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NC Biotechnology Center News
- Atala's Group Wins New Kudo
The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) has won an award of excellence from the Association of University Research Parks (AURP), an organization that promotes the development and operations of research parks that foster innovation, commercialization and economic competitiveness in a global economy through collaboration among universities, industries and government.
The WFIRM, located in the Piedmont Triad Research Park in downtown Winston-Salem, received the AURP's 2008 Innovation Award during a breakfast celebration today in Florida.
WFIRM is led by Anthony Atala, M.D., recognized by Fast Company magazine as one of 50 people worldwide who "will change how we work and live over the next 10 years."
The citation noted, "This institute is an international leader in applying the principles of regenerative medicine to develop new clinical therapies to treat human diseases and disabilities. This includes successfully transplanting bladders grown from the patient's own cellls ... researching regenerative therapies to repair battlefield injuries with patient-grown tissues ... and using a new source of stem cells to create muscle, bone, fat, blood vessel, nerve and liver cells in the lab."
Research Triangle Foundation/Research Triangle Park won the Outstanding Research Science Park Achievement Award from the group in 1999, and North Carolina State University's Centennial Campus won it last year. William Dean, director of the Piedmont Triad Research Park, received the AURP's Outstanding Research Park Career Achievement Award in 2005, as did James Roberson, president emeritus of the Research Triangle Foundation, in 2000.
Read the full news release
- Five Scientists Awarded Industry Fellowships
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. Dec. 11, 2008 — Five freshly minted North Carolina scientists have been awarded first-class tickets on a fast train from academia to industry via the North Carolina Biotechnology Center's new Industrial Fellowship Program.
The program matches recent North Carolina Ph.D.s with biotechnology companies around the state. The Center pays the fellows' salaries and benefits for two years as employees of the sponsoring companies. In addition, the Center helps these junior scientists learn the commercial culture through training on intellectual property, government regulation and other non-technical business topics.
"It's hard for scientists to go from academic research to industry research," said Shobha Parthasarathi, Ph.D., technology development director at the Center and director of the program. "We wanted to create a way to help with that transition. This program will keep in-state more of the scientists who come through North Carolina universities for their training."
The five companies were selected through a competitive process that evaluated commitment to mentorship and professional development as well as technical merit. "We had 18 quality companies apply for the five positions," said Parthasarathi. "This unique endeavour offers a wonderful opportunity for these scientists to work with corporate mentors who can help shape their entrepreneurial experience for maximum benefit."
The candidate Ph.D.s also faced rigorous screening by the Center and the prospective employers.
"This is for young scientists who really want to establish a career in industry but don't see a clear path to get there," said Rob Lindberg, Ph.D., R.A.C., director of the Center's BATON business-development program and one of the fellowship program's architects.
"It's very tough for many of these individuals to compete for industry jobs without having industry experience," added Lindberg, "even if they've been successful in their academic careers. The goal of this fellowship program is to provide these individuals with legitimate industry experience to overcome this Catch-22 situation."
The 2008 North Carolina Biotechnology Center Industrial Fellows include:
- David Culp, who earned his Ph.D. last year from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. He's been working as a research associate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Culp's fellowship is with Affinergy, a company spun out of Duke University research in 2003. He'll be part of a team developing specially adapted antibiotics that can be used to coat medical devices.
- Dawn Delo, a product of Wake Forest University's Institute of Regenerative Medicine, where she studied stem-cell therapies for muscle diseases. Her fellowship takes her to the Winston-Salem research labs of Tengion, where she'll try to coax cells isolated from specific tissues to regenerate the entire organs.
- David Hubert, who tested more than a million individual plants in his search for disease-resistance genes as a Ph.D. student at UNC-CH. He brings this expertise to BASF Plant Science in Research Triangle Park, where he is devising new ways to find valuable traits that allow plants to fend off infection and tolerate drought and other stressful growing conditions.
- Joann O'Connor, a 2007 Ph.D. from Emory University, who brought her research into the effects of anti-psychotic medication on brain function to Cato Research in Durham. She's now a fellow at Targacept, headquartered in Winston-Salem, joining the effort to find a smoking-cessation drug by studying the slight changes in brain receptors. These changes may explain nicotine's addictive effects.
- Liisa Smith, who studied changes in blood-vessel cells as a graduate student at UNC and postdoctoral scientist at Duke. Her fellowship is taking her to Aldagen, of Durham, to research new cell-therapy tests and to explore product development and manufacturing methods.
The Biotechnology Center is a private, non-profit corporation supported by the N.C. General Assembly. Its mission is to provide long-term economic and societal benefits to North Carolina by supporting biotechnology research, business and education statewide.
# # #Contact: Robin Deacle, director of corporate communications, North Carolina Biotechnology Center, 919-541-9366.
- SCYNEXIS Extends R&D Pact
Research Triangle Park-based SCYNEXIS has reached a three-year extension of an R&D agreement with a Geneva, Switzerland global non-profit consortium to develop a therapy for human African trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness.
The extended agreement with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) is aimed at halting one of the most devastating diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. The project was initiated in 2006 and will now run through March of 2012.
"SCYNEXIS believes that this collaborative project approach with DNDi can play an important role in improving the discovery and development of new therapies for neglected diseases," said SCYNEXIS President and CEO Yves Ribeill. "We are pleased with the progress this alliance has achieved to date and look forward to continuing to apply our expertise in drug discovery and development to identify new drug candidates to treat sleeping sickness."
Read the full news release
- Second Regional Development Grant Deadline Set for January
The North Carolina Biotechnology Center has opened the second round of applications for its Regional Development Grant Program, which supports economic-development initiatives in communities statewide. The deadline for preproposals is January 28.
The North Carolina Biotechnology Center's Regional Development Grant Program is a competitive grant program that supports early stage, life-science economic-development initiatives in communities statewide. Types of projects may include: strategic planning, asset and market inventory, building infrastructure, and other activities that build regional and community collaborations to foster the growth of biotechnology companies, related industries, and their service providers.
Funding Details
- Up to $75,000 can be requested.
- A 50% match is required.
- Projects must be completed within a 12-month period.
- First BioInformatics and Genomics Retreat a Success
Outside the glass encased hallway, it was cold and rainy in Charlotte, but inside the energy levels were high and enthusiasm
Who May Apply
Any North Carolina-based, non-profit organization, including institutions of higher education, chambers of commerce, and economic development organizations.
Pre-proposals are required.
Pre-proposal deadlines: Noon, August 20, 2008, and January 28, 2009
For information and submission instructions, go to:
www.ncbiotech.org/rdg