There’s No Place Like Home

I was remiss in not posting that FITCI hosted the first of the Season Happy Hour & networking event on Friday. I had been in Kansas since Wednesday and was too busy working on my presentation and dodging tornado’s to post. Plus, I forgot to look ahead in my calendar.
The Happy Hour was well attended, by the Chamber of Commerce, RCM&D, OED, Ft Detrick’s tech transfer office and many other people I didn’t have the chance to meet & greet. I had only been back for about an hour, though, from my trip. Since I had to get up at 4 AM to get to the airport, I was pretty exhausted by 4 PM and the happy hour, so I didn’t stay long.

I stopped in to feed my cells, but ended up getting a Biodiesel sample for testing, so I did that instead, then got myself home.

Speaking of events, I will be out at the Greater Baltimore Tech Council’s Golf Classic on Monday May 19th and AFCEA Frederick’s Golf outing Tuesday May 13th at Whiskey Creek. The GBTC event is “SOLD OUT”, but there is still room for both individual golfers and Sponsorships at the Frederick event.

1st Annual AFCEA Golf Tournament Come Join Us Prior to the Spring Research Festival Where: Whiskey Creek Golf Course When: May 13th - 1 pm Shotgun Contact Abby Richon to sign up or become a sponsor 301-644-3913 x2178 arichon@ape-bio.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it <!– document.write( ‘</’ ); document.write( ’span>’ ); //–>

Lunch Complementary Beverages on the Course Dinner Silent Auction Hole-In-one Contests Great Networking $100 per government golfer $125 per industry golfer

Click here to download PDF for available sponsorships

Sci Foo 2008

With an endorsement from my “info-friend” Attila @ PIMM I am very happy to be invited this year to attend “SciFoo” camp at the Googleplex somewhere in California. It’s like the ultimate achievement of my blogging ScienceGeek career!

The e-invite:

Jim,

We’d like to invite you to join us on the weekend of August 8-10 for Science Foo Camp (or “Sci Foo”), a unique, invitation-only gathering organized by Nature, O’Reilly Media, and Google, and hosted at the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA.

Now in its third year, Sci Foo is already achieving cult status among those with a passion for science and technology. The Economist said that it “capture[s] the essence of innovation”; in a photo essay for Edge (http://tinyurl.com/3o9sam), George Dyson wrote of the “the impossible choice” when deciding which sessions to attend; another attendee described it simply as “The best gathering ever. Period.”

As before, we will be inviting about 200 people from around the world who are doing groundbreaking work in diverse areas of science and technology.

Participants will include not only researchers, but also writers, artists, investors, and other thought-leaders.

The format is highly informal: all delegates are also presenters and demonstrators; the schedule is determined collaboratively on the first evening; and sessions continue to be organized and re-organized throughout the weekend. This creates a unique opportunity to explore topics that transcend traditional boundaries, and discussions are of a kind that happens at the best conferences during breaks and late into the night.

Of course, there will also be time to have fun and relax at Google’s legendary campus.

Sci Foo 2008 will run from about 6pm on Friday, August 8 until after lunch on Sunday, August 10. Campers need to make their own way to and from the event, but Google will provide accommodation and meals, and there is no registration fee. For those who don’t have cars, there will also be free shuttle buses between the hotel and the Googleplex.

Please RSVP by replying to this email. We do have space restrictions, so if you’d like to attend please be sure to reply as soon as possible, and in any case by May 16.

We hope to see you at the Googleplex in August!

Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media

Chris DiBona, Google

Timo Hannay, Nature

About Nature

————-

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is dedicated to serving the information and communication needs of scientists and medics. NPG’s flagship title, Nature, first published in 1869, has now been joined by over 80 other titles, among them the Nature research journals, Nature Reviews, Nature Clinical Practice and a range of prestigious academic journals including society-owned publications. It also operates the leading scientific website, Nature.com, and a range of innovative online services, from databases to collaboration tools and podcasts. For more information, see http://www.nature.com.

About O’Reilly

—————

O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly has been a chronicler and catalyst of leading-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying “faint signals” from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. Whether it’s delivered in print, online, or in person, everything O’Reilly produces reflects the company’s unshakeable belief in the power of information to spur innovation. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism. For more information, see http://www.oreilly.com.

About Foo Camps

—————-

The “Foo Camp” meeting format has been pioneered by O’Reilly (see http://xrl.us/b9sv). In this context, “Foo” originally stood for “Friends Of O’Reilly”, but it is also a meaningless ‘placeholder word’

commonly used by computer programmers, rather like the term ‘X’ in algebra. The success of O’Reilly’s original technology Foo Camps has stimulated a wide range of similar events, from Science Foo Camp to Disney’s Pooh Camp.

BioBeers East III

BioBeers was yesterday, and it was good. We had about 20-25 people from across the county. I was stressed that I haven’t been able to pry anyone out of Ft Detrick, so we’ll work on that for the next one. Also a little disappointed that the Gazette didn’t show up this time. They came to the last one, when there were only 2 people. Oh well. For those of you who said you were coming and didn’t, you missed out on a good time. FiberCell Systems, Kforce Scientific, Gahaga and APE-BridgePath Scientific supplied the munchies and Jim (our Flying Dog Host) even pitched in a batch of Gonzo Imperial Ported soaked onions & kraut for the Brats.

BioBeerIII

Here’s a list of who we had:

Lonza, MedImmune, Lentigen, DynPort, Integrated Biotherapeutics, Meso Scale, Gene Choice, Marligen, Quanta, Chesapeake Pearl, APE-BridgePath, Veracity, KPL, FiberCell Systems, Worthington Enzymes, Genova, Gahaga Biosciences. There are more, but I am going to have to go look up the roster. IN the mean time, please enjoy the attached slide show!

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.

BioBeers East III

Just a quick post to MARK YOUR CALENDARS for BioBeers III.

The next event will be held on Friday, April 18^th at 5 PM at the Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick.

This event requires an RSVP, as I need at least 15 people to justify a “private tour”. Please respond directly to me via email or blog comment

They have a wonderful venue for this event at the brewery, with 8-16 different beers brewed-on-premises ready for tasting. They will also provide a tour of the brewery, but no grilling by Fermentation junkies.

Speaking of grilling, they have facilities that will allow us to grill some dogs & burgers or whatever else you’d like. I will supply the beer (thanks to our friends at Flying Dog!) so if anyone would like to “sponsor” some munchies (grilled or otherwise), please let me know.

There are also ample facilities for making a presentation. If you have data, an idea to pitch, a story or wares to sell, let me know.

I started BioBeers “East” borrowing the model established by the original group in Colorado. A fundamental objective is to promote our region as the top-tier bio-cluster in the country by showing we are a thriving and nurturing bio-entrepreneurial community. BioBeers is intended to be a catalyst, where like minded bio-preneurs gather regularly to share ideas, cultivate business relationships and build lifelong friendships.

I hope you will join us.

Updates from Ft Detrick

It’s Sunday morning, watching Meet the Press, so I guess it is a good time to update a few things going on at the Fort.

First, I will make a disclosure that much of my information is coming through my affiliation with the Frederick Chapter of AFCEA International. I have blogged this before, but wanted you to take a look at the updated and improved web site. Of particular note is the AFCEA Golf Outing at Whiskey Creek May 13th. Since we all like to golf and MdBio is no longer sponsoring their tournament in Frederick (which was always one of the best BioTech social events of the year IMHO), we’re going to try ad carry on the tradition. There are still sponsorships available and you can bet I’ll be harassing my friends at MedImmune, Lonza and other big Bio’s to get involved.

The presentation last month was by David W. Williams, US Army Medical Research & Material Command. You can get a copy of his presentation HERE. The USAMRMC and Mr Williams command a huge purchasing budget for all things related to Medical Materials and Medical-directed Research. The emphasis of this presentation were updates regarding the construction of the consolidated Logistics facility, the Defense Medical Logistics Center.

Also at the Fort this month, I wanted to highlight the excellent Seminar series, which is open to the public. I put the whole schedule on the Calendar page. A couple of highlights (for me) are
Dr. Valeri Vasioukhin, PhD, Cell Polarity in Self-Renewal and Differentiation of Stem/Progenitor Cells on April 7th and on April 18th Stem Cells and Early Lineage Development given by Janet Rossant, PhD. from the Hospital for Sick Children of Toronto.

There is also a very interesting looking retreat to Gettysburg on April 10th & 11th called the Cancer And Inflammation Program Workshop. Looks like a very comprehensive and interesting agenda, but not sure if I’ll be able to sneak out for two days.

Tech Awards wrap-up

The Tech Awards last night was a pretty good time. Aside from running into a few people I hadn’t seen in a number of years, I also met a few new people. It’s all about Networking. I was hoping to post a few pictures, but will have to see what I’ve got. I forgot to grab my camera from the house when I left in the morning and made a quick dash into the house over lunch. I ran in the back door, grabbed the camera off the PC in my daughter’s room and right out the front door. Apparently, I left the back gate open and the slider into the back porch open a bit, too. When my wife got home from work she thought someone had broken in. I was just worried about waking up the dogs, because they would have wanted to got outside and get some attention. I didn’t realize until I got to Lynfield and took the camera out that the battery was critically low. Such are the hazards of teenage daughters. I forgot to plug it in last night, so the battery was still drained this morning and I couldn’t download the few pictures I took.

But this is supposed to be a post about the event and not a litany of lame excuses of why I didn’t post any pictures.

I learned that I am a poor prognosticator. The only award winner I guessed correctly was Akonni (Small business of the Year). I was pretty sure about that one, as they’ve made all the right moves. They have a fascinating product, with both military and health care uses, they’ve run the gamut of the various funding organizations and moved into the downtown historic district along Carrol Creek. Plus, they’re growing and hiring people and the new facility is really great.

And so the battle of Frederick last night was won by the IT guys, as both of the other winners were IT companies.

Firm of the year went to Regent Education Incorporated . According to Rick Harris, Executive Director of the Tech Alliance of the Tech Council of Maryland: “This company has revolutionized the way financial aid is analyzed and dispersed in the United States. It has seen growth by more than 300 percent, which is phenomenal, by any standard and their products are truly breakthrough technology. Regent is a model for how to start and grow a business to meet a need.”

Mike Gaver with GTI Federal took the Executive of the Year award. To be honest with you, I am not really sure about the “product” they provide, but can see from their web site that they have contracts with the General Services Administration (GSA), U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC), the State of Maryland, DHS, DOE, Navy, the State Department and the NIH to name a few.

There was a final award give to SAIC-Frederick, Inc.. This was the Technology Leadership Award. A lot of times people forget how big and important SAIC really is to Fort Detrick and the county’s biotech community. For example, here are all of their job openings in Frederick:

At Fort Detrick

Geoffrey Way Vaccine Production Facility

Clinical Monitoring Program on Industry Lane

TJ Drive contracts and Admin

Advanced Technology Program on Toll House

Must run.  Maybe some pictures later..

Tech Awards Tonight

Tonight, the Tech Council of Maryland is sponsoring the 6th Annual Tech awards at the Lynfield event complex on Hansonville Rd. I will be attending and sitting at the FITCI table.

This years finalists are:

Executive of the Year:

• Michael Dailey, FITCI
• Mark Gaver, GTI Federal
• Chris Hagenbuch, safeTspace

Firm of the Year:
• Regent Education Incorporated
• Orases
• Integrated BioTherapeutics Inc.

Small Business of the Year:
• Biological Mimetics, Inc.
• Akonni Biosystems Inc.
• Imagilin Technology, LLC

I am obviously biased towards the Biotech groups in the fold, so I offer these predictions. I can assure you I have no insider information:

Exec. of the Year: Mike Dailey

Firm of the Year: Orases (I know nothing about them but they have a great web site. I think IBT will win something next year, but haven’t made enough of a splash this year, IMHO)

Small Business of the Year: Akonni

I’ll give the lowdown on the “best night of networking” tomorrow.

BioBeers II Wrap up

BioBeers II last night was more “lightly” attended than I had thought, although the people who did show up are high quality people. So we had people from the Greater Baltimore area show up, one lone person from Montgomery County and then a few Frednecks as well. Fortunately, I was able to conduct some effective Bio-strategizing and will be working on a collaboration with my friends at FiberCell systems to generate placenta/amniotic mesenchymal stem cells in their proprietary Hollow-fiber cartridges for a talk at some regenerative medicine conference in May.

BioBeers III will be on a different day of the week, as I have heard form a number of people that they can’t make it on Monday. It was a shame that when the photographer from the Gazette showed up at around 5:30, there were only two of us there. I told him to skip taking our picture, since the two of us are really regulars at Barley & Hops and we probably would have been there having a beer anyway.

Reminder: BioBeers II Tonight

I know you are all still probably recovering from the Superbowl last night.  What a great game.  What better way to follow that up than with a drop in at BioBeers II at Barley & Hops this evening. 

Looks like a slow schedule at work today, so I should be over there by 4:30-5 PM.

There is a rumor that we’re going to be covered by one of the local papers today, so dress appropriately and no obnoxious behavior.

I am still looking at making the next BioBeers Mid-Atlantic Chapter meeting at the Flying Dog Brewery.  This would include a tour and possible tasting of 8-16 micro brews they brew on premises.  Maybe even a seminar about the Fermentation technology they employ.  I have lined up a Corporate Sponsor for the event if I can pull it off.

By the way, did anyone see my”interview” in the FNP last week about the smoking ban?  Thanks Ron!