BHI Weekly News Archives

Forbes has published a new feature on the “Best Performing Company in Each State.”

The magazine “tracked the total return of every public company between June 8, 2015, and June 8, 2016, excluding companies that have been trading for less time.” The analysis was based on data from FactSet.

Zika has been in the spotlight lately with summer in full swing and the Olympics in Rio just around the corner. A company in Montgomery County is working on a vaccine that could save lives.

Emergent Biosolutions was awarded a contract by the U.S. government worth nearly $22 million. Scientists will begin working on the vaccine within just a few days.

Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation is asking for your help in identifying some “knock your socks off” candidates for the next jobs the MCEDC will fill:

1) Executive Assistant. We are looking for someone who loves to create order from chaos, to keep multiple balls in the air at one time, to support the MCEDC Board, to manage vendor relationships and to create PowerPoint presentations, reports, Excel tables and correspondence; who is not afraid to learn new software; loves details and can keep them straight; is reliable; has a great telephone manner and likes to have fun while getting an enormous amount of work done!

2) Web Content Manager. This position is part of the Marketing/Communications group. We want to produce an award-winning, incredibly useful, highly visited web site on doing business in Montgomery County. We’re looking for someone who is a superb writer, knows business interests/language/terms, can work effectively and creatively with a good web design company, has an eye for detail and consistency. This position will entail working with the marketing and branding team in both launching new content and keeping content current and refreshed.

3) Marketing/Communications Director. This position will identify key messages for target audiences, develop a marketing plan for each of those audiences, work with a creative agency to produce the deliverables, evaluate the results and recommend/implement course corrections. This position will also oversee development of our social media presence, press relations and press releases, and other online communications. The director will also have supervisory responsibility for several marketing/communications positions.

Please tell anyone you know with the appropriate skills and experience about the openings. We are interested in moving forward expeditiously and will begin interviewing the week of July 18. Please have any qualified candidates forward a resume and statement of interest to Joyce Fuhrmann at jfuhrmann@choosemontgomerycountymd.com.

The Maryland Department of Commerce is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Senior Business Development Representative within its Division of Business & Industry Sector Development’s Regional Growth, Business Retention, Expansion and Strategic Rural Development Unit. This position is primarily responsible for attracting businesses, assisting with retention, relocation, and expansion needs and opportunities within the State of Maryland focusing on Montgomery County in the Capital Region. The incumbent will actively market and promote the region’s unique assets providing economic development assistance to businesses, Counties, or economic development organizations in Montgomery County.

Today, University of Maryland (UM) Ventures announced the appointment of Darryl L. Carter, MD, co-founder and former vice president of Nora Therapeutics, Inc., as Venture Advisor at the University of Maryland Baltimore’s (UMB) Office of Technology Transfer (OTT). In this role, Dr. Carter, who previously supported UMB’s OTT and entrepreneurially focused inventors as an entrepreneur-in-residence, will assist faculty in turning their technology inventions into commercial opportunities. Dr. Carter will also help support the formation of new UMB technology-based start-up companies.

Subscription boxes are a growing business trend. About a year and a half ago, Fatima Dicko founded mybestbox, a subscription-based business which delivers boxes filled with $75-$100 worth of healthy living materials to subscribers nationwide for $25 each month.

GlaxoSmithKline has bought global rights to an experimental drug from Johnson & Johnson for up to 175 million pounds ($230 million), raising its bet on a new generation of biotech medicines for severe asthma.

To address one of the greatest modern threats to public health — antibiotic resistance — the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Wellcome Trust of London, the AMR Centre of Alderley Park (Cheshire, United Kingdom), and Boston University School of Law will create one of the world’s largest public-private partnerships focused on preclinical discovery and development of new antimicrobial products.

The House Small Business Committee issued a report (H.Rpt. 114-705) on legislation (H.R. 4783) to reauthorize and improve the Small Business Innovation Research Program…

On June 27, 2016, the SEC proposed amendments that, if adopted, would allow more companies to qualify for “smaller reporting company” (SRC) status. The proposed amendments are intended to promote capital formation and reduce disclosure compliance costs for smaller companies while maintaining investor protections.

New York City-based Transfix, an on-demand trucking provider, has raised $22 million in Series B funding. New Enterprise Associates led the round with participation from other investors that included Canvas Ventures, Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Corigin Ventures. In conjunction with the funding, Scott Sandell of NEA has been added to Transfix’s board of directors.

We’ve tried to cure cancer before. Will this time be different?

Reltio, the enterprise data-driven applications and modern data management Platform as a Service (PaaS) company, announced today that it has raised $22M in Series B funding. Leading the oversubscribed round is one of the world’s largest and most successful VC firms, New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Existing investors, Crosslink Capital and .406 Ventures added to their $10M Series A investment, bringing Reltio’s total venture funding to $32M to date. The new financing will be used to extend Reltio’s leadership position in modern data management through accelerated hiring of talented individuals across all groups, and continued expansion into global markets.

At Human Longevity Inc. (HLI) in La Jolla, California, more than two dozen machines work around the clock, sequencing one human genome every 15 minutes at a cost of under $2,000 per genome. The whole operation fits comfortably in three rooms. Back in 2000, when its founder, J. Craig Venter, first sequenced a human genome (his own), it cost $100 million and took a building-size, $50 million computer nine months to complete.

BioAdvance, the operator of a $50 million early stage life sciences fund that work with health-care entrepreneurs in the mid-Atlantic region, invested $2.9 million in companies and technologies targeting human health during fiscal 2016

Vtesse, Inc. a company committed to developing drugs that will benefit patients with extremely rare, life-threatening diseases, announced today that it has secured $17 million in additional Series A funding in support of its global, pivotal clinical trial of VTS-270 for Niemann-Pick Type C1 disease (“NPC”).

All Series A investors contributed to the financing extension, including Alexandria Venture Investments, Bay City Capital LLC, Lundbeckfond Ventures, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), and Pfizer Venture Investments. Together with proceeds from the original Series A announced in January of 2015, Vtesse has raised a total of $42 million to fund development of its lead product to treat NPC.

WellDoc’s $29.5 million funding round made a splash earlier this year. A Samsung-led initial close of $22 million was only bolstered by another $7.5 million and a new partnership with Johnson & Johnson.

Following the deals, the company sought out executives with healthcare business experience, said CEO Kevin McRaith. Execs hired in the first half of 2016 include:

Martine Rothblatt has made no secret of her goal to move beyond the pharmaceutical business model that made her first foray into the biotech world — United Therapeutics Corp. (NASDAQ: UTHR) — a striking success.

The Maryland Technology Development Corp. is giving a total of $800,000 in investments to four biotech companies.

Each of the firms will receive a $200,000 grant through TEDCO’s Life Science Investment Fund. The fund was created to help give startup companies in life sciences fields a chance to have their technology validated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and to help further develop the product.

Rumors of staff cuts from AstraZeneca’s ($AZN) MedImmune biologics arm are part of previously stated changes and a deeper focus (and a larger cash pile) for its oncology research.

Rumors have been growing that AZ was axing staffers at MedImmune over the past week, but the Big Pharma tells FierceBiotech that this is part of the course originally announced back in its Q1 update in the spring.

Another month, another blockbuster deal in Boston-area real estate.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities has an agreement to buy the eight-acre One Kendall Square complex for $725 million, and it plans to add another building to the nine-building campus of office and lab space, the company disclosed in a securities filing. The complex includes the Kendall Square Cinema and several restaurants in addition to the office buildings.

When: July 28th 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Where: BRI 9410 Key West Ave Rockville, MD 20850

Join BioBuzz and July Co-Sponsors BRI and Azzur IT, as we visit BRI’s offices and labs at their new location in Rockville on July 28th. Biomedical Research Institute (BRI), a 501 c 3 non-profit company, which focuses on the development of diagnostic and vaccine solutions to Schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease that impacts sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil and rural Asia where 800 million people live and over 200 million people are infected.

Three Johns Hopkins BME-associated medical technology companies have been selected by the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) Life Science Investment Fund for financial investment. TEDCO’s Life Science Investment Fund is specifically designed for companies that are beyond the technology validation stage and further along in product development. They invest up to $200,000 to support milestone-based medical products advance more quickly and efficiently toward commercialization.

Bina48 is a robotic head that looks and speaks like a person—it moves its lips and runs conversational software. Although the robot isn’t alive, it’s hard to say there is no life at all in Bina48. In conversation, it sometimes says surprising things. Google’s director of engineering, Ray Kurzweil, says it’s “wonderfully suggestive” of a time when computers really will think and feel.

Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, has warned that the UK risks losing its lead in medical research after leaving the European Union. The Swiss group called for Britain to move quickly to replace European regulations with rules that give patients access to innovative treatments or else risk delays in developing crucial medicines.

The goose that laid the biotech patent golden egg is in trouble with the U.S. Supreme Court. Ironically, it was the Supreme Court that helped spur the industry with the watershed Charkrabarty ruling in 1980. But what has been giveth, can also be taken away. Beginning with the 2013 Myriad decision, the Supreme Court has stripped back eligible subject matter for so-called “products of nature,” raising doubts regarding whether any significant patent protection is left for biotechnology inventions. The trend continues as recently as June 27, 2016, when the Supreme Court let the Federal Circuit decision in Sequenom stand, resulting in claims directed to noninvasive prenatal screening of fetal DNA remaining a patent-ineligible subject.

New GSK PARADE (patient rheumatoid arthritis data from the real world) app promises to ‘learn from real patients’.

Glaxo Smith Kline has released an app paired with a patient study developed to provide the pharmaceutical company with a wealth of information on how people cope with rheumatoid arthritis and inform new drug development.

Dreamit Ventures’ accelerator has ditched the demo day, according to Chief Innovation Officer Steve Barsh. That’s not the only change the early-stage venture firm and accelerator has made of late.

Maryland may have seen investments from venture capitalists decrease in the second quarter, but a director at PwC says he is not concerned.

Medical science and bio technology has given second chances to so many lives, especially in the form of prostheses. Gone are the days where your life was over if you lost a limb or two. So to honour this achievement in human endurance and scientific method, we’ve made a list of ten body parts that could theoretically be replaced if lost.

When downtown department stores were common, shoppers could head to 9073 Center St. in Manassas for household goods, or as an ad in a 1929 issue of the Manassas Journal said, for “show boat” dresses.

The University of Virginia’s College at Wise and the MACH37 Cyber Accelerator at the Center for Innovative Technology announced a new partnership Friday that aims to create cybersecurity employment and education opportunities in Southwest Virginia.

The U.S. Small Business Administration released its highly anticipated Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) online tutorials to help small businesses navigate the SBIR program. The site provides users with a mobile-compatible site to learn about the program through a combination of videos and text. This platform will provide accessible program information and training resources to underrepresented areas. There is no registration or fee required and the courses are open to all.

In a partnership between Cray and Deloitte Advisory Cyber Risk Services, the two bring subscription-based supercomputer power to security analytics capabilities.

The challenges of modern cyber-security are complex, so complex that a supercomputer can make a big difference. That’s the hope of supercomputer vendor Cray and its partner Deloitte Advisory Cyber Risk Services.

Mitre and the University System of Maryland have selected five U.S. academic professionals as recipients of $293,000 in seed grants to conduct studies on cybersecurity challenges, ExecutiveBiz reported Friday.

The company said Thursday the grants went to researchers from George Mason University, University of Maryland in Baltimore, University of Maryland in College Park, University of Texas at San Antonio and University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The Maryland Department of Commerce is joining with the state’s top research universities and other life sciences partners and stakeholders to create two or more Centers of Excellence around the state to support cell, gene, and regenerative therapies, as well as medical devices and 3-D printing. This partnership with The Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the University of Maryland, College Park will help position Maryland as a leader in commercialization and clinical translation of next-generation medicines and medical devices and ensure the state remains a leader in healthcare innovation. Additional partners include the Center for Medical Technology Policy and biotechnology, pharmaceutical, contract manufacturing, and medical device companies.

Rockville has started the process of finding a new manager to fill the city’s top management spot. The Mayor and Council hired The Novak Consulting Group to conduct a national search for Rockville’s new city manager.

The consultant will hold public meetings in July to engage residents and businesses as they develop a candidate profile. The consultant will work with community members to identify high priority issues facing the community, and what leadership and management traits the city manager should possess.

When: July 28th 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Where: BRI 9410 Key West Ave Rockville, MD 20850

Join BioBuzz and July Co-Sponsors BRI and Azzur IT, as we visit BRI’s offices and labs at their new location in Rockville on July 28th. Biomedical Research Institute (BRI), a 501 c 3 non-profit company, which focuses on the development of diagnostic and vaccine solutions to Schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease that impacts sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil and rural Asia where 800 million people live and over 200 million people are infected.

Researchers at several Maryland universities as well as the National Cancer Institute have been awarded $3,844,000 in grants by the American Cancer Society. The grants, which started July 1, went to researchers with Johns Hopkins University; University of Maryland, College Park; Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and National Cancer Institute in a variety of disciplines.

Venture capitalists invested $72.25 million in Maryland companies in the second quarter, the lowest amount in two years and down 34 percent from the first quarter.

Maryland college students benefit from nine universities in one location.

Twenty-two-year-old Allison Hishmeh is about to start a new chapter in life now that she’s graduated from the University of Maryland College Park. Even though she recently received a marketing degree from the school, Hishmeh rarely stepped foot on campus.

“Traditional” and “by the book” have never really been a part of Kevin Plank’s business outlook. When he started Under Armour 20 years ago he set out to make a better T-shirt and felt that the apparel industry was operating (and still is) with materials, machines and ideas that were decades behind other industries.

Virginia Tech is talking to large pharmaceutical firms about cooperating with the university on research projects and opening offices inside Roanoke’s new health care innovation district.

Michael Friedlander, founder of Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute and a driving force behind the city’s growing health care industry, said that sort of partnership is only a concept, but affirmed that conversations are underway.

Vibrent Health officials said their efforts will receive $74 million over five years.

In the complex world of children’s cancer research, no independent organization currently coordinates efforts between academic scientists, drug developers, and policy regulators to advance new treatments and cures. Moving forward, CureSearch is proud to play the role of convener and collaborator to bring these key parties together in a way that is singularly focused on accelerating the commercialization of children’s cancer treatments to save children now.

Roche is rumored to make a move on the California biotech BioMarin. Despite a slightly weakened pipeline, Roche appears undeterred and previous offers were predicted to be around $15Bn.

As big as some of the other industry veterans, BioMarin was founded in the 90’s boom in Biotech in San Rafaele, California. The deal itself is entirely based on rumor and anonymous sources, originally appearing on the blog Betaville.

Cleveland is home to more than 700 bioscience companies, a powerful ecosystem that draws strength from a clinical, research and educational foundation dedicated to growth and medical innovation. A new rebranding initiative led by a host of area institutions is ready to send this message out into the world.

Called “The Medical Capital,” the campaign’s centerpiece is a website where visitors can access information regarding biomedical investments and start-up activity in the region. Organizers are also offering a video showcasing the region’s burgeoning tech-based assets, complete with testimonials from investors and CEOs. Social media is another facet of the effort.

Advanced biomaterials joined with small molecules and biologics can allow regeneration and restoration functions of human tissues and organs.

The scope of application has extended far beyond acute injuries, chronic diseases and congenital malformations into therapeutics, research and difficult-to-treat diseases.

CHINA is on the cusp of an innovation revolution, with the country’s biomedical and healthcare sectors making great leaps in the last decade. The achievements are quite visible: the exponential growth of publication of academic articles, patent filings, international exchanges, globalisation of new drug R&D activities, and accessibility of new drug R&D technology capability platforms from both China and overseas, just to name a few.

Here at Commerce, we’re always talking with representatives from Maryland businesses. Recently, we spoke with several business owners and executives about success, specifically asking how their companies are finding success in Maryland.

Robust influx of millennials in the workforce is a significant factor in this year’s ranking of the top 50 “Tech Talent” markets in the U.S. and Canada

San Francisco remains the nation’s leading tech market, but the competition for talent is getting tougher as more highly skilled tech workers—especially millennials—are flocking to cities where the cost of living is lower and tech jobs are plentiful, according to CBRE Group, Inc.’s annual Research report, “Scoring Tech Talent,” which ranks 50 U.S. and Canadian markets according to their ability to attract and grow tech talent.

Wexford Science & Technology LLC will soon again be under new ownership.

Chicago-based Ventas Inc. has agreed to pay $1.5 billion in cash to acquire substantially all of the assets of the Baltimore real estate investment and development firm from affiliates of Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII L.P. Ventas will also assume $33 million of liabilities. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

More women are studying science, technology, engineering and math at UC San Diego than at any other major college in the country, a recent analysis of enrollment has found.

The study conducted by BestColleges.com found that one in three women at UC San Diego graduate with a STEM degree, about three times the national average.

With the big cancer confab ASCO 2016 fading into memory, R&D teams everywhere are getting back to work on their cancer programs – and across the industry many of them will be doing the same work, on the same targets, supporting the exploding supernova known as immuno-oncology.

Businesses that set out to change the world might want to start in D.C.

That’s according to a new study from D.C.-based S&R Foundation’s Halcyon Incubator, which calls Washington the best U.S. city for “social entrepreneurs” — startup founders that attempt to solve social problems with scalable businesses, like the Georgetown grads tackling food-waste with their juicing company, Misfit Juicery.

When: July 28th 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Where: BRI 9410 Key West Ave Rockville, MD 20850

Join BioBuzz and July Co-Sponsors BRI and Azzur IT, as we visit BRI’s offices and labs at their new location in Rockville on July 28th. Biomedical Research Institute (BRI), a 501 c 3 non-profit company, which focuses on the development of diagnostic and vaccine solutions to Schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease that impacts sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil and rural Asia where 800 million people live and over 200 million people are infected.

After months of work under the radar, GlaxoSmithKline committed to entering the Zika R&D field, announcing on Thursday that it’s pairing with the National Institutes of Health in a project based at its new vaccine research hub in Rockville, MD.

Following in their Senate colleagues’ footsteps, a House subcommittee signed off on a budget increase for the National Institutes of Health Thursday. The increases for fiscal-year 2017 confirm lawmakers’ public pledges to establish a pattern of improved budgets for the agency, which before last year saw more than a decade of flat funding.

Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels’ contract has been extended through 2024 by the school’s Board of Trustees.

This is a five-year extension for Daniels, who was given an initial five-year extension in 2014. Daniels, 57, joined Johns Hopkins in 2009, becoming the school’s 14th president.

After years of puzzling over how its grant-review process might be shortchanging younger scientists, the National Institutes of Health appears to have figured out a more fundamental truth: There just aren’t enough of them applying.

D.C. venture capital powerhouse Updata Partners will announce Thursday that it has raised $280.6 million in new funding.

Updata, whose portfolio includes Mashable and VideoBlocks, surpassed its goal for the Updata Partners V LP fund by about $5 million. As of April, it had reported raising $160 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The White House’s Cancer Moonshot 2020 is about much more than clinical research. Data, IT and patient engagement are major components.

Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday is hosting the first National Cancer Moonshot Summit on the campus of Howard University in Washington, and lots of news is being made.

Vice President Joe Biden, who has personal experience of the heartbreak that cancer causes, has taken on humanity’s mortal enemy and aims to end the disease “as we know it.”

The Biotechnology Innovation Organization today released the following statement in response to Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton’s Initiative on Technology & Innovation:

“As one of America’s most innovative industries, biotechnology is tackling head-on the unrelenting scientific challenges inherent in the discovery, development and delivery of new, high-value healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental products.

Could lab-grown bones replace tissue grafts and multiple painful surgeries? Nina Tandon is the CEO and co-founder of EpiBone, a Brooklyn-based biotech company that was chosen as one of the World Economic Forum’s 2015 Technology Pioneers. Tandon is also a World Economic Forum Young Scientist who will be speaking at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China, from June 26 to 28.

Canada’s publicly funded health care system is a source of pride and a defining value for Canadians. They rely on it for timely access to universal, high-quality and innovative treatments and services that are based on need, not on the ability to pay. To support Canadians battling cancer, the Government of Canada is investing $15 million over five years in the Centre for Commercialization of Cancer Immunotherapy (C3i). Immunotherapy is an emerging area of medicine that uses the power of the immune system to combat cancer. When brought to market, C3i’s form of cancer treatment stands to revolutionize cancer care by providing access to non-toxic, highly efficient cures that do not rely on chemotherapy.

The expanding role of healthcare providers is not limited to societies with “developed” healthcare systems. Diseases, such as AIDS and malaria, prevalent in the third world and emerging countries are now considered chronic or curable with the proper treatment, leaving those afflicted with greater chance of recovery. However, as the cost the typical person pays for healthcare over his or her lifetime rises, the question becomes: How will these emerging societies, especially those in less-developed countries, sustain a rising bill?

This is the fifth consecutive year for the USA Creative Business Cup. This year for the first time there will be a f2f finals for competing teams in Washington, DC as part of the activities of Creative World – DC (creativeworld.group) and the National Creativity Network Conference within it. The USA national winner goes on to compete for the 2016 global Creative Business Cup in Copenhagen, Denmark (November 20-21) as a featured event of the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). It is anticipated that over 60 nations will send teams to compete in this year’s event.

GlycoMimetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLYC) today announced dosing of the first patient with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in the Phase 2 portion of its ongoing Phase 1/2 study evaluating its novel E-selectin antagonist, GMI-1271, combined with chemotherapy. Earlier this month, the company announced it had received Fast Track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for GMI-1271 for treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory AML and elderly patients aged 60 years or older with AML. In addition, GlycoMimetics recently announced that the first patient with relapsed or refractory AML has been dosed in the other arm of the Phase 2 portion of this study.

Cerecor Inc. (NASDAQ:CERC), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing treatments to make a difference in the lives of patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders, today announced that it has been awarded a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (“NIDA”) at the National Institutes of Health. The grant of approximately $1.0 million provides Cerecor with additional resources for the ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial for CERC-501, “A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover Design Study of CERC-501 in a Human Laboratory Model of Smoking Behavior.”

Digital health technology leader WellDoc® has expanded its leadership team with two new C-level executives and a key executive director. Healthcare finance veteran Jeff Lehrfeld has joined the company from Magellan Health as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and senior marketing executive Tara Charvat, MBA, is the company’s new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), joining from Valeritas. In addition, Christina Hedge is the new Executive Director, Market Access, reporting to Nick Harsh, Vice President, Market Access, who came to WellDoc this Spring.

More women are studying science, technology, engineering and math at UC San Diego than at any other major college in the country, a recent analysis of enrollment has found.

The study conducted by BestColleges.com found that one in three women at UC San Diego graduate with a STEM degree, about three times the national average.

Wexford Science & Technology LLC will soon again be under new ownership.

Chicago-based Ventas Inc. has agreed to pay $1.5 billion in cash to acquire substantially all of the assets of the Baltimore real estate investment and development firm from affiliates of Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII L.P. Ventas will also assume $33 million of liabilities. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

With the big cancer confab ASCO 2016 fading into memory, R&D teams everywhere are getting back to work on their cancer programs – and across the industry many of them will be doing the same work, on the same targets, supporting the exploding supernova known as immuno-oncology.

Businesses that set out to change the world might want to start in D.C.

That’s according to a new study from D.C.-based S&R Foundation’s Halcyon Incubator, which calls Washington the best U.S. city for “social entrepreneurs” — startup founders that attempt to solve social problems with scalable businesses, like the Georgetown grads tackling food-waste with their juicing company, Misfit Juicery.

The American Cancer Society has handed out $3.84 million in grants to Maryland cancer researchers at the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University and the National Cancer Institute for a range of investigations.

NEA Parnter Sara Nayeem will speak on a panel at the Orphan Drugs and Rare Diseases Conference on Tuesday, June 28, 2016 at Westin Copely Place Boston in Boston, MA. Dr. Nayeem will participate in the panel entitled, Funding Early Opportunities in Orphan and Rare Disease Space: What To Look Out For?

D.C. venture capital powerhouse Updata Partners will announce Thursday that it has raised $280.6 million in new funding.

Updata, whose portfolio includes Mashable and VideoBlocks, surpassed its goal for the Updata Partners V LP fund by about $5 million. As of April, it had reported raising $160 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Vice President Joe Biden, who has personal experience of the heartbreak that cancer causes, has taken on humanity’s mortal enemy and aims to end the disease “as we know it.”

The White House’s Cancer Moonshot 2020 is about much more than clinical research. Data, IT and patient engagement are major components.

Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday is hosting the first National Cancer Moonshot Summit on the campus of Howard University in Washington, and lots of news is being made.

Could lab-grown bones replace tissue grafts and multiple painful surgeries? Nina Tandon is the CEO and co-founder of EpiBone, a Brooklyn-based biotech company that was chosen as one of the World Economic Forum’s 2015 Technology Pioneers. Tandon is also a World Economic Forum Young Scientist who will be speaking at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China, from June 26 to 28.

The Biotechnology Innovation Organization today released the following statement in response to Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton’s Initiative on Technology & Innovation:

“As one of America’s most innovative industries, biotechnology is tackling head-on the unrelenting scientific challenges inherent in the discovery, development and delivery of new, high-value healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental products.

The Cleveland Health-Tech Corridor said it has teamed up with JumpStart Inc. to launch a $2 million investment and attraction fund to provide financial capital for businesses willing to move to the corridor district that links downtown and University Circle.

Last week, Great Britain voted to leave the European Union of 28 member states, or “Brexit.” Since the result was announced sterling has fallen to a 31-year low, there has been a record daily drop in global equity markets and political turmoil has broken out as the UK Prime Minister has said he will step down and the majority of the leadership team of the official opposition party has resigned.

Kitchology, a food+wellness+tech startup headquartered in Germantown, was among the winners of this year’s Maryland Incubator Company of the Year (ICOY) Awards, winning in the consumer product category.

QIAGEN N.V. (Nasdaq: QGEN) announced the successful completion of the conditional, voluntary public tender offer for the shares in Exiqon A/S, a world leader in RNA technology. The extended Offer Period expired yesterday, on 22 June 2016, at 23.59 (CET).

The University System of Maryland is hoping a new $25 million venture capital fund it established will help spin off more commercial businesses — with the system reaping the benefits in the long run.

Innovation Village, an effort to spur economic development in West Baltimore, is partnering with Howard County’s Conscious Venture Lab to help develop fledgling companies and entrepreneurs.

Qiagen and CosmosID have joined the Metagenomics and Metadesign of Subways and Urban Biomes (MetaSUB) consortium, an international five-year effort led by Weill Cornell Medicine, to map the genomes and epigenomes of microbial communities in 54 cities in 32 countries.

What is success? Is it the amount of money you have in your bank account, at any given point? Is it that feeling you get after delivering a killer presentation, or even a pretty decent bar joke? Or is it something bigger—something wholly unnamable, undefinable, immeasurable, and totally subjective?

Throughout the United States, innovation districts have been proposed with varying degrees of emphasis on inclusivity and opportunity. In January 2016, a public-private partnership representing many of Baltimore’s most influential anchor institutions, community-based organizations, and private companies declared their intent to develop an innovation district in West Baltimore dubbed the “Innovation Village.” This week, the Innovation Village steering committee announced several initiatives aimed at supporting inclusive economic growth in West Baltimore neighborhoods including free Wi-Fi, entrepreneurial assistance programs, and the development of a food hub.

Montgomery County is participating in an important regional initiative called the Global Cities Initiative aimed at helping our businesses export and connecting our local economy with the global market.

Nationally, this initiative is led by JP Morgan and the Brookings Institution. In the National Capital Region, it is a collaborative effort between the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, and the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area and numerous other regional partners.

Awards season in the Baltimore tech scene moved into summer mode at the American Visionary Art Museum last week, where the Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards were handed out.

Baltimore incubators were well represented, with companies from the Emerging Technology Centers, Betamore and Johns Hopkins FastForward picking up honors.

Another week, another new initiative for IBM Watson Health.

Wednesday, IBM announced the formation of a Watson Health medical imaging collaborative, seeking to make “cognitive imaging” a routine part of medical practice in oncology, neurology, diabetes care, eye care, cardiovascular disease and other image-heavy specialties. “Imaging is one of the things that spans across many different areas,” said Anne Le Grand, IBM Watson Health’s vice president of imaging.

Join us for a thrilling evening of start-up pitches from multiple sectors in healthcare including: Services, Health IT, Biotechnology, Medical Devices and Diagnostics. Applications are still being accepted, so if you not afraid of getting nipped by one of our judges, send your information to jhausfeld@sopenet.org.

The Brexit votes have been counted. The Brits have decided to leave the European Union. And the financial markets are taking it hard. Right now, futures on the London stock exchange are down 8%. The pound is down 9.8 percent, more than double its previous record decline of 4.1 percent. We’re living in interesting times.

As carpenters finished an elegantly crafted deck near Greenmount Avenue and Oliver Street, I had a thought:

Where is the “gritty Greenmount” described in news articles a few years ago?

Thousand Oaks-based biotech giant Amgen has put its backing behind a new, life sciences incubator, called QB3@953. According to Amgen, it will provide a five year, platinum sponsorship of the San Francisco life sciences incubator, to accelerate the development of new therapies to improve human health. Financial details of the sponsorship were not detailed. As part of that sponsorship, Amgen said it will be providing two awards each year with a company receiving one year of lab space at QB3@953, in addition to connections to Amgen’s executives and other resources. QB3@953 provides lab space to life sciences startups, which Amgen says is a “key obstacle” for life sciences startups. A similar effort, the Ventura BioCenter, operates just around the corner from Amgen in the Thousand Oaks area.

Between June 2015 and June 2016, we’ve created more spaces and places for people to engage with the Science Center; honed and expanded our programs to support innovation and entrepreneurship; and enhanced the way we talk about our role in Greater Philadelphia’s innovation ecosystem.

The first proposed test of CRISPR gene-editing technology in human beings is being funded by Internet billionaire Sean Parker, MIT Technology Review has learned.

The novel cancer treatment, initially disclosed last week, is being reviewed Tuesday by a federal advisory panel in Washington, D.C., and could become the first clinical trial involving CRISPR, the red-hot gene modification technology.

QIAGEN N.V. (NASDAQ: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced the launch of the QIAsure Methylation Test, a novel CE-marked molecular diagnostic test for use in differentiating patients’ risk of developing cervical cancer.

POSITION TITLE: Chief Executive Officer

REPORTING TO: Board of Directors

THE COMPANY: TEDCO (Maryland Technology Development Corporation)

“The economic contribution to the Maryland economy of TEDCO’s five core research, technology transfer, and commercialization programs totaled almost $1 billion in 2015, generating a total of 4,358 jobs” – Battelle Technology Partnership Practice, Report on Economic Impacts of TEDCO

TEDCO was created by the Maryland State Legislature in 1998 to facilitate the transfer and commercialization of technology from Maryland’s research universities and federal labs into the marketplace and to assist in the creation and growth of technology-based businesses in all regions of the State. TEDCO is an independent organization that strives to be Maryland’s lead source for entrepreneurial business assistance and seed funding for the development of start-up companies in Maryland’s innovation economy. In Maryland and beyond, TEDCO is a resource of mentoring, funding and networking for entrepreneurs and start-ups that need guidance as they bring innovative concepts to market. TEDCO is more than an early stage funding resource. It is the hub of Maryland’s entrepreneurial network where start-ups find mentors, organizational assistance, facilities for daily operations, and a roadmap for success.

Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc. (PGDx), a provider of advanced cancer genome testing products and services, today announced that co-founders Luis Diaz, MD, and Victor Velculescu, MD, PhD, have won the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2016 Award in the Maryland region.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. is a global specialty pharmaceutical company, which offers specialized products to governments and healthcare providers. The company derives most of its revenue from one product, BioThrax, which is the only FDA-licensed vaccine for the prevention of anthrax disease. In 2015, about 56% of the company’s revenue came from the sale of BioThrax with the remainder coming from the sale of their other biodefense products, biosciences products, and contract manufacturing.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review Emergent’s supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) seeking approval of the manufacture of BioThrax® (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed) in Building 55, the company’s large-scale manufacturing facility. FDA has set a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) target action date of August 15, 2016.

As cities continue to invest more in smart city technologies, questions surrounding how to staff those moves can puzzle city leaders.

Martin O’Malley, the former mayor of Baltimore and governor of Maryland, suggested during remarks at the Smart Cities Innovation Summit that during his leadership — both at the city and state levels — having a chief innovation officer close to the executive was key to driving government away from the status quo and into new possibilities.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, the owner and developer of the Alexandria Center for Life Science on the East Side of Manhattan, has just launched an incubator space for biotech start-ups.

The new life science laboratory and office platform, which will be called Alexandria Launchlabs, promises 15,000 s/f of space that provides “the necessary resources and collaborative environment to start transforming novel ideas into innovative, early-stage companies that develop products to improve human health.”

Join us for a thrilling evening of start-up pitches from multiple sectors in healthcare including: Services, Health IT, Biotechnology, Medical Devices and Diagnostics. Applications are still being accepted, so if you not afraid of getting nipped by one of our judges, send your information to jhausfeld@sopenet.org.

The approval of Professor Patrick O’Shea’s selection by UCC’s governing body is the first external appointment to the role in 50 years.

Most of his academic career has been at University of Maryland and elsewhere in the US, but he stays in touch with the Irish higher education system. The UCC physics graduate is a director of the Wild Geese Network of Irish Scientists, and he hosted University College Dublin president Andrew Deeks earlier this year.

We were pleased to see the interest in our recent blog on the unique number of investigators applying for and receiving NIH research project grants (RPGs). Some of you (through the blog page or through other media) have asked about whether we have similar data for our Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. We have generated analogous figures for SBIR and STTR grants, and today’s post shares this investigation of the question, “How many unique researchers are seeking SBIR/STTR funding?”

Funding and Research OpportunitiesThe following funding opportunity announcements from the NHLBI or other components of the National Institutes of Health, might be of interest:

Notices:

• Form Correction Made for All NIH Fellowship Opportunities
• (NOT-OD-16-106) National Institutes of Health
• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institute of General Medical Sciences
• Notice of NHLBI Participation in PA-16-305 “Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Fellowship for Students at Institutions With NIH-Funded Institutional Predoctoral Dual-Degree Training Programs (Parent F30)”
• (NOT-HL-16-325)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice of NHLBI Participation in PA-16-306 “Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Fellowship for Students at Institutions Without NIH-Funded Institutional Predoctoral Dual-Degree Training Programs (Parent F30)”
• (NOT-HL-16-326)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Program Announcements:

• Administrative Supplements for Research on Dietary Supplements (Admin Supp)
• (PA-16-319)
• Office of Dietary Supplements, John E. Fogarty International Center, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Cancer Institute, National Eye Institute, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

The venture fund working to make sweetgreen and CustomInk into household names has raised more than half a billion dollars to double down on its strategy.

Rep. Steny Hoyer and other Democratic lawmakers plan to outline a broad strategy for expanding U.S. manufacturing in Baltimore on Monday, at a time when Washington has stalled on measures sought by the industry.

Merck has added a month-long Silicon Valley stay to the pot on offer for start-ups participating in the next round of its accelerator programmes in Germany and Kenya. The programmes seek to support healthcare, life science and performance materials start-ups, with a particular focus on those developing digital solutions.

The Pentagon has made an unprecedented push to cozy up with Silicon Valley over the past two years, opening satellite offices on the West Coast and Boston in an effort to import fresh insight, ideas and innovation from the private sector to the military.

Global epidemics are outrunning globally accessible containment and cures. There are now more ways to spread diseases worldwide than safe, effective ways to counter them. Biomedical stakeholders are engaged in finding solutions. Now rumored recommendations pending at a UN High Level Panel may make matters worse. Appointed by outgoing Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, the Panel is said to be preparing to release its examination of world “Access to Medicines”. Amazingly it is rumored to be encouraging international flouting of U.S. Bayh-Dole-based patent protection and producer pricing prerogatives. This inevitably will undermine our nation’s life science innovation ecosystem, effectively destroying world hopes for effective response to evolving epidemics.

The UK biotechnology sector continues to build on the success of previous years, raising an unprecedented £900m on the London Stock Exchange in 2015 and recording the highest level of venture finance in recent years, according to the latest report Money, momentum and maturity: UK biotech financing and deals in 2015/16 compiled by the UK BioIndustry Association (BIA) in partnership with Evaluate and the London Stock Exchange.

Imagine the workplace during flu season. Some people get sick and display clear symptoms—a warning sign to coworkers to avoid contact and for that individual to stay home. Others are infected, but never or only belatedly exhibit the tell-tale signs of sickness, meaning they can infect coworkers without knowing it. If healthcare professionals had the ability to test in advance whether a person is likely to spread a disease following infection, they could recommend specific measures to treat the person or limit exposure and perhaps keep an outbreak from growing into an epidemic or pandemic.

When David R. Tabatadze’s small biotechnology venture ran out of money in 2013, he almost gave up on it.

He went to pharmaceutical companies and “angel” investors, those individuals willing to put modest amounts of money into new businesses. None were interested in funding his research into potential genetic medicines.

Gaithersburg-based Novavax Inc. plans to create up to 850 new jobs as part of its planned Montgomery County expansion and will receive state and county financial assistance to support the growth, it was announced Wednesday.

The Kansas City, Mo.-based Kauffman Foundation recently released its 2016 Kauffman Index of Growth Entrepreneurship and found — to the authors seeming surprise — that the Washington, D.C. metro area topped a list of U.S. metro areas with the most growth entrepreneurship.

Can you tell us a bit about your background?

I trained as a physician and scientist, having received both an MD and a PhD. I did my residency in pathology and about 11 years ago I decided to make the transition from academia to industry. Since then, most of my work has been focused on immunotherapy, which is a new and very exciting area of cancer research. Nine months ago I joined MedImmune, the global biologics arm of AstraZeneca, as the head of oncology development.

Digital health technology leader WellDoc® today announced results from a real-world study designed to evaluate the feasibility and reach of using a lay coach in conjunction with BlueStar® mobile prescription therapy to provide ongoing self-management support for people living with type 2 diabetes in a primary care setting. The data were featured via a poster presented today at the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) 76th Scientific Sessions, taking place now at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.

It’s no secret that one of the biggest things holding New York City’s biotech ecosystem back is lack of lab space for startups. The problem will take a broad effort to solve, not just a few buildings or incubators. But one of the city’s biggest real estate players, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, has announced a plan today to help out.

Innovation is the foundation of the 21st Century bioscience industry. It is an industry borne from scientific innovations involving techniques to understand and manage the machinery of living things. The advent of biotechnology in the 1970s, enabled work at the molecular and cellular level including moving genetic information from one living cell to another and tracing the pathways of disease. Over the last 40 years, bioscience innovation has advanced at an astonishing speed. Advances

DATE: Thursday, June 23, 2016 TIME: 8:30 a.m.

Therapeutic proteins represent a number of the currently top 10 best-selling drugs and have combined sales of almost $64 billion per year. The enormous market potential for biosimilars or biobetters has created a crowded field of developers. As a result, there is a growing emphasis on emerging analytical techniques and their lifecycle appropriate application. Industrial, federal, and academic researchers will gather to discuss available open innovation resources and technological advancements for fueling biopharmaceutical development. On Thursday, June 23, 2016 at 8:30 AM join the thought leaders, policy makers, and developers of therapeutic proteins as we present current trends, ideas, and predictions on the use of open innovation biomanufacturing resources and emerging technologies.

The University System of Maryland plans to establish a $25 million fund to invest in startup companies created by students, faculty and recent graduates.

Two Fast Forward companies have been recognized as finalists. The companies are emocha Mobile Health: a mobile health platform that streamlines the continuum of care. and Sonavex Surgical; improving outcomes for surgical patients by using cutting-edge imaging technology to provide clinicians with visualization of critical data — directly at the point of care.

To be held June 23-24 2016 at the NCCOE facility located at 9700 Great Seneca Highway in Rockville.

There is a considerable body of knowledge, governance structures, tools and techniques that have been developed to address regional resilience from a physical infrastructure perspective. However, there has been little done to date to understand and address cyber resilience at a regional level. Even the definition of what constitutes regional cyber infrastructure and whether that is a useful context for examining regional resilience are open questions. As a result, a number of regional consortia, organizations, and programs have begun to focus on this regional cyber challenge and are considering options for addressing regional cyber resilience in a meaningful manner. Please join us on June 23-24 2016, for the inaugural Regional Cyber Resilience Workshop. The workshop will be held at the NCCOE facility located at 9700 Great Seneca Highway, Rockville, MD 20850.

The Maryland Department of Commerce is joining with the state’s top research universities and other life sciences partners and stakeholders to create two or more Centers of Excellence around the state to support cell, gene and regenerative therapies, as well as medical devices and 3-D printing. This partnership with The Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the University of Maryland, College Park will help position Maryland as a leader in commercialization and clinical translation of next-generation medicines and medical devices and ensure the state remains a leader in healthcare innovation. Additional partners include the Center for Medical Technology Policy and biotechnology, pharmaceutical, contract manufacturing, and medical device companies.

The cover of Ernst & Young’s 2016 biotech report has a picture of a parachutist and the subtitle, “Returning to Earth.” According to EY, the biotech industry has experienced explosive growth over the past few years, but that appears to have slowed in 2015. On its own, a 13 percent increase in biotech revenue looks impressive – unless it’s compared to the 18 percent increase in 2014.

Omicia has raised $23 million from Roche’s ($RHHBY) venture fund and other investors. The Series B round will support the expansion of Omicia’s NGS interpretation and reporting capabilities into new sectors, including clinical trials and life science research.

When Gabe Otte went to college, he already had an Apple internship under his belt. In undergrad, his computer-science professors told him to diversify and pick out another area to focus on so he wasn’t bored in class, so he chose biology.

The next Kendall Square just might be located in Allston.

The gritty Boston neighborhood, across the Charles from Harvard University’s main campus, is the site of various construction projects aimed at building up an innovation epicenter over the next five to 10 years. Just don’t tell Jodi Goldstein about the Kendall comparison.

Longitude Capital, an investment firm focused on venture growth investments in biotechnology and medical technology, closed its third fund, at $525m in partner commitments.

Three experts explain synthetic biology and discuss its potential to affect fields as varied as medicine, oil, agriculture, and even fragrances.

Governor Terry McAuliffe announced today $3.4 million in funding to support 48 Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CRCF) awards representing targeted areas of promising research commercialization, including cybersecurity, energy, data analytics, unmanned systems and life sciences.

BioLogic, the Cincinnati region’s only life science incubator, is trying to turn local entrepreneurs’ ideas for improving human health into reality. Now the incubator has a new format, officially becoming a nonprofit a few weeks ago.

The incubator offers the only “wet-lab” space for lease within 100 miles, which allows startups to access expensive material and equipment typically limited to universities and hospitals.

OpGen Inc. (NASDAQ: OPGN) raised $10.4 million in a recent funding round led by the Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, the venture capital arm of pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co.

When you think about the headliners at a music festival, it’s unlikely that the first person to pop into your head would be Martine Rothblatt—the founder of Sirius XM, the one-time highest-paid female CEO in the world who made a robot clone of her wife, and the founder of the Terasem religion, which believes we’ll live forever by uploading our consciousness to the cloud. But Moogfest, a four-day citywide festival of music and technology in Durham, North Carolina, was not the average music festival. Unlike other festivals that make cursory overtures to technology, Moogfest dedicated as much time to explaining how technology influences creativity as to the creative output itself, even listing headline ‘technologists’ alongside its top-billed musical acts.

Bio-Trac®, in partnership with Montgomery College, is proud to offer graduate/post graduate level hands-on laboratory training workshops for research scientists within the Pinkney Innovation Complex for Science and Technology (PIC MC), an integrated academic, business and research campus.

For those in the health and life sciences industry, May is known as National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, more than 50 million Americans suffer from allergies, and more than 24 million Americans are affected by asthma. And while there still isn’t a known cure for these conditions, one Rockville biotechnology company is working to change that.

Greenspring Associates raised $200 million in a new fund that focuses on investing in venture capital fund limited partners and managers that in turn invest in growth-stage companies.

Qiagen is closer to completing its DKK683 million ($104 million) acquisition of Exiqon, a provider of RNA analysis solutions, but has decided to extend for a second time the offer period for Exiqon’s shares.

County Executive Isiah Leggett announced that Montgomery County is moving forward on its vision of creating a local community in East County that provides opportunities to live, work and play in a walkable, mixed use transit-oriented development. The County has reached an agreement with Global LifeSci Development Corporation (GLDC) to develop Viva White Oak, a 300-acre joint mixed use development project.

The Washington, D.C. metropolitan area is the hottest spot in the country for entrepreneurship according to a new report from the Kauffman Index of Growth Entrepreneurship. The ranking is based on a combination of how many new startups there are, how startups in the area have scaled in the course of a decade and how many companies show rapid growth. All told, D.C. easily beats out Austin, Columbus, San Jose and Nashville, the next ranked cities, and far ahead of Boston, New York or other hubs of innovation.

There’s been a lot of talk about bolstering institutions like universities as places to drive the entrepreneurship Maryland needs to become a BioHealth hub. In North Baltimore, Sinai Hospital doesn’t have a connected university, but it still sees an opportunity to turn research into startups.

Did you miss the first I-270 Bio Corridor event last month? If so, you missed out on learning about and connecting with some of the top bio and life science companies and experts as well as resource partners like REDI, the MD Department of Commerce, the Montgomery County Economic Development Corp, Frederick County Office of Economic Development, Frederick City, the City of Gaithersburg Office of Economic Development and Montgomery College.

Over 100 attendees enjoyed a happy hour and discussion of how best to help the I-270 corridor grow with more bio and life science companies at CRB’s new headquarters in Rockville.

This event was scheduled as a precursor to the BIO International Convention taking place this month in San Francisco, REDI, our I-270 Corridor partners, will be there in the Maryland pavilion with information and resources for those companies that may be looking for the perfect location for their bio and life science businesses, promoting the I-270 corridor a hub for this niche market.

When the federal government agreed to a major price hike for Nuo Therapeutics Inc.’s lead wound therapy product last October, officials at the Gaithersburg biotech felt it was the game changer they’d been waiting for.

Twenty-two finalists have been selected for the Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards.

bwtech@UMBC leads the incubator list with eight tenant companies up for awards. Previous winners include Emerging Technology Centers-based SocialToaster, Spark’s Avhana Health and Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship’s Milestone Sports.

The U.S. health care system has a tremendous need for novel high- (and low-) tech solutions to increase its quality, agility and affordability.

To meet this need, the National Science Foundation (NSF) supports research and early-stage development of novel biomedical products, processes and services.

On May 23, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) convened at Johns Hopkins Hospital a scientific expert panel to discuss what to do about the Zika epidemic. Organizing the event within two business days was no small feat, as Cardin, scientific experts, health department leaders, hospital executives and industry representatives all had to quickly clear their very busy morning schedules. The attendance of television and newspaper outlets (such as the Baltimore Sun) meant that the discussion’s proceedings would be available to the public. From the very start, Cardin kept the tone very science-focused: The Zika epidemic is a public health emergency, and the issue is how best scientifically, collaboratively and expeditiously to handle this emergency.

The fifth annual U.S. News STEM Solution Conference kicked off May 18 with a half-day look at STEM education in the Baltimore region and its impact on the local economy.

Pharma major Lupin today said it has received an establishment inspection report (EIR) from the USFDA on closure of inspection of its Mandideep and Aurangabad facilities.

In a BSE filing, Lupin said: “It has received establishment inspection report (EIR) for its Mandideep and Aurangabad facilities wherein the USFDA has concluded that the inspections stand closed.”

Two sets of numbers shows how far biopharma activity has progressed in Asia recently. The value of biotech venture capital funding during the first quarter zoomed to $174 million in the first quarter from $150 million in Q4 2015 and a mere $9.4 million in Q1 2015, according to Tech In Asia.

Thursday, June 2, 2016 7:30 AM – 9:00 AM, Bethesda Country Club

An IPO is one of the most important events in a company’s history, and navigating the course requires an enormous amount of endurance. Choosing an investment bank, perfecting your roadshow, and meeting with investors is just the tip of the iceberg. Join Vit Vasista, Chief Financial Officer of REGENXBIO, at All the Right Moves: Planning a Successful Exit Strategy, on Thursday, June 2, from 7:30 – 9:00 a.m. Vit will share tips that were integral to REGENXBIO’s successful 2015 IPO, from pitching to trading.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Health and Human Services IDEA Lab are looking for a “talented, awesomely connected” entrepreneur-in-residence to shepherd creation of a new pre-certification process for IT vendors interested in working with states.

America wouldn’t be what it is today without innovation.

So says Steve Case, the entrepreneur who co-founded AOL, the company that helped introduce the public to the Internet. Now the chief executive of investment firm Revolution LLC, Mr. Case sat down with Dennis Berman, financial editor of The Wall Street Journal, to discuss the next wave of the Internet’s evolution and how midsize companies might take advantage of it.

Newly released research from the Kauffman Foundation finds that in 2016, Washington, D.C., Austin, San Jose, Columbus, and Nashville were the five highest ranked metropolitan areas for the Index of Growth Entrepreneurship. The five highest ranked states were Virginia, Utah, Maryland, Arizona, and Massachusetts. As described in the SSTI Digest last week, The Kauffman Index of Growth Entrepreneurship measures the growth of entrepreneurial businesses in the United States, complementing the foundation’s recently released Index of Startup Activity and Index of Main Street Entrepreneurship.

The Baltimore-area slipped 10 spots on a new report ranking entrepreneurship growth.

Too often, it seems, the mark of a “good” scientist is the ability to give an excruciatingly embarrassing and incomprehensible scientific presentation – the sort of presentations that litter academic conferences.

Thursday, June 23, 2016 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. • Washington, D.C.

Join the Maryland/Israel Development Center for its second annual MIDC Day at the Israeli Embassy for an exclusive networking event and interactive panel discussion.

Imagine being 15 years from the traditional retirement age and deciding to start your own company. Or deciding to enter a completely different industry—at age 60. Or spending your twenties deferring further study to find out what really drives you.

Few industries are facing as much external change as pharmaceuticals and medical products, whether it be sustained global demand and the need for drugs and devices, accelerating cost pressures on health systems, growing complexity in emerging markets, or the disruptive effect of new technologies in therapy and care provision.