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Doctors at Johns Hopkins University are experimenting with a breakthrough surgical procedure that will hopefully help combat Alzheimer’s disease.

According to a report by Johns Hopkins Medicine , doctors implanted one of the devices Thursday. The medical team at Johns Hopkins was the first to perform this surgery in the United States

The procedure involves placing a pacemaker of sorts on the brain. The device works similarly to a pacemaker for the heart but instead it stimulates the brain. The same procedure is used to battle Parkinson’s disease.

Children’s National Medical Center researchers hope the general public’s generosity can fill in the gaps left by dwindling governmental and philanthropic support.

Following a business trend that is exploding in the technology and nonprofit medical community, Children’s Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation launched in late November a “crowdfunding” initiative — the process of raising small amounts from a massive pool of individuals, often nationwide and mostly through online and social media routes.

Date: December 12, 2012 3:30-5:30pm

Presenters: Steven M. Ferguson, CLP, Deputy Director, Licensing and Entrepreneurship, NIH Office of Technology Transfer and Mark Rohrbaugh, J.D., Ph.D., Director NIH Office of Technology Transfer 

Come hear the story behind the NIH Office of Technology Transfer winning the 2012 Deals of Distinction™ Award, one of the most prestigious for technology transfer that was just presented to NIH by the Licensing Executive Society on October 17th  at their Annual Meeting in Toronto, Canada.   The award was given to NIH along with the University of Illinois at Chicago and Gilead Sciences  for license agreements granted to the Medicines Patent Pool, a newly established initiative of UNITAID, an international organization established to grant licenses for the generic manufacture and purchase of drugs against HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.  In making the award the Licensing Executives Society cited this model partnership as “an innovative endeavor in facilitating access to HIV treatment in developing countries” and one that “showcases the success of public-private partnerships to improve availability of medicine”.

There are only 7 Days Left to apply for the InvestMaryland Challenge. Application Deadline is December 13. Enter your early-stage business into the Challenge for a chance to win more than $425,000 in prizes and awards. There are three – $100,000 Awards in Life Sciences, IT, and a nation-wide general industry category. Additionally, there are chances to win free incubator space, cash prizes, mentorships, legal and other business services. Enter today at www.InvestMarylandChallenge.org.

The National Business Incubation Association has again awarded the NBIA Soft Landings International Incubator designation to the Emerging Technology Centers of Baltimore. This was ETC’s third renewal of the designation they first received in 2006.

Through its Soft Landings program, NBIA recognizes business incubation programs that are especially capable of helping nondomestic companies enter the incubator’s domestic market. “ETC was selected for the program because of its slate of business services for nondomestic firms and its demonstrated success at helping these firms enter the U.S. market,” said Randy Morris, NBIA director of member services.

Grotech Ventures has been selected as the first private venture capital firm to receive funds to invest through the state’s $84 million InvestMaryland program.

The newly launched program has previously given awards directly to early stage technology companies.

Grotech Ventures, with offices in Hunt Valley and Tysons Corner, Va., received $12 million from InvestMaryland to invest in early-stage companies in Maryland. If the investments are successful, the firm is expected to repay the funds and 80 percent of the profits to the state.

Cerecor Inc today announced that it has signed an option with Johns Hopkins University (JHU) for an exclusive license to develop and commercialize small molecule D-Amino Acid Oxidase inhibitors (“DAAO inhibitors”) that were developed at the Johns Hopkins Brain Science Institute (“BSi”).

DAAO inhibitors inhibit the degradation of D-serine, an amino acid which has a central role in the normal function of the glutamate / NMDA system in the human brain.  Growing evidence suggests that deficits in glutamate transmission are central to the neurobiology of schizophrenia.  D-serine, when administered in multi-gram quantities per day, has been shown in multiple studies to improve cognition (executive function) and reduce positive symptoms in schizophrenics. DAAO inhibition in the brain, as a means of increasing D-serine levels, has been a target for treating schizophrenia by major pharmaceutical companies for many years. 

The University of Maryland Medical Center is one of the nation’s top hospitals, according to the annual Leapfrog Group survey. This is the seventh year UMMC has received this distinction.

The Leapfrog Group survey analyzes patient safety and quality performance measures from almost 1,200 hospitals. UMMC is one of only two hospitals in the U.S. (and the only one on the East Coast) to make the list every year since it began in 2006.

Baltimore’s newest incubator is officially open for business — and class.

Betamore, located at 1111 Light St. in Federal Hill, aims to help grow technology companies by day and teach the next generation of entrepreneurs by night. The incubator will host technology companies developing products for Internet and mobile devices and offer co-working space for freelancers and contractors in other technology sectors. After work hours, the entrepreneurs from tenant companies and other experts in the area will teach classes on practical technology and entrepreneurship skills, like Web development and pitching to investors.

While accelerators may be in a bubble, they’re also beginning to have a measurable, positive impact on the ecosystem. The real opportunity, though, is not in creating another Y Combinator, but in building vertical-specific accelerators that bring together industry partnerships to create learning and business opportunities for their startups. In healthtech, there’s Rock Health, Blueprint, Healthbox, New York Digital Health Accelerator and Startup Health to name a few.

The roster is growing, and today we have another addition to the list from veteran accelerator DreamIt Ventures. Today, DreamIt is partnering with Independence Blue Cross (IBC) and The University of Pennsylvania Health System (Penn Medicine) to create a digital health accelerator, designed to provide with entrepreneurs with the resources they need to take advantage of opportunities in the changing landscape of the health industry.