SABPA Newsletter June 2012

Table of Contents

SABPA Events

1.   Meeting CEOs of Diagnostics Companies and Executives from BioBay (Suzhou) (July 19, 2012)

2.   The 12th SABPA Entrepreneur Symposium (August 11^th, 2012)

SABPA Reports

3.   SABPA 10^th Anniversary Celebration, Del Mar Hilton, June 9^th, 2012

4.    SABPA 11^th Annual Symposium on Biopharmaceuticals - Surfing the New wave-Pharmaceutical Innovation on a Global Scale

SABPA Announcements

5.   2012 SABPA Board of Directors (BOD) Nomination and Election

Community Events

6.   2012 PharmAsia Summit

Job Posting

7.   The Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS)

8.   Pfizer, La Jolla, CA

SABPA Events

1.   Meeting CEOs of Diagnostics Companies and Executives from BioBay (Suzhou) (July 19, 2012) 

Event Summary

            Located in Suzhou, BioBay is one of the leading science and technology centers for the emerging biotechnology and nanotechnology industries in China.This event provides an opportunity for local biotech professionals to meet CEOs of diagnostics companies and executives from BioBay.It will start with an introduction of BioBay and Suzhou Industrial Park by the BioBay executives.Then, CEOs of four diagnostics companies from BioBay will introduce their companies and participate in a panel discussion to share with the audience their experience of building businesses in the Chinese diagnostics industry.

Registration

http://sabpa.org/web/reg_2012_Jun_Suzhou.php (Registration is free)       

Please note that the event will be conducted in Chinese.

Organizer

SABPA and BioBay

When

5:30 pm to 8:30 pm, Thursday, July 19, 2012

Where

AMN Healthcare Auditorium

12400 High Bluff Dr # 100, San Diego, CA 92130

(Free parking in parking structure)

Who Should Attend

·   Entrepreneurs who are interested in starting a business in Bio Bay

·   Executives in diagnostics industry who would like to find partners in China

·   Investors who are interested in investment opportunities in diagnostics industry in China

·   Scientists who are looking for career opportunities in diagnostics industry in China

·   Anyone who is interested in diagnostics industry in general

Speakers

Jiyang Li, CEO, HOB Biotech (a leader in allergy diagnostics)

Chun Wu, CEO, Abgent (a Wuxi AppTec company)

Bin Wang, CEO, Pulong Biotech

Zhengwen Jiang, CEO, Genesky Biopharm (a leader in clinical diagnostics of genetic diseases)

Gawain Pang, Vice President, BioBay

Ian Guo, Manager, BioBay

Cindy Shu, BioBay

Schedule

5:30 to 6:30 pm: Registration/Networking/Refreshments

6:30 to 6:40 pm: Welcome Speech by SABPA President

6:40 to 8:00 pm: Presentation and Panel Discussion

8:00 to 8:30 pm: Networking

 Our venue sponsor for this event.

2.   The 12th SABPA Entrepreneur Symposium

When:          5:00 pm to 8:00 pm, Saturday, August 11th, 2012

Where:         Institute of Americas, UCSD (Parking is free at Pangea on Weekend)

Lecture Title: Exciting Science and Good Business can be an Interesting Mix

Lecture Summary:  The Business of Biotechnology is complicated and knowing the science is only part of the equation.A career in Biotechnology is not just as a job but it the next step in your training.Always put yourself in positions where you continue to learn.Try to work with smart people who you can trust and then listen to what they have to say.Don’t be afraid to take risks.Dr. Mento will use his experiences to provide examples of a career in Biotechnology.

Speaker: Steven J.Mento, Ph.D., President and CEO of Conatus Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Mento was President, CEO of Idun Pharmaceuticals, Inc.Idun was sold to Pfizer in 2005 and Conatus purchased Idun from Pfizer in 2012.Prior to joining Idun in 1997, Dr. Mento served as President of Chiron Viagene, Inc.From 1982 to 1992, Dr. Mento held various positions of increasing responsibility at the American Cyanamid Company.He was also a faculty member at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Schedule:

5:00 to 5:30 pm: Reception and Networking

5:30 to 5:40 pm: Welcome and Announcement

5:40 to 6:40 pm: Presentation and Q&A

6:40 to 7:30 pm: Networking

SABPA Reports

3.   SABPA 10^th Anniversary Celebration, Del Mar Hilton, June 9^th, 2012, Del Mar, California

June 9^th, 2012 is a special day in the SABPA history.On this day, the 10^th Annual Symposium for Biopharmaceuticals was held at the Del Mar Hilton.Over 500 attendees listened to great talks from distinguished speakers from experts in the biopharmaceutical field.It was another successful event hosted by SABPA.However, after the curtain was closed for the symposium, as the sun was setting on the western horizon, in the ballroom of Hilton Del Mar, another gathering was just getting started.Many individuals who contributed to SABPA came together to celebrate the 10^th anniversary.

Among the over 150 attendees at the celebration, were government officials including Mr. Ron Roberts, San Diego County Supervisor, expressed deep appreciation of the contribution by SABPA to the local economy and the ties between the US and China.Mr. Roberts had just returned from a business trip to China with professionals from San Diego including Mr. Joe Panetta, President and CEO of BIOCOM.He witnessed first hand the rapid development of China with the development of Hi-tech parks in every city he visited.He emphasized that strategic relationships between American Institutions and Chinese Hi-tech parks is the key for their mutual success, and organizations like SABPA are extremely important in the formation of such relationships.Mr. Jian Zhang, scientific council from the Los Angeles Chinese consulate congratulated SABPA for its success and stressed the emphasis of the Chinese government to promote biotechnology as one of the focus industries for the next decade.Dr. Hui Cai delivered  message from Mr. Jerry Sanders, Mayor of San Diego.In his message, Mr.Sanders proclaimed June 9^th, 2012 as the SABPA 10^th anniversary day in San Diego.

Many past and current SABPA leaders from far and near came to join this grand celebration.Ming Guo, Ying Zhao, Hui Cai, Fang Fang, Weiguo Su, Yun He, Hengchu Cao, Xiangming Fang, Fred Ouyang, Sophie Qiao, Peter Zhu, Mingzhu Zhang, Yang Liu and Hua Gong were among the many.These are names intertwined with SABPA history and people whose contributions and leadership shape the SABPA organization.Yet on this night, all they wanted to talk about was how SABPA has felt like a family to them creating professional and personal development opportunities holding SABPA in a special place in their hearts.Several themes were echoed by the speeches delivered by these leaders: the success of SABPA is due to the selfless contribution of its volunteers; the culture of SABPA is unique, it makes SABPA feel like a family, like home; by volunteering in the SABPA organization, volunteers are rewarded with friendship, business connections, and invaluable training on personal and professional qualities such as leadership, organization skills and teamwork.

The success of SABPA is not possible without the generous support from its collaborators and sponsors.Dr. David Wallace, Chair of the American Chemistry Society (ACS), San Diego section, expressed great excitement for the close relationship between ACS and SABPA in the past 5-6 years and was looking forward to the relationship to grow in the future.Dr. Rosemarie Christopher, President and CEO of the MEIRxRS family of companies, has been the sponsor for SABPA for four years.She said the reason she kept coming back to support SABPA is due to the leadership and passion displayed by the SABPA leaders.“Leadership is to get things done through others-SABPA has got it right.” 

More than once, the past leaders stressed the importance of the infusion of fresh blood and new energy to SABPA.The future on SABPA depends on the contribution of new volunteers and new leaders.While we celebrate the SABPA’s rewarding past, we look forward to its bright future.

4.   SABPA 11^th Annual Symposium on Biopharmaceuticals - Surfing the New wave-Pharmaceutical Innovation on a Global Scale

On June 9^th, 2012, SABPA held its 11th Annual Symposium on Biopharmaceuticals: Surfing the New wave.It was truly a milestone event with outstanding speakers, success stories of science and changing innovations in San Diego, where the best surfing waves in the world are found! 

In the morning session, Dr. Martin H. Seidel, the Institute Director at The genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF), discussed the purpose, structure, approach and future of his institute.Founded in 1999, the Institute now has more than 600 employees with a purpose to increase innovation of drug research using an integrated model for drug development.The future is scientific freedom combined with collaboration using enabling and operational technology to promote the development of innovative drugs and drug targets.

The second talk was delivered by Dr. Kang Zhang, Professor of Ophthalmology and Human genetics, and Director of the Institute of Genomic Medicine at UCSD.His clinical research focuses on novel disease gene targets and treatments, gene and stem cell based therapies in age related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, retinal degeneration and glaucoma.

Professor Benjamin F.Cravatt of The Scripps Institute then gave a talk on the Activity-Based Proteomics: Applications for Enzyme and Inhibitor Discovery.His research group aims to understand the roles that mammalian enzymes play in physiological and pathological processes and to use this knowledge to identify novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of human diseases.

The mid-morning Session II was a panel discussion led by Dr. Nimish Sidhpura, Account manager at Elsevier, who outlined the four topics of discussion: (1) Innovation on a budget, (2) Innovation trends, (3) Innovation through information and (4) Innovation Crystal ball.The five panelists were L.Kay Chandler, Partner at Cooley LLC, Richard Ding, CEO of Biotheranostics, Mike Grey, Venture Partner of Pappas Ventures, Richard Heyman, President and CEO of Aragon and Dr. Paul Negulescu, Vice President of Vertex.The summary of the panel discussion was that innovation now has to be done on a budget.Don’t be afraid to start with a little money and have a pipeline.There are new funding models that require early stage collaborations, and to focus on geographically and specific disease populations.There will also be a trend for small companies to set up collaborations with mid-size pharmaceutical companies.

The afternoon session started with the San Diego Bio-Pharma Achievement Award, awarded to the founding team of Intellikine: Troy Wilson, Kevan Shokat, Yi Liu and Pingda Ren.Dr. Yi Liu, VP of Drug Discovery at Intellikine, shared inspiring stories of how they started from a few people without base-pay for months to finally became acquired by the largest Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda with 3 compounds in clinical trials.He attributed the team’s success to three factors: confidence, flexibility, and focus.Another Intellikine founding member, Dr. Kevan Shokat, Professor at UCSF and UC Berkeley, delivered a keynote speech.His brilliant speech touched upon a unique chemical genetic approach to investigate the protein and lipid kinase signaling networks and how to screen for compounds that maximize therapeutic index.Dr. Shokat also discussed the relevance of these research findings to the therapeutic efficacy of kinase inhibitors and to the future identification of new classes of drug targets.

Dr. Qing Dong, CSO of Shanghai Hengrui, spoke about “Drug Discovery and Development in China: The Hengrui Experience”.He shared his knowledge on the current trends of drug discovery and development in China, the history of Hengrui’s R&D since 1990, and the domestic drugs discovered in China over the last two decades.He highlighted Hengrui’s unique strategy with 80% R&D effort aiming for Best-In-Class (BIC) and 20% for First-In-Class (FIC) drug discovery.

Dr. Jim Schaffer, executive director of External Research at Merck, presented an exciting novel approach for bridging external innovations to Merck’s pipeline.Calibr stands for California Institute for Biomedical Research, which is the result of co-effort between Merck and local academic authority Peter Schultz.It’s a non-profit biomedical research institute funded by Merck, located in La Jolla, with an objective to accelerate the translation of basic biomedical research into new innovative medicines.

A panel discussion of 10 years of SAPBA Entrepreneurship was facilitated by Dr. Sofie Qiao, CEO of LINQ.Distinguished panelists include Jay Dong (general manager of Cell Signaling China Operation), Ming Guo (Co-Founder and COO of Ascentage Pharma), Suixiong Cai (VP and CTO of Impact Therapeutics), Weiguo Su (EVP of drug research, Hutchison Medipharma), Xiangming Fang (President and Co-Founder of Denovo Biomarkers) and Yun He (Former CSO and SVP of Bioduro).All of them used to be SABPA leaders with deep local San Diego roots.The panelists shared their experience on how they embarked on the road less taken, the hardships in fundraising, start-up operation and many other difficult aspects of entrepreneurship.All of them offered insightful personal perspectives and shared their unique journeys to success, which are both inspiring and educational.

At the end of the meeting, a video was shown to introduce Xi An High Tech Industry Park and Mingzhu Zhang, EVP of SABPA, made closing remarks in congratulating all speakers, sponsors, organizers and volunteers for the success of the event.

For a more detailed in-depth report, please visit SABPA website at www.sabpa.org.

SABPA Announcements

5.   2012 SABPA Board of Directors (BOD) Nomination and Election 

SABPA Board of Directors is the governing body that oversees the activities of our organization.According to our by-law, the Board consists of 21 Directors, and the term of each Director is three years.The five Directors whose terms will expire this year are Helena Fan, Wen Luo, Yi Liu, Tianlun Wang, and Goran Matijasevic.During the election last year, the last two candidates were tied in votes, and both were elected to join the Board.As a result, we currently have 22 Directors.At the recent Board meeting, the Board amended the by-law, which requires the vacant seats be reduced by one this year to keep the number of Directors to 21.For year 2012, we will have four open seats up for election.

We will be running our election (nomination and voting) online.Any SABPA member, who is willing to volunteer his/her time and take on more responsibilities, is strongly encouraged to run.To become a candidate for this election, he/she must be nominated by at least three other SABPA members and have served on one of SABPA’s committees for at least one year.

All members who nominate candidates should verify if the candidates meet the above requirements.It is the responsibility of the Election Committee to ensure that the candidates meet the requirements and provide accurate biographical information to our members.The Election Committee reserves the right to investigate the qualification of a candidate and disqualify any candidate who provides false information.

The nomination form is available at: http://sabpa.org/election-12/forms/NominationForm-2012.doc.Nomination will be closed at midnight on July 2, 2012.

The success of SABPA depends on the continuing participation and support from our members.We appreciate your active participation in the ongoing 2012 Board of Directors election.Please nominate and vote for SABPA's future! 

Best Regards,

Xing Yang, PhD, Chair


Stephanie Shi, PhD


Hengchu Cao, PhD

SABPA Election Committee 2012

http://sabpa.org/election-12/nomination.php

Community Events

6.    2012 PharmAsia Summit

When: September 24-26, 2012

Where: Grand Hyatt Shanghai, China

Event: 2012 PharmAsia Summit

Event Website: http://www.elsevierbi.com/mkt/Conf/PAS/2012

SABPA is pleased to be the event partner of the upcoming 2012 PharmAsia Summit, which will take place in Shanghai, China, September 24-26, 2012.We would like to make sure that our members take advantages of SABPA’s partnership.

We have negotiated a special arrangement with the organizer Elsevier Business intelligence, and SABPA members are therefore eligible for an additional 20% off the registration fee.In order to take advantage of this discount, please contact Elsevier Business intelligence’s rep Pat Cardone, via e-mail p.cardone@eIsevier.com, or 203-840-6272 and mention the promotional code “SABPA”.If you have any question regarding this partnership, please feel free to contact Li-Ming Liang, SABPA’s External Relations Chair, at liangliming@gmail.com

Job Postings

7.   Job positions from Singapore

Contact Singapore on behalf of other institutes is inviting candidates to apply for several positions that listed below:

(1)  Research Fellow (Insulin Resistance)  position from the Singapore Institute of Clinical Sciences

For more details and to submit your application:

http://www.effectivinternet.com/2012/contact_Singapore/05/industry research/edm/layout.html

The Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS) is an institute within the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).Its mission is to develop disease-oriented clinical and translational research programs in focused disease areas.SICS aims to attract, train and nurture clinician-scientists and to serve as a critical bridge linking basic research undertaken by A*STAR Research Institutes and clinical research programs in Singapore’s public hospitals, disease centres and the universities.SICS is seeking for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to understand the molecular basis for insulin resistance.The Postdoctoral Research Fellow is expected to identify genetic epigenetic mechanism for insulin resistance, culture myoblasts, perform routine molecule cell biological work and write manuscripts.

Entry/Education requirement s:

·         Ph.D.

·         Be familiar with molecular biology 

(2)  Tenure Track Faculty positions from the Mechanobiology Institute

For more details and to submit your application:

http://www.effectivinternet.com/2012/contactsingapore/05/industry_research/edm/layout.html

The Mechanobiology Institute, (MBI) Singapore is a multi-disciplinary institute committed to developing new paradigms for biomedical research by focusing on the quantitative analysis of dynamic functional processes.They are seeking outstanding candidates for Tenure Track Faculty positions.

Brief Job description:

The MBI has available tenure-track positions for those with a background in molecular and cell biology, biophysics, biology-related engineering, or computer sciences, and possess a commitment to collaborative interdisciplinary research.You will be working in an open lab environment with extensive central facility support.Successful candidates will address critical mechanical problems for understanding human health and disease processes including cancer, tissue regeneration and pathogenesis.The candidate will hold joint appointments through relevant departments at the National University of Singapore or other Singapore Universities. Your application should include the following:-

·         A full publication list,

·         Research plans;

·         Three external referees.

(3)  Research Fellow position from the Bioinformatics Institute

For more details and to submit your application:

http://www.contactsingapore.sg/jobs

(5)  Research Fellows positions) from the Singapore Center on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering

For more details and to submit your application:

http://www.effectivinternet.com/2012/contactsingapore/05/industry_research/edm/layout.html

The Singapore Center on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) is a unique interdisciplinary Research Centre of Excellence (RCE) established to explore and translate the life of microbial biofilms into environmental and public health solutions, with significant economic benefits for Singapore.SCELSE researchers unravel the biology of microbial biofilm communities in environmental and engineered systems using a combination of experimental and observational approaches that span multiple levels of biological organization, with the broad aim of understanding communal metabolic capacity, diversity and regulation, and their impact on system level properties.Specific approaches and methods include: metagenomics and related functional 'omics approaches (metatranscriptomics, metaproteomics and meta-metabolomics), computational systems biology and bioinformatics, high-throughput chemical screens and chemical genomics, advanced imaging systems, the use of nanotechnological approaches to manipulate surface chemistry, and the development of new microbial ecological theory for understanding biofilm community behaviour in the face of environmental stress.

Some of the project areas are:

·         Experimental biofilm-driven bioprocesses

·         Experimental multispecies biofilm ecology

·         Development & differentiation of microbial biofilm communities

·         Interactions of aerobic/anoxic microbial processes in used water treatment

Applicants with a demonstrated ability to work in interdisciplinary, collaborative and integrative settings are particularly welcome to submit their application which includes:

·         Full CV, including academic qualifications,

·         Research records;

·         Names and contact details of two referees.

8.   Pfizer, Lajolla, CA

Pfizer, La Jolla, CA, Opportunity for Quality Manager - Oncology Clinical Research! Maintain GCP-compliant quality management system and perform clinical assay work.

B.S. /M.S. degree in Biology, Microbiology, Medical Technology, or a related field, and

at least 4 years of related experience.A license in Medical Technology, MT (ASCP) or

equivalent, is not required, but is strongly recommended.

***Visit www.pfizercareers.com and apply directly to job ID 966421