StormBio Licenses Flu Therapy IP from Imperial College London
StormBio and Imperial Innovations Group, the technology commercialization arm of Imperial College London, last week announced that StormBio has licensed intellectual property related to the development of a therapy for life-threatening influenza and other inflammatory diseases.
The agreement will permit StormBio to develop a new class of therapeutics for influenza and inflammatory diseases, according to the company. The drug will differ from current treatments by targeting the body’s overreaction of the inflammatory process without shutting down the immune response, StormBio said.
Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
University of Maryland Announces Finalists for $50K Biz Plan Competition
The University of Maryland last week announced nine finalists for its annual $50,000 business plan competition. Finalists were announced in faculty and graduate student, young alumni, and undergraduate student divisions.
All four of the finalists in the faculty and graduate division featured biotechnologies, including:
- Accelign, which is developing technology that quickly fuses medical images from multiple sources to create a single, 3D image, which will allow doctors to use existing imaging equipment to simultaneously view the results of PET and CT scans.
- BioFactura, a company focused on national security needs in infectious diseases. The company’s lead initiative is the development of a smallpox therapeutic composed of synthetic, fully human antibodies.
- Remedium Technologies, which is developing active wound care products based on nanometer-sized containers, anchored to a wound dressing, to deliver therapeutic agents to wounds in a time-controlled manner.
- SD Nanosciences, a spin-off of the University of Maryland developing “Triad” nanoparticle technology for vaccines, cancer diagnostics, and specialty research probes.
Ohio’s Bioscience Organization Changes Name from Omeris to BioOhio
Omeris, Ohio’s bioscience membership and development organization, last week said that it has changed its name to BioOhio.
The organization said in a statement that the new name will build more effective branding outside of Ohio in its goal to attract out-of-state company relocations and capital investment for emerging entrepreneurial companies.
BioOhio recently received a three-year, $1.5 million grant from Ohio’s Third Frontier Commission to recruit cutting-edge bioscience companies from around the world, the organization said.