A Rich Life Science Cluster By Mike May This region is a powerhouse of human capital in a network of research institutions, academia, pharmaceuticals, biotechs, and industry-support services. RELATED ARTICLES A Region Defined Did You Know? Greater Philadelphia's Big Pharmas A Robust Support Infrastructure Barbara Schilberg: Champion for the region Bridging the Gap Brenda Gavin: Making a venture capitalist Investment Momentum Building Update Those

Greater Philadelphia's Big Pharmas By Mike May A wide range of large pharmaceutical companies make up a strong foundation for life science in the region. RELATED ARTICLES A Region Defined Did You Know? A Rich Life Science Cluster A Robust Support Infrastructure Barbara Schilberg: Champion for the region Bridging the Gap Brenda Gavin: Making a venture capitalist Investment Momentum Building Update Those Resumes Creating Roots Ramping Up Tech Tr

Bridging the Gap By Mike May Getting technology out of a lab - or even a scientist's mind - and on the market takes a wide range of resources, from a productive business plan and management team to office space and funding. In the Greater Philadelphia region, a variety of groups and organizations aim specifically at helping beginning entrepreneurs to bridge this gap. The following pages detail just a few of these firms. A Region Defined Bridging the Gap Be

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania By Mike May ARTICLE EXTRAS A Region Defined Bridging the Gap First State Innovation Keystone Innovation Zones NJIT's Enterprise Development Center Rowan University's CIE The Science Center In 2004 Charles Picardi attended a biomedical conference arranged by Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/SEP) in Philadelphia. As the chief tec

First State Innovation By Mike May ARTICLE EXTRAS A Region Defined Bridging the Gap Ben Franklin Technology Partners Keystone Innovation Zones NJIT's Enterprise Development Center Rowan University's CIE The Science Center Although well-known companies such as DuPont and AstraZeneca call Delaware their home, the state has lacked a reputation as a high-tech area. Consequently, Delaware has not always attracted new life science companies. "It s

Keystone Innovation Zones By Mike May ARTICLE EXTRAS A Region Defined Bridging the Gap Ben Franklin Technology Partners First State Innovation NJIT's Enterprise Development Center Rowan University's CIE The Science Center Innovation comes from more than flashes of insight. A few years ago, Denise Polacek began experiencing hot flashes, which sparked the birth of an innovative solution for this widely encountered problem. "Far fewer women ar

New Jersey Institute of Technology's Enterprise Development Center By Mike May ARTICLE EXTRAS A Region Defined Bridging the Gap Ben Franklin Technology Partners First State Innovation Keystone Innovation Zones Rowan University's CIE The Science Center Working from his basement, Miguel Perez struggled to start Morpholytics. He wanted to connect companies with analytical problems with people who could solve them. To get Morpholytics moving,

Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Rowan University By Mike May ARTICLE EXTRAS A Region Defined Bridging the Gap Ben Franklin Technology Partners First State Innovation Keystone Innovation Zones NJIT's Enterprise Development Center The Science Center For Thomas Pote, massaging his clients makes up more than a business tactic. At the age of 19, he studied massage at the Lourdes Institute of Wholistic Studies in Collingswood, NJ. At

The University City Science Center By Mike May ARTICLE EXTRAS A Region Defined Bridging the Gap Ben Franklin Technology Partners First State Innovation Keystone Innovation Zones NJIT's Enterprise Development Center Rowan University's CIE In 1963 the nonprofit University City Science Center took over four blocks, between 34th and 38th Streets along Market Street, in Philadelphia. Dean Lewis, the center's interim president and C

Pain and PromiseAutoimmune diseases lack the sledgehammer impact, and therefore the instant recognition, of our other great medical afflictions such as cancer and heart disease. But as the vivid patient testimonies on pages 6-15 illustrate, they are worthy of notoriety. Insidious and nasty, difficult to diagnose, perplexing to treat, bewildering for patients to understand, and painful to live with, autoimmunity presents a series of daunting challenges. First, there's the sheer number of condi

Manipulating the Mechanisms By Mike May Andrew C. Chan, MD, PhD, vice president of research immunology and antibody engineering at Genetech, discusses the future of research on autoimmunity, and how it could lead to more precise treatments. In the pharmaceutical industry in general, what therapies look particularly promising? There is a plethora of different kinds of mechanisms that are being pursue

By Mike May - Guest EditorTURNING TEAMWORK INTO BIOTECHA decade or two ago, North Carolina was known for few things: tobacco farming, furniture building, and the first flight of the Wright brothers. Most of all, North Carolina held a reputation as the training ground for astounding basketball players, including Grant Hill, Michael Jordan, David Thompson, and many others. The cognoscenti, however, imagined a new status for the state. Even as early as the mid-20th century, teams of academic scient

WHAT COMMAND LINE?Left: Courtesy of Pratul K. Agarwal; Right: Courtesy of High Performance Computing Facility, University of Puerto RicoUsers no longer need remember arcane command-line incantations with Linux; the OS hides its complexities beneath a snazzy user interface. Here, Linux versions of ImageJ, an image manipulation suite (top) and PyMOL, a biomolecular structure visualizer (left) are shown.On August 25, 1991, a student named Linus Torvalds at the University of Helsinki posted an innoc

PREDICTIVE POWER:© 2004 Massachusetts Medical SocietyThis analysis of gene expression ranks 36 genes on the basis of their predictive power (univariate z score), with a negative score associated with longer overall survival and a positive score associated with shorter overall survival. The dashed lines represent an absolute univariate z score of ± 1.5. The prediction model is based on the weighted expression of six genes in the equation shown. (N Engl J Med, 350:1828–37, 2004.)Me

When Seana Coulson, assistant professor of cognitive science, and her graduate student, Christopher Lovett, looked for a high-level language task to study brain responses in right- and left-handers, the investigators turned to humor. The University of California, San Diego, researchers recorded brainwaves in 16 righties and 16 lefties while they read jokes, such as "I still miss my ex-wife, but I am improving my aim"; or nonsequiturs, such as "I still miss my ex-wife, but I am improving my ego."