IVGN announces Licensing deal with WARF

According to their web site today, Invitrogen has signed an agreement with Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) for Human Embryonic Stem Cells.

According to the release:

Under the terms of the agreement, Invitrogen will have the right to work with karyotypically normal hESCs to develop novel research and drug discovery tools.

“Invitrogen’s goal is the development of research tools that enhance the ability of scientists to work with embryonic stem cells and to enhance the utility of these cells for research and drug discovery,” said Joydeep Goswami, Vice President, Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine. “Having the ability to work with karyotypically normal hESCs through our license with WARF allows us to develop better technologies for research, such as more defined media and engineered stem cell lines. This agreement is another step in our strategy of pursuing advances in the high-growth area of regenerative medicine.”

This is interesting in several regards.  WARF appears to be holding it’s own in defending several patents related to hES cells, although the verdict is still out.

Perhaps more interesting is that IVGN’s RegMed group is, I believe, in Frederick.  At least Dr Rao, who is also a VP of the Stem Cell Group, is in Frederick.

OncoVAX Authorized by Dutch

In a press release yesterday, it was announce that Frederick-based Vaccinogen’s potential blockbuster colon cancer “vaccine” therapy has been approved for manufacture at their Emmen, Netherlands facility.

From the FoxBusiness web site:

FREDERICK, Md., May 7, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ —-Vaccinogen Inc. said Dutch health authorities licensed it to manufacture its break-through OncoVAX anti-colon cancer vaccine, immediately clearing the path to more than $100 million of potential European sales.

The Dutch approval of the company’s facility based in Emmen, The Netherlands also paves the way to its pivotal US FDA Phase IIIb clinical trial — the final step before the vaccine can be sold in the United States.

“The facility can produce up to 3,500 vaccines annually, equivalent to $130 million in revenues,” said Michael G. Hanna, Jr., Ph.D., Vaccinogen CEO. “That number only scratches the surface of potential demand for a Stage II colon cancer vaccine. One of every three patients who have their cancer removed see it return — and the results are usually fatal.”

“Our experience with OncoVAX has resulted in increasing the patients’ chance of survival by more than 50%,” he concluded. “This represents an opportunity for a new lease on life for tens of thousands of patients around the world.”

The Dutch license permits the company to commercialize the vaccine, first in Switzerland and then in seven other countries in Eastern Europe. The OncoVAX vaccine represents a potential medical breakthrough because it uses a patient’s own cancer cells to prevent the cancer from returning after a successful operation to remove it.

The product is actually not a standard “vaccine” like you’d get for rabies or HPV or influenza.  These vaccines are produced and tested in large batches in fermenters and everyone gets essentially the same dose.  OncoVAX is actually an autologous vaccine, whereby a small section of the excised tumor is sent by the surgeon to the production facility where the tumor section is processed and made antigenic.  It is then injected back into the patient, where their own body produces antibodies to the tumor and kills it.

While Vaccinogen is not the only company working on this new era of “personalized medicine”,  they are among the first to pave the way through clinical trials.  This explains, in part, the extreme effort (in terms of $$ and time) it has taken to get this novel process through the rigors of FDA approval in the States.

APE-BridgePath Merger announced

This press release came out today through the PRWeb:

Local Biotech Companies Merge Operations

Advanced Product Enterprises and BridgePath Scientific become APE-BridgePath Scientific

Frederick, MD (Vocus/PRWEB ) April 29, 2008 — The Baltimore-Washington metropolitan region is a productive R&D arena, with over $7 billion spent each year on scientific products for research and product development. Two local companies catering to the same target market, but with different niches, have teamed up to offer a spectrum of services to commercial, academic, and governmental research organizations.

Dr. Joseph Garner (left) and Patrick Haley have merged as APE-BridgePath Scientific, providing solutions for research and development institutions.

I couldn’t be more pleased with this merger. The combination of the two companies will allow us to serve the biotech industry at-large in a more cohesive manner

BridgePath Scientific and Advanced Product Enterprises, LLC (APE) of Frederick have merged their operations into APE-BridgePath Scientific. “Both companies are currently headquartered at the Frederick Innovative Technology Center incubator,” stated Dr. Joseph Garner, President and CEO of APE. “We have collaborated on a number of projects, and joining the two companies will provide our clients with a complete list of value-added services from one organization. We believe the addition of highly trained and business minded scientists to the product lines sold by BridgePath, will allow APE-BridgePath Scientific to provide a high level of understanding and technical support to commercial, academic, and governmental researchers that is currently lacking in the industry.”

“I couldn’t be more pleased with this merger. The combination of the two companies will allow us to serve the biotech industry at-large in a more cohesive manner,” stated Patrick Haley, President and CEO of BridgePath Scientific. BridgePath Scientific provides scientific and laboratory equipment, supplies and custom research and development product fulfillment. They carry tens of thousands of products. Founder, President and CEO Patrick Haley is an active member of the Frederick community and the State of Maryland. He has served on many business, community, industry, and civic boards and councils, including the Technology Council of Maryland, Goodwill Industries of Monocacy Valley, and the Suburban Frederick Kiwanis Club. Haley is a long time member of the Business Development Advisory Council (BDAC) for Frederick County, currently serving as Chairman, and the Frederick chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA). He is also co-founder and former Chairman of the Board of the Frederick Innovative Technology Center, Inc. (FITCI), Frederick County’s first technology incubator.

Advanced Product Enterprises, LLC provides preclinical contract research for pharmaceutical and vaccine companies along with several scientific research products. Their founders of APE have over 30 years of academic and industry research experience and recently launched APE Biodiesel, providing complete testing for biodiesel fuels. Dr. Joseph Garner, President and CEO of APE, was trained and received his PhD in molecular biology at the University of Maryland and studied at the Center of Marine Biology. He is active in a number of regional and national organizations, including the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the Business Development Advisory Council for Frederick County. Dr. Garner has presented research worldwide at scientific meetings, including Translation UK in Dundee, Scotland and International Marine Biotechnology Conference in Australia.

APE-BridgePath is located in the Frederick Innovative Technology Center’s second incubator located at 4539 Metropolitan Court in Frederick, Maryland. For more information about the company and their services, visit www.bridgepathscientific.com and www.ape-bio.com or call 1-888-496-8333.

In vitro models for human skin Tox studies to be made in Frederick

The news keeps coming in for LifeLine, in Walkersville. I was doing research for another project and saw this on their website today:

International Stem Cell Corporation Obtains Exclusive Rights in the US and Canada to Distribute Approved Human Skin Model for Toxicity Testing

---

OCEANSIDE, California, April 29, 2008

---

International Stem Cell Corporation (OTCBB: ISCO) announced today that it has entered into an exclusive agreement with CellSystems Biotechnologie to distribute laboratory-cultured models of human skin useful for testing the hazardous properties of consumer products and for dermatological and pharmaceutical research. Such testing is likely to be soon required for certain types of consumer products sold into the European Union.

According to International Stem Cell’s (ISCO) President Jeffrey Janus, “This agreement is another positive step in ISCO’s strategic plan to become the primary source of high quality human cells for the therapeutic and research markets by leveraging its manufacturing and distribution resources.”

ISCO’s human cell and cell culture research products are manufactured and distributed under the “Lifeline” brand by wholly-owned subsidiary Lifeline Cell Technology, LLC, based in Walkersville, Maryland (www.lifelinecelltech.com).
The laboratory-cultured models of human skin, called EST-1000 and AST-2000 were developed by CellSystems and contain cells manufactured by Lifeline. These three dimensional skin cell models are used as alternative methods to animal testing in the field of Skin Corrosion, Skin Irritation, Skin Sensitization, Genotoxicity and Phototoxicity.

“We have worked with the Lifeline staff and know their abilities to provide excellent
customer service and their ability to consistently produce high quality products; a critical factor for researchers that depend on human cells for the success of their research,” said Horst W. Fuchs, President of CellSystems Biotechnologie. This agreement between our companies opens a distribution channel for CellSystems’ skin model products to scientific researchers throughout the United States and Canada.”
“While the sale of these Lifeline stem cell and research products provides ISCO
immediate cash flow, it also helps embed ISCO’s products into successful therapeutic and quality control procedures worldwide, providing a revenue stream of shared royalties beyond traditional sales,” added Janus.

Recent News and Links with the past

I have been busy the past few days and haven’t been able or motivated enough to put a real post together. So this morning, after being reminded that I had left MedImmune off the Companies list (which is one of the most popular Pages on the Blog in terms of hits), I wanted to take a step back to a press release from Feb. 6th from a new company started in Frederick County named Vaccinogen. This could be a really big story if they are able to demonstrate this process is effective.

Here’s the blurb from their web site:

Frederick, MD – February 6, 2008 – Cancer research pioneer Michael G. Hanna Jr. Ph.D., also Vaccinogen, Inc.’s Founder, Chairman and CEO has acquired the rights to OncoVAX®, a vaccine with the potential to prevent colon cancer from recurring in many patients.

“This agreement represents a major step forward in defeating cancer by increasing the body’s immunity to it,” said Dr. Hanna, who has been working on cancer vaccines for more than 30 years.

“This agreement represents a major step forward in defeating cancer by increasing the body’s immunity to it.”

In the agreement, Vaccinogen obtained exclusive license to OncoVAX® Active Specific Immunotherapy as well as an important component of the product TICE BCG. The vaccine is made from the patients’ own tumor and is injected back into the patient to effect an immune response against recurrence of that cancer.

The FDA views Stage II colon cancer as an unmet medical need. When colon cancer recurs after surgery it is frequently fatal. OncoVAX® prevents that recurrence and thereby reduces recurrence and deaths by over 50%. Vaccinogen is currently preparing to commercialize the vaccine in Switzerland.

I should also post an update off their web site from Feb 27th, that announces the availability of the vaccine in Europe:

Frederick, MD – February 27, 2008 –Vaccinogen, Inc. announced that its new vaccine to block colon cancer from recurring will be commercially available in Europe starting June 2008.

“This makes OncoVAX® the world’s first commercially viable vaccine for colon cancer,” said Dr. Michael G. Hanna, Jr., Ph.D., Chairman & CEO of Vaccinogen. “It is the beginning of our worldwide strategy of profitable distribution. Questions of the feasibility of patient specific anti-cancer therapies have been raised and this new European initiative will obviate these issues.”

Pro Vaccine AG, a leading Swiss-based pharmaceutical distributor, will begin distributing OncoVAX® throughout Switzerland starting with Zurich and Neuchâtel by June 2008. “We are very excited about the prospects of offering OncoVAX® to Swiss and foreign patients,” said Renato Duckeck, GM of Pro Vaccine.

Pharmacenter Hungary, a rapidly growing oncology company that commercializes a broad portfolio of oncology treatments, will begin distributing the vaccine in Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovenia starting in the third quarter of 2008. Dr. Christian Galli, Director of Business Development of Pharmacenter Hungary noted, “We recognize the excellent opportunity OncoVAX® provides us and the growing population of colon cancer patients in Eastern Europe.”

And I also wanted to go waay back to an article I started a post about in January that ran in the FNP when Vaccinogen first started. From the FNP, 1/22/08:

A company that uses a unique system to fight colon cancer has opened in Frederick.

Vaccinogen, located at 5300 Westview Drive, uses some of the patient’s own cancer cells to help cure the disease.

The company is headed by Michael Hanna, director of the National Cancer Research Center in Frederick from 1975 to 1983.

“At that time, I headed the entire operation,” he said of the cancer center. “We went from a small center to 50 buildings.”

After he left, the center’s operations were broken into several divisions, each headed by a different director, he said.

Although a resident of Bethany Beach, Del., Hanna said he is happy to be back in Frederick. It seemed the perfect place to locate the headquarters for his company.

Vaccinogen has a manufacturing plant in Emmen, Holland.

Although still undergoing studies here for approval, Vaccinogen’s system is being used in Switzerland.

“It is considered a transplant there,” Hanna said.

The immunotherapy, known as OncoVAX, follows surgery for removal of Stage II colon cancer. The tumor cells are processed in the facility in the Netherlands.

A specific vaccine is created using those cells and injected into the patient in four doses during a six-month period. The vaccine unleashes the body’s own immune system to fight cancer cells.

“It is the first time a patient-specific therapy has been successful,” Hanna said.

“We have done all the hard work. There are final clinical trials that need to be done,” he said.

Even though it was put on the fast track by the federal Food and Drug Administration, it will be four years before OncoVax could be on the market in the United States, Hanna said.

He said he would like to eventually build a manufacturing plant in the U.S., most likely in Baltimore.

“It is truly a Frederick product,” Hanna said. Research for the process began at the Frederick Cancer Research Center.

When he left the local cancer research center, Hanna ran a research institute for Litton Bionetics on individualized targeted therapy. That institute was later acquired by Azko Nobel. At that time, Hanna’s research team also developed a treatment for bladder cancer that is considered the standard for today.

Hanna acquired the OncoVaX technology and formed a company called PerImmune in 1997. In 1998, PerImmune merged with Intracel Corp., but Hanna continued to hold OncoVAX assets and formed Vaccinogen.

More than $300 million has been spent on research during the 35 years of OncoVax’s development.

Besides Switzerland, and eventually the U.S., Hanna said the company is working to market the product in Eastern Europe and other locations.

I knew a bit about the history of Vaccinogen before this story came out because we were doing a little work with their predecessor, Intracel, as they were closing up operations. Intracel also made HDL and LDL, which I believe Vaccinogen also acquired and is making today. Anyway, they have real nice History and TimeLine pages, with nostalgic pictures scrolling across the top of their About Us page.

So here’s where the story gets real interesting. The whole thing started in the 60’s with the formation of Litton Bionetics, which became a popular target of the conspiracy theorists in the 90’s due to their links with the military and germ warfare. It is a documented fact that Litton Bionetics was a major Defense Contractor of the time and the recipient of a1970 Dept. of Defense appropriations request for 10 million dollars for a 5 year study to develop immune system targeted micro-organisms for germ warfare. What they did with the money is where people get excited.

This research was overseen by Dr. Hanna the likes of emerging giants in the field such as Dr Robert Gallo, working at the National Cancer Institute at the time. To make a long story short, the conspiracy theorists claim, amongst other things, that this group is responsible for introducing AIDS & Ebola as a contaminant in a polio or small pox vaccine used in Africa in the 70’s. The allegation is that the vaccine was contaminated with monkey retrovirus that were used in germ warfare experiments.

Quite frankly, I was expecting to do a brief post on he topic, but my research took a strange turn towards the bizarre I had not anticipated. A long, unsubstantiated rumor, or maybe just a bit more Frederick County Biotech folklore?

And I thought Stem Cells were controversial……

My 100th Post: Marligen Makes a Deal

It’s been a while since I’ve heard anything about Marligen, the only Biotech company in my home town of Ijamsville. And even though they are less than a mile from the Montgomery County line, they’re still a FredCoBio member. That’s like having a semi-sterile cell culture flask, I guess. Here’s the news clip, via businesswire.com:

Marligen Exclusively Licenses Genisphere Labeling Technology for the Detection of microRNAs on the xMAP® Platform

Marligen Launches Vantage™ Line for the Purification, Labeling and Detection of microRNAs

IJAMSVILLE, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Marligen Biosciences, Inc., a supplier of innovative products for the life sciences research market, will become the exclusive provider of Genisphere’s biotinylated labeling kits for detection of microRNAs on the xMAP^® multiplex platform. The microRNA labeling kits using Genisphere Inc.’s 3DNA^™ dendrimer signal amplification technology will be an integral product to Marligen’s new offering supporting researchers studying microRNAs. The Vantage™ product line includes reagent kits for purifying, labeling and detecting microRNA species.

Genisphere’s unique 3DNA^™ dendrimer technology is based on highly branched DNA structures serving as scaffolds for multiple biotins. The use of Genisphere’s signal amplification technology in combination with the Vantage™ microRNA detection panels offers researchers a fast and cost-effective system to directly profile multiple microRNAs in a single sample. The complete system offers exceptional sensitivity and throughput capabilities of greater than 100 samples in a single day and is compatible with total RNA or enriched RNA including degraded RNA from archived tissues. The initial Vantage™ microRNA Detection Panels are designed for profiling the relative abundance of different microRNA species known to be relevant in oncology. The Vantage™ Products will be launched at the upcoming annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research.

“High throughput profiling of MicroRNAs presents a challenge when combining rapid, effective labeling with improved detection sensitivity,” said Dr. Robert Getts, Director of R&D at Genisphere. “The complete Vantage™ package, having integrated our rapid 3DNA™ dendrimer microRNA labeling method with Marligen’s carefully designed detection panels, provides an optimized solution with consistent performance and much needed sensitivity on the xMAP® high-throughput detection platform.”

“Because microRNA play such an important role in tumor development and progression, it is vital we offer researchers innovative tools that allow them to profile these biological markers in archived samples. Our collaboration with Genisphere allows us to provide one of the most rapid and sensitive methods to screen directly from such samples,” said James Lazar, Chief Scientific Officer of Marligen Biosciences. “This will not only advance basic research but should expedite the application of microRNA detection in the diagnosis of cancer.”

It’s strange, because this article couldn’t be more timely. The Founder & CEO, Sherry Challberg, was the one who hired me in April 1988 to move South to Maryland. It’s hard to believe that it has been 20 years ago to this day.

I was working in a lab at the University of Rochester doing papilloma virus research (which supported research leading to a Nobel prize for Micheal Bishop in 1989 and in support of research into Open Reading Frames, which lead to the 1993 Nobel Prize for Sharp & Roberts and also 1989 Nobel prize in Chemistry for Thomas Cech’s discovery of Ribozymes) and steroid hormone modulation of gene expression (in support of research into Protein Phosphorylation as a regulatory mechanism of proteins leading to the 1992 Nobel prize for Edmund Fisher and Edwin Krebs and leading to the discovery of COX-2 enzyme and COX-2 inhibitors in 1991 which was subsequently “borrowed” by Pfizer and made into the blockbuster drug Celebrex, reaffirming Dr Young’s assertion that I was leaving academia to go work in the “Evil Empire” that is Industrial research).

But enough name dropping, lest you think this blog is just about shameless self-promotion.

Back to the story. We moved down here in 1988 to work in the Molecular Diagnostics Division of Life Technologies. This was sold in 1990 or ‘91 to become Digene. To the left you see the 25 year old version of yours truly, pretending I am doing lab work. This is from the front page of the Baltimore Sun’s Business section on Dec. 21, 1988. The story was about our pending FDA approval for (one of?) the first clinically approved DNA test on the market. You may notice that the paper has a tinge of orange from age, and if you look closely, you’ll see my beard was still orange, too. By the way, the Dow closed at a mere 2,166 that day, a 1-year CD would yield 9.00 % and the Prime was 10.5%.

ImQuest in Mississippi

I just found it funny that this PR Newswire press release was picked up by the SunHerald, covering Southern Mississippi. It’s a nice write-up, but not sure I’d like to go all of the way to Delhi to have to present it!

ImQuest Scientists Present Important HIV Microbicide Development Results at Microbicides 2008 in Delhi, India

By ImQuest Life Sciences

FREDERICK, Md., April 8, 2008 –

ImQuest scientists Robert W. Buckheit, Jr., Ph.D. and Karen M. Watson, M.S. presented the results of studies performed with products licensed by ImQuest Life Sciences, Inc. at the recent Microbicides 2008, an international conference held in New Delhi, India and attended by microbicide scientists, developers, and care givers from around the world. Dr. Buckheit was invited to speak by the Conference organizers, presenting the results of ImQuest’s current research on the pyrimidinedione series of microbicide candidates in a special symposium entitled “New Approaches to Microbicide Candidates”. ImQuest is currently developing the highly unique, dual acting pyrimidinediones as potential microbicide candidates based on their significantly high potency against HIV-1, their unique mechanism of action, and their ability to potently suppress the sexual transmission of wild type and drug resistant viruses.

According to Dr. Buckheit (Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of ImQuest Life Sciences, Inc., and President of its subsidiary, ImQuest BioSciences, Inc.), “It was highly gratifying to speak on our novel pyrimidinedione products at this Conference and to have them recognized as a new approach to HIV prevention by the thousands of dedicated people leading these efforts around the world.” ImQuest has obtained funding from the National Institutes of Health and The International Partnership for Microbicides to further develop these products.

At the conference, Ms. Watson (Manager, Topical Microbicide Research and Development) presented three papers, including additional data on the pyrimidinedione IQP-0528, newly emerging data on the microbicide candidate ISIS 5320 (IQP-0831), and results from laboratory studies performed using ImQuest’s recently developed Microbicide Transmission and Sterilization Assay which quantifies the ability of microbicide products to completely suppress the sexual transmission of HIV.

ImQuest Life Sciences, a privately held U.S. company located in Frederick, Maryland specializes in the preclinical and clinical development of novel compounds for the treatment of infectious disease and cancer. ImQuest BioSciences, also located in Frederick, Maryland, is a leading provider of anti-infective and anti-cancer drug and vaccine development services to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. Both companies are highly involved in efforts to develop an effective anti-HIV topical microbicide.

LLCT to supply Primary Cells for ATCC

I just saw this news feed from March 31, via Cell Therapy News:

“International Stem Cell Corporation Announces Manufacturing and
Supply Agreement with ATCC“
Oceanside, California, March 31, 2008, International Stem Cell Corporation (OTCBB:
ISCO) announced today that it has entered into an agreement with ATCC (American
Type Culture Collection, Manassas, Va.) to manufacture living primary cells and cell
culture products for worldwide distribution by ATCC into the biological research market.
ISCO, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Lifeline Cell Technology (Walkersville,
MD) develops and manufactures optimized human cell culture products for research use.
These products consist of frozen cells and cell culture media and reagents and include
stem cell products.

That’s a real shot in the arm for LLCT. I know they have had it rough the past couple of months, with the sudden death of their CEO in January.  I know a few people there and I wish them much success.  Maybe a couple will come to BioBeers?

Also of note, Mike Gove is quoted as the VP of Marketing for ATCC.  It’s always good to see a familiar name and former LifeTekker on the roster and in the news (for something positive).

Another busy day in the news

I was so caught up with some of the news yesterday, that I missed a whole special section of the business pages in the FNP called Progress 2008.

This section contained features on many local companies we’ve covered in the past: Akonni, FiberCell Systems, SAIC-Frederick, SuperArray and Dynport.

As the Opening “Editorial” suggests:

There may be no more exciting industry than biotechnology in these opening years of the 21st Century.

Maryland has more than 350 biotech companies and Frederick is a growing hub for research, home to nearly 40 biotech firms.

Economic development is targeting this low-impact, high-potential area; our educators are gearing to train the next generation of workers for what is anticipated to be a booming sector.

Among the highlights of the feature on SAIC-Frederick called “Cutting Edge”:

• Science Application International Corp., or SAIC, has been a mainstay of Frederick’s biotech research community since 1972 when President Nixon’s declared the “War on Cancer”
• SAIC-Frederick employs about 1,770 people, and operates on the largest single research contract awarded by the Department of Health and Human Services.
• SAIC-Frederick occupies 68 acres and 116 buildings at Fort Detrick
• Working with about 800 employees of the National Cancer Institute, the company operates from basic research and experimental levels, up to clinical trials and vaccine production (in their new facility off Rt 85 adjacent to the Ballenger Creek waste water treatment plant).
• SAIC-Frederick is currently monitoring 300 clinical trials that are under way all around the world, from Africa to Southeast Asia, and in the United States as well
• The company is also managing test locations at 16 hospitals around the country to deliver the latest in cancer care to rural and underserved urban areas
• In a separate article in today’s FNP, the parent of SAIC-Frederick reported revenues for 2007 of $8.94 billion, up 11 percent from the previous fiscal year

Dynamic DynPort: Headquartered just off U.S. 15, the DVC building covers a total of 60,000 square feet in the small business park, paralleling Thomas Johnson Drive. With over 87,000 employees worldwide, according to senior manager of communications April Finnen, “DVC is a world-class provider of solutions for the development of biopharmaceutical products.” More than specializing in vaccines for biological defense, Finnen said more recently DVC has begun to specialize in chemical defense and emerging infectious diseases.

Don’t forget to check out their current openings HERE. Rumor has it that they’re also looking to hire a number of for paid students internships over the summer! The application deadline is Aprill 11th, so you don’t have much time. I also wanted to give the interns from Hood we have working here get a jump on the competition, so I didn’t let the news out earlier.

FiberCell Doing Well: Since I know the owners pretty well, not much I can add. I know that they are busy this week strumming up business in New England (I’ve heard there are a few decent Biotech & academic institutions up there) and then off to the Left Coast for more Business Development. Rumor has it they’re going to get a big order for some systems from one of those Pharmas in NE. I hope they do. All I know is that John needs to be here tomorrow with me to cut open the three HF systems I have running with my MSC which have (hopefully) differentiated into neurons using placental basement membrane extract as a matrix.

SuperArray: The company has become a thriving biotech firm that sells its products worldwide : So successful, rumor has it, that they’re looking at a brand new, larger facility. SuperArray is home to about 65 employees. Although still a small number in comparison to many other companies, SuperArray has no problem finding business. “Sales are increasing. We are making a name for ourselves,” says Heather Fox-Brashears (yet another former Life Tekker). SuperArray experienced an 85 percent increase in revenue from 2005 to 2006.  I hope to be able to use their Stem Cell products pretty soon, pending my results from this weeks FiberCell collaboration.  I had set up some experiments about a year ago, but I was not able to follow through on it so I owe them a visit.

And finally, Quick Draw about Akonni.   They have been in the news so much lately, I don’t know if there is much more to say about them, other than the fact that they’re doing pretty well, leasing more space and expanding.  Here’s something I didn’t know:  The company was founded in Russia in 1988 by Dr. Andrei Mirzabekov, the director of the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology in Moscow. The team was brought to the United States in 1995 and the technology’s license was acquired by Akonni in 2002.  They are about 25 people strong, but I look for them to add more pretty soon.

I also wanted to direct you to the North (or is that the West?) with the announcement that Washington County is opening a new incubator in Hagerstown. According to the Herald-Mail, Hagerstown CC “has opened 11 wet labs suitable for biotech research, with $1.3 million from the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, Maryland Technology Development Corporation and the Washington County Commissioners”.  Sounds like people have caught on to the success of incubators elsewhere in the state.  Now if they start one in Ocean City…..

Too many topics, too little time

Today, as the weather breaks and the sun warms the ground, there are so many stories coming out from little old Frederick County, I won’t be able to do justice to them all.

In the Frederick News-Post today there are three interesting articles: The Tech Transfer Boon at the Fort, Our Resident Supply of Infected Mosquitos and an infestation of “cRusty crabs” in the Monocacy.

The first article is about The Fort Detrick Technology Transfer Initiative (FDTTI), where start-ups like me have access to technology developed at Ft Detrick. 11 companies have received FDTTI funding, nine of them are from Maryland, four from Frederick, with three from FITCI.

I was very interested about the growth of genetically-modified mosquitoes within Fort Detrick, because I am sure someone will read this and mount a new round of protests about GMO and all of the wide-spread pain and pestilence that is cultivated behind the concertina-wired walls of the Fort. Actually, I found it interesting because we know one of the PI’s at the lab through our daughter’s primary school. They are not really making GMM’s (genetically-modified mosquitoes), not there’s anything wrong with that or that they’d tell us if they were. I’ll bet there are plenty of GM-drosophila (fruit flies), though.

The third story is about the invasion of the Upper Monocacy with “rusty crayfish“, theorized to come form dumped bait buckets. So the DNR would like to ban fishing with crayfish in the Monocacy to prevent further spread of the invaders, which overwhelm the native crawdads and compete with game fish food resources. From the sounds of it, the rusties are much bigger and reddish in hue. Maybe they can be farmed for human consumption?

On to the other news:

Since posts about Jobs seem to popular, I saw a news feed about a Bioscience Career Fair in Bethesda. I’ll just cut and paste the feed:

BioSpace, the world’s leading online bioscience job board and life science career fair company, will host

the BioCapital Career Fair in Bethesda, MD on Thursday, April 17, 2008. The

event will take place at the Bethesda Marriott from 11 am to 4 pm. Life science professionals from across the BioCapital region including

Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., will attend the biotech

job fair to meet in person with leading biotech and pharmaceutical

companies. Candidates will interview for careers with Aerotek Scientific,

Emergent BioSolutions, Lockheed Martin, SAIC-Frederick and many others.

Companies at the event will be hiring to fill clinical research jobs,

science jobs, engineering jobs, pharmaceutical sales jobs, formulation jobs

and a myriad of other opportunities.

The last BioCapital Career Fair, held on October 23, 2007, provided the

employers with over 500 pre-registered job seekers. Before the event

several exhibitors took advantage of the private BioSpace Career Fair

resume database to scout talent and schedule interviews ahead of time.

BioSpace encourages interested career fair candidates to pre-register

for the event at:
http://careers.biospace.com/Jobs/Public/CareerReceptionDetails.aspx?RECEPTION_ID=139

Candidates are required to hold a four year degree in a relevant

discipline and have at least two years of experience in a

bioscience-related field or industry.

The Bethesda Marriott is located at 5151 Pooks Hill Road, Bethesda, Maryland.

And last, but not least, a nice bit of news coming out from ImQuest, on Executive Way. ImQuest BioSciences, Inc. announced today the publication of the results of an important structure- activity relationship study to investigate the efficacy and toxicity of a series of pyrimidinedione analogs against HIV-1 and HIV-2.

Maybe they need to have a Job Board, too!