We polled you late last year about events you’d like us to have in 2011, and diagnostics was one of the top items on the list. In San Diego, we have a great atmosphere for ‘growing’ diagnostics companies, because we have several world class medical and research facilities as well as biotech companies pushing the envelope in several molecular technologies. Pathway Genomics is a great local company focused on genetic testing for disease risk factors and personal wellness. Tests are ordered by individuals through their doctors to help improve treatment by understanding the patient’s drug responses, personal or offspring disease risk factors, or the impact of diet and exercise. Pathway Genomics uses genotyping and analysis technologies research scientists may be familiar with, and it will be exciting to hear about the possibilities for growth in the region. Join us August 16th to hear from Pathway’s Vice President of Product Development Edgar MacBean present “Current and future applications of personal genomic testing” (Ed’s Bio & talk description). Register here.

We are happy to welcome the San Diego Quantified Self chapter to this event, they are scientists and individuals interested in better health through monitoring personal data.

Sponsors

We’re looking for sponsors for this event, contact us for more information.

Event Details

Who: Biotechnology professionals in the greater San Diego area
What: San Diego Biotechnology Network August 16th Event Featuring Pathway Genomics
When: Tuesday, August 16th 2011, 5:30-9:00 p.m.
Where: Tango Del Rey, 3567 Del Rey Street, San Diego 92109 (Directions below)
Cost: $25 Standard/$20 Academic/$50 Recruiter, dinner provided, cash bar
Contact: http://sdbn.org/contact
For more information about the event: http://sdbn.org/august

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 (south of) Tango del Rey. DO NOT park in the Science Center lot.

2011 is a new year for San Diego Biotech and we’re hoping that the good news will outweigh the bad. Let’s start off featuring a great company with a long history of success in the region, Althea Technologies. In a recent poll of members the top interest was in hearing about drug development, so you’ll really enjoy hearing about Althea’s contract development and manufacturing which helps drugs reach consumers. Maya Agarwal, Business Processes Supervisor at Althea, will present a talk about the company’s history titled “A San Diego Success Story.” Register now!.

Sponsors

Interesting in sponsoring? We’ve got affordable options for you to engage the 75-100 biotech professionals and researchers who will be at the event, and to reach the 6,000 others in our network.Contact us soon to learn more.

Event Details

Who: Biotechnology professionals in the greater San Diego area
What: San Diego Biotechnology Network February 15th Event Featuring Althea Technologies
When: Tuesday, February 15th 2011, 5:30-9:00 p.m.
Where: Tango Del Rey, 3567 Del Rey Street, San Diego 92109 (Directions below)
Cost: $25/$20 Academic, dinner provided, cash bar
Contact: http://sdbn.org/contact
For more information about the event: http://sdbn.org/february

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 (south of) Tango del Rey. DO NOT park in the Science Center lot.

June 2010 marks the 10th anniversary of the sequencing of the human genome. As Francis Collins has pointed out, “we invariably overestimate the short-term impacts of new technologies and underestimate their longer-term effects.” As a member of the community for 14 years, I can tell you that this is true for San Diego, as the expectations in 2000 were likely too high, but the last ten years have brought unexpected progress in many areas.

San Diego has a great ecosystem to take advantage of these exciting longer-term benefits, ranging from our expertise in creating cutting edge research tools, to ground breaking drug discoveries, to new classes of diagnostics, to the exciting new field of synthetic genomics. Of course, Craig Venter has given us a big vote of confidence by relocating here. Let’s bring together experts in an interactive environment August 18th to discuss how we can take advantage of these exciting opportunities. Register here.

Panelists:

Michael Cooke, Ph.D., Director of Immunology Discovery, Genomics Institute of the Novartis Foundation (GNF) (Bio)
Kelly Frazer, Ph.D., Chief of the Division of Genome Information Sciences for the UCSD Department of Pediatrics (more info)
Tom Novak, Ph.D.,, SVP of Research, of Fate Therapeutics (Bio)
Aristides A. N. Patrinos, Ph.D., President, Synthetic Genomics (more info)
Emily Winn-Deen, Ph.D.,, Vice President, Diagnostics Development at Illumina (Bio)

Moderators:

Scott Markel, Principal Bioinformatics Architect, Accelrys, and Paul Flook, Senior Director, Life Sciences R&D, Accelrys

Here are some seed questions for the discussion, and as always feel free to submit your questions as comments below:

• How will the direct to consumer genomics market impact our economy?
• How is genomics being used in drug discovery, and what therapeutic areas have the most promise for San Diego?
• Will the continuing affordability of sequencing affect the landscape of companies?
• What are the best adaptations we can make to take better advantage of the opportunities?

Sponsors

Event Details

Who: Biotechnology professionals in the greater San Diego area
What: San Diego Biotechnology August Event: The Human Genome 10 Years Later: What Does it Mean for San Diego Biotech?
When: Wednesday, August 18th, 5:30-9:00 p.m.
Where: Tango Del Rey, 3567 Del Rey Street, San Diego 92109 (Directions below)
Cost: $25/$20 Academic
Contact: http://sdbn.org/contact
For more information about the event: http://sdbn.org/august

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 (south of) Tango del Rey. DO NOT park in the Science Center lot.

Mary Canady BarcampSD 7 ‘Crowdsourcing Cat Herding’ from Mary Canady on Vimeo.

I presented at a local ‘unconference’ called Barcamp recently in San Diego. The event is great because it is unscripted and interdisciplinary, and we’d like to extend the model to biotech and life science, with the goal of having a ‘BiotechCamp’ in San Diego soon. Check out the presentation, and if you have any ideas, please feel free to add them to the wiki we’ve set up at http://biotechcamp.org. We have a team of about ten now who will be planning this event. As always, tell us what you think and stay tuned!

There’s a cool local event we think would be a great opportunity to explore new ways to communicate science. A group of us are going to BarCamp San Diego, a two day ‘Unconference’ which is described below. Check it out (use link above and more info/register here) and contact us if you’d like to give a presentation, if your company would like to sponsor (very affordable, great for tech-friendly life science companies), or if you’re just interested in learning more.

What is BarCamp?

BarCamp is an international network of “unconferences” where geeks, hackers, makers, and others passionate about Internet culture and technology come together to share ideas and learn from one another. It’s an unconference because there is no theme or pre-set list of speakers – the agenda is built onsite of and by the attendees. Every attendee is expected to be a presenter (but they’re pretty lenient on first timers).

The crowd is largely composed of those from technical fields, but topics can range from handmade books to the biochemistry of beer. All you need is a desire to learn and demonstrate cool stuff to fellow geeks. Admission is free, too! Barcamp is what you make it, so leave the slidedecks at home and get ready to “show and tell”.

Here’s some exemplary pics from previous years:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/n8foo/4283743276/in/set-72157623222288102/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevlar/4286598334/in/set-72157623113989159/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevlar/4285856393/in/set-72157623113989159/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/n8foo/4283677534/in/set-72157623222288102/

The SDBN’s eventual plan is to have an unconference completely devoted to life science and biotechnology. To learn more join us at BarcampSD July 10/11!

To share this post easily, cut and paste: Join Us at BarCamp in San Diego July 10/11 http://bit.ly/c12rkD

Advanced BioHealing (ABH) is a great local company that has turned their product for diabetic foot ulcers, Dermagraft, into a success story for regenerative medicine. I met them at the BIO convention in May and wrote a blog post about their work. They really impressed me, and we thought SDBN members would be interested in hearing their story. ABH doesn’t fit neatly into a single category (perhaps somewhere between medical devices and stem cells, according to the ‘buckets’ we used in our 2010 poll), but perhaps that is part of their success. As we’ve discussed, San Diego Biotech has seen its share of companies who have difficulties traversing the ‘valley of death’ leading to product commercialization, so we think this story is of great interest.

Kathy McGee, Advanced BioHealing’s Vice President and General Manager, will give a short presentation (Bio/Abstract), and representatives from ABH will be on hand to network with throughout the event. ABH is HIRING so this will be a great opportunity for you if you are interested. Sponsorships for the event are also available, contact us for more information. The event will take place June 23rd at 5:30 p.m., and you can register here.

Sponsors

Event Details

Who: Biotechnology professionals in the greater San Diego area
What: San Diego Biotechnology Network Event June 23rd featuring Advanced BioHealing
When: Wednesday, June 23rd, 5:30-9:00 p.m.
Where: Tango Del Rey, 3567 Del Rey Street, San Diego 92109 (Directions below)
Cost: $20/$15 Academic, +$5 at the door (cash/check only)
Contact: http://sdbn.org/contact
For more information about the event: http://sdbn.org/june

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 (south of) Tango del Rey. DO NOT park in the Science Center lot.

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…

1. 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.
2. Introduce yourself – Allow each person to introduce themselves before starting the conversation.
3. 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.
4. 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.

To share this post easily, cut and paste: Speed Networking for Life Scientists http://bit.ly/d3P1ls

Lab Automation 2010 is a somewhat self-explanatory conference which brings together diverse industries such as drug discovery and development, forensics and security, and clinical diagnostics. Next year it will be in Palm Springs January 23-27, and they have many affordable (or even free) options for attending. Here is a list of the options for those of you on a budget (aren’t we all these days):

1. Early Bird Discount. Register by Dec. 14th and get $200 off of the industry rate and $100 off of the academic rate. See details on the registration information page
2. Waivers. If you qualify, you can get free admission as an academic (PDF) or if you are unemployed (PDF).
3. Free exhibit hall pass. The exhibit hall is full and will have many interesting companies (and cool instruments of course) for you to network with. There is even some free food involved, see details on the registration information page.
4. Day Pass. You can attend for just one day for half the rate. Great for those of us who want to drive up and might not want to spend the night. See details on the registration information page.

In addition, ALA also provides free career counseling and great weekend short courses. It could be a very fruitful trip for you up the 15!

The September San Diego Biotechnology Network (SDBN) event will feature Intellikine, a leader in the development of innovative, small molecule drugs for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases, and recently in the news for raising $51M in VC funding. Troy Wilson, Ph.D., CEO, will give a short presentation, and as always there will be plenty of time to ask questions and interact with representatives from Intellikine.

Troy Wilson is the President, CEO and a founder of Intellikine, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of small molecule drugs that target the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and other diseases. Dr. Wilson is a serial entrepreneur who previously has co-founded several San Diego based companies, including Ambrx and Phenomix. In his presentation, Dr. Wilson will describe Intellikine’s formation, the scientific and clinical rationale behind its drug discovery programs, its business development and corporate strategy, and how the company was able recently to raise $51 million in venture capital in a very challenging market. The presentation should be of interest to scientists, entrepreneurs, clinicians and anyone interested in how to translate world-class academic science into a leading biotech company.

Event Details

Who: Biotechnology professionals in the greater San Diego area
What: San Diego Biotechnology Network’s September Networking Event featuring Intellikine
When: Tuesday, September 22nd, 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 or check only)
Contact: http://sdbn.org/contact
For more information about the event: http://sdbn.org/september

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.

Pics from our August Transformation of the Biotech Business Model panel event have been posted on our Flickr group at http://flickr.com/groups/sdbn. Thanks to Steve Fouskarinis for taking them. We’re also working on video and writing some summaries that will help if you weren’t there. Stay tuned!