UMBI Faculty Partner with Maryland Biotech Companies
Receive Maryland Industrial Partnerships Awards

BALTIMORE, MD – The University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute today announced that faculty at their Center of Advanced Research in Biotechnology and Center for Biosystems Research have received Maryland Industrial Partnership Program funding to support research in close collaboration with two Maryland companies, Advanced BioNutrition Corporation and Rexahn Corporation.

UMBI will be working closely with Columbia-based Advanced BioNutrition Corporation to test the production of recombinant protein in shrimp, utilizing a cloned virus and demonstrating the transient expression of a marker gene. The project could result in a viable platform for pharmaceutical-grade protein production. The Principal UMBI Investigator on this project is Dr. Vikram Vakharia from the Center for Biosystems Research.

Dr. John Orban, Associate Professor at UMBI’s Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology, will be working closely with Rockville-based Rexahn Corporation. Through the use of nuclear magnetic resonance microscopy, they will identify small molecules that bind to signaling proteins from a novel compound library developed by Rexahn. The goal of the project is to discover lead anti-cancer drugs targeting the proteins that maintain cell survival and cause cancer metastasis. Drugs targeting those proteins are likely to cause fewer adverse side effects.

“We are very proud of our faculty and their ability to partner with industry to further push the frontiers of biotechnology and apply this science in such a way as to create technology-based products and translational science,” said Dr. Jennie Hunter-Cevera, President of UMBI. “Furthermore, we are proud of the Maryland biotechnology sector and its willingness to match the MIPS funding and sponsor university-based research to bring forth innovative technology and scientific concepts that have direct commercial applications.”

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MIPS is a program of the A. James Clark School of Engineering’s Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (MTECH), provides funding-matched by participating companies for university faculty and graduate students to help companies develop technology-based products. For more information, visit: http://www.mips.umd.edu

Celebrating our 20th anniversary year, UMBI is the first and only biotechnology research institute within the University System of Maryland and was established in 1985. The University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI) consists of five major research and education centers and is dedicated to advancing the frontiers of biotechnology. UMBI’s centers of research include: CARB, the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology located in Rockville; CBR, the Center for Biosystems Research located in College Park; and COMB, the Center of Marine Biotechnology, MBC, the Medical Biotechnology Center, and IHV, the Institute of Human Virology, all located in Baltimore. For more information, visit www.umbi.umd.edu.