 27201 Goldenrod Lane Germantown, MD 20876

RSVP: jorozco@scheerpartners.com

Attendance is limitied to BioHealth companies. The parking at the GIC can handle 20 non-resident companies labeled in the GIC reserve spaces. Others will be ticketed.

Symbiomix today announced it is accelerating plans for the commercial launch of Solosec™ (secnidazole) oral granules following the presentation of clinical results from the second pivotal trial for the treatment of bacterial vaginosis (BV) with the hiring of Taunia Markvicka, PharmD, MBA, as Chief Commercial Officer. Symbiomix had a significant presence at the Infectious Diseases Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology (IDSOG) Annual Meeting in Annapolis, Maryland this past weekend with both the oral data presentation and sponsorship of a panel discussion on emerging diagnosis and treatment recommendations for BV. In addition, the company announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued conditional acceptance of the proprietary name Solosec™. Solosec™ was previously known as SYM-1219.

QIAGEN N.V. (NASDAQ: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced plans to return approximately $250 million to shareholders through a synthetic share repurchase proposal that combines a direct capital repayment with a reverse stock split.

These actions, which will lead to an adjustment in QIAGEN’s share capital, have been used previously by other large, multinational Dutch companies as an efficient way to provide returns to shareholders. The proposal, if adopted, is expected to be similar to QIAGEN repurchasing approximately $250 million of its own shares, but will enable the return of capital to all shareholders in a much faster and more efficient way than through a traditional open-market repurchase program.