BHI Weekly News Archives

Lung disease lands thousands of patients in the hospital every year. And that’s where many of them stay, unable to breathe without a cumbersome respirator to help circulate air through their lungs.

Breethe Inc., a startup out of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, wants to change that experience. The company is developing a portable, artificial lung that will allow patients to continue treatment outside the hospital. Breethe on Monday announced it had finalized an agreement with UM Ventures, the university’s commercialization office, to license the technology behind its invention.

University of Maryland (UM) Ventures and Breethe, Inc. announced today that Breethe, an early-stage, Baltimore-based medical device company, has obtained exclusive rights to University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) intellectual property (IP) for the development of a wearable, portable blood pump oxygenator that will function as an artificial lung system for patients suffering from respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary collapse. Faculty at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) developed the core licensed technology, with Breethe also obtaining important supporting technology co-owned by UMB and University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) as part of the license agreement. The Breethe team plans to leverage the technology to bring the first wearable ‘out-of-hospital’ artificial lung system to market. UMB has made a $100,000 investment in Breethe through UM Ventures.

AstraZeneca’s global biologics R&D arm MedImmune has received fast track designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to develop MEDI8897, an investigational recombinant human immunoglobulin G1 kappa (IgG1κ) monoclonal antibody (mAb).

This monoclonal antibody is being examined for the prevention of lower respiratory tract illness (LRTI) caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants and young children.

All it takes is one hit. And Christy Wyskiel likes her chances.

Johns Hopkins University, where Wyskiel heads up technology commercialization, is among the institutions scrambling to transform more faculty research into startup companies, patents and licenses. Hopkins in 2014 reported $16.5 million in licensing revenue, but is still far behind universities that have been leaders in commercialization. Columbia University, for example, earned $150 million in licensing revenue last year.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a public-private partnership and innovation intermediary is seeking an energetic and motivated life science professional for the role of an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) preferably with product development experience related to cardiovascular, pulmonary, or hematological innovations. The EIR will reside within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and will also support intramural and extramural initiatives on an as needed basis.

The EIR program was established at BioHealth Innovation to:

• Retain and bring entrepreneurial talent to the Maryland ecosystem 
• Connect resources including institutions, technology assets, people and capital within Maryland that include federal institutions, labs, academic institutions, small businesses, disease foundations and the investor community
• Build/support sustainable life science startups that will add value within the healthcare system and also build upon the existing infrastructure

The EIR will work with BHI leadership to ensure that the activities and outcomes are aligned with BHIs strategic focus.

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 Potential Delays to NIH Issuing Awards in May 2015
• (NOT-OD-15-088) National Institutes of Health
• Racial and Ethnic Categories and Definitions for NIH Diversity Programs and for Other Reporting Purposes
• (NOT-OD-15-089) National Institutes of Health
• Reporting Publications in the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR)
• (NOT-OD-15-090) National Institutes of Health

Program Announcements:

• Administrative Supplements for Tobacco Regulatory Research on Tobacco Flavors and Flavorings (Admin Supp)
• (PA-15-183)
• National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, National Cancer Institute, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Office of Disease Prevention
• Application Receipt/Submission Date(s): Multiple dates, see announcement.

Please note that most links to RFAs, PAs, and Guide Notices will take you to the NIH Web site. RFPs will take you to FedBizOpps. Links to RFPs will not work past their proposal receipt date. Archived versions of RFPs posted on FedBizOpps can be found on the FedBizOpps site using the FedBizOpps search function. Under “Document to Search,” select Archived Documents.

National Institutes of Health
Food and Drug Administration
National Cancer Institute
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
National Institute on Drug Abuse
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Office of Disease Prevention
Application Receipt/Submission Date(s): Multiple dates, see announcement.

National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Karen B. DeSalvo, M.D., M.P.H., M.Sc., announced today the availability of $1 million in grant funds to support community projects for the Community Interoperability Health Information Exchange (HIE) Program. The funding will help support and enable the flow of health information at the community level, leading to better care and better health.

The Community Interoperability and HIE program will provide funds to up to ten community organizations, state or local government agencies, or other community groups. The awards will help unlock health information and better integrate community resources advancing better care and healthier communities.

In an effort to tap patient communities for insights on drug development, AstraZeneca has inked a five-year deal with PatientsLikeMe, according to a company statement.

Ed Godber, executive vice president of Life Sciences Ventures at PatientsLikeMe, said unlike most of its pharma collaborations, which have been with U.S. affiliates of drug companies, “this one integrates us into the engine of R&D globally. AstraZeneca is putting the patient voice and PatientsLikeMe into the DNA of their innovation process.”

To capitalize on the region’s significant human capital and resources driving health innovation, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) and ProductSavvy, in partnership with Montgomery County Department of Economic Development (DED), are launching a health technology accelerator program named, “Relevant Health.” The accelerator will consist of a five-month intensive program focused on preparing eight early-stage health-related businesses for pilot product testing and financing. The program is scheduled to launch in September 2015 and will be located in the Rockville Innovation Center, part of the Montgomery County incubator network.

BHI is a public-private partnership that’s been building programs to foster commercialization of health and life sciences assets in the Central Maryland region over the last three years.

Thursday, April 16, 2015, 03:00pm – 05:00pm

Event is open to Post-Docs & Professional Scientists currently work in the Therapeutic Areas of:

• Oncology
• Respiratory, Inflammation & Autoimmunity
• Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases
• Infectious Diseases & Vaccines
• Related scientific disciplines

Event will include music, lawn games, hors d’oeuvres, drinks and a scientific “Speed Networking” session.

Thursday, April 16, 2015, 07:30am – 09:00am

This is the first in our series of roundtables on what you need to know as a startup and emerging companies in the Life Sciences industry. The allure of “free money” inspires many life science companies to pursue government funding as an alternative to traditional equity or debt based financing. Unfortunately, nothing is “free” and government funding comes with its own organizational, management, accounting and compliance costs. This roundtable will reference the issues a company should consider when pursuing government funding and strategies for mitigating them. Topics addressed will include: finding and winning funding that is aligned with your corporate strategy, efficiently creating the infrastructure to manage compliant government contracts, managing your government partners/clients, and negotiating appropriate contracts and IP rights. This talk will reference existing life science government contracts ranging from $5M to over $200M and present both successful strategies and pitfalls to avoid. We will also talk through where government funding has provided the finances and credibility to springboard companies in their corporate growth.

Monday, April 20, 2015, 07:30am – 05:30pm

The Abell Foundation and BioMaryland have generously donated grants to be awarded to select faculty and company presentations from Johns Hopkins or the University of Maryland, Baltimore. The presentations will be voted upon by the industry boards and guests based on their ability to be translated to a commercial product. Register today to receive an advance copy of the updated meeting program featuring the agenda, bios of the presenters and non-confidential summaries of the technologies.

New for 2015! BHI’s Funding Newsletter provides a monthly snapshot of biohealth funding opportunities from federal, state, local government, and private sources that could be relevant to advance your small business. BHI’s goal is to assist companies determine feasible non-dilutive funding pathways or government contract opportunities to enable biohealth businesses at multiple stages of development.

Please contact our Federal Funding Assistance program when seeking support for any of the opportunities.

Recent winners: Perceptive Navigation wins Phase II SBIR

Establishes centralized vaccines research and development center in Rockville

GSK, one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, announced today that they are expanding their operations in Rockville with the establishment of a centralized vaccines R&D facility.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) announced today that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has signed an agreement to extend and expand its entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR) program with BHI. Under the terms of the new agreement, BHI is providing the services of five EIRs to the NIH starting with two lead institutes: the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).

“BHI is excited to extend its existing relationship with NIH. By adding new EIRs within multiple institutes, we expand our ability to both support breakthrough technologies and to help identify new commercial opportunities working with national scientific experts,” said Richard Bendis, BHI President & CEO. “These new breakthroughs can then turn into new health-related products, many of which will come from the cutting-edge startup companies fostered by BHI that are focused on further enhancing the future of healthcare for all.”

British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline announced plans Thursday to open a new vaccine research center in Rockville by this fall, a project that could bring up to 700 new jobs to Montgomery County. The center — at the site of the former Human Genome Sciences, which Glaxo acquired in 2012 for $3.6 billion — would combine two Glaxo research facilities on the East Coast and is expected to employ 1,000 people by 2016, a company spokeswoman said.

Another startup-focused program from TEDCO is on the way. The U.S. Economic Development Administration awarded the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) an innovation grant this week. TEDCO will use the $500,000 i6 Challenge award to launch a program for commercialization of medical devices. The program, called Maryland Structure Efficient Professional Product Development (mdSTEPP), is aiming to create 5-7 new medical device companies a year. It’s another example of the state working to turn the research that emerges from Maryland’s hospitals, labs and other centers into profitable businesses. The announcement also comes as University of Maryland officials are looking to expand the institution’s BioPark in Baltimore, and Johns Hopkins University is finally making the investment in commercialization that many have long wanted.

CLARKSVILLE, MD–(Marketwired – Apr 6, 2015) – Neuronascent, a biopharmaceutical company developing non-invasive, neuron regenerative therapeutics aimed at reversing cognitive deficits in Alzheimer’s disease, today announced the closing of a round of financing for up to $1.2 million. Neuronascent’s human neuronal progenitor-based discovery platform identified a number of novel orally-available therapeutics that promote new neuron generation at the same time inhibiting loss of neurons. Proceeds from this first institutional investment will allow the development of Neuronascent’s lead Alzheimer’s candidate, NNI-362, to the point of first-in-human clinical testing. The Company expects to complete all IND-enabling studies in 2015, with the considerable support of the National Institute of Aging’s (NIA) Alzheimer’s Disease Translational Research Program.

The Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) named today 12 finalists in the InvestMaryland Challenge (IMC), the State’s international business competition. The Challenge brings together startup companies from a variety of industries with investors, advisors, successful entrepreneurs and other established members of Maryland’s entrepreneurial community. There are three finalists in each of four categories — Life Sciences, IT, Defense & Security, and Sustainability & Exploration. The winner of each will win a $100,000 top prize from the State’s Maryland Venture Fund. InvestMaryland Challenge partners have contributed another $300,000 in prizes that will be awarded to others in the field of 214 applicants. Winners of all awards will be announced April 28 at an event at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore.

Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals, Inc., announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted an orphan drug designation for the Company’s investigational compound, STP-206 (lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis), a live biotherapeutic being developed for the prevention of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in premature infants with very low birth weight less than or equal to 1,500 grams. The Company is currently conducting a multi-center, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase 1b/2a clinical trial for STP-206 at a number of different sites in the United States.

Strand Life Sciences today announced a partnership with MRI Global to open a reference laboratory in India and develop companion diagnostics.

The partners will conduct joint research to integrate Strand’s SmartLab informatics software with MRI Global’s mobile, rapid diagnostics laboratories. Strand will also act as a validation hub for new technologies that are developed, including point-of-care devices.

Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (“ITI”), a privately-held biotechnology company developing vaccines based on its proprietary LAMP technology, today announces that the National Institutes of Health has awarded ITI’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant application titled, “Development of Nanoplasmid LAMP-based Peanut Allergy Immunotherapy.” The work in this award will help the pre-clinical development of new and advanced therapeutic platforms for peanut allergies.

“The receipt of this grant provides validation and financial support to evaluate the innovative combination of MHC-II targeting of important peanut allergens delivered in a minimal plasmid DNA backbone. With NIH’s support, we look forward to designing and evaluating new plasmid-based constructs for their immunological activity and improved safety profile, which builds off of ITI’s considerable expertise in plasmid-based therapeutics for food allergies. This research has the potential to help the more than one million Americans who suffer from peanut allergies,” said Teri Heiland, Ph.D., Vice President of R&D, ITI.

Chief technology officer at Health and Human Services, Bryan Sivak, is leaving the agency and retiring from federal government at the end of April, according to a department memo.

During his four years at the agency, Sivak was an ardent proponent of using technology to innovate and provide better services, both for the civilians the agency serves and for the employees internally.

A Baltimore startup that’s developing a medical device to treat migraine headaches is in talks to be acquired by a global medical device company.

Baltimore’s eNeura Inc. has entered into an agreement with Orthofix International N.V. that gives the Texas medical device firm 18 months to decide whether it wants to acquire eNeura for $65 million. As part of the deal, Orthofix is giving eNeura a $15 million loan to support commercialization of its migraine management device, Spring TMS.

When serial entrepreneurs Greg Cangialosi and Dave Troy launched the Baltimore Angels in 2009, the small group of investors heard pitches from hopeful entrepreneurs in a cramped Baltimore conference room, with maybe a pizza and bottle of water to share. Six years later, the Baltimore Angels are a crew of 40 investors, making deals upwards of $100,000. As Baltimore’s startup scene grows, Cangialosi is tightening the screws on the Baltimore Angels to attract new members, raise more money, ink more deals and be a driving force in the city’s entrepreneurship community.

Thrasos Therapeutics, a biotherapeutics company focused on delivering new solutions for kidney disease, today announced that it has completed a $21M Series D financing led by BDC Capital and SR One with participation by all current investors. Thrasos’ Board of Directors will be expanded with the addition of Ela Borenstein, Managing Partner at BDC Capital Healthcare Venture Fund.

The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland’s largest technology trade association, today announced the finalists for its 27th Annual Industry Awards. Winners will be revealed at a celebration on May 13 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center. This year, the Industry Awards Celebration recognizes the achievements that inspiration can bring. Achievements in technology and life sciences that were nurtured locally, and grew to have a global impact.

BALTIMORE, April 1, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — University of Maryland School of Medicine Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, announced today that the School of Medicine (UM SOM) plans to establish a major new Institute for Global Health (IGH), bringing together decades of UM SOM research, treatment and vaccine development around the world, and expanding the School’s platform as the premier, leading center for global health research, treatment and prevention. The new Institute will focus on vaccine development and malaria research, and will house the UM SOM’s reconfigured Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) as well as a newly-formed Center for Malaria Research (CMR).

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), Vice Chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, this week continued her Maryland Jobs Tour at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). Senator Mikulski announced that she has introduced new legislation, the Accelerating Biomedical Research Act, to ensure NIH receives stable funding year after year to support community health, innovation and jobs across Maryland and the nation. Senator Mikulski was joined by NIH Director Dr. Francis S. Collins and NCATS Director Dr. Christopher P. Austin in touring the NCATS translational research facility to see first-hand state-of-the-art screening for potential new treatments and cures for diseases that can be delivered to patients faster.

Though the Terrapins men’s basketball team didn’t pass the second round of the NCAA tournament, this university found success in a different kind of bracket. This university was named the “Nation’s Greenest University” by SaveOnEnergy.com in its March Mania Bracket, taking on Kansas University, Duke University and the University of Virginia before defeating the University of Louisville in the championship. In the spirit of March Madness, SaveOnEnergy.com — an online energy comparison website — created March Mania to mimic the NCAA Division I basketball tournament. The tournament included 16 of the nation’s top men’s basketball teams and ranked them based on their green efforts, according to the March Mania website.

FastForward, the catalyst for the advancement and commercialization of Johns Hopkins innovations, will help drive business development. There will be some available space outfitted as a core lab facility with shared equipment. Approximately 115,000 SF of the building is already committed. An additional 53,000 SF of lab and office space is available. Additionally, there will be 2,000 SF of retail space that will open directly to the lobby and serve as the social hub for innovation activities in the building. This space will have 180 degree exposure to Ashland Avenue and Eager Park. The retail tenant can extend its outdoor operation onto the ground floor building terrace and into Eager Park.

For University of Maryland researchers, the last year has marked a series of new discoveries and innovations: a revolutionary nanopore battery with high storage capabilities, a language aptitude measuring system, and a national food safety database to improve safety measures in retail establishments, just to name a few. UMD will honor nine nominees for the most promising new inventions at the Celebration of Innovation and Partnerships event on April 29, held as part of the University of Maryland’s ’30 Days of EnTERPreneurship,’ a month-long celebration and exhibition of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Health and Human Services chief technology officer Bryan Sivak announced that he will step down from the job this month.

In so doing, Sivak is not just leaving the CTO position but also the entrepreneur-in-residence post he held simultaneously. Healthcare IT News Executive Editor Tom Sullivan spoke with Sivak in 2013 about disrupting government culture with both technology and modern business practices.

We’re back in Baltimore thanks to The University of Maryland’s Biotech Research and Education Program (BREP) who is sponsoring this BioBuzz networking event on April 9th at @HeavySeasAleHse. Join us to share an evening with BREP and Baltimore’s growing Biotech community. Heavy Seas Alehouse is located in a very accessible part of the city and has plenty of free street parking or a $4 garage directly across the street.

Mtech’s Biotechnology Research and Education Program (BREP) is the regions premier biotechnology, biopharmaceutical and biofuel research center, designed to bolster Maryland’s burgeoning biotechnology industry. The program consists of two core facilities dedicated to providing supplemental research to academia, government and industry.

Start-up accelerators have become a prominent feature of the entrepreneurship landscape in recent years. New programs appear nearly every month, and in many ways, accelerator participation has become a rite of passage for budding entrepreneurs. Yet, with the proliferation of programs, the newness of the phenomena, and little to no publicly available data on outcomes for the programs and affiliated start-ups, it is hard for entrepreneurs to determine which programs are most effective and, more importantly, which specific program would be the best fit for their particular start-up’s goals. With this challenge in mind, we set out over the last few years to both foster conversation about the accelerator model, and help entrepreneurs gain visibility into the strengths of individual programs.

Like plenty of science-oriented high school kids, Andrew Jin is interested in human evolution. But Jin, one of three $150,000 first-place winners in this year’s Intel Science Talent Search, took that interest further than most. For his project, the high school senior came up with machine learning algorithms that detect mutations in the human genome—mutations that could one day be used to develop drugs to combat diseases like HIV and schizophrenia.

The decline in first quarter digital health investment was a notable shift from the steadily rising levels since 2010. That’s probably the most striking development in StartUp Health’s latest report which otherwise highlighted some pretty consistent trends. In the the first three months of 2015, big data attracted the most investment (led by Health Catalyst, which raised $70 million). Plus, more venture capitalists are moving into the sector – at least 20 made two digital health investments. But the second half of the report, which looks at digital health subsectors and deals relevant to the graying market – ie. almost every aspect of consumer health – was a promotional, business-intelligence look at what’s happening with the constituents of one of its sponsors, AARP. Reading the report, I wonder if it really provides enough firepower for innovators to help that 50+ population.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced the first 26 recipients of the 2014 Regional Innovation Strategies program grants. Managed by the Economic Development Administration, the Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) program is designed to advance innovation and capacity-building activities in regions across the country through three different types of grants.

I’ve reached the stage of my career where I’ve been invited to give “career retrospective talks” to grad students and post-docs at academic institutions. It’s been an interesting and enjoyable experience meeting a new generation of young scientists and hearing what’s on their minds. After delivering my seminar and sharing lots of stories and advice, the discussion quickly turns to jobs: what’s available out there, and how do you get one?

We’re back in Baltimore thanks to The University of Maryland’s Biotech Research and Education Program (BREP) who is sponsoring this BioBuzz networking event on April 9th at @HeavySeasAleHse. Join us to share an evening with BREP and Baltimore’s growing Biotech community. Heavy Seas Alehouse is located in a very accessible part of the city and has plenty of free street parking and a garage directly across the street.

AstraZeneca and MedImmune, in Partnership with BioHealth Innovation, Inc. and Tech Council of Maryland, Convene Life Sciences Leaders from Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. to Support Growth of Regional Biotech Ecosystem

Gaithersburg, Md., March 30, 2015 – Today and tomorrow, more than 400 leaders from life sciences companies, academic institutions, nonprofit organizations, investment funds and government entities across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. will convene for the first Maryland Regional Biotech Forum. This event, hosted by AstraZeneca and its global biologics research and development arm, MedImmune, in partnership with BioHealth Innovation (BHI), Inc. and the Tech Council of Maryland, will be held at MedImmune’s corporate headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland. It was launched as part of a collective effort to grow the region’s biotech ecosystem and chart a course toward becoming one of the top three biotech hubs in the nation by 2023.

The Maryland Regional Biotech Forum agenda boasts an impressive lineup of more than 100 speakers and panelists, including Gerd Binnig, a Nobel Prize laureate in physics and Founder and CTO of Definiens; Rachel King, Chair of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of GlycoMimetics; more than 25 regional CEOs, including Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca; five university presidents from across the region; and leaders from federal institutions.

In addition, the region’s first Leaders of Tomorrow Summit will be held in parallel with day two of the Maryland Regional Biotech Forum, also at MedImmune’s headquarters. This event is the Mid-Atlantic region’s first student- and postdoc-led, cross-functional and inter-generational leadership summit, and is designed to engage and influence the next generation of biotech leaders and ignite innovation in the future bioeconomy.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a public-private partnership and innovation intermediary is seeking an energetic and motivated life science professional for the role of an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) with product development experience and subject matter expertise in the fields of neurology and neuroscience. The EIR will reside within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and will also support intramural and extramural initiatives on an as needed basis.

The EIR program was established at BioHealth Innovation to:

• Retain and bring entrepreneurial talent to the Maryland ecosystem
• Connect resources including institutions, technology assets, people and capital within Maryland that include federal institutions, labs, academic institutions, small businesses, disease foundations and the investor community
• Build/support sustainable life science startups that will add value within the healthcare system and also build upon the existing infrastructure

The EIR will work with BHI leadership to ensure that the activities and outcomes are aligned with BHIs strategic focus.

The Maryland General Assembly recently honored University System of Maryland (USM) Chancellor William E. “Brit” Kirwan with a special tribute. In both chambers of the General Assembly, delegates and senators on March 20 recognized Chancellor Kirwan for his 50 years of service to Maryland higher education.

House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Senate President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller offered separate tributes to Kirwan, who has served as USM chancellor since 2002 and announced in May 2014 that he will step down from his leadership position. Kirwan will remain as chancellor through June 30, 2015. University of Massachusetts System President Robert L. Caret will succeed him.

Biopharmaceutical venture capital investment climbed from $4.52 billion in 2013 to $5.29 billion in 2014, a 17% increase, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.

Joel Marcus, chief executive of Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc., has been in biotech since its early days. From 1984 to 1994, he had a law career with expertise in the biopharmaceutical industry that included time as general counsel and secretary of Kirin-Amgen Inc., a joint venture between Kirin Brewery Co. and Amgen Inc.

Maryland is no stranger to USGBC’s Top 10 States for LEED list, and every year it has a strong list of impressive LEED projects certifying across the state. Maryland was the third state in the nation for LEED in 2014 (2.7 square-feet of LEED certified space per resident) based on the strength of its 132 newly certified projects.

One project that stands out this year is Qiagen’s new North America headquarters building, which is important not only because of its impressive architecture, but also because of the building’s purpose and what projects like this one symbolize about the growing impact of the green building movement across the country. Qiagen uses its 66,735 square foot headquarters for new research in the field biotechnology as well as its North American manufacturing operations. Skanska USA, a Platinum level member of USGBC, served as the contractor on the Qiagen project, ushering the building toward LEED certification.

WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. (WX: Quote) announced that an Investigational New Drug or IND application for WuXi MedImmune’s novel anti-IL6 monoclonal antibody for rheumatoid arthritis has been accepted for review by the China Food and Drug Administration or CFDA.

In September 2012, MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, and WuXi AppTec formed the joint venture WuXi MedImmune Biopharmaceutical Co. Limited to develop and commercialize MEDI5117, a novel, investigational, long-acting monoclonal antibody for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, the first such collaboration in China between a global company and a Chinese company to develop novel biologics.

Swimtag and Brain Sentry were the winners at the 2015 Sports Technology Awards, at an event where wearable tech companies dominated the nominations.

The event, which is in its second year, is set up to recognise the technology that’s playing an increased role across sport – be it tracking, broadcasting or participation.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of Anthrasil Tuesday for treating inhalational anthrax alongside antibacterial drugs, triggering a $7 million payment to Emergent BioSolutions under a Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority contract.

A rare disease, inhalational anthrax occurs after an individual is exposed to an infected animal or animal products that have been contaminated. Infection is also possible when anthrax spores are intentionally released, leading to the inhalation of Bacillus anthracis. After the bacterium enters the body, it replicates and produces toxins, causing massive, irreversible injury to tissues. Damage can also be so severe that an infection can be fatal.

Gaithersburg-based Emergent BioSolutions Inc. is adding a $31 million contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to its ongoing work developing a next-generation anthrax vaccine.

The BARDA contract is for NuThrax, a vaccine that requires fewer doses, has a higher immune response and has no need for refrigeration.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its treatment for inhaled anthrax, triggering a $7 million milestone payment from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The company developed the treatment, Anthrasil, as part of a $160 million contract it signed in 2005 with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a part of the HHS.

Health for America is pleased to announce that Medstar will host the 2015-16 Health for America Fellowship in Washington D.C., in partnership with the global startup incubator, 1776.

The Fellowship will give a small group of exceptional young healthcare leaders the opportunity to put aside their day-to-day work and focus instead on finding high-impact, low-cost solutions for patients suffering from chronic diseases. Led by the MedStar Institute for Innovation (MI2), the 2015 Fellowship will give fellows broad access to providers, entrepreneurs, and other experts throughout MedStar, a regional not-for-profit health system advancing the practice of medicine through education, innovation and research.

Frederick City and the County have agreed to partner with the state to help Medimmune expand.

Last week, the County Council agreed to participate with the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development’s Maryland Economic Development Assistance and Authority Fund (MEDAAF) to provide a $1.5-million loan to Medimmune.

New Enterprise Associates expects to hold a final close next month.

Venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates has secured approximately $2.57 billion in capital commitments for its fifteenth fund, Fortune has learned.

Johns Hopkins brings to mind the renowned research university and hospital in Baltimore.

The latter has been the working home to such medical lights as neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who led a pioneering separation of twins born fused together at the cranium.

That these institutions are known primarily for the work they do, not for the person whose money gave them life, would sit just fine with their founding donor.

The National Institutes of Health has selected three new proof-of-concept hubs to help speed the translation of basic biomedical discoveries into commercial products, such as new drugs, devices, and diagnostics, to improve patient care and enhance health. The hubs are part of the NIH-supported Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hubs (REACH) program and will be funded at $9 million over three years.

AKT IP Ventures today announced the launch of a targeted $20 million incubation investment fund that will finance the creation and operation of IP-based businesses in the mobile, multi-touch, wearables, IoT, big data and medical technology sectors. As an incubator and operator of emerging IP-based businesses, AKT IP Ventures offers a unique, constructive and creative alternative to the litigation model of patent monetization. Employing a disciplined approach to bringing IP-based technologies to market, AKT IP Ventures turns patents into viable enterprises that create jobs, generate value and bring exciting new technologies and innovations into the marketplace.

Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB: PIRS)and The University of Melbourne today announced the receipt by the University of a research grant to further develop Pieris’ novel protein Anticalin®-brand therapeutic, PRS-060, in immunological diseases. The grant — which will support Pieris’ Australian subsidiary, Pieris Australia, and is disbursed by Australia’s peak medical research funding body, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) — totals more than $AUS 500,000 and covers activities to advance PRS-060 for inhaled delivery to treat asthmatics.

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:

• Request for Information (RFI): NHLBI Strategic Visioning – Developing the Research Priorities for the Next Decade
• (NOT-HL-15-252)

• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice of Change to Award Information Regarding Allowable Requested Direct Costs in PAR-13-316 “NHLBI Program Project Applications (P01)”
• (NOT-HL-15-256)
• 
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice of National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Participation in PAR-15-085 “Predictive Multiscale Models for Biomedical, Biological, Behavioral, Environmental and Clinical Research (U01)”
• (NOT-HL-15-257)

• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Requests for Applications:

• Genome Sequencing Program Coordinating Center (U24)
• (RFA-HG-15-019)
• 
National Human Genome Research Institute
Application Receipt Date(s): May 29, 2015

The World International Patent Organization released a report Friday naming Johns Hopkins University among the top 2014 international patent applicants in the world, proving that American universities may not be losing ground when it comes to tech transfer programs after all.

WIPO took a look at overall growth in the applications for its global intellectual property services and found that together, China and the U.S. accounted for 87 percent of the total growth in filings under WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty. The PCT received about 215,000 applications in 2014 – a 4.5 percent increase over the numbers reported in 2013.

When Apple announced, last year, that it was developing a watch that had the functions of a medical device, it became clear that the company was eyeing the $3 trillion health care industry; that the tech industry sees medicine as the next frontier for exponential growth. Apple’s recent announcement of ResearchKit shows that it has an even greater ambition: It wants to also transform the pharmaceutical industry by changing the way clinical trials are done.

If you listen to large tech companies, they will tell you they are in dire need of another bailout from scary “patent trolls” who burden them with frivolous lawsuits. This tech bailout will come in the form of a bill that would weaken 225 years of U.S. patent law to help big companies always win, and guarantee that small innovators and inventors will always lose.

The United States’ patent law system is at the foundation of American global success, found in breakthrough discoveries from Edison to the computer chip to recombinant DNA. Do we really need to “fix” the legal system that has enabled America to become number one in the global biotech, software, hardware, medical devices, energy, genomics, and nanotechnology industries? Patent filings are down an astonishing 40% in 2014 as a result of the first patent troll “fix” a few years ago and recent court decisions that have given away our nation’s competitive edge.

David Johnson was just one minute into making his pitch when the interruptions started.

“Why do I care?” barked a bespectacled man at the back of the seminar hall. Johnson, chief executive of the California biotechnology start-up GigaGen, blinked. He had condensed his company’s story into a neat ten-minute presentation for I-Corps, a nine-week course designed to teach business skills to entrepreneurial scientists like him. Now his talk was derailed.

Last night in Cambridge, LSN joined Women In Bio for a Shark Tank-style pitch event. The audience heard pitches from five life science entrepreneurs. Across the table from them were four experienced early stage life science investors playing the role of “sharks”.

So what did we learn from these life science innovators and from the sharks’ cutting responses to their pitches?

Event is open to Post-Docs & Professional Scientists currently work in the Therapeutic Areas of:

• Oncology
• Respiratory, Inflammation & Autoimmunity
• Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases
• Infectious Diseases & Vaccines
• Related scientific disciplines

Event will include music, lawn games, hors d’oeuvres, drinks and a scientific “Speed Networking” session.

BHI President and CEO Rich Bendis to Present

With 800+ life sciences companies, Over 70 federal labs and world class academic and research institutions, the biotechnology cluster in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC sets the bar for biotechnology innovation. Join us for an event that will spotlight a world class technology community that has accounted for 1/3 of all job growth in Maryland and has been a significant economic driver for the region over the past decade.

World renowned speakers, industry luminaries and commercial giants will convene for this unique Maryland Regional Biotech Forum to highlight the accomplishments of today and chart our successes of tomorrow.

GSK today announced it will be a key partner, with an investment of $25m (approx £17m), in a pioneering new global fund for dementia research. The Dementia Discovery Fund, which is being established by the UK government with initial commitments totalling $100m, brings together leading pharmaceutical companies, the UK government and Alzheimer’s Research UK to address the rising threat posed by dementia by supporting research into future treatments.

The fund aims to identify and nurture promising new avenues of research from around the world in the field of dementia and supports GSK’s commitment to explore novel, collaborative approaches in challenging areas of research. It is hoped that by providing critical financial support and expert advice during the early stages of research, the development of innovative new treatments for this disease could be accelerated.

For the second consecutive year, Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Medicine are co-sponsors of DreamIt Health Baltimore, a four-month boot camp for entrepreneurs that prepares health information technology startups to present their innovative ideas to the world. is a four-month intensive boot camp for entrepreneurs,

The program, designed to accelerate new product development for health IT startup companies, provides six new startups with access to top-tier legal and accounting services, along with opportunities to meet and pitch their ideas to angel investors and venture capitalists. Each startup also receives seed capital of up to $50,000.

At its growing East Baltimore facility, Emergent BioSolutions has produced a booster shot to go with a leading Ebola vaccine candidate, joining a competitive race to make a safe and effective tool to stop the spread of an outbreak that continues in West Africa and to prevent future outbreaks.

MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, today announced that it has entered into a new five year Scientific and Technological Cooperation Agreement with the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), an independent public foundation with the mission to foster research and the scientific and technological development of the State of São Paulo in Brazil. This collaboration, which is the result of a cross-functional effort among MedImmune, AstraZeneca Brazil, and the State of São Paulo, will focus on identifying and accessing the best science and scientists in the cardiovascular and metabolic disease areas at São Paulo’s public and private research institutions.

Juan González sees one glaring difference between Spain and the U.S.

Just like America, Spain has plenty of ideas, entrepreneurs, investors and even accelerators to support startups.

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) announced today that three Maryland companies received funding from its Cybersecurity Investment Fund (CIF). Strajillion, Protenus, and Ridgeback are the first three companies, each receiving $100,000, through CIF. The Fund supports Maryland companies develop and commercialize new cybersecurity products or services by providing investments of up to $100,000.

“CIF is the first dedicated cybersecurity fund created in the State to help establish Maryland as the innovation hub of information security,” said Rob Rosenbaum, president and executive director of TEDCO. “We are extremely pleased to have funded these companies and believe they have created very unique products and with the financial support from CIF, are confident they can accelerate their development and commercial launch.”

Wednesday, April 1st, 2015–6:00PM to 8:00PM

With all of the focus on patient engagement, physician adoption, increased accessibility, lowering costs, improving outcomes and the millions of dollars pouring into the burgeoning Health IT space, this is an important discussion to have in terms of the sustainability and economic viability of these ventures.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. has manufactured a possible Ebola vaccine that could serve as the booster for GlaxoSmithKline’s frontrunner candidate in the international race to create an effective treatment for the deadly virus.

Gaithersburg-based Emergent (NYSE: EBS) produced a vaccine batch that will be used by Oxford University researchers in a Phase 1 clinical trial with GlaxoSmithKline’s Ebola candidate. GSK’s candidate uses a type of chimpanzee virus to deliver safe genetic material from the Zaire strain of Ebola, the strain responsible for the epidemic in West Africa. That drug candidate began clinical trials in Africa in January, Reuters reported.

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:

• Use of Updated Inclusion Enrollment Format Now Required for Successful Submission of RPPR
• (NOT-OD-15-078)
• National Institutes of Health
• Notice of NIDDK Participation in RFA-CA-15-006 “Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Advancing Biomedical Science Using Crowdsourcing and Interactive Digital Media (UH2)”
• (NOT-DK-15-007)
• 
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
• Notice of NIEHS’ Participation in RFA-CA-15-006 “NIH Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Advancing Biomedical Science Using Crowdsourcing and Interactive Digital Media (UH2)”
• (NOT-ES-15-013)
• 
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
• Notice of Change in Application Due Date for RFA-ES-15-004 “NIH Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Biomedical Data Science Training Coordination Center (U24)”
• (NOT-ES-15-015)

• National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
• Notice of National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Participation in PA-15-027 “Research on Eosinophil Associated Disorders (R01)”
• (NOT-HL-15-254)

• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Notice of National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) Participation in RFA-CA-15-006 “Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Advancing Biomedical Science Using Crowdsourcing and Interactive Digital Media (UH2)
• (NOT-TR-15-010)

• National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences

Requests for Applications:

• Summer Institute for Research Education in Biostatistics (R25)
• (RFA-HL-16-017)

• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Application Receipt Date(s): June 01, 2015

Please note that most links to RFAs, PAs, and Guide Notices will take you to the NIH Web site. RFPs will take you to FedBizOpps. Links to RFPs will not work past their proposal receipt date. Archived versions of RFPs posted on FedBizOpps can be found on the FedBizOpps site using the FedBizOpps search function. Under “Document to Search,” select Archived Documents.

University of Maryland students might pay for an Uber ride home after a night out in College Park. Now, Uber’s about to pay them.

The company will invest $25,000 over the next two years in student-run startups at the University of Maryland, College Park, one of only three college partnerships for the San Francisco-based ride-share company, the university announced Sunday.

Just because startup incubators don’t employ dozens of people directly, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be eligible for the same economic development tax credit other spaces get.

That’s the argument two Baltimore-based state lawmakers are making with a pair of bills that were heard in Annapolis during the current legislative session.

Photo by Flickr user Maryland GovPics, used under a Creative Commons license

The NCI Technology Transfer Center offers fellowships under the Cancer Research Training Award (CRTA) program. These fellowships provide people having advanced degrees with training and mentored work experience in technology transfer. For more information on the TTC Fellowship:

Oak Investment Partners, New Enterprise Associates and Revolution should be familiar players now to those companies in Maryland looking to get venture capital funding.

All three were in the top 10 in terms of firms that invested in Maryland companies in 2013; this year, all three made the top five, along with two newcomers. The information comes from our List of Venture Capital Firms that invested in Maryland companies in 2014.

Nimbus Therapeutics will have $43 million to progress clinical trials of its non-alcoholic liver disease drug after the company successfully completed a financing round.

The Series B investment was led by Pfizer Venture Investments and Lightstone Ventures. Previous investors, including Atlas Venture, SR One, Lilly Ventures and Bill Gates, also participated.

MdBio Foundation is hosting ATLAS College + Career STEM Symposium. This event targets high school upperclassmen and college undergraduates from backgrounds typically underrepresented in STEM.

ATLAS needs STEM professionals and graduate students to participate in upcoming events. Please contact Erica Smith if you would like to volunteer or for additional details.

Limited sponsorship packages are still available to support this highly successful program and other MdBio Foundation initiatives. Contact Brian Gaines to learn more.

A newly released independent study, commissioned by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), documents the significant impact academia-industry technology transfer makes to the U.S. economy.

The report, entitled, “The Economic Contribution of University/Nonprofit Inventions in the United States: 1996- 2013,” estimates that, during this 18-year time period, academia-industry patent licensing bolstered U.S. gross industry output by up to $1.18 trillion, U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) by up to $518 billion, and supported up to 3,824,000 U.S. jobs.

The world’s first venture capital fund dedicated to finding new ways to prevent and treat dementia has raised more than $100 million with the backing of the British government and several of the world’s leading drugmakers.

The global Dementia Discovery Fund is unique in focusing on a single difficult to treat disorder and in bringing together industry and government.

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015 | 4:30 – 7:00 PM

ALEXANDRIA CENTER® FOR LIFE SCIENCE – NEW YORK CITY

Converge at Alexandria is a quarterly series of panel discussions, presented by the
Alexandria Center for Life Science – NYC and the Roche Innovation Center – NY, exploring the most highly debated topics currently facing the life science community. Featuring a panel of experts representing key stakeholders from the R&D continuum, including researchers, clinicians, patients, funders, and non-profits, Converge at Alexandria will engage NYC’s life science community in discussions around current critical issues and provide the regular touch points necessary for ongoing connectivity and collaboration among NYC’s broad and diverse life science community.

Peter Thiel is the co-founder of PayPal, the investor who discovered Facebook, and the author of Zero to One, a short account of the counterintuitive thinking that’s made him a godfather figure in Silicon Valley (see “The Contrarian’s Guide to Changing the World.”)+

But what’s less well known about Thiel is his affinity for biotechnology. By now he has invested in more than 25 startups, one of which has already turned into a $1 billion success story.+

Welcome to the fourth annual Inside Higher Ed academic bracket for the National Collegiate Athletic Association women’s basketball tournament. With this bracket, how teams perform in the classroom is what determines the victor.

Here’s how it works: to determine the winners, we first look to the Academic Progress Rate, the N.C.A.A.’s multiyear measure of a team’s classroom performance. When two teams tie, we turn to the N.C.A.A.’s Graduation Success Rate, which measures the proportion of athletes on track to graduate within six years. In the event of a G.S.R. tie, we then turn to the Federal Graduation Rate, a slightly different formula that the government uses to track graduation rates.

Commercially available unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, have gotten pretty amazing and quite cheap over the last few years, thanks to new brushless motors, lithium polymer batteries, and sensors already found in today’s smartphones. They’re already being used by farmers to survey fields, real estate agents to survey properties, and by rescue teams to look for people in difficult to reach places. Lately there have been attempts to use drones for medical applications, such as ferrying automatic external defibrillators and emergency medicines faster than ambulances. In the latest Air Medical Journal, three researchers from Mayo Clinic’s Department of Surgery investigate the potential for drones to be used to deliver things such as drugs and blood derivatives to clinics, disaster areas, and to remote places that are expensive to reach such as ships and offshore oil platforms.

A new diet known by the acronym MIND (Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) could significantly lower a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) — even if the diet is not meticulously followed, according to a paper published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.

This finding comes from a longitudinal study by Rush University Medical Center and Harvard School of Public Health of 923 volunteers (144 of them developed AD) shows that the MIND diet lowered the risk of AD by as much as 53 percent in participants who adhered to the diet rigorously, and by about 35 percent in those who followed it moderately well.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015, 06:00pm – 09:00pm

March is Women’s History Month. To honor this special time, WIB-DC/Baltimore presents an educational event on the topic of financing with biotech entrepreneurs Wendy Perrow, M.B.A. (CEO at Alba Therapeutics) and Audra Stinchcomb, Ph.D. (CSO and Founder of F6 Pharma), who will share their knowledge and experience with funding a biotech enterprise. Entrepreneur Iris Sherman, M.B.A. (President and Cofounder of Kitchology) will serve as moderator for this discussion.

Thursday, March 26, 2015, 05:30pm – 09:00pm

The 10th Annual TechAwards celebration will be held on Thursday, March 26, 2015 from 5:30 to 9:00 pm at the Hilton Baltimore Hotel welcoming more than 350 tech minded-executives and honoring the region’s rising tech companies, outstanding innovators and all-around top “geeks”. We are pleased to have Title Sponsor support from 2014 Rising Star Award Winner, ZeroFOX.

MacroGenics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MGNX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing innovative monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, as well as autoimmune disorders and infectious diseases, today announced the initiation of a Phase 1 study with MGD010, its first Dual-Affinity Re-Targeting (DART®) molecule being developed for patients with autoimmune disorders. MGD010 is a bi-specific molecule that simultaneously targets CD32B and CD79B, two B-cell surface proteins, for the treatment of autoimmune disorders. MGD010 is designed to inhibit B-cell activation by exploiting the inhibitory function of CD32B, a checkpoint molecule expressed by B cells. As a result of the study initiation, MacroGenics will receive a $3 million milestone payment from its partner, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited.

Austria-based diabetes app company mySugr has raised $4.8 million from Roche Ventures and iSeed Ventures. Existing investor XLHealth also contributed to the round, which will help mySugr scale up its user base in the US and other other countries. iSeed Ventures is a new fund that has only made a half dozen investments so far, and it is led by former iHealth Lab head Adam Lin.

MySugr offers a handful of apps, but its flagship is called Diabetes Logbook, which is designed for people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes and includes logging, graphing, analysis, “exciting challenges”, “smile-inducing feedback”, and Apple Health integration. If users sign up for a month-to-month or annual subscription, pro features include additional challenges, automatic blood glucose logging from connected devices, reminders, and more report formats. Its Logbook app is registered as a class 1 device with the FDA and has similar status in Europe.

The Food and Drug Administration said it approved United Therapeutics Corp’s drug to treat neuroblastoma, a rare cancer that typically occurs in children below 5 years.

Unituxin is the first drug approved to treat high-risk neuroblastoma patients who have a greater chance of tumors recurring or progressing after chemotherapy.

This year’s Top 10 U.S. Biopharma Clusters List features the same 10 regions as last year’s GEN List, but the top seven occupy slightly different positions than they did in the 2014 list.

One factor in the changes this past year has been a recovering venture capital market, which pushed numbers above last year’s totals for most, though not all regions (three showed declines and one was flat over 2013). For example, the top region racked up $1.82 billion in 2014, versus $1.447 billion in 2013.

Johns Hopkins University is making its move.

The institution has been promising — threatening — to be a bigger player in technology commercialization, the process of turning millions of dollars of federal research funding into startup companies, patents and licenses.

It’s time once again to fill out those March Madness brackets, and what better way to predict the winner of this year’s National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament than to compare how the teams succeed in the classroom?

Here’s how Inside Higher Ed’s bracket works: to determine the winners, we first look to the Academic Progress Rate, the N.C.A.A.’s multiyear measure of a team’s classroom performance. When two teams tie, we turn to the N.C.A.A.’s Graduation Success Rate, which measures the proportion of athletes on track to graduate within six years. In the event of a G.S.R. tie, we then turn to the Federal Graduation Rate, a slightly different formula that the government uses to track graduation rates.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2014-2015 list was released Friday, effectively depicting the best universities from across the globe. The D.C. area made a good showing this year with Johns Hopkins University once again landing the No. 15 spot, but most local schools named to Times Higher Education’s ranking in the past ended up losing some ground this time around.

A total of five colleges and universities from across the region were included in the 2014-2015 ranking. Four of the five ended up with lower rankings than they received on the 2013-2014 list, falling down more than a few notches.

Learning from Each Other: U.S. and European Perspectives on Small Business Innovation Programs

March 19, 2015

Lecture Room National Academy of Sciences 2100 C Street, NW Washington, DC

Maryland has received $7.6 million from the U.S. Treasury Department to support small business financing programs.

The award to Maryland’s Department of Business and Economic Development is part of the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBI), a $1.5 billion treasury department program launched in 2010. The federal government has committed to $23 million in SSBI funding to Maryland, to be awarded in three tranches. The $7.6 million award announced Wednesday is the second tranche and brings the total funding Maryland has received through the program to $15 million since 2011.

In 2013, Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels laid out 10 goals, grouped under four priorities, that add up to one vision the university seeks to achieve by the year 2020. Now the Johns Hopkins community is invited to review the Ten by Twenty progress report, which was released today, to see where Johns Hopkins stands on its ambitious path for the future.

From the beginning, Daniels said that the plan is bold and the road is not an easy one. The original Ten by Twenty report outlines a number of challenges, including the need for interdisciplinary research and education in a highly decentralized environment; changing expectations for undergraduate education; declines in research and clinical funding; and pressing economic needs in Baltimore and communities across the country.

Each year, millions of people lose billions of dollars in NCAA March Madness basketball pools. Still, most return the following year for another pummeling.

But flipping a coin yields better results than carefully selecting brackets, says Dae Hee Kwak, assistant professor of sport management at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology.

Help with Proposals and Matchmaking

We strongly suggest that you meet with a member of the MIPS staff before writing your proposal, even if you are familiar with the MIPS program. A staff member can advise you on planning a proposal and assist you with submitting the application. A preliminary review could be invaluable; for example, some applicants fail to include readily available information that might make the difference in qualifying for an award.

MIPS personnel and other professionals in the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) can assist companies in finding and selecting appropriate faculty researchers for the companies’ projects.

Silicon Valley may have coined the ‘big data’ buzzword, but genomic scientists have been working with massive datasets for decades. Due to recent breakthroughs in DNA sequencing technology, genetics is moving from the laboratory into the market, and just about everyone is taking a keen interest.

In January, President Obama requested $215 million to fund his precision medicine initiative — $130 million to back a national research program that will track the data of 1 million volunteer donors, and another $70 million for a National Cancer Institute initiative to identify the genetic drivers of cancer.

The Centers for Disease Control recently acknowledged for the first time three digital health programs for their ability to help counter the onset of Type 2 diabetes, leading to better outcomes and reduced spending.

The three digitally-centered programs that were recognized include startups Omada Health and Noom Health, as well as DPS Health, which was founded in 20014. All three programs aim to assist in the prevention or management of chronic diseases, ranging from obesity and diabetes and nutrition and weight loss.

The Universities at Shady Grove (USG) officially broke ground on the campus’s second parking structure, a $20 million “green” garage to support the USG’s addition of the Biomedical Sciences and Engineering Education Facility.

The garage will open in early 2016 and is being funded by Montgomery County, according to a press release about the event. The new parking will support the planned addition of a 220,000-square-foot biomedical sciences and engineering academic complex, which is scheduled to begin its construction in 2016 and open in fall 2018.

The Maryland Senate confirmed R. Michael Gill on Friday as Gov. Larry Hogan’s secretary of business and economic development.

lRelated POLITICS Hogan transportation nomination delayed SEE ALL RELATED 8

The vote was 44 to 1, with Sen. Joan Carter Conway, a Baltimore city Democrat, dissenting.

Compete for $500 and earn credibility by winning a prestigious competition from one of the top entrepreneurship schools in the country. The University of Maryland is ranked No. 21 among universities for entrepreneurship by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine.

Connect with award-winning faculty, staff, and students in entrepreneurship who are passionate about helping students fulfill their entrepreneurial dreams. The University of Maryland has helped hundreds of students launch successful companies.

It’s not exactly news that the San Francisco Bay Area is a hot spot for tech startups, but let’s say you’re ambitious, talented and armed with a great idea but you don’t want to move there. What other places should you consider?

Or let’s say you’re ambitious, talented and looking to land a job at a tech startup. Where, outside San Francisco and Silicon Valley, are prospective tech employers?

Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology is teaming up with the Department of Homeland Security to create a new business accelerator programfor creating wearable technology for first responders.

The EMERGE! program is designed to help business accelerators find entrepreneurs with ideas for wearable technology useful to first responders, whether federal law enforcement or local police, EMTs and firefighters. Putting advanced sensors, communication and other electronics into equipment that they can wear on the job could be a major boon for them.

The District will enter a partnership with Howard University to offer below-market rent for on-campus space to venture capital firms, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Wednesday. The details right now are a little scarce, but here’s what is known so far:

Tuesday, March 24, 2015, 07:30am – 09:30am

Healthcare organizations have typically invested less in IT, including security technologies, than other industries and the number of people affected by breaches supports this. Over 80 million people were affected by the Anthem cyber-attack, nearly 42 million have had their health data compromised in HIPAA breaches, and over 130 million were affected by the Heartland Payment Systems breach back in 2008. With the increased use of cloud computing and mobile devices and an unclear understanding of HIPAA and HITECH, keeping data safe is a moving target. Our expert panelists will discuss best practices and ways that healthcare organizations and their employees can assist in keeping patients’ data safe from future cyber-attacks.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015, 10:00am – 12:00pm

Get answers now from experienced entrepreneurs and legal/business professionals on how to build a successful startup company. Receive free and impartial advice, brainstorm business strategies, investigate funding opportunities and learn about the vast resources available to entrepreneurs.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015, 07:30am – 10:00am

The state of Maryland is home to more than 500 core bioscience companies, representing the second largest per capital cluster in the U.S. These companies are involved in biotherapeutics, research services, diagnostics, medical devices, and more. So what exactly do these companies do and how do they differ from one another? Two renowned industry experts will explain the terminology and help you understand the types of work these companies are involved in. They will also discuss where the opportunities are for service providers, and how best to connect with the right people at the right time.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015, 03:00pm – 07:00pm

The Mid-Atlantic Life Sciences Showcase is the new name for the ISPE-CBA Vendor Night. We’re continuing to improve the event and this year will not disappoint! Table selections will be made by the order in which you register. Register early to ensure your pick of locations.

Johns Hopkins University today unveiled specific steps it plans to take to cultivate and support a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship and respond to the strategic challenges detailed in last year’s committee report on the topic.

The implementation plan, the release of which was announced today to the university community in a message from JHU President Ronald J. Daniels, addresses the 22 specific recommendations to bolster the university’s innovation initiatives that were included in the May 2014 innovation report.

Maryland’s road to a stronger high-tech economy lies at the intersection of its I-95 and I-270 corridors. Better integration of education, research and development in the state’s two biggest innovation centers—the Washington suburbs and Baltimore—will spur success. This is underway.

In less than three years, a strategic collaboration between the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, called “MPowering the State,” has dramatically energized technology development along these corridors.

For the second year, The Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Medicine are co-sponsoring an opportunity that prepares health information technology startups to present their innovative ideas to the world. DreamIt Health Baltimore is a four-month intensive boot camp program for entrepreneurs, designed to accelerate new product development for health IT startup companies. The program provides six new startups with access to top-tier legal and accounting services, along with opportunities to meet and pitch to angel investors and venture capitalists. Each startup also receives additional seed capital of up to $50,000.

Italian drugmakers Alfa Wasserman and Sigma-Tau said on Thursday they had agreed to merge pharmaceutical activities to create a domestic champion with sales of more than 900 million euros ($992 million).

In October sources told Reuters the two companies were in advanced talks to combine their Italian operations.

Baltimore health IT startup Emocha Mobile Health Inc. is taking its medication-tracking mobile app to one of the largest counties in the country — Harris County, Texas. Emocha on Friday announced a year-long, $65,000 contract with the Houston-area county to help health workers make sure tuberculosis patients are taking their medication. The contract can be extended for up to a total of five years.

BIO is surveying members and non-members on their interactions with the FDA during the various stages of drug development prior to submitting an NDA/BLA. The survey can be accessed here.

Why is it important for you to share your feedback? In an increasingly competitive and fiscally-constrained environment, it is more important than ever for all stakeholders to work together to promote effective R&D for innovative medicines.

MorphoSys AG (FSE: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX, OTC: MPSYY) and Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE: EBS) today announced the initiation of a Phase 1 clinical study to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and clinical activity of MOR209/ES414 in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Under the terms of the companies’ co-development and commercialization agreement, the achievement of this milestone triggers a payment of US $ 5 million by MorphoSys to Emergent.

The total potential payout for the winner will be $2 million — pocket change for the biggest defense company on the globe. And yet, Lockheed Martin Corp. is leading one of 25 teams in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s annual Robotics Challenge. And it’s the only large contractor to do so.

The teams will vie for a chance to win one of three cash prizes totaling $3.5 million at the DARPA Robitics Challenge finals — the second crop of 14 teams, many of which are international, was just added last week. The finals, which will take place June 5-6 at Fairplex in Pomona, California, will require robots to attempt a circuit of consecutive physical tasks, with degraded communications between the robots and their operators.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s State of the City Address will take on economic issues Monday, touting job creation and introducing initiatives like a $1 million innovation fund, doubled Small Business Resource Center budget and new online maps tracking development projects. Expect the mayor to compare economic conditions in the city today to those that existed when she first took office in 2010. She plans to note a drop in unemployment and a rise in jobs before pitching new and expanded programs geared toward boosting businesses, city officials said.

Next Due Date June 19, 2015; Submit Your Letter of Intent by May 19, 2015 Informational Webinar Coming Soon – Stay Tuned!

NHLBI’s Phase IIB Bridge Award provides up to $3M to support the continued development of your innovative technology requiring regulatory oversight. Applicants are expected to leverage NHLBI funding to attract matching third-party financing. For NHLBI-related technologies focused on rare diseases or pediatric populations, the Phase IIB Small Market Award (RFA-HL-14-012) provides up to $3M, with an expectation of partial matching funds from third-party investors. The next due date for RFA-HL-14-012 is June 19, 2015. Both Phase IIB programs are open to Phase II SBIR or STTR awardees from any agency.

Johns Hopkins University officials have been talking about putting more energy into fostering more entrepreneurship among the Baltimore institution’s vast research megalith. This week, they put a plan in writing.

On Wednesday, Hopkins President Ronald J. Daniels released a 20-page report that lays out plans for $40 million in new investment over five years. Officials want the new money to fuel the growth of an “innovation ecosystem.”

Google has been making major waves in healthcare lately, with a significant change in how it displays health search results in a collaboration with the Mayo Clinic that may include a change to its algorithms.

And efforts to make Google Glass more applicable to healthcare seem to be increasing. But that’s far from the only area it intends on disrupting. The folks at HIT Consultant put together this handy infographic that details the potential dominance, or at least influence, ranging from genomics to diagnosis to wearables.

Mach37, the CIT-backed accelerator for cybersecurity startups, has announced its spring cohort of investments. The companies include services ranging from risk tracking to system immunization and firewalling — your usual cybersecurity shenanigans.

The Herndon-based accelerator invests $50,000 in each of its startups and provides network access and guidance toward each company’s development. The portfolio includes 22 companies as of this announcement.

AstraZeneca has completed the acquisition of Actavis’ branded respiratory business in the US and Canada for an initial consideration of $600m.

The deal strengthens AstraZeneca’s aclidinium respiratory franchise and builds on the acquisition of Almirall’s respiratory portfolio in 2014 by extending the company’s development and commercialization rights into the US for both Tudorza Pressair and Duaklir Genuair.

This spring, the InvestMaryland Challenge will award four $100,000 grand prizes to innovative young companies with the potential to flourish in Maryland.

Now in its third year, this national seed and early-stage business competition, hosted by the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, has accepted hundreds of applications since fall 2014. Judges have now narrowed the field to just 46 companies, including the competition’s first-ever international semifinalist, Israel-based AcceleRadio. This month, they will present their business plans during face-to-face interviews with panels of three to five judges. Final reviews will take place in April.

The Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus welcomes Leidos to the campus community. Leidos has located some of its employees in Building III, putting them in close proximity to the National Cancer Institute Shady Grove, located right next door. Leidos Biomedical Research and the National Cancer Institute have a contract to work together on “genetics and genomics, proteins and proteomics, advanced biomedical computing and information technology, biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing, nanotechnology characterization, and clinical trials management,” according to NCI.

Today at Henderson’s Wharf Inn in Fells Point, U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) announced she has decided not to run for re-election. Senator Mikulski, who will complete her 5th term in office in January, 2017, says she wants to focus for the next two years on working for her constituents and for the nation.

“Because every day, I want to wake up thinking about you — the little guys and gals, the watermen, automobile workers, researchers, small business owners and families,” Senator Mikulski said. “I want to give you 120 percent of my time with all of my energy focused on you and your futures. Because it’s always been about you, never about me. That’s what it takes to be a good senator by my expectations and by my standards.”

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Mersana Therapeutics Inc, a provider of Fleximer antibody-drug conjugate technology, has secured $35 million in Series B-1 financing. New Enterprise Associates led the round with participation from Rock Springs Capital Management, Elliott Sigal, former head of R&D at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer Venture Investments and Fidelity Biosciences. Also, Mersana has appointed Anna Protopapas as president and CEO. And, Protopapas and Dr. Elaine V. Jones, executive director of Pfizer Venture Investments, have been added to Mersana’s board of directors.

On Feb. 19, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took a huge step towards patient-centric medicine when it approved the marketing of genetics testing company 23andMe’s carrier test for Bloom Syndrome. This was a startling — and good — development because it affirmed the rights of consumers to drive their own health-care decisions and procedures. But it also means that it has become urgent to develop policies to regulate the rights of companies to resell data derived from the contents of our DNA and from our medical records.

Where will the first $1 trillion company come from? Some think it is already in the making, but not visible yet. The future is all around us and innovators can see it more than the rest of us.

As suggested, a convergence of technologies, including the Internet of Things, AI, robotics and synthetic biology, might just make a health company the first to be the Trillion Dollar Unicorn.

The interest in adopting digital health tools such as clinical wearables and smartphone diagnostics has been hindered in some ways by the rapid growth in the number of these devices and relatively little clinical validation. GE Ventures and Stanford Health Care have partnered to launch a company called Evidation Health to validate and optimize digital health tools, according to a company statement.

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:

• Eye on NIH Policy: OMB Uniform Guidance – What it Means for NIH & You (Video & Interactive Q&A – March 12, 2015)
• (NOT-OD-15-077) National Institutes of Health
• NCCIH Policy for Submission of R21 Applications Containing Clinical Trials
• (NOT-AT-15-004)
• 
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health

Requests for Applications:

• Mobilizing Research: A Research Resource to Enhance mHealth Research (U2C)
• (RFA-OD-15-129)
Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
• National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
• Application Receipt Date(s): May 08, 2015

Please note that most links to RFAs, PAs, and Guide Notices will take you to the NIH Web site. RFPs will take you to FedBizOpps. Links to RFPs will not work past their proposal receipt date. Archived versions of RFPs posted on FedBizOpps can be found on the FedBizOpps site using the FedBizOpps search function. Under “Document to Search,” select Archived Documents.

Aura Biosciences, a biotech company developing highly tumor-targeted breakthrough therapies for rare cancers, has secured a $21M Series B round of funding. The financing was led by Advent Life Sciences, with participation from new investors, Chiesi Ventures, Ysios Capital, and Alexandria Venture Investments. Existing investors, including LI-COR Biosciences and Henri Termeer, former Chief Executive Officer of Genzyme, also participated in the financing. The financing will be used to advance Aura’s unique and novel therapies into clinical trials for the treatment of rare cancers of the eye, and to further develop for additional cancer indications its first-in-class technology that was discovered and developed in partnership with Dr. John Schiller at the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Symbiomix Therapeutics, a late-stage, privately held biopharmaceutical company developing innovative medicines for serious women’s health infections, today announced results from its Phase 1 clinical program demonstrating that its lead product candidate, SYM-1219, was safe and well tolerated and had predictable pharmacokinetics (PK), and that contraceptive efficacy for birth control pills would not be altered by SYM-1219 administration.

These results will be presented on March 6th at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT), which takes place in New Orleans from today through March 7th. Following are the details for the two posters presenting the study results:

MedImmune has joined the NIH’s Centers for Accelerated Innovations (NCAI) program as its first biopharma corporate partner.

The global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca said it will team up with NCAI awardees and help shape the program’s strategic direction. MedImmune said it may also review prospective NCAI technologies in collaboration with the awardees, and provide feedback regarding their commercial potential and early-stage development.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a public-private partnership and innovation intermediary is seeking an energetic and motivated life science professional for the role of an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) with product development experience and subject matter expertise in the fields of neurology and neuroscience. The EIR will reside within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and will also support intramural and extramural initiatives on an as needed basis.

The EIR program was established at BioHealth Innovation to:

• Retain and bring entrepreneurial talent to the Maryland ecosystem
• Connect resources including institutions, technology assets, people and capital within Maryland that include federal institutions, labs, academic institutions, small businesses, disease foundations and the investor community
• Build/support sustainable life science startups that will add value within the healthcare system and also build upon the existing infrastructure

The EIR will work with BHI leadership to ensure that the activities and outcomes are aligned with BHIs strategic focus.

A coalition of 13 leading life science and diagnostics organizations today announced the formation of the Allele Frequency Community, a landmark initiative that is creating an extensive, high-quality and ethnically diverse collection of human genomes to address a key challenge in interpreting sequencing data for research and clinical applications. The announcement coincides with the start of the 16th annual Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) scientific meeting in Marco Island, Florida.

Five Maryland life science companies and a medical institution will share a total of $865,000 in grants from the BioMaryland Center. The awards — up to $200,000 per recipient — are part of the center’s Biotechnology Development Awards program, which is designed to help accelerate commercialization of medical treatments and technologies.

Smart Asset names Rockville and Bethesda as having the best paying STEM jobs in the nation

Looking for a job in STEM-related fields (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics)? Look no further than Montgomery County.

A recent report by Smart Asset (smartasset.com) lists Rockville and Bethesda as the top spots in the nation for well-paying STEM jobs. The area (which included Frederick, MD) beat out Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Boston and New York in offering the most financially rewarding opportunities.

The Cambridge Biomedical Campus will become a new UK home for biologics research and protein engineering next year, as pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca opens its new headquarters.

Baltimore health technology startup Protenus Inc. hopes a partnership with health care consulting firm Sage Growth Partners will speed up the company’s development and lead to top-notch clients for the fledgling company.

Protenus is developing a cyber security tool that helps hospitals protect patient information by identifying and thwarting insider threats to hospitals’ electronic medical records. Since launching in 2014 the company has been focused on fine tuning its technology, which is already in use at Johns Hopkins Hospital. As part of Sage’s venture management program, Sage will help Protenus strengthen the business strategy side of the company. Protenus will be based at Sage’s office at the Broom Factory in Canton.

It’s a Rubik’s Cube.

That’s what New Enterprise Associates general partner Harry Weller told me about the monster venture capital firm’s philosophy regarding the management of its giant funds. The firm has raised more than $13 billion across 14 funds since its inception in 1977, the last three of which have been between $2.3 billion and $2.6 billion.

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:

• Reinforcing Service to the Biomedical Research Community
• (NOT-OD-15-035) National Institutes of Health
• Notice of Extension of the Public Comment Period for NOT-OD-15-019 “NIH Request for Public Comments on the Draft NIH Policy on Dissemination of NIH-Funded Clinical Trial Information”
• (NOT-OD-15-068) National Institutes of Health
• Announcement of Anticipated Availability of Funds for Research and Research Conferences on Research Integrity
• (NOT-OD-15-069) Department of Health and Human Services
• The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is now the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
• (NOT-AT-15-003)
• National Center for Complementary and Integrative HealthNotice of Availability of Administrative Supplements to Extend the Scope and Reach of LINCS Datasets
• (NOT-RM-15-012)
• The Common Fund/Office of Strategic Coordination

Please note that most links to RFAs, PAs, and Guide Notices will take you to the NIH Web site. RFPs will take you to FedBizOpps. Links to RFPs will not work past their proposal receipt date. Archived versions of RFPs posted on FedBizOpps can be found on the FedBizOpps site using the FedBizOpps search function. Under “Document to Search,” select Archived Documents.

U.S. Small Business Administration leader Maria Contreras-Sweet drew parallels Friday between Baltimore and the rust-belt city of Detroit — but she actually meant it in a positive way.

Contreras-Sweet, the SBA’s administrator, was in Baltimore and took questions about the administration’s work in the city and its overall direction. Baltimore has many highly skilled workers who can pivot to new startup businesses, much like Detroit has automobile-industry employees who can put their expertise to work elsewhere, she said.

Paul Palmieri thinks Maryland’s entrepreneurs and innovators need a boost — especially after supporters of a state angel investor tax credit turned out in force to a Senate hearing Wednesday and faced some tough questions.

“We need to, as much as possible, support new entrepreneurs,” said Palmieri, the founder and former CEO of Millennial Media who’s now venture adviser at Chevy Chase-based New Enterprise Associates Inc. and an angel investor.

California-based companies received about 56 percent of all U.S. venture capital dollars in 2014, the state’s highest share of venture activity since the dot com boom of the early 2000s. Over the past 15 years, investment activity has steadily become more concentrated in California and a few other states. In 2009, about 67 percent of all deals and 74 percent of venture capital dollars flowed to the top five states. By 2014, those states’ share of venture dollars grew to 80 percent, according to NVCA/Pricewaterhouse Coopers data. A recent Harvard Business Review article, however, suggests that startups are receiving first-round funding in more metropolitan areas than ever.

Vaccination may be the most effective public health intervention of all time. This is especially true in developing countries, where many families can’t find or afford health care when they get sick. The prevention offered by vaccines can be life-saving.

Venture capital investment in U.S. life sciences companies soared 29 percent in 2014 from the year before, reaching $8.6 billion, the highest level since 2007. And there is reason to think 2015 will also be a big year for a sector having its third boom of the last two decades.

Did you see the recent news that the FDA has approved the first direct-to-consumer genetic test in the U.S.? Can you say game-changer? Talk about personalized medicine, what’s more personal than our own genetic blueprint? In a health care era defined by patients taking more personal responsibility for their own health and well being, including the costs, it’s about time that we enabled consumers directly with access to their own health care data and the tools to interpret and act on it. Access to our own genetic data gives new meaning to the buzzword, patient-centered care.

The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) will be hosting its 2015 national meeting in Denver, Colorado, from April 28 – 30 at the Embassy Suites Denver – Downtown/Convention Center. Each year, the national meeting is highly anticipated by the FLC and the technology transfer (T2) community, serving as the premier event for advancing T2 strategies and providing important connections.

There’s a hushed quiet in the waiting room at a midtown Manhattan fertilization clinic called Reproductive Medical Associates as a dozen women flip through magazines, the glossies a welcome distraction from their scheduled treatments and consultations. But just down the hall, in a window-rimmed corner office with views of Central Park, conversation ping-pongs back and forth as Piraye Yurttas Beim, a scientist and entrepreneur, updates the clinic’s co-director on her startup’s progress.

Noah is a six-year-old suffering from a disorder without a name. This year, his physicians will begin sending his genetic information across the Internet to see if there’s anyone, anywhere, in the world like him.

Springboard’s Health Innovation Hub is a collaboration platform advancing the growth of digital health and life science companies led by women with significant potential for investment and partnerships.

About the Program

We seek women-led companies with a track record of milestone achievement. We are location- and stage-agnostic but seek solutions within several themes:

There’s been a flurry of news related to telemedicine this week, with several notable developments in Mississippi and Silicon Valley.

One of the more interesting aspects of telemedicine is that much of the innovation and focus of late has come from startups and vendors, while health systems have shown a bit of reluctance to deploy it on their own.

As the landscape of the biopharmaceutical industry expands into growing regions, an exciting transformation is beginning to transfer commercialization “recipes” to emerging markets. All eyes are on small, specialty, and midsize players emerging at the forefront of innovation in the mature regions of Europe and the United States.

At the global level, the BRICK countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Korea are aggressively investing in R&D, facilities, and scientist training, and vying for bigger roles not only as markets for medicines, but also as rich breeding grounds for R&D and manufacturing.

Everything about China is big, including its cancer problem. In some wealthier cities, like Beijing, cancer is now believed to be the most frequent killer. Air pollution, high rates of smoking, and notorious “cancer villages” scarred by industrial pollution are increasing death rates around the country. Liver cancer in particular is four times as prevalent as it is in the West, in part because one in 14 people in China carry hepatitis B, which puts them at risk. Of all the people worldwide who die of cancer each year, some 27 percent are Chinese.

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a public-private partnership and innovation intermediary is seeking an energetic and motivated life science professional for the role of an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) with product development experience and subject matter expertise in the fields of neurology and neuroscience. The EIR will reside within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and will also support intramural and extramural initiatives on an as needed basis.

The EIR program was established at BioHealth Innovation to:

• Retain and bring entrepreneurial talent to the Maryland ecosystem
• Connect resources including institutions, technology assets, people and capital within Maryland that include federal institutions, labs, academic institutions, small businesses, disease foundations and the investor community
• Build/support sustainable life science startups that will add value within the healthcare system and also build upon the existing infrastructure

The EIR will work with BHI leadership to ensure that the activities and outcomes are aligned with BHIs strategic focus.

Moving to advance its leadership in developing vaccines for important public health and biodefense needs, Vaxin Inc. today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Immune Targeting Systems (ITS) Ltd. Vaxin is a clinical stage vaccine development company headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland. ITS develops novel T-cell vaccines at its operations in the United Kingdom and France. The deal is an all-stock transaction and is subject to customary closing conditions. The combined company will be known as Vaxin Inc.

MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, announced today that it has joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Centers for Accelerated Innovations (NCAI) program as the first biotech/pharmaceutical company corporate partner.

The NCAI program was launched in September 2013 to improve how basic science advances and discoveries are translated into commercially viable treatments for patients. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) will provide $32.5 million in grants to establish three translational research Centers of Innovation in Boston, Cleveland and California, consisting of 14 top-tier research institutions. The program seeks to accelerate the commercialization of university-based technologies, and public private partnerships are critical to the success of the NCAI program.

Johns Hopkins University launched its Fast Forward business accelerator two years ago as a way to support the growth of its own entrepreneurial community, but also to help stimulate the Baltimore economy. It recently opened a second accelerator space on the East Side of Baltimore by its medical campus. It’s designed to equip life science startups with the kind of wet lab space that tends to come at a premium and is often too costly for early stage companies with an uncertain future.

MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) today announced the signing of a five-year agreement to jointly support research that will help advance drug discovery and manufacturing. The effort will focus on tools and measurements that will be used in the development and production of biopharmaceuticals, which are drugs and treatments derived from biological, rather than chemical, sources.

Roche and Qualcomm have entered into a new collaboration to improve remote monitoring and management of chronic disease patients.

The new deal between the Swiss cancer drug firm and the communication technology specialist will see Roche use Qualcomm Life’s 2net Platform to capture data from a patient’s medical devices, beginning with anticoagulation metres, and transmit it to Roche’s cloud-based services.

Pharma Major Lupin Limited (Lupin) and Celon Pharma S.A. (Celon) announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which the companies will jointly develop a fluticasone/salmeterol dry powder inhaler (DPI) product which is a generic version of GlaxoSmithKline’s Advair Diskus. Lupin will be responsible for commercialization of the product. Celon will supply the product to Lupin for its commercialization in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and other key markets. GlaxoSmithKline’s Advair Diskus® had global sales of over USD 7 billion as of last fiscal.

Crystal City-based Disruption Corp. is partnering with Maryland-based Greenspring Associates, a $3 billion fund of funds that backs some venture capital firms that actively invest in the region, including New Enterprise Associates, Revolution Growth and True Ventures.

Ashton Newhall, co-founder of Greenspring Associates, told me he believes Disruption and Greenspring are “philosophically aligned” on the possibilities of using data analytics to make sounder investments in startups and the private market broadly.

Enterprise Therapeutics Ltd, a drug discovery company focused on new therapeutics for respiratory diseases, today announced that it has secured £1.6m ($2.4m) in initial Series-A financing from Epidarex Capital. The proceeds will fund, in parallel, low molecular weight drug discovery and new target identification programs. The company will be based at the University of Sussex.

Deloitte has launched the 2015 Top Technology Talent Competition for a fifth year seeking innovative ideas from college students on how technology can solve a business problem.

The winner of the 2015 Top Technology Talent Competition will win a trip to one of the Deloitte digital studios in the US, in addition to a six-week summer internship in Deloitte Ireland which will enable them to further develop their idea if they so choose.

Many cancer patients and their families are happy to never look back once they’re safely on the other side of treatment, in remission or cured. But for David Austin and his wife, Emily, whose 6-year-old son now has a clean bill of health, winning the cancer battle was just the first step on another journey to help other cancer patients, particularly those whose treatment involves central lines — catheters placed directly into a vein in the chest to administer chemotherapy or take blood for frequent tests.

It was easy to get my head around the biotech buzz and the digital health marketing blitz that happened last month at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference.

But here’s the question I heard most often (and gave me the most food for thought): “Can I meet more angels?”

The venture boom that funneled billions of dollars into life sciences companies last year included a big surge in first-time deals, according to a fresh analysis of the numbers for 2014. And the boom in venture investing looks set to continue well into 2015, according to the analysts at PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, working with data provided by Thomson Reuters to put out the MoneyTree report.

At The MidAmerica Healthcare Venture Forum hosted at Chicago’s Fairmont Hotel on March 10 and 11, Healthbox’s Maria Siambekos will host a session about the growing role of healthcare accelerators. Do investors invest in them?

Wednesday, February 25, 2015, 10:00am – 04:00pm

The SBIR/STTR programs promote small business innovation in companies just like yours. The government has research and development needs. Every year, small businesses receive millions of dollars in SBIR/STTR funds for research, development, and commercialization purposes. Spend February 25 hearing from SBIR/STTR program experts.

An overview of the program will provide a comprehensive understanding of SBIR/STTR.

Discover the government’s on-going interest in innovation.

Listen to agency experts speak to agency-specific needs and program nuances.

Join us as this amazing gathering of speakers share stories of great successes, near-misses, and the review process. Our speakers embrace questions and will provide answers and direct attendees to information and resources. A box lunch will be provided. Please alert us to any dietary needs in the comments section upon registration.