Life Sciences

ROCKVILLE -- Gov. Martin O'Malley called for legislators to include increased funding for the state's stem cell research program in next year's budget, saying Maryland needs to make every effort to maintain and improve its position as a national leader in biotechnology and the life sciences. Speaking after a tour yesterday of Human Genome Sciences, a Rockville pharmaceutical company that is developing treatments for diseases including lupus, anthrax and hepatitis C, O'Malley applauded the legislature's passage of his proposal to create a Life Sciences Advisory Board.

Former Del. Peter Franchot was sworn in as Maryland's 33rd comptroller yesterday, pledging to expand his duties beyond collecting taxes and work to protect state parklands, push investment in scientific industries and fight slot machine gambling. Franchot, a Montgomery County Democrat who defeated former Comptroller William Donald Schaefer in last year's primary, said that he plans to be "an outspoken advocate for the progressive values for which I have always stood." He said Maryland must get its finances in order, and that he will work with lawmakers and Gov. Martin O'Malley to overhaul the tax code and erase the state's structural deficit, expected to top $1 billion annually for the rest of Franchot's four-year term.

Aquaculturists growing blue crabs that might help restore the Chesapeake Bay and fish that could help feed the world. Doctors and scientists collaborating on vaccines that will help future generations live without the fear of AIDS or Alzheimer's. Skilled workers crafting contact lenses with micro-detectors that measure blood sugar and medication levels, eliminating the need for repeat blood tests. Maryland's burgeoning life sciences industry brings more than just economic development. As these examples show, it offers opportunities to benefit all humanity by curing illness, cleaning the environment and providing food for millions.

It's called "bootstrapping," as in pulling yourself up by the proverbial bootstraps, and Mark Wesker is a pro at it - enough to know that he doesn't want to do it again. In the early 1990s, he and a partner had to use creative self-help methods to build Sequoia Software Corp., a fledgling business founded in the basement of a Columbia townhouse. They maxed their credit cards, used their homes as collateral and bought computer equipment only to return it days later after impressing potential clients, who often turned out to hold more power than the company's founders when determining Sequoia's direction.

The plans have been laid, the residents relocated, the land cleared, and at long last - after a ceremonial groundbreaking event today - construction is set to begin on the first building in a new biotech park that supporters hope will transform East Baltimore and the city. The new building, which developers expect to be completed by 2008, is a six-story, 282,000-square- foot, $120 million life science center bounded by Wolfe, Chapel and Madison streets and Ashland Avenue. It is part of the first phase of the renewal project, which is to extend over 31 acres and include five life science buildings as well as three parking garages, 900 units of housing, 40,000 square feet of retail space and several acres of new parks.

Startups, those notoriously tricky ventures, have a 50-50 chance of folding within five years. But the odds are a lot better for those nurtured in a business incubator. Like their namesake, business incubators provide conditions to encourage fledglings' growth, typically by offering cheap office space, free or reduced-rate services and vital introductions to venture capitalists. More than 85 percent of incubator graduates were still in business at last count, according to the 21-year-old National Business Incubation Association.

Osiris Therapeutics Inc. says it raked in about $70 million from venture capital investors in 2005, its highest one-year total, allowing the Baltimore biotechnology company to support its five clinical-trials testing treatments derived from adult stem cells. But perhaps just as important, the amount gave the nearly 14-year-old business coveted credibility. "Some feel the company is on stable ground now, because we were able to raise a significant amount of money," C. Randal Mills, Osiris' president and chief executive, said in an interview Friday.

BANKING & FINANCIAL Presidential Financial Corp. of the Chesapeake announced that Shan Mohamed, vice president of business development, and Brad Hecht, sales administrator, have joined the staff of the Baltimore-based alternative funding source firm for corporations. Mohamed is assigned to the firm's Arlington, Va., office and specializes in working capital financing, assets-based lending, startups, turnarounds, workouts and Chapter 11 financing. Hecht is assigned to the Baltimore office.

A month after being elected governor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. mounted a podium before several hundred people at a technology convention in downtown Baltimore and vowed greater support for their industry. "We've done pretty well," said Ehrlich, who co-chaired the biotechnology caucus in the House of Representatives as a Baltimore County congressman, "but we can do better." Two years later, however, many in technology business - especially the life sciences - are uncertain about the state's progress.

Michele L. Whelley, the former chief executive of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, will become a senior vice president of advisory services at Baltimore-based Colliers Pinkard as the commercial real estate firm expands its work in the fast-growing areas of higher education, life sciences and health care. The firm announced yesterday that Whelley, 51, who left the Downtown Partnership last summer to work as a consultant, will join Colliers Pinkard on Monday and work closely with President David Gillece in advising corporations and institutions such as hospitals, universities and biotech firms and developers.