April Fools, Jobs and Events

It looks like April is stacking up to be a busy month in FredCoBio.  One of the best local gatherings, I think, is the Spring Research Festival at Ft Detrick on Wednesday 4/29 and Thursday 4/30.  in the event you have never attended, they put up several a large tents and have vendors in one and poster sessions and stuff in the other.  It is free and open to the public, but you’ll need to go through the visitors gate at Ft Detrick off 7th street and get past the guards with their M16’s.

There is a lot of information on their web site. I suggest you check it out. Better yet, attend at least one of the days.

I have also update the April Events calendar page with a ton of excellent seminars being held at NCI-Frederick on the Fort.  I was going to go this morning to watch Michael Bishops webinar on Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplants, but lacked motivation.

And looking forward into May, the Md Tech Council’s Annual Dinner & Tech Awards celebration will be held May 14th in Bethesda.  I wish the Tech Council would be more active in Frederick, but will acknowledge they are trying.  I also wish they’d give us little guys a bit of a break on registration fees and the like.  This event is $350 per person for non-members ($199 for members) and annual membership dues are $450 (and is scaled for number of employees, so I guess this is a form of a break).  It is a very well attended event (usually about 5,000 people), but not a Biotech focused event, so a lot of “service providers”, which loosely translates to Sales people.

I do wish luck to our old FITCI friends Integrated BioTherapeutics in being a finalist in the Emerging Company of the Year category and Frederick’s own Dr Robert House of  Dynport Vaccine being named a finalist as Executive of the Year.

Speaking of Events, is anyone else going to the Greater Baltimore Tech Councils 10th Anniversary Party tomorrow night?  I know I’ll see a few of my Miles & Stockbridge friends there.

While I’m on the topic of Miles & Stockbridge, I always look forward to what Jason Balog has to say in his monthly Opt-Ed piece in the Frederick News post.   This month’s topic “Stem cell funding reversal: Any immediate effect for Maryland?” was interesting, but I feel compelled to dispel one common myth perpetuated in this column.   The myth that needs to be addressed is that the NIH was not funding Stem Cell and specifically Embryonic stem cell research prior to the Obama repeal of the Bush legislation.  To the contrary, the NIH has earmarked millions and millions of dollars for Embryonic stem cell research during the Bush administration.  The issue was that in order to recieve these funds, researchers were restricted to 21 ES cell lines that were characterized and controlled by the NIH.  As long as you were willing to use these lines in your research, there was a lot of money available and many researches took advantage of this funding mechanism.  Just a pet peeve of mine that this is commonly misunderstood.  Also somewhat misrepresented was that the Maryland Stem Cell fund was specifically bound to follow NIH guidelines; therefore, there were no funds available through the MD Stem Cell Commission grants that were any different than NIH funding already available.  That said, I don’t think, in actuality, the Obama repeal should have any effect on the Md Stem Cell Commission funding.  In reality, it will probably persuade the naive public’s opinion and become a scapegoat to shifting funding to other areas due to simple perception that Stem Cell research now have the Feds to fall back on and the funding is no longer needed.

But enough of that.  I also promised to talk about Jobs and there are a couple of developments on this front recently. I was told by a reader that in Sunday’s FNP ( section B, page B9) there was a full page ad by Batelle National Biodefence Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC, pronounced “N-Back”) calling on people to send in their resumes.  I don’t get the paper version of the FNP anymore and couldn’t find it on-line, but their Job site lists a number of what appear to me to be fairly senior level positions.  If anyone still has the Sunday edition and can relay contact info to me I’d appreciate it (and so will many people out there looking for Jobbs).  To be clear, the ad may also be represented by BNBI (meaning Battelle National Biodefense Institute).  Batelle has the contract to run the NBACC facility.  If you want one of these jobs, you’ll have to learn to mire through all the acronyms and agencies and interrelationships.  If anyone has any luck or any tips on how to get the real low down on positions available, please let us know!

I’ve also been following MDBiotech on Twitter, and they’ve posted a number of positions on their web site.  It looks like most of their clients are in MoCo (boooo!), but please check them out is you’re interested.  I also passed around an invite from a new recruiter in town specializing in Biotech recently, The Mark of Honor Consulting. Tell Juan I sent you!

Ok, I have been working on this post for 2 hours now and could go on a lot longer.  We’ll have to save that for another day.  Come back tomorrow for the big BioBeers Announcement!

Mushroom hunting: Let the Festivities begin!

At SciFoo at Google in August ‘08 I met Paul Stamets of Fungi.com.  One of the many give a ways was his book, Mycelium Running.  I have been obsessed ever since.  I had the opportunity to ask Paul about cultivating morels I have my yard.  I am watching and waiting for my morels to sprout (which is typically 2-5 days after the first heavy rain in April in this region), but in the mean time I am checking out what’s come to fruit after the rains this weekend.  I’ve also propagated some shiitake (which I bought at fungi.com in the form of plug spawn) and some shaggy parasol mushrooms I picked out of the goat yard in the fall.  I am cultivating these in corrugated cardboard (in one case a pizza box) which I left out over the winter.  The mycelium are running, but I am worried I have some undesirable mold running, too.  Time will tell.

In any event, I put together this enjoyable slide show of my Sunday morning mushroom adventure (updated with music):

Now that I have moved my operations into FITCI@Hood, I hope to take advantage of the Hood Biology department to help me identify some of these fungi.  I bought the National Audobon Societies Field Guide, but I can never make a firm identification.  you don’t want to be making bad taxonomic decisions when it comes to wild mushrooms.  Any experts ut there who would like to start a c”shroom hunting Club?  One interesting thing about Paul is that he was the Ken Kesey & the Merry Prankster’sofficial mycologist.

I think I have blogged his TED talk before, but it’s worth another post

This and That: Short Stories from FredCoBio

I’ve been busy trying to propagate a few new cell lines and fooling around, but trying to keep finding things relevant to FredCoBio.

In the FNP today there is a nice piece about the new Earth & Space lab next to Lincoln Elementary.  It’s supposed to open this fall.  I haven’t been there in probably 10 years.  I know renovation is long over due and hope to be able to check it out when it’s completed.

StemCellDigest.net ran an interesting review of recent sucess in raising capital for the parent company of LifeLine Cell Technology in Walkersville.  In case you didn’t know, they recently closed $5MM financing in the form of Series D preferred stock.  This sets up an interesting connection between Frederick, Oceanside CA and Russia that I hope will prove fruitful going forward.  We’ll have to keep an eye on it.

And just now Alexey’s post in the FriendFeed regenerative Medicine room was most enlightening.  He linked to a WIRED article with relevance to Ft Detrick, although not explicitly mentioned in the article.

The first phase of the Pentagon’s plan to regrow soldiers’ limbs is complete; scientists managed to turn human skin into the equivalent of a blastema — a mass of undifferentiated cells that can develop into new body parts. Now, researchers are on to phase two: turning that cellular glop into a square inch of honest-to-goodness muscle tissue.

I don’t know this for a fact, but I would be pretty sure this funding has some ties to the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, commissioned out of Ft Detrick.

Like I said, it’s been a busy week.

Breaking News: Next BioBeers on the Books

Mark your calendars.  Thanks to our friends at Tyler-Donegan Real Estate, I had a meeting with this afternoon and the next BioBeers is a Go-go. Date will be Wednesday April 29th starting at 4:30 PM.   We have the second floor of Brewer’s Alley reserved for the event. We also have verbal agreement for sponsorship from Bill Travers at Anaton Ltd. and also some technical presentations from customers using his microfluidizers (I think).  More details to follow.

We’re looking for a anyone else to sponsor food.  As this is a much classier joint and they serve their own food, we’re not going to be able to bring anything in.  Anyone with a spare $250, please let me know.

On another topic, I wanted to draw your attention to a fine article in the FNP yesterday about the new exhibit at the Museum of Civil War Medicine.  As I mentioned in a post after a Ft Detrick Allience event held at the museum, Frederick County has a unique place in Americas history of being, perhaps, the epicenter for battlefield medicine.

From the article:

That exhibit, also built in partnership with Fort Detrick, was getting dated, said Maj. Gen. George Weightman, commanding general of USAMRMC and Fort Detrick.

“We decided we can do a lot better,” he said.

This is an opportunity for the command to show the role of research and development in military medical advances, Weightman said. It also allows the command to highlight newer advances from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, and its work in treating infectious diseases.

From the museum’s side, the exhibit will show how Civil War-era medical discoveries are still affecting modern-day medicine, Wunderlich said. The display is the last one museum visitors will encounter, tying together and bringing up to date everything they have seen.

Bomb Scare at MedImmune, Changes at Lonza and other news of the day

I stopped by the usual place for lunch today and was surprised to see the place full of MedImmune “regulars”.  Regulars at Happy Hour, not lunch.  Apparently, there was a “bomb threat” call in and they decided to evacuate the place at around 10:30-11 AM.  That is just bizarre.  Who’d call in a bomb threat except some disgruntled former employee or a contractor pissed off because they were booted off the site?  Maybe it was the Antiboby Freedom League, a rogue antibody rights terrorist organization.  Screw the babies, Save the antibodies!  Bizarre.

I took advantage of a beautiful day Friday morning to play a round of golf with a number of Lonza guys (who shall remain nameless lest they weren’t supposed to be playing golf).  Apparently, Shawn Cavanagh has been replaced at Lonza-Walkersville by Anja Fiedler.  I don’t know if this is entirely newsworthy or indicates a big change in direction at Lonza, but since it was reported one one of my other favorite blogs, I thought I’d mention it, too.  My take was that Shawn was ready to try something else and that people are looking forward to see what this change means.  Time will tell.

And for something else really sublime, check out this nerdy  YouTube by Invitrogen (Not yet Life Tech apparently).  this dude is definitely invited to the next BioBeers:

Tech Awards

I had a great time at the tech Awards last night.  Perhaps enjoyed the adult beverages too much, but met a number of old & new faces.  Turn up your volume for the slide show:

It was nice to catch up with a number of the Life Tech folks.  So happy that they are turning things around and back on the right track.  Quite a few “former” Life Tech folks there as well.  I met David Edgerley there.  He’s the former Director of DBED.  In our brief conversation I found out he was good friends with my old boss, friend, recently deceased RK Mason.  Small world.

The slide show features WGS Systems.  I know they are not Biotech, but they are Incubator tenants like myself and I promised them I’d take some pictures for them.  Maybe next year when I win, they’ll return the favor?

UPDATE 3/14:  Here is the FNP write up.  They don’t have any rock-n-roll on their slide show

Tech Awards Tonight

I have heard from a number of people that they  will be attending the Tech Council of Maryland, 7th Annual Frederick County Tech Awards tonight at the Delaplaine Visual Arts Center.  I’m kind of excited since I’ve never been there.

Front and center, will be Firm of the Year “Life Technologies Corporation” and Executive of the Year
Dr. Robert House, President, DynPort Vaccine Company, LLC A CSC Company.  This just shows how strong Biotech is in Frederick County.

This may be the first time SABiosciences isn’t getting some big award, at least since I have attended.  they did have a nice write up in the most recent edition of GEN, though.

I look forward to seeing everyone there tonight!

All the Buzz

All the buzz around the blogshpere & newswires today is about president Obama lifting the ban on embryonic stem cell research.  I have ranted on about this enough already.  To sum it up, it’s a wonderful thing.  I especially like Obama stating that he is going to let Science dictate the path of medical research and not politics.  We’ll see how well he does with that.

Certainly FredCoBio companies like LifeLine, Life Tech and Lonza stand to launch new products and get renewed interest in existing products.  The big issue with the Bush Doctrine was one of perception that there is something illegal about stem cell research.  LifeLine/ISCO is hosting a webinar on March 12th to discuss, if anyone is interested.

Since Frederick county is the Stem Cell captial of thw e world, it’s got to be good for us, right?  According the Stemcelldigest.net ISCO/LifeLine is one of the top performing stem cell companies, in terms of market capitalization change YTD.  I hope that trend continues.  Now Lonza and Life Tech don’t get a lot of attention from the “core” stem cell guys since they’re both involved in a lot of other stuff and not “exclusively” stem cell companies.

According to a recent report from Life Science Intelligence, the regenerative medicine and stem cell fields is expected to grow 16% annually to go from $1.5BB in 2008 to $118BB in 2013.

Riding on the waves of growth, maybe someone can find a job for my old buddy (I should say “long time”) Jim Spencer.  Apparently he fell victim to Life Tech paring back in other groups, perhaps to focus on the growth in stem cell markets?

FITCI Showcase & Other Events

I attended a couple of interesting events this week I thought you may want to know about.

On Wednesday I was invited to attend a meeting of the Maryland World Class Consortia.  This group is very interested in recruiting Biotech companies into their Lean training programs.  I know that 90% of you biotechies out there are going to be shaking your heads because you think either:

1)  Been there, done that, it don’t work

2)  We’re doing it now

3)  It doesn’t apply to me because (enter any litany of a lame excuse here).

Jeff Fuchs, Exec. Director of MWCC, addresses the capacity crowd at Turf Valley

I am here to tell you that Lean and Biotech couldn’t be more perfectly suited for each other.  As a matter of fact, if a Biotech company can implement 1/10th of the Lean disciplines an electronics or automobile assembly line has to do just to stay afloat (or other low margin businesses) they can save thousands if not millions of dollars in Operating expenses, quality problem, scrap etc.  I know.  I think I have helped with maybe a smidgen more than a 10% lean implementation and it made huge, positive results to quality, people and the bottom line.  Ask me some time and I will show you the money.  Unfortunately, both times I did this (and I have my share of piss poor implementations to tell you about, too) it created such value that the companies were sold and all the Upper Crusties walked out millionaires, and I was on the street looking for another job.

So any way, the MWCC is going to be aligned with the new DBED branch, Md Biotechnology Center, and offer as a service to Md Biotech’s Lean training and assistance.  Best to build these principles at the ground floor before they’re needed to save a company from disaster.

If anyone is interested in joining MWCC, please let me know and I will introduce you to the right people.  You would be foolish not to join.  And, by the way, if anyone could insert some of the basic Lean principles into R&D, they’d make more money than you would ever believe.

Mike Dailey, Exec. Director FITCI

Then last night I attended the FITCI showcase, as both a spectator and as a FITCI client showing off my wares.  I must admit that I was really not prepared for the event.  I had time to give my “elevator talk” (which I have down pretty well), but didn’t have any fancy Marketing stuff to pass out. I am working on the new Logo and image even as we speak.  More on that later.

The FITCI Showcase brought in a number of Aldermen, Commissioners and Business people to see what we’ve been up to.  It was a “Look at FITCI’s First Five Years” and it was a lot of fun.

While at the FITCI Showcase, I was given a hand out for a new event being sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce.  It is a Chamber Recruitment event on Wednesday March 25th from 3 until 5 PM at APE-Bridgepath, 4841 International Blvd, Ste 105.  Call 301-662-4164 x 201 and register today!

March Events in FredCoBio

As always, I try to post a monthly events calendar.  I’m not sure how many peoepl actually read it, but there are a number of great seminars on Ft Detrick this month.

I spent all weekend reading excerts from Jon Rowley’s (Dir. Cell Therapy R&D, Lonza-Walkersville and recovering blogger @ Regeneration Station) excellent editorial work on Tissue Engineering Part A  “Technologies for Enhancing Tissue Engineering: Materials and Environments for Guiding Stem Cell Function“.  More credibility to how FredCoBio is leading the world in Stem Cell innovation.

Anyway, on with the events post.  In particular, there are a number of different Stem-related talks being given.

Monday, March 02, 2009
2:00 PM		Bldg 549 Auditorium
	SANGER Sequencing and LIMS Users Meeting	Details
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
8:00 AM	Olivera J. Finn, PhD	Bldg 549 Conf. Rm B
	Immune Memory for Abnormal Self and Immunosurveillance	Details Series
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
9:00 AM	Jerry Pelletier, PhD	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	Translation Initiation as a Therapeutic Target	Details Series
Thursday, March 05, 2009
10:00 AM	Paul Wade, PhD	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	Mi-2/NuRD Complex: Gene Regulation in Cancer	Details
Friday, March 06, 2009
8:45 AM	Various Speakers	Bldg 10 Lipsett
	2nd NIH Mesothelioma Conference – Novel Agents and Approaches for Treatment of Mesothelioma	Details
12:00 PM	Dr. Lionel Ivashkiv	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	Regulation of Cytokine and TLR Signaling During Macrophage Activation	Details Series
Monday, March 09, 2009
2:30 PM	Elena Pasquale	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	Eph Receptors in Cancer	Details Series
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
8:00 AM	Alfred Singer, MD	Bldg 549 Conf. Rm B
	T Cells That See Antigens Independently of MHC	Details Series
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
12:00 PM	Steve Anderson	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	Endogenous Anti-Sense Transcripts Regulate the Human KIR Gene Cluster	Details Series
Thursday, March 12, 2009
12:00 PM	Hugh P. Cam, PhD	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	Epigenetic Control and Genome Organization by RNAi and Transposon-derived Proteins	Details
Friday, March 13, 2009
12:00 PM	Dr. Jeffrey Miller	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	NK Cells, Their Receptors and Implications for Cancer and Transplantation Therapy	Details Series
Monday, March 16, 2009
2:30 PM	Amy Tang, PhD	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	TBA	Details Series
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
8:00 AM	Frank Maldarelli, MD, PhD	Bldg 549 Conf. Rm B
	A Curative Intent: Evaluating Strategies to Eradicate HIV-1 Infection	Details Series
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
12:00 PM	Frank Cuttitta	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	Co-culture 2D/3D Angiogenesis/Lymphangiogenesis Assays for Drug Screening, Mimetics to the In Vivo Environment	Details Series
Thursday, March 19, 2009
1:00 PM	Dr. Paul Fox	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	Translational Control of Inflammatory Gene Expression	Details
Friday, March 20, 2009
12:00 PM	Dr. David Artis	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	Intestinal Immune Homeostasis: The Role of Commensal Bacteria	Details Series
Monday, March 23, 2009
3:00 PM	Michael Jung, PhD	Bldg 10 Lipsett
	Rational Drug Design for the Treatment of Hormone Refractory Prostate Cancer	Details Series
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
8:00 AM	Carlo M. Croce, MD	Bldg 549 Conf. Rm B
	Role of MicroRNA in the Pathogenesis of Human Cancer	Details Series
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
12:00 PM	Vinay Pathak	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	Novel Mechanisms of HIV-1 Resistance to Antiretroviral Drugs and APOBEC3 Restriction Factors	Details Series
Friday, March 27, 2009
10:00 AM	George Vande Woude	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	TBA	Details Series
12:00 PM	Dr. Harold Moses	Bldg 426 Conf. Rm
	TGF-beta Regulation of the Tumor Inflammatory Microenvironment	Details Series
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
8:00 AM	Michael R. Bishop, MD	Bldg 549 Conf. Rm B
	Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: Transformation of a Field	Details Series