BioBeers Is Meeting Tonight!

And the BioBeers beat marches on in March at the Milwaukee Street Tavern. Do you speak Cherry Creek? That’s right the Colorado BioBeers tour continues, pulling in next to the Milwaukee Street Tavern station, TONIGHT 31 March 7:30pm. This month we are including FREE name tags! Bonus! And suitable for framing too after the event.

It is exciting to see this event grow, so much so that name tags are now considered value-add. Participation has come from Ph.D. and MBA students all the way up to company CEO’s and representation from just about every position in between. But, BioBeers can not do it simply on its own…that’s right, it is up to you, dear Colorado bio-networker, to help spread the word!

View Larger Map

*NOTE* Feel the power of the Colorado BioScience Association (HERE)!
*NOTE* Take a look at the new Boulder Biotech Company Tree (HERE)!
*NOTE* Read the new eBook CLSDF 2007 - What's In A Year? (HERE)!

If you enjoyed this post get free email or RSS updates (here).

MIT Entrepreneurship Center Workshop

Don’t miss this very special MIT Entrepreneurship Center full day seminar (sponsored exclusively by our friends at Faegre & Benson) on Thursday 14 February 9:00am – 7:30pm. This ‘one’ day high quality seminar and workshop is for CEOs and executives from young, fast-growing high tech companies featuring case studies and lectures, interactive discussions, student presentations, “hands-on” exercises, and the opportunity to practice “elevator pitches”.

This course is designed to enable CEOs and top executives to be more effective in establishing long term, dependable, predictable, profitable, referenceable and mutually beneficial, customer relationships.The course will assist CEOs and experienced business development managers to sharpen their skills and improve the customer focused culture of their organizations.

The workshop is led by Kenneth P. Morse Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, and Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management (Bachelor of Science, MIT, 1968, MBA, Harvard Business School, 1972)

Some topics, case studies exercise and presentations expected to be covered are 1) The framework and definition of high tech sales, sales management, and building predictable, high performance, strategic customer relationships 2) Quantifying the value proposition and preparing your elevator pitch 3) Building the team and managing a global sales organization in tough times and, 4) What international investors look for in a management team…just to name a few.

Faegre & Benson Boulder Offices
Thursday, 14 February 2008 9:00am – 7:30pm
Register: http://entrepreneurship-colorado.com
Registration Deadline: 11 February 2008

***NOTE*** Read the new eBook CLSDF 2007 - What's In A Year? (HERE)!

If you enjoyed this post get free email or RSS updates (here).

BioSoCo Coming on Strong!

What do HemoGenix and Aspire Biotech have in common (insert Jeopardy theme song here)? Answer…they are working to anchor the Colorado Springs biocluster and are providing contract services for all phases of development of biomaterials, devices and applied clinical hematology. Lean all about these companies and more at the upcoming BioSoCo event sponsored by the Colorado BioScience Association and Snell & Wilmer. Register to attend the 22 January 7:30-9:00am event (here).

On another note don’t forget to sign up for BioBeers updates at BioBeers.com. Recall this is a monthly networking social club. A January date should be set shortly. Read all about our newest member Freddie Peyerl and, if you have attended functions in the past and not yet provided your member profile to the BioBeers staff, well let’s get to it...and let the world know who you are, what you do and how you will change the world!

If you enjoyed this post get free email updates (here).

The Future of Biomedicine in Colorado - A Workshop of the Possible

Don’t miss the Third Butcher Symposium, Friday 16 November, part of the Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology, to be held at the Westin Westminster Hotel. The goals of the Symposium are to bring together faculty in the many areas of research related to genomics and biotechnology, to improve awareness of the relevant resources at CU, to spark new collaborations, and to identify means and opportunities for strategic advancement in this important area. The Symposium will also lay the groundwork for distribution of the third round of seed grants.

The format of the Symposium will include oral presentations by the Butcher Awardees from 2005, poster presentations by attending faculty, invited speakers, good food, and plenty of time for discussion and interaction. The day will be capped off by a keynote talk from Stuart Schreiber, Ph.D., HHMI Professor of the Department of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, Harvard University, his address it titled “Rethinking Small-Molecule Drug Discovery”.

Ten seed grants of up to $100,000 each will be awarded to support these new collaborations. To be eligible to apply for seed grants you must present a poster at the Symposium, describing research in your own lab (and not proposed projects). The deadline for the grant applications will be in January 2008, more information is (here) and a schedule of events is (here).

If you enjoyed this post get free email updates (here).

Wild Wild BioWest!

The BioWest Conference will be here before you know it 6 and 7 December, the schedule has been finalized and looks as action packed as ever, take a look at the program (here). The event is growing by leaps and bounds and nearly 1,000 attendees are expected this year. I must admit I am really excited for the opportunity to listen to Jim Collins, author of Good to Great (and others (here)) deliver one of the keynote talks. I devour Jim’s works and he is an incredible resource to our community as his Management Laboratory is housed here in beautiful Boulder, Colorado.

Register to attend (here).

Perhaps I’ll find out if I am a Fox or a Hedgehog?

If you enjoyed this post get free email updates (here).

Sprint Down to the Boulder Esprit07!

The CU Innovation Alliance Breakfast will be held Tuesday 16 October 8:00am – 10:30am at the Millennium Harvest House Hotel. Emerging CU Boulder technologies of all stages will be highlighted. Register (here)! Presenters include:

Medical Informatics - An early-stage innovation from CU’s whose technology can be used to pull relevant data out of text-based medical records. This allows hospitals and other health care facilities to direct more staff resources to direct patient care.
Regeneration of Muscle Tissue - Based on UCB stem cell technology CU researchers have developed a new method for transplanting skeletal muscle stem cells and enabling them to survive long-term.

ColdQuanta, Inc. - Based on Nobel-prize winning work at UCB, the company is commercializing technology for the achievement of Bose-Einstein Condensation in atomic vapor; potential applications are atomic clocks, inertial sensing instruments, improving frequency standards, magnetic field sensing, and quantum computing.

AgriHouse, Inc. - An agro-biotech developing CU’s innovative leaf sensor, which enables reliable feedback for plant irrigation control by direct detection of impending water deficit stress in plants.

If you enjoyed this post, get free email updates (here).

CBSA BioBreakfast: Trends in VC Investing

A must-attend CBSA BioBreakfast coming up on 24 October 7:30am to be held at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. The distinguished panel of Dan Mitchell of Sequel Ventures, Karen Cassidy of Partisan Management Group and Andrew Schwab of 5AM Ventures will be reflecting back upon investment trends of 2007 and will provide insight and predictions of what to expect for the coming year.

Sign up (here) to attend.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email (here).

Venture Showcase Deadline 5 October!

The BioWest Venture Showcase provides an incredible opportunity for regional and national exposure…so don’t miss the application deadline of 5 October!

Six companies will be chosen to present at this year's Showcase (December 6 & 7 at the Grand Hyatt, Denver, CO) to be judged by a distinguished panel of national venture capitalists. The winning business plan will be awarded the $10,000 Faegre & Benson Venture Showcase Award during the Colorado BioScience Association Annual Awards Luncheon on December 7. This is the third year Faegre & Benson has sponsored the cash award for the contest. "We are thrilled to sponsor the Venture Showcase Award at BioWest," said Rex O'Neal, co-chair of the emerging companies practice at Faegre & Benson. "Colorado is experiencing an unprecedented level of new company formation in the life sciences market. The Venture Showcase program draws attention to young Colorado companies that experience has shown will have profound impacts on our health, communities, and economy.

Download the application (here). For more information please contact Christine Shapard, Deputy Director, Colorado BioScience Association, 303-592-4089 or cshapard@cobioscience.com

Podcast: CO Med Device Symposium Part II

If you were unable to make it to the wonderful Colorado Medical Device Symposium on 22 August, not to worry, it can come to you now via podcast. Here is the second session moderated by the very talented Mr. Jeff Bojar, JD, MS, associate with Snell and Wilmer.

Here in Part II we will listen to panel #2 Investment in Early Stage Development for Medical Device Technologies. Panelists include:

• Bill Dalke, Consultant, formerly of Cobe
• Mark Lupa, High Country Venture
• Jonathan Thorne, Silverglide Surgical
• Harry Ross, Aweida Venture Partners
• John Dunning, ClariMedix
  

Podcast: CO Med Device Symposium Part I

If you were unable to make it to the wonderful Colorado Medical Device Symposium on 22 August, not to worry, it can come to you now via podcast. Here is the first session moderated by the very talented Mr. Andrew Gano, MBA, licensing associate with the University Colorado Technology Transfer Office. Andrew not only orchestrated the half-day event but was also kind enough to allocate some time to me to record an intro.

Here in Part I we will listen to panel #1 Working with Academia in Developing Early Stage Medical Device Technologies. Panelists include:

• David Allen, University Colorado TTO
• John Poate, Colorado School of Mines R&TT
• Todd Headley, Colorado State Universtiy CSURF
• Carley Pavelka, University Denver IP&TT
• Brad Brockbank, National Jewish IP&TCP

Stay tuned to CLSDF for Panel #2 in Part II covering Investment in Early Stage Development for Medical Device Technologies.

Colorado Café Scientifique: Sept. Mtg.

Based on the French Café Philosophique...at the Colorado Café Scientifique, people (often science buffs) come together in a friendly pub after work and hear an informal introduction to an interesting current scientific topic led by an expert. We take a short break for refreshments, to meet new people, and chat, and then we return for questions and answers and general discussion.

The next Café will be on Tuesday 25 September 6:30PM @ the Wynkoop brewery in LoDo and will be featuring Michael Browning, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience in the department of Pharmacology at UCDHSC as well as founder and President of PhosphoSolutions. Dr. Browning will be leading a discussion on – Aging, Alcohol, Memory and Molecules -. Should be particularly interesting given the setting! Hope to see you there.

Also if you happen to be an online social networking kinda person be certain to join the Colorado Café Scientifique group on Facebook, friend me and I’ll friend you back!

Bioentrepreneur Club: Tech Transfer @ CU

Don’t miss the next Holland and Hart Bioentrepreneur Club on Thursday 6 September (7:15am – 9:00am) networking event and discussion featuring Dave Allen, Associate VP for Technology Transfer at the University of Colorado who will be addressing:

• FY ’06 – ’07 CU TTO performance
• Bioscience goals for FY ‘08
• Evolving early-stage biobusiness infrastructure
• The CU Biomedical Initiative

For more information and to register to attend email Susan Doyle or call 303.295.8273

Want To Start A Biotech Company?

Then start with this class! Introduction to Life Science Technology Transfer. This course examines the process of technology transfer in the academic, government laboratory and corporate setting. The focus of the course, from the discovery stage to building the business case, will be on the process of creating innovation from inventions, protecting the innovation and intellectual property and deciding whether to proceed with commercialization. The emphasis of the course will be on how technology transfer occurs, different technology transfer models, early stage technology finance, basics of intellectual property, and the regulatory and reimbursement environment for commercializing drugs, devices, diagnostic tests and health information software.

Class meets Tuesday’s, August 21 through December 15, 2007 from 2:30-5:00 p.m. at the Molecular Biology Conference Room-9105 RC-1; the Shore Family Forum-Nighthorse Campbell Bldg; and the Amgen Conference Room-Bioscience Park Building.

It is not to late to register! Contact Arlen D. Meyers, MD, MBA (Arlen.Meyers@UCHSC.edu) or call (303.620.4050) for more information.

4!!! Don’t Miss the BioScramble

The Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority invites you to participate in the BioScramble golf tournament and reception on

27 September at the Fitzsimons Golf Course. Free green fees! First foursome tee off @ 2:00pm and reception at the clubhouse begins at 6:00pm. Contact Vicki Jenings (vjenings@colobio.com or 720.859.4108) to sign up or for more information.

Mark Your Calendars!

Some great events are coming up in August, be certain to mark you calendars, and please stop me to say hi.

• 14 August 2007 BioBoulder @ Rembrant Yard

  (Sponsors: CBSA, Amgen, Hogan & Hartson)

• 16 August 2007 Biotech Accounting Hot Topics @ E&Y Denver

  (Sponsors: CBSA, Ernst & Young)

• 22 August 2007 Medical Device Symposium @ Timbers Hotel

  (Sponsors: CBSA, CU TTO, Snell & Wilmer)

• 28 August 2007 Building on the Foundation @ Denver Athletic Club

  (Sponsors: CBSA, CoBizBio)

  
  

Podcast: Patenting Early Stage Therapeutics

The University Colorado Technology Transfer Office and Snell & Wilmer brought us a wonderful lunch seminar yesterday titled Patenting Early Stage Therapeutics. I took my first stab at capturing the audio and publishing the podcast here at CLSDF. The first few minutes are a bit choppy but the audio improves around the four minute mark.

Sit back and enjoy the talks by:

• Doug Graham, MD, PhD (CSO Caveo Therapeutics)
• Rick Duke, PhD (President & CEO ApopLogic Pharam, co-founder GlobeImmune)
• Tom Dougherty, JD (Snell & Wilmer)

Please let me know if you have any problems listening to the audio. thank you.

H&H Bioentrepreneurs Club

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to listen to Michael Bristow, M.D., Ph.D., on 8 March 8:00 – 9:00am, speak about the history of Myogen. The Myogen tale is a fascinating story and an incredible regional (and national) success.

Where: Holland & Hart 555 17th St. Suite 3200 Denver

MIT Enterprise Forum in Colorado

Have you ever wondered about Stem Cells? Then Don’t miss this event…Thursday 12 October 5:00-7:00pm at the Colorado Bioscience Park Aurora @ Fitzsimons.

The Promise of Stem Cells: Separating Hype from Reality

The MIT Enterprise Forum and the MIT Club of Colorado presents a scientific look at embyonic stem cell research and examine its influence on commercial applications in such industries as pharmacology, transgenics, biomedicine and cloning.

The Forum will consist of a live video broadcast from MIT followed by a live panel of local scientists doing cutting edge research in Colorado. A unique opportunity to hear from two active areas of the country in one sitting.

More information and registration (here).

As the Aspens Turn to Gold…

…there are some interesting events coming up in September.

The Holland & Hart Bioentrepreneur Club meeting on the 14th at 7:30 am will feature David Allen Associate VP of Tech Transfer at CU presenting and overview of the state of TTO since 2001.

Details and event registration can be found (here).

I am a big fan of FierceBiotech who nourishes my industry news appetite and, am looking forward to their upcoming webinar A Fierce Look at Venture Capital Trends in Biotech on the 19th.

Details and event registration can be found (here).

The CU Technology Transfer Office has $2.06M available for grants directed to development-oriented research to accelerate commercialization by reducing CU bioscience related inventions to practice and validating their ability to address significant therapeutic, diagnostic and medical device market applications. The funds for this program are available from a State appropriation and matching funds provided by the CU Foundation and the CU TTO.

Do not miss out on the State of Colorado Bioscience Discovery Evaluation Grant Program deadline on the 27th.

Details can be found (here).

And The Envelope Please…

The Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA) has released winners of its 2006 Awards Program. The announcement is made by Denise Brown, CBSA Executive Director, who says the CBSA awards program honors those individuals and companies making a significant difference to Colorado's vibrant bioscience industry in 2006. Presentation of the awards occurs Thursday evening, August 24, at the CBSA's annual awards banquet, held in conjunction with the 2006 BioWest conference.

And now...the envelope please...

Lifetime Achievement Award

Mr. Paul Ray

and

Governor Bill Owens

2006 Company of the Year Award

Myogen

2006 Rising Star Awards

C5 Medical Werks

and

Taligen Therapeutics

2006 Volunteer of the Year Award

Dr. Richard Duke

2006 Partner of the Year Award

Maggie Chamberlin Holben

COEDIT Excellence Award for Bioscience Industry

Kyle Lefkoff

If you plan to be at BioWest and a reader of this blog please be certain to stop by the FRA booth to say hi.