UM-IHC Hosts Inaugural Biotech Connections Event
The University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing (UM-IHC) and Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation hosted the inaugural “Biotech Connections: Bringing Together Industry, Investors and Resources in Montgomery County” event on April 10, 2025. The event held at the UM-IHC offices in North Bethesda brought together early-stage life sciences companies with resource partners, potential investors, and other state and local organizations committed to fostering growth in Montgomery County.
“Montgomery County is the third largest biopharma hub in the U.S. Our business ecosystem offers a plethora of resources to companies in all stages of growth,” said Laurie Boyer Babb, Economic Development Director at the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation. “We look forward to partnering with UM-IHC to host more of these events in the future and facilitate connections between early-stage companies and the many resource partners in the county. These partnerships are crucial in ensuring that Montgomery County’s life sciences community continues to thrive.”
During the event, attendees were welcomed by University of Maryland, College Park Dean Amitabh Varshney and heard from Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich on how life sciences companies and hubs like UM-IHC in Montgomery County play crucial roles in advancing the health industry. They also heard from UM-IHC Co-Executive Directors Bradley Maron and Adam Porter about UM-IHC’s advanced computing capabilities and the institute’s broad capacity for technical and biomedical research collaborations with local industry.
“The Institute for Health Computing is committed to supporting life science and biotech commercial development in Montgomery County, and this event was a wonderful opportunity to interact directly with great companies and stimulate future partnerships,” said Maron, who is also a professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “We are thrilled to be growing and advancing our capacity to support economic development in the region.”
Attendees also connected with local and state resource partners who shared more about funding and programmatic support their organizations can provide to early-stage companies in Montgomery County. Resource partners in attendance included:
Montgomery County is home to more than 350 life sciences companies and has a large health ecosystem, including incubators, resource partners and investors.
“I really enjoyed meeting with so many startup founders and helping connect them with knowledge and resources that will help them be more successful,” said Porter, who is also a professor of computer science at the University of Maryland, College Park. “We made connections to IHC researchers who can help these companies solve critical technical problems and also to the wide range of entrepreneurship resources that are available here in Montgomery County.”
