Jersey City, New Jersey - According to ROI, saying it will expand its ability to deliver more comprehensive cancer care to the Hudson County communities it serves, Jersey City Medical Center cut the ribbon on the Madeline Fiadini LoRe Foundation Infusion Center on Wednesday night.The new infusion center features eight infusion bays and two private rooms, along with amenities such as support services, specially trained nurses and staff, nearby physicians and wall art representing the area. The facility will support infusion services that include chemotherapy, immunotherapy, hormone therapy, blood transfusion and non-chemotherapy.

Washington D.C. - According to SSTI, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced that 10 accelerators and incubators across the country have been awarded $9.5 million in total funding through the Energy Program for Innovation Clusters (EPIC) to help develop pipelines for energy technology to reach the market. Created by the DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions, the EPIC funding program aims to encourage the growth of regional energy innovation ecosystems across the U.S. and supports new business formation. This announcement marks the second round of funding through the EPIC program, with the first awarding $500,000 each to 20 incubators and accelerators in October of 2020 to support energy innovation ecosystems and stimulate energy hardware development in regions across the country.

Trenton, New Jersey - According to ROI, in recognition of her service to the people of New Jersey during the COVID-19 pandemic, the state’s top officials announced Friday that the new Department of Health building in downtown Trenton will be named after Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli.The state-of-the art-facility, completed in late 2020, houses Department of Health workspace and offices in downtown Trenton. It will be named the Judith M. Persichilli Building.

New Brunswick, New Jersey - According to Rutgers University, Rutgers ranks among the biggest contributors to a historic crowdsourced computing effort to search for COVID-19 treatmentsWhen 2020 began, the world’s fastest computing device was the Summit supercomputer, which performs 200 quadrillion floating-point operations per second (200 petaFLOPS). A few months later, a combination of private individuals and organizations like Rutgers had collectively donated more than five times as much computing processing power to a medical research group called Folding@Home, the group reports.
“Supercomputers, such as Amarel here at Rutgers, are crucial in advancing the frontiers of research and instrumental in many of the COVID-19 research breakthroughs,” said Barr von Oehsen, associate vice president of Rutgers’ Office of Advanced Research Computing (OARC).

New Brunswick, New Jersey - According to Rutgers University, Michael E. Zwick of Emory University will be senior vice president for research at Rutgers University, effective Sept. 1 pending approval by the Board of Governors, President Jonathan Holloway and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Prabhas Moghe announced today.Zwick will arrive at Rutgers after serving as associate vice president for research of the Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center at Emory University and the associate dean of research and professor of human genetics and pediatrics in the Emory University School of Medicine. He spent over 16 years at the Atlanta-based research institution, beginning as an assistant professor in 2005.

Washington D.C. - According to PHRMA, this week, 500+ health care and community members from over 150 organizations came together at PhRMA’s first stakeholder workshop focused on improving diversity in clinical trials. At the virtual workshop, titled “Partnering for Health Equity: Advancing Research Through Representative Clinical Trials,” participants joined breakout discussions, panels and facilitated conversations designed to pressure test actionable ideas to enhance clinical trial diversity. Topics included:

• The Root Causes of Health Inequity
• The Patient Perspective
• Building a Sustainable Community Based Infrastructure Focused on Clinical Trial Diversity

Fairfield, New Jersey - According to New Jersey Business Magazine, with the COVID-19 pandemic bringing about remote working arrangements and increased demand for home delivery, entertainment and other stay-at-home services, it is no surprise that technology was the best performing sector of the stock market in 2020. While the broad Standard and Poor’s 500 Index returned 18% in 2020, the technology sector surged 44%, and of the 11 sectors comprising the index, technology grew to represent 28% of the index.  While the tech sector has had quite a run over the last year and many areas of the market may be overvalued, there are also areas that may still look attractive. There are more than 50 exchange traded funds (ETFs), hundreds of mutual funds, and even more individual company stocks from which to choose in the technology sector.  

Fairfield, New Jersey - According to New Jersey Business Magazine, a robust innovation ecosystem requires coordination and a willingness to make tough decisions in order to realize both short-term and long-term benefits. Together, government, academia and business can make the vision of revitalizing New Jersey’s innovation ecosystem a reality if we collectively address key indicators of innovation. The vision of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA) is for the Garden State to reclaim its stature as the innovation state; the home of economic vitality, business prosperity, workforce skill excellence, and a great quality of life for New Jersey businesses and individuals. To that end, NJBIA has spent years studying key components of successful innovation ecosystems. Our extensive analyses have led us to conclude that creating a successful innovation ecosystem requires the strong presence of three categorical indicators: capital, talent and business. 

Westerville, Ohio - According to SSTI, this week, the Senate passed the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, a legislative package that includes the Endless Frontier Act. The tech-based economic development community should be excited about many initiatives authorized in the bill, including $10 billion for regional technology hubs, $100 billion in new R&D-related activities, and an expansion of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program. The bill also provides $50 billion in appropriations for semiconductor research, and includes multiple R&D policy bills. SSTI worked with Sen. Chuck Schumer, the legislation’s lead sponsor, and other Senate offices to strengthen the proposals, The Senate action is just the first step in the legislative process, as the House is beginning to work through its own proposals.

Trenton, New Jersey - According to the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), Hunterdon County-based Visikol made national headlines late last month when it was acquired by CELLINK for up to $19.5 million. The news came just weeks after the Rutgers University spinout received a $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to improve the diagnosis of metastatic melanoma. Both of these accomplishments mark the latest milestones for the contract research services company that provides over half of the world’s top 20 pharmaceutical companies with tools necessary to discover and develop lifesaving and life-enhancing therapeutics.
 
Visikol offers its pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers an extensive portfolio of advanced imaging, digital pathology, and cell culture tools. Its proprietary versatile biological clearing agent, known as Visikol® HISTO™, helps researchers in the fields of toxicology, pre-clinical drug development, clinical diagnostics, basic research and plant biology. The agent penetrates tissue and renders it transparent for optical analysis, greatly reducing problems with light scattering and enabling high-resolution images to be captured from biological tissues in 3D.

Trenton, New Jersey - According to the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), its' Board today approved an update to Phase 2 of the Small Business Emergency Assistance Loan Program. The program will provide up to $100,000 in low-cost financing to New Jersey small businesses and nonprofits with priority given to entities that have taken on new space, transitioned from a home-based business or smaller space into a larger space, or acquired an owner-occupied commercial space. More information on the program is available at https://business.nj.gov/covid/emergency-assistance-loan-program. 
 
“As we move into recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential that we continue to provide the resources business owners need to reopen and thrive,” said NJEDA Chief Executive Officer Tim Sullivan. “The improvements to Phase 2 of the Small Business Emergency Assistance Loan Program approved today will make much-needed financing available to New Jersey businesses with a focus on growing businesses that have been left out of previous COVID-19 relief programs.”
 
The NJEDA created the Small Business Emergency Assistance Loan Program in March of 2020 to make low-cost financing available to small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, the NJEDA has approved 145 loans for a combined total of more than $10 million.

Fairfield, New Jersey - According to New Jersey Business Magazine, Jim Fakult, president of Jersey Central Power & Light, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp., has been elected chairman of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce board of directors. Fakult will serve a two-year term.Fakult has been serving as the N.J. Chamber’s first vice chair for the past two years. He has been a member of the N.J. Chamber’s board of directors since 2013, and has served on the executive committee since 2017.

Montclair, New Jersey  - According to New Jersey Business Magazine, Jonathan G.S. Koppell has been selected as the 9th president of Montclair State University (MSU). As vice-provost for Public Service and Social Impact and dean of the Watts College of Public Service & Community Solution at Arizona State University (ASU), Koppel is a nationally regarded scholar of policy, organization and management who transformed the public affairs college at ASU into one of the largest, best and most innovative in the nation. He begins his new role at MSU on August 2.
He will succeed Susan Cole, who is retiring as MSU president after 23 years of service. Under Cole’s leadership, the university nearly doubled its enrollment to more than 21,000 students and rose from a well-respected regional master’s institution to become a doctoral resesarch university with a growing national reputation.

Washington D.C. - According to the MDMA, ​Mark Leahey, President and CEO of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA), issued the following statement today regarding the Senate passage of the “U.S. Innovation and Competition Act:”
 
“MDMA applauds the overwhelming passage of the ‘U.S. Innovation and Competition Act’ which is a targeted, bipartisan solution to help America’s innovators confront the challenges of today’s marketplace.  This legislation would provide critical resources to medical technology innovators and countless others as they work to ensure that the 21st century is one where the United States remains the global leader in high-tech manufacturing.

Trenton, New Jersey - Published in NJ Tech Weekly. Do you have a tech solution that impacts the future of work? Or are you innovating ways for companies and people to deal with how work is changing? Then the New Jersey State Office of Innovation’s Future of Work Accelerator could be the place for you.
The Accelerator is a 9-month program that will support innovations that advance the health and safety of New Jersey workers, improve access to benefits, strengthen training opportunities, bolster workers’ voices and/or generally strengthen the economic security of workers and their families.
The application process is well underway, and you can apply here by the June 14 deadline.