The Recap: BioBeer 4

I am confident that everyone will agree BioBeer 4 was a smashing success!

From the number of glasses that were consumed, the attendance was about 60 people (many of them pictured above).

And we put a hurtin’ on the meat, too.

It doesn’t come out too well in this photo, but we actually had a couple of brief presentations and our Logo proudly displayed.

I saw a number of folks I haven’t seen in a while and the Gazette photographer stayed around for a while taking pictures. Not sure when that will run, but look for the write up in one of the next editions.

We also lured a few people out of Ft Detrick and had representatives from prominent FredCoBio companies like MedImmune, Lonza, LifeLine Cell Technology and Invitrogen as well as a few MoCo Bio folks, like Lentigen & MesoScale.

My thanks to Chris and the good folks at Flying Dog for tolerating us. I’ll start planning BioBeer 5 for October or November. I think that this will become a quarterly event.

All Systems Go!

Just to let you know, and for some reason I have been repeatedly asked “Is BioBeers still on?” The building is standing, there’s plenty of beer on tap and propane for the grill.

Be there or be square!

CRL Expansion Continued

I saw a nice article on-line this morning with more information about the new Charles River Lab facility on Monocacy Blvd.  Apparently, they have opened their doors and one would assume hiring some new people.  You can see current openings in Frederick HERE, or by going to their CAREERS page.

From businesswire.com:

Charles River Supports the National Cancer Institute and Establishes New RMS Operations

Leading CRO expands footprint in Maryland to support customer demand and RMS geographic growth

WILMINGTON, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–In response to increasing demand and to better serve its customer the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE: CRL) today announced the opening of its 52,000 square foot Frederick, Maryland facility. In the new facility, Charles River is working side by side with NCI in a seamless partnership to produce the highest quality research models available.

“In 2008, more than 1.4 million people will be diagnosed with cancer. This translates into one person every 22 seconds, every day this year, being told they have cancer,” said Dr. Melinda Hollingshead, Chief of the Biological Testing Branch at The National Cancer Institute-Frederick. “Because Charles River built this facility for us, we are able to invest in the research and development of new therapeutics for patients who need them. By partnering with them, we gain an experienced, high-quality service provider who helps us accelerate our drug development efforts.”

Building our clients’ facilities for them

The new facility employs approximately 120 employees, 80 of whom are focused on providing genetically defined, pathogen-free mice to support NCI/NIH (National Institutes of Health)-funded research targeting the causes and treatments of infectious and metabolic diseases, cancer and other nationally recognized health issues. In addition, Charles River has assumed responsibility for the management of the NCI/NIH Tumor and Natural Products Repository, which stores a wide array of tumor samples under carefully controlled conditions so that they can be made available to researchers who are exploring the causes and treatment of cancer.

The half of the shared facility dedicated to supporting NCI will be staffed and operated by Charles River’s Consulting and Staffing Services (CSS) group. CSS offers recruitment, training, staffing and management services to customers at their sites or in Charles River facilities. The other half of the facility will be occupied by Charles River’s Research Models and Services (RMS) business, which will use this new space as a platform for growth in the Baltimore/Washington geographic market.

“Our new Frederick facility is more than just a building that produces the finest research models available globally. This shared-space facility symbolizes the evolving dynamics in the drug development process, as we truly become one with our customers,” said James C. Foster, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Charles River. “Our investment in this state-of-the-art facility coupled with our core competencies of veterinary medicine and science enable us to help accelerate NCI’s drug development programs.”

The facility was constructed after winning a $111.6 MM grant from the NCI in September, 2006.

BioBeers: Final Reminder

View Larger Map

Last chance to get your name in for BioBeers this Wednesday, starting at 4:30 PM at the Flying Dog Brewery (see Map).

Attendance is expected to top 50 people this time, which will be a new record. I also want to acknowledge a couple of folks for helping out.

First Aerotek Frederick for sponsoring our “tipping fee”, which means you get to go home with of “free” pint-sized sampling glass.

FiberCell Systems for sponsoring Brats for mass consumption

MedImmune, for bringing some other tube meats and buns for 50, which will hopefully be more than the number of “MedImmuners” in attendance

Gwendolyn Gainer of TeraMark for bringing the chips.

And also Proventsure for being our “hardware” sponsor, with napkins, plates and such. Gary is also going to give a presentation on Computational Biology whuch sounds very interesting from the previews I have seen.

We are going to kick things off, after a few samples of Flying Dog Ales, with a brief presentation by me, then Gary, with tours in between, effective professional networking and grilled tube meats. There is also a rumor that the Gazette will be coming by to cover the event. I will also have my camera in-hand and will post photos later this week.

So please let me know, if you haven’t already, if you plan on attending. We have rom for a bunch more, but I don’t want anyone to go home hungry (and don’t want to break the bank for glass sponsorship).

APE-Bridgepath Win $50K through Ft Detrick Tech Transfer

According to news release by TEDCO yesterday:

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), in collaboration with the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) and the Frederick County Office of Economic Development (OED), today announced that two companies have been awarded a total of $100,000 in funding through the Ft. Detrick Technology Transfer Initiative (FDTTI). Theradigm, Inc., and APE-BridgePath Scientific, LLC, which each received $50,000, are the first companies to receive funding through the program’s $750,000 extension of FDTTI. 

“Maryland is fortunate to be home to Ft. Detrick and some of the most promising technical innovations
in the country,” said Governor Martin O’Malley. “I applaud the Maryland congressional delegation for
supporting and funding such an important program. FDTTI and other TEDCO initiatives ensure that these
advancements benefit not only Marylanders, but all Americans.”

TEDCO works with the USAMRMC to maintain awareness of new technologies in the pipeline; develop effective strategies for the transition of successful projects to follow-on funding; efficiently manage the
proposal funding, reporting and transition phases of projects; and coordinate with the Ft. Detrick Business
Development Office to increase procurement opportunities for small businesses.

Dr Joe Garner and Patrick Haley of APE-BridgePath

“The FDTTI extension allows companies like Theradigm and APE-BridgePath Scientific to further develop their technologies, and it fosters important relationships with Ft. Detrick for many Maryland companies,” said Renée Winsky, president and executive director of TEDCO. “A great amount of progress in assessing and addressing the needs of the U.S. Army was made through the first round of FDTTI funding. TEDCO looks forward to tracking the future success of this important program.”

Since I know APE-BridgePath will be at BioBeers, y’all can just wait until next week to speak with them in person..

Super Array Changes their name and Moves into new Facility

I just saw this press release on the PR Newswire:

SuperArray Bioscience Changes Name to SABiosciences and Moves Into New Larger Facility on Verge of Tenth Anniversary

FREDERICK, Md., July 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — SuperArray Bioscience Corporation announced today it has changed its name to SABiosciences Corporation and moved to a brand new facility three times larger than the previous location. The changes reflect both its phenomenal growth over the last few years and its continuing expansion into other additional technologies besides gene expression analysis.

“We are not just a microarray company anymore,” said Dave Martz, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at SABiosciences. “We are now and will continue to become so much more. SuperArray developed a solid reputation for delivering pathway-focused content for gene expression analysis, first with its hybridization-based microarrays and then most recently and much more successfully with real-time PCR Arrays. However, to provide our vision of a systems biology approach in a post-genomic era, SABiosciences now also offers gene function analysis solutions such as RNA interference, ELISA kits, cell-based reporter assays, as well as chromatin immunoprecipitation and other products for epigenomics research.”

The move and name change occurs on the heels of receiving the Tech Council of Maryland Frederick County Firm of the Year Award in 2007 and just before their tenth anniversary as an incorporated company. Rapid growth and continually aggressive revenue projections allowed and indeed necessitated more personnel and capital equipment. After quickly outgrowing their currently available space of 18,000 square feet, the company moves to a new building with 43,000 square feet that supports 150 full-time employees. The company remains in Frederick, Maryland, only a few blocks away in the newly developed Westview South Office Research Center.

“To accommodate our rapid business growth and to better serve our customers, we built this new facility with state of the art R&D lab space, molecular and cell biology instruments, particle-free clean rooms,” Martz continued. “As we approach our tenth anniversary this fall, we are very excited about the opportunities for our continued success that the new location will provide us. The name change better reflects our business model and vision for the future. We will continue bringing cutting edge technologies into every biological research laboratory with relevant biological content.”

About SABiosciences Corporation

SABiosciences Corporation, a privately held biotechnology company founded in 1998, envisions a new and systematic approach to biological research in the post-genomic era. We have developed a broad portfolio of innovative and cost-effective research tools based on current knowledge and understanding of important biological pathways that merge the benefits of hypothesis-driven and discovery-based research. Our goal is to provide practical research tools that accelerate, simplify and improve life science research.
Website: http://www.SABiosciences.com/
I think that’s kinda cool, since I drove past there today and thought it looked like they were moving in. It’s on New Design Road, only a mile or so from the Flying Dog Brewery and right across Rt 85 on the newly extended Executive Way.

Speaking of BioBeers 4

Just wanted to point out a nice write up in the Frederick News Post about Flying dog Brewery’s new CEO. I think it’s particularly poignant story because it involves entrepreneurial spirit, cultivating business, Frederick County Biotech (remember, fermentation is really biotech) and Beer (of course).

I was also sad to see that the original Colorado BioBeers chapter, where I was inspired to start the East Coast chapter and who kindly allowed me to borrow their logo and charter, appears to be ending until a new organizer can be found. Maybe it’s just the blog behind the Chapter that’s moving on, but change nonetheless.

This makes me look back and reflect on the purpose of BioBeers:

A fundamental component to accelerate the region towards achieving a top-tier bio-cluster ranking as a thriving and nurturing bio-entrepreneurial community. BioBeers is designed to function as an accelerant, where like minded bio-preneurs gather once a month to share ideas, cultivate business relationships and build life long friendships.

We invite you to join us..

Courtesy Frederick News-Post, Ed Waters, Jr.

But back to the Flying dog story.  I found this quote interesting and explains alot about why they moved to Frederick (aside from being the best town on earth):

“Seventy percent of Flying Dog sales are east of Ohio, hence the move to Frederick. Flying Dog purchased the struggling Frederick Brewing Co. in 2006 for $1.4 million, changed the name to Wild Goose Brewery, named for one of the products, then to Flying Dog Brewery. The outside of the building now has the Flying Dog logos and the tasting room is decorated in Flying Dog artwork, inspired by Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson and created by British artist and Thompson affiliate, Ralph Steadman.

The move did increase the cost of transporting beer to the West Coast. Hauling it to the Pacific Northwest adds $2 per six pack to cover costs.”

And also interesting on how they approached packaging operations:

“Locally outsourced packing

Besides the 50 employees at the brewery, the company outsources hand-packing for its variety six packs. Employees at the Jeanne Bussard Center pack about 450 cases a day.

“We don’t have the room or people to do it here,” Caruso said. “So we haul the beer there, they pack it and then we bring it back here.”

Actually, we did the same thing at Life tech in the 90′s.  We had a group of guys from Jeanne Bussard Center come in a couple times a week to fold our product sheets and to help package & label things.

More news upcoming about BioBeers 4 East this week, including a new speaker and acknowledgment of all our sponsors.

The Fort Detrick Alliance

The Fort Detrick Alliance is a group formed by Marie Keegin, and others, in 2003 to facilitate communications between the Departments of Defense, Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security (all tenants at Ft Detrick) and the local business community.

Quoting Marie and the story in the Gazette.net yesterday:

“Fort Detrick is the engine of Frederick County’s economy. … Our greatest strength in our economy is Fort Detrick and all the world-renowned science that goes on there,“ Keegin said. “It seems sometimes that most people don’t understand or appreciate that in our community, but it’s important for our community to understand.”

Keegin believes that Frederick County, with its burgeoning biotech base, is a major contributor to Maryland’s reputation as most technologically prepared state in the nation. When she began working with the county in 2001, it had 20 biotech companies; now, there are roughly 70.

Before joining the county agency, Keegin managed the suburban Maryland office of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development from 1996 to 2001 and was director of the Frederick County Job Training Agency from 1985 to 1996. The graduate of Frederick Community College, Hood College and Mount St. Mary’s College was Frederick County’s coordinator for the Pentagon’s base realignment program last year.

Keegin’s legacy in her county job includes shoring up support for the county’s business incubator — the Frederick Innovative Technology Center – which now has two locations. Incubator director Michael J. Dailey, who has worked with Keegin for four years, said she played a major role in launching the facility.

I have known Marie since about 1996, when she was still with DBED. we worked together, and pulled in a coupe of people from other DBED agencies including the World Class Manufacturing Consortium, to write some of the first PWQ (Partnership for Workforce Quality) Grants for training Life Technologies employees.

I hope I can entice Marie and a couple of the Alliance to come out to BioBeers and maybe tease a couple more people in attendance into going out on their own and starting their own business.

DynPort moves to the Clinic

An article in the FNP yesterday shows that DynPort is moving into the Clinical Trials arena and has already been awarded a $32MM contract for phase I clinicals by NIAID. DynPort will be subcontracting most of the work out through Quintiles, as the FredCo branch is essentially a bunch of “project managers” and deal with a lot of documentation issues and project management work. It’ll be interesting to see how this progresses, but being funded for 7 years is a good way to start.

I am also counting on a number of DynPort folks to be out at BioBeers 4, so you can talk it over with them in person.

Which reminds me of some exciting breaking news.

Our gracious BioBeers host, Flying Dog Brewery, made Forbes’ list of the Worlds Best Brewery Tours, as reported on my sister blog, Frederick Maryland On-line.

I have sponsorship for both the Brats (via our friends at FiberCell Systems) and Aerotek Scientific Staffing has offered to cover all of the glasses!! So now you can tour a world class brewery, have a free glass to take home, listen to me rant about Stem Cells and find yourself a new job.

It doesn’t get any better than that! Unless I can recruit a couple more sponsors for the chips, plates and such…

Lonza Inks deal with Novartis

Perhaps following a lead from rival AstraZeneca’s acquisition of MedImmune, Novartis has entered a “long term” agreement with Lonza to accelerate Novartis’ Biological drug discovery platform.

From SpecChem online:

News Article ID: 14103 14 July 2008 Lonza, Novartis in biological pipeline deal Novartis and Lonza have announced the conclusion of a long-term strategic partnership for the joint development and manufacture of Novartis’s biological pipeline of drugs. Full terms are not being disclosed. “This represents a change in approach from a typical CMO deal. It focuses on a real collaborative approach to development and manufacturing asset planning”, said Dr Stephan Kutzer, head of Lonza Biopharmaceuticals. The agreement, the company added, “reinforces Lonza’s leadership position in process development and manufacturing”. The company will supply development services from its R&D centre in Slough, UK, using its GS Gene Expression System and scale-up and large-scale manufacturing capacity from its various biopharmaceutical operations in the US, Spain and Singapore. This is the single most significant of a number of recent agreements Lonza has reached in the biotechnology field. Within the space of ten days in early July, it closed the acquisition of Amaxa, entered into a strategic product supply agreement with Osiris Therapeutics and signed an exclusive sales agreement with Bar Harbor BioTechnology. The acquisition of the German cell discovery services firm Amaxa was originally announced in May. Amaxa had developed its electroporation-based Nucleofection technology, said to be the first efficient non-viral method for the transfer of DNA or siRNA directly into the nucleus of primary cells and hard-to-transfect cell lines. Its 160 staff are now being integrated into Lonza. With Osiris, Lonza has agreed a clinical and commercial manufacturing agreement for the production of Prochrynal, an adult stem cell therapy that is in Phase III trials for three indications. As part of this, it will build the world’s first commercial-scale allogenic cGMP manufacturing facility, as well as additional cGMP grade cell culture media, at the former Cambrex site in Walkersville, Maryland, in a “multi-million” dollar investment. Under its deal with Bar Harbor, Lonza has become the sole global distributor of Bar Harbor’s Stellaray gene expression system products. The alliance also covers the Cell Discovery business of Lonza Bioscience, which was also formerly part of Cambrex and which claims to be the world’s leading supplier of primary cells. One of the main reasons that Big Pharma is getting in bed with the Biotechs is that biological drug and therapies are much more difficult than biologically active chemicals to get approved and, most importantly, to “clone”, knock-off or make into a generic equivalent. This greatly extends the exclusivity (i.e. PROFIT$$) the owner maintains, becasue the time for entry into the market is longer. Looks like most of the Lonza-Novartis stuff will be outside the US, but eventually one would think the cell production side would come back to little old Walkersville, MD. So now, who’s nipping at who’s heels?