Next Installment of BioBeers and other News that’s Fit to Print

I have been a slack blogger since I’ve started tweeting & scouring my RSS feeds, that’s for sure.  Fortunately, you can following my twitterverse in the left hand column of this blog or get up off yer ass and get on twitter yourself?!

So, most importantly, the next installation of BioBeers will be on Friday April 8th at Akonni Biosystems in Downtown Frederick!  wOOt !  For those not familiar with Akonni, they’re been getting a lot of attention for their rapid DNA extraction system and their rapid, low-cost microarray systems.  The street address is 400 Sagner Ave., Suite 300, Frederick, MD 21701.  I hereby proclaim anyone from Frederick County that needs a GPS to find it, right next to McCutcheon’s, is automatically un-invited.  You know who you are.

Please RSVP via email, LinkedIn or MeetUp

This far I have two confirmed sponsors:  Biotech Primer and Chesapeake Insurance/SandySpring Bank.  Still room for more.  Call or email me if you’re interested in sponsoring.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t do a quick recap of interesting news I have failed to blog about the past 5-6 weeks.  Do you see how MedImmune scored $93M in a patent infringement settlement over Synagis, the product produced in Frederick or how BioElectronics is growing too big for their britches?  I just wish I could get one of their patches locally and without a prescription.

Also worth a mention is how NCI-Frederick was named one of the Best Places to work as a PostDoc in America.

And the BIG news, which I should have already blogged about, is long-time Biobeers sponsor and advocate, FiberCell Systems being awarded a MIPS Grant for $263K.  I even get to be quoted in the article.  Johnand I have been working on a seperate project we call the “FiberCell Stem Cell Initiative” for more than two years now.  Although it’s not directly related to the MIPS grant, the grant is for a Large Scale system, I am glad to see FiberCell get a grant to help them keep moving in the right direction.

News, News Site announcement, Next Biobeers

Some of you may know that I have been busy doing contract work at MedImmune for the past 14 months or so at the Frederick facility.  Well that contract came to a close, but I was picked up by another contractor, Raland Technologies,  to work on a different project for MedImmune at their Philadelphia facilities. So, sadly, I won’t be in Frederick as much as I’d like to, but you’ll still hear from me. I am the first official Biotech Ambassador for the Frederick Chamber of Commerce, after all.  And even though Raland runs their Maryland operations out of Montgomery County, they also have a major presence in my home town Rochester, NY.    Raland made a major announcement just a couple of weeks ago when Raland announced they were awarded  grant through the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Program (QTDP) for their extraordinary development efforts with RxFusion™ , a medical device offering an easier and safer home infusion treatment.  I am glad to be a part of their team.

Speaking of major news from Frederick County Biotech, I noted an article in Nature titled “Complex synthesis yields breast-cancer therapy” on my RSS feed yesterday.  This is cool in a number of respects.  First, coincident with the synthesis of this compound, researchers in Frederick at NCI discovered the compound inhibits a protein component of

The drug eribulin was inspired by a compound from the sea sponge Halichondria okadai. Nature: Yasunori Saito

the cytoskeleton, called tubulin, that is needed to support the rapid growth of cancer cells and is the target of several other cancer chemotherapies, including Taxol (paclitaxel).  Second, I spent two weeks in Seattle at the University of Washington round about 1991 working in the lab of future Nobel Laureate Eddy Krebs isolating Okadaic acid (a prolific and potent protein phosphorylator) from this very same species of sea sponge.  And what a stinking *effen* mess it was.  Let me tell you, if you drag a few kilos of fresh halichondria from deep off the floor of the Pacific, mix it with 20 L or so of Chloroform in a jumbo Warning blender, then extract with 20 L Methanol (all of this in 1991 was done in buckets, on the floor, without any special lab gear like safety glasses or lab coats or Kevlar) while trying not to contaminate my lab partner Joel’s  working on this new product he called “Lipofectamine” (which was indeed a multi million dollar product and I think continues to be to this day) because this was going to be the first million dollar product for the newly formed Cell Biology group of Life Technologies.  Those were the days.

But I digress in my fond recollections of past glory.  What I really, really want to do is to let you know the next Biobeers is almost certainly happening Friday December 17th at Lab Recyclers warehouse on Metropolitan Court (right next to FITCI).  And I really, really need everyone to switch over to the new MeetUp site and register.  Go here now: http://www.meetup.com/FredCoBio-BioBeers/

MeetUp costs me about $10 per month, but it’s much better as compared to LinkedIn (which I will continue to maintain, just not set up events and calendar items through that site) for posting news and information and events.  I’m trying this as a platform to try to connect us more better than we are today.  I’ve started populating the site with the various and sundry seminars happening at Ft Detrick which are freaking free and open to the public!!  I’m still working on getting the MeetUp site to link to Ft Detrick web site, but it’s all good.

I’ll have the BioBeers posted on both LinkedIn and MeetUp for the next couple of events, but will force y’all over to MeetUp eventually.  Besides, my text file mailing list is getting way too long.

The all new Fredcobio coming

It has been a pretty good year in Fredcobio, I am glad to say, and the end of the year is ramping up to be amazing.    Many of you know that I have been working a contract with MedImmune assisting in the validation of the new Frederick Manufacturing Center.  That contract ended suddenly 9although it was expected) last week, so now I am back wheeling and dealing and looking at what I am going to do next.

I’ve been neglecting my two start-ups and building on my recent, newly elected status as the Grand Poobah of Biotech in Frederick first official Biotech Ambassador of the Frederick Chamber of Commerce (which I announced at the last Biobeers).  As such, we’ve had a couple of very preliminary meetings with interested parties from the Chamber, OED, FITCI,  the City of Frederick and a few other interested partners and I think there are a lot of good things we can do together.  Most of these ideas, these delusions of grandeur are just that:  ideas.  We need to transform our ideas into action and start getting some stuff done.

What do I mean by that?  First of all, everyone wants more information about things like funding and where to get it and how much is available, but we also need to start talking more with each other.  There are over 50 biotech companies or quasi-government (even “real government”) agencies in Frederick County and we don’t even know what we all do for a living.  I’m talking about better networking and business and commerce between just the local companies.  Well, that’s a start.  What we really need to do is communicate with all of the people at NCI and the various and sun-dried agencies behind the barbed wire fence that is Ft Detrick and find out what they’re doing. Speaking of which, a couple of very newsworth things have popped up on my radar screen over the past couple of days.

One of them is an excellent resource I’ll bet no one is even paying attention to off base, and we should be: Free Lectures at Ft Detrick by various agencies.  You can find the whole calendar here:  http://is.gd/gS3wv

I used to try to post them, but got tired of doing that and I don’t even think anyone was watching.  But as a “for example”, there are at least three different lecture series going on now, the one called  CCR Grand Rounds is hosting a lecture Tuesday 11/23 by Frederick R. Appelbaum, M.D. who is the Director, Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center entitled “The Grand Challenges of Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation.” How cool does that sound? And did I mention it’s free? Well, not exactly free. I bet some of our tax money is being used somehow.  All of the details are here: http://is.gd/gS483

Ansd another thing I thought was interesting, passed along by Frank at SAIC-Frederick is this list of qualifying ”Therapeutic Discovery Project Grants” for the State of Maryland from IRS.gov.  The list is pretty long, but I think you’ll recognize for names familiar to Fredcobio such as ImQuest, Akonni, BioElectronics and BioAssay Works.  Over $48MM in grants awarded to Maryland over the past 2 years, just on this “qualifying” delineation.    My memory tells me more than $1.5BB is being spent at Ft Detrick alone this year (a lot of bricks and mortar as well as research).

I almost forgot to mention the next BioBeers date is set:  Friday December 10th.  I’m going to be improving the blog and likely moving our LinkedIn and Google groups over to a MeetUp platform in the coming weeks. So stay tuned, Fredcobio campers.

BioBeers Was Great, More Funding Available

A great time was had by all at BioBeers Friday at ImQuest.  In my haste, I left home without a camera, so no pictures this time.  I think things went very well, aside form running out of beer after barely an hour and a half.  You BioGeeks are terrible at RSVP’ing.  A special thanks again to David Kaye and the other Sheer Partners for the sponsorship.

And thank you to all of the recruiters who showed up offering up jobs.  Please let me know if anyone lands a job out of this, as I know of one or two from past events.  Need to start trending this.

Next time we won’t run out of beer.  I already have plans to hold the next event outdoors at FITCI, a mere mile south of where we were on Friday.  Stay tuned.

And speaking of funding, I would be remiss if I didn’t pass on the great news earlier Friday of the “Tilt-up Party” held by Matan at NCI-Riverside Park.

According to the Press Release:

Matan Companies and Morgan-Keller, Inc. hosted a tilt up party celebrating  the construction progress for  The National Cancer Institute’s  332,000 square foot Advanced Technology Research Facility at Riverside Research Park in Frederick, Maryland.  The goal of this state of the art laboratory facility slated for delivery in early 2012, is to enable scientists to more rapidly develop a new generation of highly targeted treatments for cancer patients.

And on this historic day of absurd government spending, I have a lead on some ARRA funded research going on at SAIC-Frederick.

Making lyophilized IL15 for clinical trials.  Not sure how many people out there may be interested, but here’s the link: https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B0yNQr2vFdKsNGUxNWJkZDktZTA1NC00NWQ2LTk0YzEtY2FkMDM3ZjMwODNj&hl=en

And the Summary:

IL-15 is a 14 – 15 kDa member of the 4 α-helix bundle family of cytokines. It shares a number of biological activities with IL-2, including stimulation of the proliferation of activated CD4+, CD8+ and gamma-delta subsets of T cells. Recombinant human IL-15 (rhIL-15) expressed in E. coli was manufactured by the BDP under cGMP to yield active rhIL-15 for cancer therapy adjuvant vaccines in human clinical trials. The purpose of this document is to describe the requirements for the development of a cGMP lyophilized product for future clinical studies.

I hope someone local takes this before the out of towners do.

Opportunities Abound

As you may already be aware, one of the primary reasons the National Cancer Institute is building the new Riverside Research Park is to provide space for “synergistic partners” from academia and Industry to work together to cure cancer.  I was just alerted to several new opportunities by my friends at FITCI

A new collaboration opportunity, “Gene Expression Signature Predictive of Response to Chemotherapy” has been added to the NCI Technology Transfer Center web site. Please go to: http://ttc.nci.nih.gov/opportunities/opportunity.php?opp_id=1881

A new collaboration opportunity, “Antibody and Immunotoxin Treatments for Mesothelin-Expressing Cancers” has been added to the NCI Technology Transfer Center web site. Please go to: http://ttc.nci.nih.gov/opportunities/opportunity.php?opp_id=1883

A new collaboration opportunity, “Knockdown and Enhanced Expression of P53 Isoforms to Treat Age-Related Disorders and Cancer” has been added to the NCI Technology Transfer Center web site. Please go to: http://ttc.nci.nih.gov/opportunities/opportunity.php?opp_id=1885

A new collaboration opportunity, “Engineered Biological Pacemakers” has been added to the NCI Technology Transfer Center web site. Please go to: http://ttc.nci.nih.gov/opportunities/opportunity.php?opp_id=1884

A new collaboration opportunity, “Novel Kinase Inhibitors Targeting the PH Domain of AKT for Preventing and Treating Cancer” has been added to the NCI Technology Transfer Center web site. Please go to: http://ttc.nci.nih.gov/opportunities/opportunity.php?opp_id=1882

A lot going on in Fredcobio

It’s been a busy in Fredcobio.  SIAC-Frederick signs a deal with Sporian for Remote HIV detection

SAIC-Frederick, Sporian Microsystems Collaborate On Device For HIV Screening in Remote Areas

FREDERICK, Md., Nov. 4, 2009 – SAIC-Frederick, Inc., a contractor to the National Cancer Institute, has entered into a three-way research collaboration with Sporian Microsystems Inc. of Lafayette, Colo., and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) centering on a hand-held device for HIV testing that could potentially be used to improve screening in remote areas.

The collaboration is part of the National Cancer Institute’s Advanced Technology Partnerships Initiative, which aims to speed up the translation of basic research into technologies and treatments for patients with cancer and AIDS. SAIC-Frederick, as prime contractor at the National Cancer Institute at Frederick, is facilitating ATPI partnerships for the government.

HIV/AIDS continues to have a disproportionate impact on populations in low socioeconomic and rural areas. Therefore, SAIC-Frederick, Sporian, and the FDA will focus on developing a hand-held device to address the prevailing need for a sensitive, point-of-care (POC) assay that can detect evolving strains of HIV early in the course of infection in resource-limited settings. POC technologies that facilitate early diagnosis often lead to improved treatment and facilitate epidemiological surveillance and prevention of diseases that are of particular importance in these areas.

The proposed diagnostic assay is especially suitable for those areas that lack the refrigeration facilities, stable electrical power, highly trained personnel, and clinical laboratory infrastructure required by many current tests and devices.

“For optimal use in health disparity settings, it is also important for POC diagnostic systems to be rapid, simple to use and cost-effective, but not sacrifice diagnostic accuracy,” said Dr. Michael Usrey of Sporian. “The objective of this partnership is to combine the assay expertise of SAIC and FDA with Sporian’s optoelectronics interrogation, signal processing, algorithms and packaging to produce an effective, low-cost POC device.”

About Sporian Microsystems

Sporian Microsystems, Inc. is an aggressive sensors and packaging company. Sporian develops, markets, manufactures, and sells novel sensors, multiple sensor-suites, sensor-subsystems and sensor data-loggers. These systems deliver several key features, including ruggedness, small size, low power consumption and low cost. Sporian’s patented BioOverseer® sensor architecture provides specific and sensitive serum pathogen detection in a portable point-of-care (POC) package. For more information, call 303-516-9075 x19 or visit Sporian’s website at www.sporian.com.

There are more opportunities for contract work at the Fort.  An RFP posted for  S10-072 RFP Package issued 11-6-09.  I know someone out there could do this one.

Today, it was announced that Qiagen Acquired SABiosciences for $90M.  Wow.  I hope to see a few SAB people at Biobeers on Friday.  We can cry in our beer together.

Which reminds me, BioBeers is this Friday at 4:30 PM at the Flying Dog Brewery on Wedgwood Blvd.  Be there or be square.  Our sponsors this time are the Tyler Companies and Talent Works Scientific Staffing.

Do please try to RSVP.  We need to give our Friends at Flying Dog a heads up for how many people to expect and I want to have enough chow.  As always, ImQuest, official wing sponsor of BioBeers, will bring some wings.  We’ll get some sandwiches from Frisco’s, too.

Expecting a full house again.  If anyone has a last minute scientific presentation to give , please let me know.

 

 

This Just In: Help NCI Develop Pharmacodynamic Assays

PD_ Assay RFI – S09-205 – Issued 8-11-09

Follow the link above if you’re interested in helping NCI-Frederick develop novel, PD tests for point of care cancer diagnostics. The link is a download (Word Doc) of the entire RFI.

Here’s the gist:

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to provide potential subcontractors an overview of one strategic goal of the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD) at NCI which is to promote the introduction of promising cancer therapeutics through the integration of appropriate pharmacodynamic (PD) tests into Phase 0 clinical trials with the focus on gathering evidence of targeted drug action that enables early Go/NoGo decisions. Information is requested from non-profit organizations, academics, clinical centers, and industry on the following topics:

1. Provide comment on the technologies and key cancer related pharmacodynamic targets for the next generation of PD assays that are to be developed using readily clinically adoptable state-of-the-art tools.

a. Utilization of multiplexed assay platforms that enable multiple PD readouts from small amounts of specimens coupled with robust annotation and data management to include: multi-channel microscopy, ELISAs, Laser Capture, PCR, etc. The goal is to maximize the amount of PD information that can be obtained from a single specimen. Combinatory markers have the greatest potential for providing valid and clinically relevant drug action and patient response information in genetically diverse populations.

b. The next generation of PD Assays must query multiple validated cancer specific analytes simultaneously to include the following categories:

1) Interrogate multiple targets within a molecular pathway, such as PTEN/Akt/PI3K/mTORC1 & 2.

2) Measure informative analytes that span across multiple core signaling pathways, of which the specific pathways driving the disease are often unique for different cancers.

3) Quantify multiple molecular events on the same target molecule, for example, activating and suppressing modifications of individual Akt isozymes or multiple phosphorylation sites on the MET receptor.

4) Identification of tumor stem cells using multiple known or novel stemness markers.

5) Filter target detection and quantitation to allow measurement in specific cellular compartments (e.g. plasma membrane and nucleus).

6) Develop assays for multiple new or known markers that are indicators of apoptotic commitment of tumor cells upon therapeutic treatment.

c. Establish an infrastructure to provide access to key reagents (antibodies, primers & probes, calibrators, references, etc), specimens (repositories, storage, processing, etc)), and accessory technologies (software, robotics, etc) that are essential for development of robust, sensitive, reproducible tests. This topic includes quality controlled production of critical reagents, regulatory (FDA/CLIA/CAP) knowledge and compliance, antibody diagnostic imaging, pattern recognition software, data analysis software that gives easily interpretable results, nanotechology for biopsies, and much more.

2. To provide institutions the opportunity to indicate their level of interest in responding to, and participating in, any future subcontracting opportunities in support of the pharmacodynamic assay initiative.

3. Provide institutions the opportunity to elaborate on their specific expertise in the core areas listed above.

Let me know if I can help or introduce you to the right people, if interested.

UPDATE 8/13  I should also point out that all of these “Business Opportunities” are available on SAIC-Frederick’s web site.

Here’s what’s there today:

A list of current business opportunities is provided below.

Name	Description	SBSA*	Organization	Contact
X09-003	Blanket Purchase Agreement covering Chemicals, Water Treatments, Parts, Supplies, and Services	No	SAIC-Frederick, Inc	C. Jean Eyler
SW09-003	Blanket Purchase Agreement for Recycled Paper	Yes	SAIC-Frederick, Inc.	Nancy Mayo
E08-075	Solicitation/Contract/Order for Commercial Items	No	SAIC-Frederick, Inc.	Kay Ecker
S09-170	Solicitation/Contract/Basic Ordering Agreement	No	SAIC-Frederick	Gary Krauss
X10-001	Solicitation/Contract/Order For Commercial Items	Yes	SAIC-Frederick	Nancy Mayo
S09-198	RFI: Insect Cell Based Biopharmaceutical Development	No	SAIC-Frederick
S09-202	HIV Vaccine Strategies	No	SAIC-Frederick
S09-205	RFI – Pharmacodynamic (PD) tests into Phase 0 clinical trials	No	SAIC-Frederick	Howard Souder, Jr.

More Work at Ft Detrick

I have been negligent in posting a few new offers coming out of Ft Detrick for Contracts, so here goes:

S09-174 RFP Cover Sheet Issued 7-2-09

This is an RFP for the following:

Using a sample of pure V-PROLI/NO that the NCI will supply, the Subcontractor shall provide all the data necessary to coauthor a report in a peer-reviewed journal in collaboration with the providers of the test substance that will include a full pharmacokinetic profile of this compound.

The Subcontractor shall develop and validate methods for assaying V-PROLI/NO in blood. Using methods completely consistent with animal welfare procedures approved by the NIH, administer V-PROLI/NO both intravenously, intraperitoneally, and orally to mice. Assay blood samples taken periodically, then convert the analytical data to the full set of pharmacokinetic parameters required for the desired publication, including at least clearance, Cmax, Tmax, AUC, distribution and metabolism half-lives via each route, and oral and intraperitoneal bioavailability.

Oligo Production

Requirement for this request include:

The company to provide the custom oligonucleotides must be able to meet the following technical criteria:

1. To synthesize single stranded DNA custom oligonucleotides up to 100 residues in length.

2. To provide purification of the oligonucleotides including desalting, BioRP cartridge, PAGE and HPLC purification.

3. To provide 5’ and 3’ modifications of the oligonucleotides.

4. To provide quality control of oligonucleotides by MALDI-TOF or Sequenom MassARRAY Oligo Check. QC data mentioned previously is included in every shipment. If the sequence of the individual oligonucleotides is found and documented to be incorrect by the researcher then the vendor will replace the product at no charge and be shipped IAW with delivery schedule below.

5. To provide optional large scale production of oligonucleotides in gram amounts.

S09-198 – RFI – Insect Cell Based Biopharmaceutical Development Issued 7-21-09

This one’s an RFI, which means they are looking for people capable of doing the work, but not issuing a contract, yet.  The caveate being, if you do the RFI, when the contract does come up you will be in the front of the line.  Well, I’m sure that’s not entirely accurate from a contractual, legal perspective, but whetever:

SAIC-F is seeking companies or academic institutes with knowledge and experience on laboratory development (using an insect cell based system) from gene sequence of interest for either a therapeutic protein or self assembling virus like particles (VLP).

Responses for BioBeers continue to roll in, but looks like this month will be nice and intamate with only, say, 60 people.  Still plenty of capacity for walk-in’s, but we do try to plan for food and staffing, so I’d appreciate an RSVP if you intend on coming.  Also still looking for a Sponsor to cover the “Tipping Fee”.  Also, if anyone has some research to present, I don’t have a presenter, yet.

If you’re on Twitter (or even not) I set up a Twtvite at http://twtvite.com/biq72l.   Sadly, I am the only one to respond.  Which means our topic of discussion for the edition of BioBeers will be:  How do we get Science geeks off their flabby a$$es and engaged in Social Media?

Tales of Wales, Money for Free and of Newly Discovered dieases

Several months ago I was called out of the blue by a Canadian firm who was helping to establish connections for a Welsh delegation coming to Maryland to strum up business through collaboration.  I was considering hosting a special BioBeers for them here, but that never panned out.  What was established is being called International Business Wales, Washington Mission Portal.  Amongst the delegation are a number of Life Science Companies.  The briefing for Life Science companies and an opportunity for one-on-one discussions is next Friday, June 26th in Alexandria (unfortunately).  I am going to attend.  If anyone would like to tag along, please let me know.  I think you will be quite surprised when you investigate the amount of Life Science research going on in Wales.  I know I was.  Plus, one of the companies, in particular, is doing almost exactly what I am trying to do with placenta.  For me, as great fit.

That is next Friday.  Next Thursday is the long awaited return of the MdBio Golf Outing at Whiskey Creek.  My team is set and ready to roll.  I hope some of you have also signed up.  This used to be to highlight of the year for many of us.  Networking and a Reunion all rolled up into one.

On a totally unrelated topic, I was amused reading an article in the Frederick News Post this morning about the on-going inventory audit at USAMRIID.  Amused because i don’t blame the way this was reported, but having worked in inventory control & logistics for 15 some odd years, discovering 9,200 “finds”, items they didn’t know they ever had isn’t unusual. The article says there were over 70,000 total counted sample. One should report the result in terms of the accuracy of the inventory.  In this case, for simplicity, say (70,000 -9,200)/70,000 =  87% accurate.  In my experience, if the only thing the auditors were going off of, as the article implies, were excel spreadsheets and lab notebooks, I would be surprised if an academic lab like USAMRIID could sustain over 60% accuracy over the decades these samples have been stored there.  Still, this does not present a seriously “out of control” situation.  But one word of warning:  conducting a “physical inventory” once per year (again, just quoting the article), is a HUGE, ENORMOUS, stupid and foolish waste of time!!!  For the past 20 years the way to maintain control of your inventory is to conduct periodic, weekly, cycle counts:  randomly selected items or locations.  The frequency and number of counts is determined by total inventory and the degree of accuracy you’d like to maintain.  In this case, lets say they have 70,000 vials to count.  If every week  1,500 vials were counted from random locations (which isn’t difficult since they’re being stored in cryo racks I assume containing multiples per box), the entire inventory would be counted in 47 weeks.    Or say 300 per day.  And even more important, cycle counts are more likely to catch mistakes or systemic errors closer to the time they occur.  Yikes, the book on cycle counts vs and Annual Physical Inventory were written a long time ago.  That rant accomplished, most companies still do physical inventories because the accountants like it.  Stupid.

And lastly, I want to briefly comment on the story (HERE and HERE and also heard on WFMD) breaking this week about Life Technologies being granted money through the state and city for their expansion into the old PGC building.  Howard left a comment about this earlier.  I worked DBED on a PWQ grant while with the former Life Technologies for $25K to train new employees for the Distribution center we were building.  I remember John Gardner, our Comptroller or something like that (his wife is now a county commissioner), asking why on earth do we need $25K from DBED when our operating profit was something like $50MM the year before?  Yes, we used to be that profitable before the IVGN debacle. My opinion is that any money the State/County can provide to assist in creating jobs is going to be paid back in probably the first year in sales tax, income taxes and construction contracts to build out the new facility.  It is money well spent that will be returned.  If this isn’t the role of Economic Development, better on a “sure thing”, then what is?  Providing loans to risky start-ups?

And b y the way, I may have said at one point I thought that Life Tech was putting Stem Cell stuff in the new building:  totally wrong.  I learned from an insider that the new facility is going to be used as a distribution Center for the ABI products.  Since ABI systems are used for diagnostics, they need a cGMP facility and controls.  So, good news:  the new facility is taking jobs away from California!  All more reason to spend locally!

Ft Detrick Tech Transfer Funds

While we’re talking about all things Fort Related, there was a press release by TEDCO Wednesday [warning, PDF] and several FredCoBio companies won funding to support product development activities with Ft Detrick scientists.

BioAssay Works, LLC, located in Ijamsville, Md., is working to develop an optimized, sensitive, lateral-flow visual diagnostic test able to detect and differentiate from a single sample multiple pathogenic poxviruses, including variola, vaccinia, and monkeypox. A prototype diagnostic assay will be designed, manufactured, and tested for the ability to accurately identify and discriminate between vaccinia and monkeypox.

APE-Bridgepath Scientific, Inc., located in Frederick, Md., is working to further develop the GeNova Screen, which is a rapid technology for the identification, isolation, and production of antibody-like molecules using a selectable bacterial-surface display system. The GeNova Screen will consist of an engineered bacterial collection in which each bacterium is capable of expressing one of a library of different receptor proteins on its surface. The identified proteins can be used as therapeutics, diagnostics, and research reagents.

CynerGene IDMP, located in Frederick, Md. in the Frederick Innovative Technology Center, is developing, validating and implementing a supplemental diagnosis of Malaria, HIV, and Dengue using CynerGene’s Infectious Disease Multiplex Panel(IDMP) approach. The IDMP will assist existing industries in becoming more productive by creating innovative biosensors which can become rapidly mainstreamed to meet the surging demand of the new market for rapid, accurate, and non-invasive diagnostics.

Imagilin Technology, LLC, located in Frederick, Md., is working to evaluate the effect of Imagilin patented probiotics as a food supplement to enhance the immune responsiveness of guinea pigs upon immunization or challenge with virulent pathogens. This project will demonstrate the ability for the Imagilin patented probiotics to function as biological adjuvant for enhancing immunization of a vaccine.

Interesting that 3/4 of these companies are FITCI graduates.