Articles tagged with: biotech
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These days we hear a lot about the possibilities of translational research, which promises to better apply innovations from academia for public good. Who’s been successful locally in applying this model, and what are the challenges our region faces? We are lucky to have two thought leaders successfully implementing translational research in San Diego, come hear their stories and discuss how this model can be used to stimulate growth at our March 16th event.
We’ll hear from Gary Firestein, M.D., UCSD Dean of Translational Medicine (Bio) who will talk about ‘New Paradigms for Drug Discovery.’ Dr. Firestein was a member of our July panel (summary) and is incredibly knowledgeable, doing exciting work, and very interested in engaging in discussions about the promise of translational research/medicine and the issues we face.
Beth Anne Baber, Ph.D., M.B.A, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Nicholas Conor Institute for Pediatric Cancer Research (TNCI), will speak about ‘New Translational Research Models for Battling Rare Diseases’ (more info). Dr. Baber is one of my personal heroes as she founded TNCI after her son was diagnosed with a rare cancer. TNCI was described as a ‘translational research catalyst’ in a recent California Healthcare Institute report (full report PDF, see p. 53). Dr. Baber is understandably very passionate about her work, and it will be interesting to hear how the institute is using translational research to fight childhood cancer.
We know you’re interested in Translational Research based on our 2010 poll, and we want to make sure you will be able to learn what this model means to you. We’ll have a ‘mini-panel’ after the talks so you can ask questions, and we’ll also solicit questions beforehand. Feel free to leave them below so we can start the discussion, or submit them when you register. Tell your friends! Here is the flyer (PDF).
Sponsors
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Sponsorship opportunities are still available, contact us for details. You’ll get exposure to 3500+ Biotech Professionals and show that you support translational research.
Event Details
Who: Biotechnology professionals in the greater San Diego area
What: San Diego Biotechnology Network’s March 16th Event: Translational Research: San Diego’s Successes and Challenges
When: Tuesday, March 16th, 5:30-9:00 p.m.
Where: Tango Del Rey, 3567 Del Rey Street, San Diego 92109 (Directions below)
Cost: $20, including appetizers ($15 for Academics) +$5 at door, cash/check only
Contact: http://sdbn.org/contact
For more information about the event: http://sdbn.org/march
Directions: From the North: South on Interstate 5, Exit Balboa Ave, Straight to 4th Traffic Light then left on Bunker Hill St. Building directly ahead 3 blks. From the South: North on Interstate 5, Exit Grand/ Garnet Ave, Straight to 3rd Traffic Light then right on Bunker Hill St. Building directly ahead 3 blks. Park on the street or in the structure just past Tango del Rey.
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When’s the last time you met, had a brief conversation and exchanged cards with 20 professionals in 60 minutes? As a scientist, do you find it difficult to talk your way through a crowd? When it comes to networking, do you have the need for speed? Then maybe speed networking is for you! At last week’s SDBN event our members had the opportunity to meet one potential customer, referral, collaborator, qualified candidate, possible employer after another. Here’s how it worked.
Prior to starting, we gave a brief presentation describing what the next hour was gong to look like. Tables were arranged into a large ‘U’ shape with chairs on each side (members facing each other, see photos on Flickr for more details). A diagram explained that the people sitting on the outside of the ‘U’ were going to stay in their seats while those on the inside would move one seat to their right upon hearing a cue. The four basic guidelines were…
- You have 3 minutes total – Why three? Two is too little and five… well that would be too much. We knew that participants would be fried after 60 minutes and we wanted everyone to connect with at least 20 other professionals so… we landed on 3 minutes.
- Introduce yourself – Allow each person to introduce themselves before starting the conversation.
- Refine your message – We asked the participants to think about what they wanted to walk away with that night. Was it a contact name at a company they are seeking employment with? A collaborative partner for a project they are working on? Maybe to increase their LinkedIn professional network? Whatever their goal, it needed to be the main message in these brief conversations.
- Have fun – What’s the point if no one is having a good time!
With participants facing each other, guidelines in place and stopwatch in hand, we were ready to begin. “Your three minutes starts.. NOW!” The room was singing with energy and all 82 participants were engaged. As promised, at the end of the 3-minute cycle we prompted the room to “rotate”… 3 minutes later “rotate” and then again to “roooootate”… you get the picture.
One very short hour later we called the last “rotate” and asked participants to conclude their final conversation. So what ensued after the 60-minute speed networking session… more networking! Could it be that this type of exercise helps you feel more comfortable talking to strangers, communicating a business need and building your social capital? YES!
The post session comments have lead us to believe that this was a very successful event and one that our members would like to participate in again. What are your thoughts? Did you meet anyone that will help you further a professional goal? Did the overall event meet your expectations? How can we improve next time?
Special thanks to Fiona Godsman of Nexxus Scotland for the idea.
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The results are in! We polled you to see what you want with the San Diego Biotechnology Network in 2010. The full results from 68 respondents can be seen here, and here’s a short summary:
- Drug Discovery, Drug Development, Translational Research, Research Tools, Medical Devices were the top areas of interest. Although Stem Cells and Green/Clean Tech were not highly chosen, companies in these areas were suggested to be featured.
- Companies you’d like to hear from: Illumina, Celgene, Ambrx, CareFusion, Sapphire Energy, Fate Therapeutics, Life Technologies
- Charities you’re interested in: Disease areas, community outreach
- You think the mix of science/networking is good, with a slight bias towards more networking.
To get an overview of the feedback, check out the tag cloud of the essay answers–we think it gives a nice flavor of what you’re looking for and what to expect in 2010. We were encouraged by your feedback and willingness to participate and will start giving you more ways to get involved soon. Leave more feedback below, we can’t get enough of it!
We’re working on the 2010 schedule and finding volunteers, partners and sponsors, now is the time to contact us to get involved!
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Our work cultivating a biotech network in San Diego has attracted a lot of attention. When I travel, or on social media, I tell people how our group has a real ‘energy’ which is fueled by the combination of online and face-to-face interactions. I met the folks from Nexxus Scotland, a group that was launched in 2003 with similar ideals to the SDBN. They asked me to write a summary of our network for their quarterly newsletter which you can access here. Check out the Nexxus site and what they’re doing in Scotland–we both share strong ties to our academic heritage. They’ve also been around longer than us, and I think we can learn from their success.
We’ve also had interest from other regions who have a keen interest in interacting with us. Luke Timmerman mentioned great synergies that can exist between biotech hubs at their recent event. What do you think about forging stronger relationships with other hubs, and how could we facilitate these interactions?
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Newly appointed National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Francis Collins will attend and speak briefly at the American Society for Cell Biology Conference in San Diego Dec. 5-9. Dr. Collins will provide some short remarks after Rudolf Jaenisch’s keynote presentation at 6 p.m. SDBN has requested an interview and hopes to give San Diego Biotechnology professionals a voice for the direction of NIH funding.
Dr. Collins led the Human Genome Project, an achievement which significantly changed the landscape of life science research. The project has found increasing relevance as the data becomes ‘translated’ into implications for health and medicine. The information has pervasively impacted the way our industry ‘works,’ just one example being the improved communication between drug discovery and disease diagnostics. Dr. Collins is also a physician and a proponent of personalized medicine, and was appointed as NIH Director by President Obama in July of this year.
Dr. Collins has been a strong supporter of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) for years, and is described as an ‘eloquent speaker and all around great guy’ by John Fleischman, Science Writer for ASCB. Fleischman said Dr. Collins has also been known to pick up a guitar and play at their functions. We know that Dr. Collins has a sense of humor because he has appeared on the Colbert Report. We can’t promise a ‘kumbaya’ session, or a funny rapport (pun intended), but it will be great to hear Dr. Collins talk about the direction of the NIH. The meeting is also a great place to learn and network with scientists and exhibitors, I highly suggest that you attend.
The ASCB is dedicated to basic research which is of paramount importance to supporting our local biotechnology economy, as our industry is fed by our top research institutions. Personally, I am interested in changes in NIH funding which will better prepare our academic scientists to more easily ‘translate’ their knowledge to industrial applications.
Do you have any questions for Dr. Collins? Please leave them as a comment below, and we will do our best to get them asked!
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Many of you know I’m a big fan of Seth Godin, a real thought leader in social media. I’m reading a book of his called ‘Tribes,’ which talks about the need for people to come together with a common interest and towards a common goal (and I highly suggest the book). I realized that’s what we’re doing with the SDBN–utilizing the new tools available to create more communication among biotechnology professionals in the region. Seth suggests that one of the things that helps a Tribe to grow is to facilitate connections between members. We’re trying to create a feeling of community using the different venues, but we need your help! Please join, subscribe, and participate using the links below!
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| Our Facebook page will give you updates and also some ‘just for fun’ news, contests and posts. Join and send the link http://facebook.com/sdbiotech to your friends, too! |
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To be connected, I think it’s important to know what’s going on with San Diego Biotech. For this, we have created ‘San Diego Biotech’ specific feeds for you, including news, jobs, and blog posts (which include events as well). Here are examples of the news, jobs, and blog feeds you’ll receive. We’ve set up email updates, RSS feeds (more info on RSS) and twitter accounts in many flavors, take your pick!
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| SDBN Blog, News, Jobs | RSS | ||
| SDBN Blog, News | RSS | ||
| SDBN Jobs | RSS | ||
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Participate!
Nothing connects people more than meeting face to face. Please attend our monthly events, they are very interactive and we always feature the hottest companies and topics. The next meeting is September 22nd, featuring Intellikine. Also, we encourage you to attend the other networking events in San Diego, check them out on our calendar or visit their websites which are listed on the right column. We also want to hear from you! Comment below, write a blog post, tell us who you are on twitter, etc. This is your group, tell us how it can connect you better and help you to meet your goals. We’ve toyed with the idea of putting forums or other ways for you to interact here on the site, suggestions welcome!
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I’ve been attending a lot of events in San Diego and reading reports that opportunities for funding are increasing. I’ve been invited to attend the 2009 SoCalBio Investor and Partnership Conference September 17th in Santa Monica, and I wanted to pass on the information to the group, as I know many of you are interested in getting funding, networking, or learning about what’s new.
The morning will consist of 3 parallel tracks of company presentations in Biotech/Biopharma, Devices, and Diagnostics and Instrumentation. After a networking lunch, Dr. Francois Nader, CEO of NPS Pharmaceuticals and a veteran in the industry, will present a keynote presentation. In the afternoon, three parallel investor/partnership tracks will take place for VC/angels, corporate partnerships, and innovative financing. As if this weren’t enough, the networking cocktail reception will showcase technologies from local institutions such as UCLA, UCI or USC.
This is a great opportunity to meet investors and learn about new technologies in the Southern California area. The SDBN is dedicated to improving communication among biotechnology professionals in the region, and I highly suggest that you attend. The event will likely have a different ‘flavor’ than the San Diego events, and you might learn about larger trends and opportnities. Click here to register. There are also sponsorship opportunities still available, click here for more information.
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During our May 28th Social Media for Scientists (SMS) SDBN event, William Gunn talked about friendfeed as a useful tool for discussing science and learning. We polled the attendees before the event and found that they knew almost nothing about it, and had little interest in learning about it. We set up a friendfeed room for the group and frankly have not had much adoption.
So, what’s so great about friendfeed, why do we keep talking about it? Friendfeed aggregates all of your activity on social media, so that when you post anything on twitter, your blog, Flickr, etc. (58 social media applications are available), all of your connections there see it. Now, think of this used with a scientific ‘persona,’ if you will. You can share interesting articles, blog posts, presentations–some people even post data on Flickr–with your colleagues. Every post can be commented on, leading to interesting discussions. See this example of how friendfeed was used to stimulate and manage discussions regarding the conference, and the interest was so high that posts were thought to be spam!
Friendfeed takes it one step further, allowing you to form and join groups which focus on topics (see table below). You can benefit from group members’ posts, ask questions of the group, and take part in the discussions from any post. Scientists have been using the web to interact via forums and mailing list for a long time (we even discussed friendfeed vs. these older ways of communicating there). While someone pointed out that there is ‘nothing wrong with the old forums and mailing lists’ and that ‘you can post longer items using the old methods’ I see real value in the ‘2.0′ forms of communicating such as friendfeed. With these types of social media, as with media such as twitter, often people post interesting observations that lead to unexpected comments and new directions–there is a level of serendipitous discovery that occurs. Also, because the groups are full of like-minded people, there is not much noise, and even discussions that are tangential to your work can be interesting. As William Gunn pointed out in our SMS presentation, you can also search all posts and comments from your friends or groups, leading to one of the most targeted web searches available (bing, eat your heart out).
One thing that I find incredibly interesting is that these groups can also become commentaries on larger issues. See the References Wanted group below–it is a repository for articles that scientists cannot access freely, and thus a commentary on the need for more open access science, paradigms that journals such as PLoS subscribe to. In addition, you’ll find that the scientists on friendfeed are keen to learn about new tools–see the Evernote Addicts group, a group dedicated to software for aggregating information that scientists (and others) find very useful. As with other types of social media, it is not clear what the lifetime of friendfeed’s relevancy will be, but you can be sure that the people here will be ahead of the curve in knowing what the ‘next big thing’ for scientists will be, even if it means moving away from friendfeed or being a ‘force’ to help change it.
As with other social media, the best way to learn is to try it yourself. I suggest signing up and subscribing to the groups below, getting email updates for convenience at first. We realize that some of you are still hesitant to join, and that’s OK. It turns out that Facebook and friendfeed have a lot of similarities, as a fan page can be set up for a group of people, and items can be posted on and discussed among members. We set up a SDBN fan page for this purpose, become a fan and start posting and interacting! We hope that it will give you a ‘taste’ of ’serendipitous scientific social media’ and that you’ll be inspired to participate in tools such as friendfeed. We’ll also continue to help you learn more about the tools for science in social media through blog posts and events. As we mentioned at the SMS event, participating in social media gives you a way to get a ‘leg up’ from your colleagues in real time, and we think that once you start experiencing it, you’ll be as hooked as we are!
P.S. On friendfeed there is even a discussion on this post!
Friendfeed Groups for Life Scientists: Some Examples
| Group | Members | Description |
|---|---|---|
| The Life Scientists | 949 | A room for all the life science types on FriendFeed (and everyone we’ve co-opted). Topics tend to focus on bioinformatics and computational biology, but discussion from any area in biological sciences is welcome. |
| Science Online | 333 | A room dedicated to online scientific communication. Previously: Science Blogging 2008. |
| 51 | Biology | |
| 197 | News and discussion about interesting topics from the world of science. | |
| References Wanted | 93 | This is a room to document the harm caused by closed/toll-access publication by collecting hard data to answer the frequent anti-OA attack "everyone has all the access they need already". Post here citations to journal articles you’d like to read/need for your work, but can’t get without paying a fee. |
| ScienceOnline | 135 | ScienceOnline09 – formerly known as Science Blogging Conference – will meet again in NC in January. 200+ people (and many more virtually) will discuss how the Web changes the way science is communicated, published, taught and done. |
| Evernote Addicts | 1,193 | For anyone who uses and loves Evernote. Discuss how you use it, what you’d like to see it do, and generally how it’s made your life better and more organized. |
| San Diego Biotechnology Network | 18 | Biotechnology professionals living/working in the greater San Diego area. |
Don’t see a group that interests you? Search the friendfeed groups for your research area or anything you’re interested in, or start your own!
Posted by Mary Canady of Comprendia, which helps life scientists and the industry improve communication through social media and marketing strategies. Special thanks to Sally Church of Icarus Consultants & PharmaStrategyBlog for helping with the list of groups, and to the friendfeed life scientists group, who let this ‘marketer in scientist clothing’ participate in the group. Also thanks to William Gunn, for help and convincing me to persist with friendfeed even though I didn’t ‘get it’ at first.
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Looking forward to seeing everyone tonight. We’ll have onsite registration ($25, $20 for academics with ID), so feel free to stop by. You’ll be able to network with people from 50+ companies at the event, and we always do our best to ensure that you make as many contacts as possible. Also, Regulus Therapeutics will be giving a presentation on microRNA therapeutics, a very hot drug discovery topic. We’ll also be giving away some shwag from Labarmor, including a stylish black labcoat!
Event details: http://sdbn.org/april
See you there!
People from the following companies will be in attendance tonight:
| Abbott Allied Intrade Inc Asymchem Beckman Coulter BIA Separations Biogen Idec BioPhase BioProcess Solutions BioReliance Biotech Vendor Services, Inc. BPSBioscience California BioSolutions Calmune Corporation Catalent Celgene Celula, Inc. City of Hope Fate Therapeutics Genalyte Gen-Probe Genzyme Granlen Hayden Bergman Rooney, P.C. Health Decisions Inc. Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals K&L Gates Keck Graduate Institute |
Kemia LabPros La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology Millipore Corp. Mission3 Nanogen NexBio, Inc. Nuvo Research, Inc. ODG Pfizer Inc. PharmaScouts, Inc. Proven Scientific Staffing Regulus Therapeutics Sanford Rose Associates SanRx Sapphire Energy Senomyx, Inc. Sirion Therapeutics SourceSolution, Inc. Sparta Systems Inc. Stockfisch Consulting The Scripps Research Institute UC San Diego Vala Sciences Valeant Vical Inc. Wayne State University |
Want more details about these companies? Many are listed on our San Diego Biotechnology Company Directory: http://sdbn.org/directory
