About

This event is free for biotech leaders is presented by BioHealth Innovation, VirginiaBio, Childrenโ€™s National Health System, Deloitte, JLABS @ Washington D.C., Johns Hopkins University, Maryland Department of Commerce, Quality Biologics, George Mason University, University System of Maryland and AstraZeneca. Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC set the bar high for biotech innovation. Please join us for our Annual BioHealth Capital Region Forum that will highlight the accomplishments of today and chart our successes of tomorrow.

NOTE:ย Your registration for this event also enables you to view theย 2020 BioHealth Capital Region Crab Trap pitch competition

taking place through this event platform at

NOON on Wednesday, October 21, 2020

2020 Agenda

8:00 a.m. – Platform Open for Pre-Event Networking

8:30 a.m. Welcome Remarks

Rich Bendis, President and CEO, BioHealth Innovation, Inc.
Kelly Schulz, Secretary, Maryland Department of Commerce
Marc Elrich, County Executive, Montgomery County, Maryland
Daniel Carey, M.D., Secretary of Health and Human Resources, Commonwealth of Virginia

9:05 a.m. – Keynote

Patel Sandeep, Director of BARDA Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures (DRIVe), U.S. HHS

9:40 a.m. – New Pharma in the Biohealth Capital Region

Moderator โ€“ Rich Bendis, President and CEO, BioHealth Innovation, Inc.
Panelist โ€“ Sally Allain, Head, JLABS @ Washington, DC
Panelist โ€“ Mike Friedlander, Vice President for Health Sciences, VA Tech
Panelist โ€“ Kurt Newman, President and CEO, Childrenโ€™s National Medical Center
Panelist โ€“ Jennifer Butler, Executive Vice President, Innate Pharma U.S. Inc.

10:30 a.m. – BioParks and Innovation Districts in the Region: Attracting, Retaining and Growing BioHealth

Moderator โ€“ Brian Darmody, CEO, Association of University Research Parks
Panelist โ€“ Jane Shaab, Executive Director, University of Maryland BioPark
Panelist โ€“ Amy Adams, Executive Director, Institute for Biohealth Innovation, George Mason University
Panelist โ€“ Kolaleh Eskandanian, VP and Chief Innovation Officer, Childrenโ€™s National Medical Center
Panelist โ€“ Pete Briskman, Executive Managing Director, JLL

11:20 a.m. – Federal Government: Clinical Trials in the Future

Moderator โ€“ Ouzama Henry, Head of Clinical Development, GSK
Panelist โ€“ Karen Smith, EVP and Chief Medical Officer, Emergent BioSolutions
Panelist โ€“ Christopher Austin, Director, NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
Panelist โ€“ Ravinder Anand, Vice President, The Emmes Company

12:10 p.m. – Hottest Hotbeds of Activity: Top 10 U.S. Biopharma Clusters 2020

Alex Philippidis, Senior News Editor, Mary Ann Liebert Inc. publishers, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News, and Clinical OMICs

12:45 p.m. – Strengths of Our Region: Combatting Infectious Diseases

Moderator โ€“ Karen Smith, EVP and Chief Medical Officer, Emergent BioSolutions
Panelist โ€“ Crystal Icenhour, CEO, Aperiomics
Panelist โ€“ Darryl Sampey, President and CEO, BioFactura
Panelist โ€“ Vivek Shinde, Vice President, Vaccine Clinical Development, Novavax

12:45 p.m. – Strengths of Our Region: Cutting Edge Therapies

Moderator โ€“ Mark Cobbold, VP Discovery, ICA, AstraZeneca
Panelist โ€“ Kimberly Kelly, President and CSO, Ziel Bio
Panelist โ€“ Greg Merrill, CEO, Adaptive Phage Therapeutics
Panelist โ€“ Murat Kalayoglu, Founder, President and CEO, Cartesian Therapeutics

1:35 p.m. – Strengths of Our Region: Combatting TBI and Positioning to Make Advancements in TBI Care

Moderator โ€“ Dallas Hack, Colonel,ย US Army (retired), Brain Health Consultant
Panelist โ€“ Donna Edmonds, CEO, BRAINBox Solutions, Inc.
Panelist โ€“ Melissa Hunfalvay, Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer, RightEye, LLC
Panelist โ€“ Susan Hertzberg, CEO, BrainScope

1:35 p.m. – Strengths of Our Region: Digital World and AI

Moderator โ€“ Jurgen Klenk, Principal, Deloitte
Panelist โ€“ Praduman (PJ) Jain, CEO, Vibrent Health
Panelist โ€“ Sarah Price, Business Development Manager, Loudoun County Economic Development
Panelist โ€“ Jonathan Sheffi, Life Science Lead, Google

2:25 p.m. – Keynote

Pam Cheng, Executive Vice President โ€“ Global Operations and IT, AstraZeneca

2:45 p.m. – Growing and Retaining Your BioHealth Workforce

Moderator โ€“ Judy Costello, Managing Director, BioHealth Innovation, Inc.
Panelist โ€“ Ellen McMahon, VP of Human Resources for Global Operations & IT, AstraZeneca
Panelist โ€“ Ed Radwinsky, Head of People Operations, RoosterBio
Panelist โ€“ Diana G. Elias, Director ofย  HR, ABL, Inc.

2:45 p.m. – BioHealth Marketing โ€“ Pre-Launch and Beyond Promotional/Advertising

Moderator โ€“ Rebecca Burnett, Executive Director, Framework Solutions
Panelist โ€“ Maura Kahn, Senior Vice President, Business Development, Noxilizer
Panelist โ€“ David Narrow, Co-Founder and CEO, Sonavex
Panelist โ€“ Todd Bridges, Global President, Drug Safety Institute
Panelist โ€“ Todd Horich, Vice President of Marketing, Supernus

3:40 p.m. – What Investors Are Seeking and How Can You Position Your Company for a Win?

Moderator โ€“ Arti Santhanam, Executive Director, Maryland Innovation Initiative, TEDCO
Panelist โ€“ Bill Snider, Partner, BroadOak Capital Partners, LLC
Panelist โ€“ David Hilbert, President and CEO, Arcellx
Panelist โ€“ Sara Nayeem, Partner, NEA
Panelist โ€“ Benjamin Britt, General Partner, Route 66 Ventures

3:40 p.m. – Building a Comprehensive Strategy to Successfully Compete For Non-Dilutive Funding

Moderator โ€“ Jessica Kenyon, Vice President, The Conafay Group
Panelist โ€“ Henry Ahn, SBIR/STTR Program Director, NSF
Panelist โ€“ Todd Haim, Chief, Office of Small Business Research, NIH National Institute on Aging
Panelist โ€“ Eric Edwards, CEO, Phlow

4:30 p.m. – Fireside Chat

Jim Greenwood, Senior Policy Advisor, DLA Piper

5:05 p.m. – Closing Remarks: Looking to the Future

Hans Riemer,ย Councilmember At-Large – Montgomery County. Maryland
Rich Bendis, President and CEO, BioHealth Innovation, Inc.

5:15 p.m. – Post-Event Virtual Networking

5th Annual BioHealth Capital Region
Crab Trap

DISTINGUISHED JUDGES

โ€ขย Rich Bendis (Moderator), President & CEO, BioHealth Innovation, Inc.

โ€ข Sally Allain, Head, JLABS @ Washington, DC

โ€ข Andrea Alms, MS, MBA, Fund Manager, BioHealth Capital Fund

โ€ข Charles Andres, PhD, RAC, Associate, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

โ€ข Christian Barrow, Executive Director, Life Sciences Banking, JP Morgan

โ€ข Conley Jones, Senior Associate, Science & Technology, Alexandria Venture Investments

2020 FINALISTS

BrainScope is a medical neurotechnology company improving brain health by providing objective, diagnostic insights that enable better patient care. Using A.I. and machine learning, the FDA-cleared BrainScope One system helps objectively answer key clinician questions for assessment of mild traumatic brain injuries – whether there is a brain bleed or concussion – providing for the first time a full picture of the injury, and doing so in less time, for less cost and without radiation. Learn More by visiting www.BrainScope.com.
Utilizing extensive pharmaceutical experience, CarrTech LLC is a medical device company that has developed and patented a novel medication filtration device. CarrTech is striving to make injectable medication preparation safer and quicker for both patients and healthcare providers. Currently the company is raising funds for a 510 (k) Class II FDA final submission, having completed the presubmission process. Learn more by visiting www.carrtechllc.com.
Chronic daily pain affects more than 50M Americans. Diabetes, medications, chemotherapies, or nerve injury cause neuropathic pain. Poorly treated persistent pain is a silent epidemic that worsens an individualโ€™s quality of life and exacts huge costs, in the US over $560B/Yr in medical expenses, lost productivity, and disability programs. There is a large unmet need for effective non-opioid pain control and Creative Bio-Peptides is developing innovative disease modifying and neuroprotective treatments for chronic pain. Learn more by visiting www.creativebiopeptides.com.
Every day in the US, more than 1000 babies are born prematurely. While each will fight to defeat unimaginable odds, the seemingly simple task of transitioning from feeding tubes to breast or bottle is often the hardest and final hurdle each must overcome prior to discharge. The NTrainer from Innara Health is the only FDA cleared medical device clinically proven to improve feeding outcomes while reducing length of stay for newborns and infants born prematurely. Learn more by visitingย www,innarahealth.com.
KaloCyte, Inc. is developing ErythroMer, a dried, bio-inspired artificial red blood cell to treat life-threatening blood loss when stored blood is unavailable, undesirable or in short supply. ErythroMer can be freeze-dried for long-term storage and is a universal option for patients of all blood types. Based in Baltimore, KaloCyte is an Affiliate of UMB and UM BioPark, and is supported by $5.6M in non-dilutive federal grant awards (NIH and DoD), and $1.8M investor funding. Learn more by visitingย www.kalocyte.com.

Previous Crab Trap Winners

2019 – Floreo Inc.
Floreo is leveraging the power of Virtual Reality to develop a supplementary method of teaching social and communication skills for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Our library of lessons is fun and engaging for the learner, while also providing a supervising adult the opportunity to monitor and track the learnerโ€™s progress. Floreo is currently being used by schools, therapy practices, and parents. Floreoโ€™s lessons are science-based; we are currently running several research studies including a study in collaboration with the Center for Autism Research at Childrenโ€™s Hospital of Philadelphia and National Institutes of Health.
2018 – Galen Robotics
Galen Robotics, is developing, in partnership with JHU, a surgical robot to make minimally invasive surgeries faster, safer and more precise. The company plans a 510k submission next year, is raising Series A financing, and will be relocating the HQ team in CA to join their engineering experts in Baltimore.
2017 – LifeSprout
LifeSprout, developer of revolutionary synthetic soft tissues for aesthetic and reconstructive medicine. Leveraging recent breakthroughs in materials science, they have created a platform that looks and behaves like the bodyโ€™s own tissues.
2016 – ย Sonavex
Sonavex, a commercial stageย Johns Hopkinsย spin-out focused on Empowered Patient Care. ย The companyโ€™s first technology is a dual-component system comprising an FDA-cleared bioabsorbable implant (EchoMark) and an FDA-cleared custom automated ultrasound (EchoSure) to detect post-operative vascular complications prior to catastrophic surgical failures that represent a $3B annual market and cost hospitals up to $577,000 per instance.