life sciences : Innovation + Job News

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory researchers are talking with entrepreneurs about commercializing a revolutionary prosthetic limb that can be operated by a person's thoughts. 

The limb uses different mechanisms for brain control, including a brain/computer interface for spinal cord patients and surface electrodes for amputees. Researchers at APL and its five partners are essentially taking technology developed for the prosthetic limb and applying it to both spinal cord patients and to amputees. 
 
Michael McLoughlin, deputy business area executive for research and exploratory development at Laurel's APL declined to provide more information about the commercialization prospects, saying that “nothing has been signed.”  McLoughlin says that preparations are underway to demonstrate the brain/computer interface on human subjects, a first as far as he knows. Plans call for working with five patients with spinal cord injuries.

“Spinal cord patients have a break in the nerves that go from the arm to the brain. They can think about moving their arm but those signals have nowhere to go. Using electrodes, we measure the signals and figure put how to move the prosthetic arm by bypassing the break,” McLoughlin says.
 
The development of the mechanical prosthetic limb grew out of the Revolutionizing Prosthetics program, a federal defense initiative that began in 2006 and has a year left to go before the project ends. The program's goal is to expand prosthetic arm options for the military's "wounded warriors."  The U.S. Department of Defense has been funding the program for a total of about $100 million so far. The brain/computer interface is the final phase of the program and, McLoughlin says, data about its research has not yet been published.
 
APL’s research partners in the program are the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and School of Medicine, California Institute of Technology, University of Chicago, University of Utah and HDT Engineering Technologies, a private company in Ohio. 
 
The APL-led team of researchers have developed a modular prosthetic limb whose arm and hand are controlled by surface electrodes, in the case of amputees, and by a brain/computer interface, for spinal cord patients.

For spinal cord patients, physicians at the University of Pittsburgh will implant micro-electrodes in the brain of a paralyzed patient to record neural signals that control arm movement and to determine if the prosthetic arm can be controlled by the user’s thoughts.

The electrodes are inserted in the cortex of the brain. The prosthetic arm is mounted on a pedestal. The researchers developed the brain/computer interface by enhancing chip technology and combined it with algorithms to, as McLoughlin put it, “listen to and interpret what the brain is saying it wants to do.”
 
Earlier this year, for the first time and in cooperation with the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and Walter Reed Military Medical Center, a U.S. Army soldier who lost both legs and his left arm to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan demonstrated the use of the prosthetic limb.

The prosthetic limb was featured in the May cover story of Popular Mechanics magazine, which called it a "smart bionic limb" and its direct neural control "the endgame of bionics."
 
 
Source: Michael McLoughlin, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 
 
 

Baltimore BioWorks is in the process of applying for state certification as a Minority Business Enterprise that would allow the life sciences manufacturing and training firm to bid on state contracts that set aside a slice of business for minority- and women-owned companies.

John Powers, president, says the company will bid on contracts for manufacturing and distribution at health-related agencies and systems like the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the University of Maryland Medical System.

The company expects to sign a lease for a 14,000-square foot manufacturing and distribution facility at 1100 Wicomico St., Baltimore City next month, after which it will begin to make, sell and ship biomedical products and to offer toxicology testing services. Earlier this month, the life sciences company opened its headquarters in the University of Maryland BioPark, on its downtown campus, and located a few blocks from the distribution facility.

In addition to toxicology testing, BioWorks will manufacture its own line of common biomedical products and buy and sell other lines of supplies like latex gloves, says Powers, who co-founded the privately-owned company this year with Louise Dalton, at a cost of about $1 million, split between the founders and the Abell Foundation.

Besides state agencies, Powers expects BioWorks customers’ in the private sector to range from institutions like Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions to biotechnology companies.

In addition to its own business ventures, BioWorks is providing training for workers in the biotech field. The company has a core staff of eight. Powers intends to add one full-time employee per month, or 12 employees per year, for ongoing, year-long vocational training. Trainees will be paid as they progress through a regimented program that covers all aspects of the field.

“It’s a paid position with benefits. It’s your first real job” in biotechnology, says Powers. “You can put it on your resume.”

Training positions are open to all qualified applicants although Powers is working in particular with the Baltimore City Community College Life Science Institute, which has an office at the UM BioPark. There will be an applicant review process, and graduates of the program will be given help finding a job.

However, the minority-focused training program is intended to be self-sustaining and depends on BioWorks’ sales. The company currently has $350,000 in annual sales but Powers says it is on track to reach the $1 million goal by the end of 2012 or early 2013.

The state Department of Transportation qualifies MBEs applicants; the Governor's Office of Minority Affairs administers the MBE requirements. The current goal is for about 25 percent of contracts in qualifying state agencies go to MBE companies.
 
Source: John Powers, Baltimore BioWorks
Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 
 
 
 

Robert Hienz, a Johns Hopkins medical researcher, is studying the effects of radiation on the brain of astronauts on future deep-space exploration missions, thanks to a $400,000 grant from NASA’s Human Research Program and its National Space Biomedical Research Institute.
 
Hienz, associate professor of behavioral biology, Johns Hopkins Medical School, and senior scientist for the Institutes for Behavior Resources, is continuing research he began in 2009 with previous grants from these NASA agencies.
 
Hienz says that NASA has identified three problems for humans on long-term space missions: bone and muscle deterioration, eyesight and radiation effects. A fourth potential problem is psycho-social, for astronauts who will be confined together in a small vehicle for several years in a row.
 
NASA requested proposals to study astronauts’ health and performance on long-term space flights. Of the 104 proposals received, it chose 29, for a total of $26 billion over a one- to three-year period.
 
Hienz’s proposal is to detect and prevent neurobehavioral vulnerability to space radiation.

The International Space Station is within the earth’s magnetic field, which deflects radiation, so it is not an issue for its occupants. However, once astronauts move beyond the station -- to the moon or Mars, for example -- they will be subject to radiation from the sun and interstellar space, even inside a spacecraft.
 
Says Hienz, “The astronauts will be exposed to naturally-occurring radiation and the longer out they are, the more they will be exposed. The longer they are exposed, the more likely they are to develop problems.”
 
Exposure to radiation is thought to increase the incidence of cancer and to accelerate the natural aging process. He says that NASA is currently engaged in a study of former astronauts to determine if they develop cancer in their later years but the results so far are inconclusive.
 
A round-trip flight to Mars would take about three years, including a short stay on the surface. With the possibility of a Mars mission in 2030, as Hienz has heard, it is expected that NASA will use more frequent trips to the moon, with longer stays on its surface, as a preliminary for a Mars flight.
 
Hienz says that other scientists are studying the effects of radiation on other parts of the body. A complication is that there are different kinds of radiation, from high-energy solar flares to the particles of interstellar space.
 
Hienz has reached a few preliminary conclusions. One is that exposure to radiation does appear to affect performance. The other, and more tentative, is that physical changes detected in the brain because of radiation may provide biological markers that can be determined ahead of time.
 
Such markers may be used to determine the radiation sensitivity of future astronauts for prevention and treatment purposes, according to Hienz. 
 
Source: Robert Hienz, PhD, Johns Hopkins Medical School
Writer: Barbara Pash

The Rare Genomics Institute says it has discovered a new gene variant in a four-year-old patient that may indicate a brand new disease.

RGI is an affiliate of the Baltimore City Emerging Technology Center incubator and a nonprofit devoted to helping patients with rare genetic diseases. It uses crowdfunding to finance genomic sequencing pilot projects and is run by 23 volunteers.
 
Researchers at a medical institution made the discovery in partnership with RGI, President Dr. Jimmy Lin says.  It marks the first time that a patient-initiated, crowdfunded genome initiative project has uncovered the genetic basis of a rare disease, he says. 

In this case, the child had undergone multiple operations and suffered from developmental delays. Despite visiting numeorus physicians, her condition had remained unexplained until genomic sequencing identified a gene active in fetal development and early childhood as the culprit.

"By looking at the sequence and comparing it with public databases, we were able to find the genetic change in her genome that was not present in either of her parents," Lin says.

He says that while there is no "cure"  for her rare disease, the discovery will help the child's physicians better understand her condition and someday may point to better treatment for her and other children like her.
 
Lin founded RGI last year while still a MD/PhD student at Johns Hopkins University. Now a professor at the Washington University Medical School in St. Louis, Lin says RGI will remain in Baltimore.
 
Lin says RGI was created to help patients with rare diseases through genomic sequencing, which enables researchers to identify genetic defects that might not show up in standard medical testing.
 
“We help patients with diseases that are so rare that no organization is helping them, no funding is available to them and no research is being done,” Lin says of diseases that, because of these factors, are often not named..
 
There are about 7,000 rare diseases, legally defined as affecting from 200,000 people to one person. According to RGI, 80 percent of rare diseases have indentifiable genetic origins; 75 percent or rare diseases affect children; 30 percent of rare disease patients die before the age of 5.   
 
RGI has 18 medical institution partners, including Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland Medical System, which have agreed to do genomic sequencing.
 
RGI raises the money through a funding model called crowdfunding, in which projects are chosen, highlighted on a website and donations can be made directly to the project via the web site.
 
Since founding, RGI has highlighted 20 projects and raised more than $50,000. In the project involving the four-year-old child, it raised $3,500 over six hours to pay for her genome sequencing,
 
As far as Lin knows, RGI is the only nonprofit undertaking this effort. “There are companies that do sequencing and there are companies that do crowdfunding but we are the only ones who’ve connected all the dots,” he says.
 
Source: Dr. Jimmy Lin, Rare Genomics Institute
Writer: Barbara Pash

Baltimore biotech company PathSensors Inc. is hiring a dozen employees in the next 18 months as the company rolls out a new product.

The 12-person company wants to hire new staff who have a biology background and are familiar with lab practices, PathSensors President Ted Olsen says. He says he is also looking for personnel in quality assurance and shipping.

Last year, the company received $200,000 from the Maryland Biotechnology Center to develop a new product that detects harmful bacteria in food products. The environmental and food testing company is working on a product to detect Campylocacter, a genus of bacteria that can cause intestinal infections in humans. It has already developed a product that can detect and test for Salmonella.

Olsen says the company’s agri-food division will expand its products to the food processing industry, with more tests to identify contamination in pork and beef products, for example. The company’s biosecurity division offers products that detect biological threats such as mail screening for Anthrax. “Major high-profile government buildings use our products on a daily basis,” he says.

“In our market segments of food processing, there is a high level of interest in our technology,” Olsen says. He expects the Campylocactor test to be developed this year and available in 2013.
 
Campylocacter is most commonly found in poultry and beef products. Salmonella, another type of bacteria, can cause food poisoning in humans and also is found in poultry products.
 
PathSensors was founded two years ago as an offshoot of Innovative Biosensors, a Rockville company whose focus is clinical diagnostics. Olsen moved PathSensors to the University of Maryland BioPark in Baltimore because of the availability of office and laboratory space and qualified employees who are trained at Baltimore City Community College and the BioTechnical Institute of Maryland.
 
The company’s products are sold to systems that do the collecting and testing, and the products can deliver results in minutes, versus hours for competitors' tests, says Olsen.
 
In its three years, the Maryland Biotechnology Center has awarded $4.5 million to Maryland biotech companies. For the 2012 awards, 90 companies applied; seven, including PathSensors, were chosen.
 
Source: Ted Olsen, PathSensors, Inc.
Writer: Barbara Pash

Sinai Hospital of Baltimore is investigating the effects of spaceflight on astronauts, thanks to a $1 million grant from the National Space Biomedical Research Institute and NASA’s Human Research Program. Sinai Hospital received one of 29 grants awarded for a three-year study of astronaut health and performance on future deep space exploration missions.
 
The major emphasis of the grants is to address the recently identified issue of visual impairment of astronauts during and after space exploration, according to a NASA statement.
 
Dr. Michael A. Williams, medical director of The Sandra and Malcolm Brain & Spine Institute, will lead the investigation at Sinai Hospital, part of LifeBridge Health, a provider of health services in northwest Baltimore.
 
"We are one of eight centers working on intercranial pressure and visual impairment. The others are academic centers," Williams says. Williams will collaborate with Dr. Aaron Dentinger of General Electric Co., and Dr. Gary Strangman of Harvard Medical School-Massachusetts General Hospital on the research team looking at smart medical systems and technology.
 
In his research, Williams will gauge the accuracy of two non-invasive methods of measuring spinal fluid pressure. Neither is currently considered accurate enough to make diagnostic and therapeutic decisions for astronauts in spaceflight.
 
Beyond its value for spaceflight, Williams says the research applies to civilian life. "The NASA research builds on a program in which we routinely use invasive testing to monitor spinal fluid. For our hospital and patients, if we can demonstrate the validity of non-invasive clinical routine, it will be a boon to the patients who see us." 
 
Says Williams, "I never imagined that in my career I have would have a role with NASA. It is a great honor."

Source: Dr. Michael A. Williams, Sinai Hospital of Baltimore
Writer: Barbara Pash

Gov. Martin O’Malley may lead a trade mission to Israel and Jordan at the end of this year to encourage trade between Maryland and the Middle Eastern nations.

While in Israel, O’Malley would split his time between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where he would likely meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Minister of Trade and Industry and other officials, according to the Maryland/Israel Development Center (MIDC). He would also tour leading businesses such as Israel Aerospace Industries, whose subsidiary, ELTA North America, opened its American headquarters in Howard County in April. O'Malley could spend three business days each in Israel and in Jordan from Nov. 24 to Dec. 3, MIDC Executive Director Barry Bogage says. 

Gov. O'Malley spokeswoman Raquel Guillory says the trip is "being considered" and his participation is not yet confirmed.  

The Maryland/Israel Development Center, the Baltimore Jewish Council, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington and the Maryland Department of Economic and Business Development would organize the trip. The first two are both agencies of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore.

MIDC Executive Director Barry Bogage is arranging the agenda and recruiting interested Maryland entrepreneurs and executives who want to join the trip at their own cost. He is working with Israeli government officials and business leaders and with the U.S. Embassy to coordinate the Israeli trip while the Baltimore Jewish Council is working with Jordanian officials for that portion.

In Jordan, O’Malley's home base would be Amman, a two hours’ drive from Jerusalem.

Bogage is also arranging “personalized” business tracks. He is working with the U.S. Department of Commerce to assure that the entrepreneurs and business people who would accompany the governor can meet with their counterparts in their field in Israel.

“We want them to fulfill the goals of their going on the trip,” Bogage says.
 
Source: Barry Bogage, Maryland/Israel Development Center
Writer: Barbara Pash

The Maryland Technology Development Corp. (TEDCO) is looking for five tech firms that can help protect Americans against terrorist and other threats.

TEDCO has partnered with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Army to identify small companies that are developing unique security technology.

TEDCO is managing a $1.5 million federal program that will award a total of 11 grants, at $75,000 each, to the winning companies. Six grants have been awarded so far and all have gone to Maryland companies. 

They are: TRX Systems, developer of Sentrix system; Smart Imaging Systems, robotic X-ray scanner; ES&T, explosive device solution; GenArraytion, biodefense; QuickSilver Analytics, field sampling kits; and BioFactura, biodefense.
 
This is not the first time TEDCO has managed a grant program for the military. For example, it recently did so for Fort Detrick and Aberdeen Proving Grounds in their request for proposals for technology companies.

TEDCO’s partners in the current program are the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, the research and development arm of the agency, and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, the army’s main material developer. The technology must meet the needs of either or both of the partners, and can be in a variety of fields, from biodefense to robotics.
 
While TEDCO is not soliciting companies, the grant program is an open process. Applications for grants are still being accepted, and are available on TEDCO’s Web site, Robert Rosenbaum, TEDCO's president and executive director.
 
“We will release awards as companies are accepted,” he says.
 
Since the program began earlier this year, TEDCO has received about 45 grant requests from companies around the country. Of the 11 grants, six have been awarded. Five more grants are still to be awarded.

“It says a lot about the innovation that goes on in Maryland,” says Rosenbaum about the all-Maryland roster of grants so far.
 
Source: Robert Rosenbaum, TEDCO
Writer: Barbara Pash

The incubator at University of Maryland, Baltimore County has gotten an influx of new tenants, the majority of whom are responding to the increased demand for cyber security. 

bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park currently hosts 86 incubator and early-stage tenants and 14 affiliated companies and organizations, according to Gregory Simmons, the park's vice president for institutional advancement.

Of the tenants, nearly 20 have joined the park in the past 18 months alone. They include Fearless Solutions, Rogue Technology, AIS (Assured Information Security) Inc., all of which are in the cyber security field.  Simmons says that most of the new tenants are also in that field, often in the area of securing data and networks, in medical, defense and financial services, among others.
 
“They offer a broad array of services," Simmons says.
 
He attributes the interest in cyber security at the park to a number of factors, from the Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) process going on at nearby Fort Meade to the number of federal agencies in the area.
 
Other factors are the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), whose computer science department is well known in the field, and the state of Maryland, which for the past two years has been establishing itself as a cyber-hub for companies and jobs.

"UMBC is excited about supporting the cyber Maryland initiative by preparing the workforce of tomorrow, supporting entrepreneurs and working to strengthen the Maryland economy," says Simons. 
 
Of the new tenants, the few that are not in cyber security are in fields that mirror the strengths of UMBC for life sciences, clean energy and IT.
 
Located on a 71-acre campus in Baltimore County’s Catonsville community, the park consists of eight buildings with 500,000-square feet of office and lab space.
 

Source: Gregory Simmons, bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park
Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 
 
 

The state and five universities are spending upwards of $5.8 million to help startups move from a concept to a company.  

Senate Bill 239/House Bill 442 establishes the Maryland Innovation Initiative Fund under the aegis of the Maryland Technology Development Corporation, or TEDCO. The bill passed the Maryland House and Senate and awaits the signature of Gov. Martin O'Malley, who is expected to sign it. 

“Maryland has premiere research universities but it ranks low on technology transfer,” Brian Levine, vice president, government relations, Tech Council of Maryland, says of the fund, which is intended to remedy that situation.
 
To participate in the fund, five universities are contributing to it. Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland College Park and University of Maryland, Baltimore will each contribute at least $200,000 per year. The University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Morgan State University will contribute at least $100,000 per year. The state has allocated $5 million to the fund, which will begin operating July 1.
 
Calling the fund “a great benefit for the state,” Rob Rosenbaum, TEDCO’s president and executive director, says. “We have so much research but commercialization is needed. We have to stimulate that activity.”

TEDCO is establishing an office to administer the fund. The fund helps technology concepts reach the startup phase by providing marketing and supporting the the technology transfer offices that already exist at the participating universities.
 
Rosenbaum says the fund intends to work with 40 projects per year that will result in 12 to 15 new companies. Startup companies initially generate 2.5 jobs on average, with salaries the first year of more than $75,000 per job.
 
Rosenbaum says that “all policies of the fund have not yet been defined” but the hope is that the startups it helps stay in Maryland.
 
Ronald Wineholt, vice president of government affairs of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, says the legislation provides better coordination of the universities’ transfer efforts. “Now that it’s under TEDCO, it’s a state-wide effort rather than an individual university,” he says.
 
Sources: Brian Levine, Tech Council of Maryland; Rob Rosenbaum, Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO); Ronald Wineholt, Maryland Chamber of Commerce
Writer: Barbara Pash

Newly passed legislation allows the state to review tax credits for individuals and businesses and to evaluate whether the credits are benefiting the state. 

The legislation eliminated a provision to "sunset", or automatically terminate, tax credits after businesses initially opposed the bill.

Tax credits have become a powerful tool in attracting businesses in film, biotech and other industries. Though the tax revenue lost from the credits are small, the number of business tax credits have increased, according to a legislative report on Senate Bill 739/House Bill 764. There are now a total of 30 different tax credits in Maryland, the report states.

The 2012 General Assembly passed the Maryland Program Evaluation Act. Gov. Martin O'Malley has not yet signed the legislation but is expected to do so. The business community opposed one of its provisions, to automatically end tax credits for about 20 to 30 entities on a rolling, five-year basis. The provision was deleted from the final bill.

"Not only would the provision have killed the tax credit, but in order to get the tax credit restored, the General Assembly would have had to act legislatively," says Brian Levine, vice president government relations, Technology Council of Maryland Inc. "The portion [of the bill] that impacted business negatively was removed."

About 70 entities and business-related activities are subject to periodic evaluation for tax credits. Originally opposed by the business community, the Maryland Program Evaluation Act went through several changes before getting the business community’s approval.  

The provision for automatic termination was removed from the bill, which, instead, sets up a process and an evaluation committee of members appointed by leaders of the Senate and House of Delegates that works in consultation with state agencies.
 
The committee must submit reports to the General Assembly if the tax credit should be continued, with or without changes, or terminated. Public hearings are also required. The onus is on the committee to show why the tax credit should be removed, says Levine, rather than having it happen automatically.

Levine says that legislators “worked with the business community to craft a compromise. We are pleased with the outcome. In the end, we did not oppose the bill.”
 
Levine says the Tech Council and the business community opposed the automatic termination provision.

For example, he says, the state has an $8 million biotechnology tax credit to help early-stage companies. In the original statue, the biotech tax credit does not have a termination date. Had the provision remained in the bill, it would have meant that "every five years, this tax credit would be terminated automatically and could only be revived through legislative action,” says Levine. “We felt that was untenable.”
 
Ronald Wineholt, vice president government relations for the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, calls the tax credits “one of the most important economic development” tools.

But, he says of the original bill, “We were concerned that automatic termination of tax credits could limit the usefulness of businesses that were considering coming to Maryland.”
 
 
Sources: Brian Levine, Tech Council of Maryland; Ronald Wineholt, Maryland Chamber of Commerce
Writer: Barbara Pash
 
 
 
 

Two Baltimore City public high school students are representing Charm City at the prestigious Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in May.

The students, both grand prize winners in the Baltimore Science Fair, are enrolled in a little-known nonprofit, the Ingenuity Project. The project spends $1 million a year to encourage middle and high school students in Baltimore City public schools to excel in science.

"We're one of the best-kept secrets in the city," says Karen Footner, Ingenuity's spokesperson.
 
Footner, an educational consultant, says the project dates to 1993 when educators and advocates of the city school system asked why Baltimore had never had a winner in the Intel Science Talent Search, the nation’s oldest and best known youth science competition.
 
Acceptance into the project is competitive, based on school grades and multiple tests. Students apply in 5^th and 8^th grades. The project is held at three middle schools (Roland Park, Hamilton and Mount Royal) and one high school (Baltimore Polytechnic Institute).  If accepted into the project, students have to request to attend those schools.
 
“The money is spent mainly for teachers for accelerated math and science classes,” says Footner, noting that 80 percent of the funding comes from the Abell Foundation and Baltimore City Public Schools.
 
There are currently 486 students in the program, split evenly boys and girls and of whom half are African-Americans.
 
Since 2005, seven Ingenuity students have been semifinalists, and three have been among the top ten winners nationally in the Intel Science Talent Search. “For Baltimore City kids, that’s extraordinary,” Footner says.
 
The Ingenuity Project will host a fundraiser April 17 at the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park Museum, featuring  science writer Flora Lichtman.
 
Source: Karen Footner, educational consultant
Writer: Barbara Pash

The man who won a Nobel Prize for developing a break-through in how scientists study cells will be the featured speaker at a Baltimore event that looks at the future of biomedical research.
 
Dr. Martin Chalfie will speak at the University of Maryland Baltimore County’s 15^th annual Life Science Symposium , which is free and open to the public. Dr. Chalfie will talk about the work that won him Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008.
 
The event will be held Wed. April 18, from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the UMBC Ballroom, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore.
 
Over the years, the symposium has had a wide range of topics and speakers, but the theme is always cutting-edge research, says Caroline Baker, UMBC director of corporate relations and acting director of the career services center.
 
“It’s an opportunity for us to bring world-class scientists to this region,” Baker says of an event that generally attracts 200 people, among them science educators, healthcare professionals, biotechnology business leaders and members of the state’s bioscience community.
 
Besides Chalfie, who is a professor of biological sciences at Columbia University, the other featured speaker is Dr. Charles Bieberich, UMBC professor of biological sciences, who will talk about understanding the mechanisms and developing therapeutics for prostate disease.
 
Before the talks, there will be a faculty session in which UMBC faculty members doing life science research will talk about their work and recent discoveries.
 
“The goal is to create an opportunity for life science educators, biotech executives and scientists to come together and learn about exciting research, and to network and talk about their ideas,” says Baker.
 
Source: Caroline Baker, University of Maryland, Baltimore County director of corporate relations and acting director of the career services center
Writer: Barbara Pash

Only six face transplant surgeries have been performed in the entire U.S., one of them earlier this month on a 37-year-old male at the University of Maryland Medical Center. It was the first such procedure in the state and took place over 72 hours. 

Now Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions is following suit and expects to get approval within the next few months to perform the rare and complicated surgery. 

The request from Hopkins Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery  is being considered by a Johns Hopkins University board, which has already approved its hand transplant surgery. Such boards are fairly standard among facilities that perform research on humans, the goal being to ensure the safety of the subjects.

Face transplant surgery is a medical procedure that replaces all or part of a person's face with facial tissue from a deceased human donor. Although at this point Hopkins does not have a specific candidate for the surgery, "many patients have expressed interests, and we plan to screen patients for face transplantation" as soon as approval is given, says W.P. Andrew Lee, M.D., director of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, who has formed a face transplant team.

Besides Lee, key faculty members on the team are Dr. Chad Gordon, assistant professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery, who was involved in the country's first face transplant at Cleveland Clinic; Dr. Gerald Brandacher, visiting associate professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery; and Dr. Patrick Byrne, associate professor of otolaryngology�head and neck surgery. 

"There are many patients with significant facial disfigurement that cannot be adequately reconstructed with conventional means.  Face transplant offers the best reconstructive option for them," says Lee. "In addition, we have an immune modulation protocol that allows us to perform such transplants with much reduced anti-rejection medication, thus minimizing their side effects. 

Source: Dr. Andrew Lee, director, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Writer: Barbara Pash

The Maryland Biotechnology Development Center is accepting applications at their website for grant awards of up to $200,000 through Feb. 15th. These awards are available in two categories, biotechnology commercialization and translational research.

Biotechnology commercialization is focused on supporting projects that are in late-stage development and are poised to enter the market and begin generating revenue within three years. The translational research category is designed to help start ups that are bridging the gap between research institutions and private companies in Maryland, with the goal of taking promising research down a commercial path.

This is the third year for these awards, which have provided nearly $3.1 million in funding to 13 life sciences companies and three university research projects in Maryland.

Source: Maryland Biotechnology Development Center
Writer: Amy McNeal