News Archive

The Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission (Commission) has completed its review of the 171 applications received in response to its FY 2013 Requests for Applications (RFAs). The board of directors of the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) approved the Commission’s recommendation to fund 31 new proposals with the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund’s (MSCRF) $10.4 million FY2013 budget. These projects, which include pre-clinical research and a clinical trial, will advance the field of regenerative medicine.

“These awards are critical to ensuring that the groundbreaking research being done has the opportunity to move to the commercial marketplace,” said Governor Martin O’Malley. “I congratulate this year’s grant recipients and look forward to the contributions they make to the improved health and wellbeing of our citizens.”

Would it surprise you to learn that Fast Company magazine just ranked Maryland the third-most innovative state in the nation? Or that Maryland took the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s No. 1 spot for both innovation and entrepreneurship? It’s a fact: In our state’s dynamic mix of world-class universities and professional schools, institutes for advanced research, teaching hospitals, think tanks, hubs for start-up businesses and more, there exists this mysterious, economically essential activity known as innovation.

So if we are as innovative as Fast Company and the leaders of free enterprise say we are — and I believe it’s true — we have to ask ourselves a couple of questions: How did it happen? And how can we keep it going?

Wednesday, June 12, 2013 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Bethesda Country Club

We often hear that capital formation is among the most difficult challenges faced by biotechnology companies. Please join us on June 12th for an MdBio breakfast program to hear from four seasoned local venture capital investors, all to discuss investment trends, strategies and opportunities in Maryland. The event will offer a great platform to hear and have dialogue about the broader dynamics in investment, what has changed and where the capital opportunities are.

Speakers:

• David Mott, General Partner, NEA
• Lars Hanan, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, BroadOak
• Brian Carney, Principal, Herbert Venture Partners
• Kyp Sirinakis, Managing Partner, Rock Spring Ventures

Moderator:

• Tom Dann, Director, Maryland Venture Fund

The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore and the Maryland Department of Business of Economic Development announced Monday that they created a new program to help companies that have moved beyond the start-up phase to continue to grow.

Advance Maryland is designed to assist these companies with developing markets, fine-tuning their business models and boosting growth with the help of a research specialist. Similar models have been adopted in other states, the groups said.

Fifty years ago this month, I chanced to hear the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. I was a mild-mannered kid with a speech impediment and a love of math. That day, I was focused on solving math problems, not issues of justice and equal rights. But King broke through to me when he said this: If the children of Birmingham march, Americans will see that what they are asking for is a better education. They will see that even the very young know the difference between right and wrong.

I chose to march, and found myself among hundreds of children jailed for five terrifying days. Mind you, I was not a brave child. But even at 12 years old, I believed and hoped that my participation could make a difference.

Chevy Chase-based New Enterprise Associates stands to reap a fortune from Tableau Software Inc.’s newly public stock, which is up about 60 percent in its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange Friday.

NEA is the single biggest venture backer of the Seattle-based data analytics company (NYSE: DATA). The firm sold 1 million shares of Tableau stock in the offering, and is holding on to another 18.5 million shares, or about 37 percent of the company. With Friday’s pop, that stake is valued at more than $900 million.

A District advisory committee OK’d bids from Johns Hopkins Medicine and MedStar Health to build costly proton therapy centers on Thursday, leaving both just one step from final approval to proceed on the high-tech cancer treatment programs.

It wasn’t, however, a clean victory for either. The committee rejected a key part of Hopkins’ plan and asked for additional details about both nonprofit system’s outreach to under-served neighborhoods.

America urgently needs a national, research-based effort to empower all undergraduates and help more of them, particularly underrepresented minorities, graduate with science and engineering degrees, said Freeman Hrabowski, III, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) during the 2013 William D. Carey lecture.

Hrabowski addressed the 38th Annual AAAS Forum on Science and Technology Policy on 2 May 2013—fifty years to the day after he had participated in the historic Birmingham Children’s March, which was inspired by the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “I wanted a better education,” Hrabowski said of his participation in that 1963 event. “All children really do want to be well-educated.”

The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), the state’s largest technology trade association with more than 400 biotechnology and technology members employing more than 200,000 in the region, announced at its 25th annual Dinner and Awards Celebration last night that Doug Doerfler was elected as chairman of TCM’s board. Doerfler was the association’s vice chairman and succeeds Larry Letow, who has served as chairman since 2010. TCM also named four current board members to executive leadership positions.

“I am honored to continue serving TCM at such an important and promising time,” said Doerfler. “Our members have become the catalysts of Maryland’s dynamic economy, creating new, high-paying jobs and discovering breakthrough technologies that can change our world. We may come from diverse backgrounds, but a single mission unifies us: creating a healthier, safer world with game-changing innovations right here in Maryland. I especially thank Larry Letow for his outstanding board leadership these past three years. He has positioned TCM, our membership and Maryland for a very bright future.”