Next BioBeers: Friday May 31st Texcell North America on New Design Rd

Texcell North AmericaIt’s spring and time for the next edition of BioBeers!  A new site and a new venue for spring, .    Texcell is a CRO that specializes in viral clearance and immunoassays.  Their new state of the art Viral Clearance facility opened in 2012 and they want to show it off!  

The facility is located at 4991 New Design Road, Suite 100, Frederick 21703.  The facility faces New Design Road at the intersection with Executive Way and backs up to the Qiagen/SABiosciences facility   All of the units are “Suite 100″ for some reason, so we’ll try to have some signs out to guide you in the right direction.  Starts at 4:30 PM, as usual.

We also appreciate our three sponsors:  ISPE Chesapeake Bay Area Chapter,  Lonza–Walkersville ,  Horiba Scientific and Rigaku Raman.   Rigaku is also going to make a brief presentation about one of their analyzers or some other intellectually stimulating scientific presentation.  As always, anyone who would like to make a presentation or sponsor, please contact me.  Also taking names  for anyone who is interested in sponsoring future events.  We have a pretty good network via MeetUp (272 members) and LinkedIn (682 members) so many potential hands to shake and commerce to create right here in little old Frederick.

As always, best to RSVP via MeetUp or LinkedIn sites or by leaving a comment here or sending me an email to fredcobio@gmail.com

Next BioBeers: Friday March 8th at Lab Recyclers

Slight change in plans for the next BioBeers!
 The next event is from 4:30 – 7:30 hosted by  LabRecyclers at 801 N. East Street, Frederick, MD 21701 and sponsored by BioStat Solutions

At this time I recommend parking in the lot entrance on 8th Street behind the Uncle Ralph’s cookie shop, walking around Uncle Ralph’s Cookies to the front of the building in Suite 4 on east Street.  You can also park in the empty lot adjacent to Family Meal and walk across East Street to LabRecyclers Warehouse entrance in suite 4.

We COULD USE ONE OR TWO MORE SPONSORS.  Contact me if interested in sponsoring this or future events.

As usual, it’s best to RSVP via MeetUp, by leaving a reply here or sending me an email to fredcobio@gmail.com

Next BioBeers – Friday November 2nd – Wear a costume

Greetings!

Are you ready for some BioBeers? I find it hard to believe that it’s Halloween again already! 

The next BioBeers is happening at ImQuest (7340 Executive Way Suite R 21704) next Friday, November 2nd. And it’s a costume party. Costumes are not mandatory, but encouraged. The ImQuest guys are going to go all out, from what I have been told.

We owe thanks and homage to Hagerstown Community College and Dave Jarvis at TechSales for buying our food and beverages.

As usual, it’s best to RSVP via MeetUp, by leaving a reply here or sending me an email to gahaga@gmail.com We can talk about what costumes we’re wearing because it will be awkward if we both wear the same thing.

NCI-Frederick – Advanced Technology Research Facility Open House

Great news,. great event.  I wish I was in town and able to go.    You’re in Frederick.  Are you going?

Next BioBeers: Friday August 24th at BridgePath Scientific

After a short 6 month break, BioBeers is back in a new location!  The next event will be Friday August 24th from 4:30 until about 7:30 PM.  The venue is Bridgepath Scientific located at 4841 International Blvd  Frederick, MD 21703.  This is right behind aka Frisco’s  and Qiagen/SABio between Wedgewood Blvd and Executive Way.

Our sponsors for the event are iWIN group of Life Technologies (again!) and a new sponsor,    the Chesapeake Bay Area Chapter of ISPE.

Come on out and join us! You may RSVP via LinkedIn event site, the MeetUp group or just email me.  I hope to see you there.  My schedule has been hectic and I am presently working out of town, but I will try to be there.

Our fellow biotech networking group, Biobuzz

Hi folks,

I would like to mention our sister networking group, Biobuzz, which is based in Montgomery County and Baltimore, and arranges networking events in Baltimore and Rockville. Their next event will be on March 28 from 4:30 – 7 PM at Stella Restaurant, 9755 Traville Gateway Drive, Rockville, MD. It will be hosted by the Johns Hopkins Center for Biotechnology Education. Biobuzz is also supported by Tech USA and Johns Hopkins Montogmery County.

Bring your business card, and if you get there reasonably early, you can get a ticket for a beer or glass of wine, and you can drop your business card in to win a prize.

To keep up to date on future events, join their Linkedin group. Their leader is Chris Frew of TechUSA Scientific.  I have invited him to tell our fellow Biotech/pharma neighbors to the East about our group, and I hope to see you all at both of our networking meetups!

-Terry Brann

An early Pi Day BioBeers – Friday March 2nd at FITCI

I know, I know, seems like we just had BioBeers, but that was in January.  The date is set and the beer will be cold and the munchies adequate for those who get there in time.  The next BioBeers will be at the Frederick Innovative Technology Center (FITCI) 4539 Metropolitan Court 21704 

In honor of our new sponsor, BioStat Solutions, I have decided this BioBeers needs to be in celebration of Pi Day, March 14th-> 3.14 for those nerdy enough to need to know.  Pi Day is a holiday commemorating the mathematical constant π (pi).  I realize the really *big* Pi day doesn’t happen until 2015 (At 9:26:53 on Pi Day 2015, the date will be 3/14/15 at 9:26:53, corresponding to 3.141592653), but I believe our Mission qualifies us science nerds to celebrate this day with Beer, the oldest form of Biotechnology.  We can chat statistics all night long, or at least until the beer runs out.  We hope to be outside, so dress for success, or consult your local meteorologist before heading out. 

As usual, the event runs from 4:30 PM until 7 PM.  Please RSVP via the LinkedIn event, MeetUp group or just shoot me an email.

Speaking about me, I have a new email fredcobio@gmail.com (all the others still work) and I am moving to another consulting gig in North Carolina.  Same type of consulting, but leaving my home away from home for warmer weather, proximity to home and more money.  I start on 2/27, so won’t be back until after 9 PM the night of BioBeers.  Ping me if you are curious, but I will be able to be home every other week and weekend (working 8 10′s and off 6) so you many coincidentally contact me more often.

Next BioBeers Friday January 27th

After skipping December’s edition because I was out of town and the Holidays “Occupying” everyone’s time and availability, we’re back on track for a BioBeers in January. 

The next event will be back at ImQuest Biosciences, 7340 Executive Way Suite R from 4:30 until 7 PM on Friday January 27th.

The theme (we have to have a theme now since we started it!) is Shaking the Winter Blues!  We have two new sponsors lined up: Kymanox and Noble Life Sciences.  We are also fortunate that ImQuest is letting Susan Jessee serve as the “Interim Grand Poobah” in my absence.  I’ll be in the Great White North working while you are all enjoying fermented beverages and free food.   Rumor has it that there may be Door Prizes as well!

As always, the best way to RSVP is through the LinkedIn Event or MeetUp.  My project here in Ohio is heating up.  The group i am subcontracted through is asking for as many as another 20 consultants, so if you can travel to Ohio (expenses covered) and have a background in GMP QA, RA, Validation, shoot me an email at fredcobio@gmail.com.  Otherwise, stay in Frederick and have fun without me!

Introducing new contributing members

Holiday Greetings to all of the Frederk County Biotechnology Community out there in the internets, assuming your access is not restricted by Big Brother !  As some of you may know, I started working in Cleveland first week in December on a consulting project.  I don’t want to discuss details publicly, but suffice to say it is a very important project, I’m working with a group of excellent consultants (one ‘old’ friend from LTI and one former FMC MedImmune person in the 20 on site), being in Cleveland is like my second home, money is good and I love driving on the PA Turnpike.

While I am pre-occupied in Ohio a couple of benevolent volunteers stepped forward to help keep BioBeers and the blog running.  Since we have a recurring occupancy of ImQuest Biosciences,  Susan Jessee has graciously volunteered to  take a lead role in organizing the Event and I am working with her while I am in town this week as to dump as much on her as I can.

Also on the rolls is Terrence Brann, a former LTI, GTI, ONCOR & SAIC-Frederick worker “between jobs,” as we say in this day and age.

So, I encourage you all to be as supportive and useful as always and help us keep the momentum rolling while I spend a few quality months-years in the Great White North.

I want to personally thank you all for being there for me and making Frederick County Biotech better than the rest.  We are “leading the way” and our quest is spreading through the “other” counties in the State that seem to get all of the attention.

I wish you all good health, happiness and prosperity in 2012 and beyond.

Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays to everyone! Jim Hardy has graciously allowed me to post to his blog. There are plans in the works for the next Biobeers meetup in January 2012, and there will be more information about that as it becomes available.

I would like to start a brainstorming session here about a favor-exchange network for the biotech/pharma community here in Maryland. I am thinking about a web-based forum in which training or services could be exchanged.

I came up with this idea due to my own situation. I have an MS in Applied Molecular Biology, and over a dozen years of experience in cell and molecular biology. I have accumulated a wide range of skills, but I don’t have hands-on experience in flow cytometry.  This has caused me to lose job opportunities. I would gladly exchange a few hours of work to someone in exchange for FACS training.  And then I realized that I am certainly not the only person with this sort of problem. 

 Even those of us who have been in research for years may have been frustrated by one small gap in our repertoire of skills.  Rather than pay thousands of dollars and hours of time to go to a formal class, wouldn’t we sometimes prefer to just get some training in one particular technique from a colleague, in exchange for a few hours of our own time or expertise? Or maybe you need a microarray analysis done, but you don’t have the equipment. So you locate a colleague who has the equipment, and agree to perform some other task or analysis for them.  Recent graduates without much money or resources could spend a few hours counting plaques or colonies, defrosting freezers, or decontaminating hoods in exchange for training in a particular technique. How interested would you be in a formal website that allowed these connections to be made?