BioBash Austin Winter 2012

Dr. Matt Winkler

Dr. Paul Lammers

The Austin Chamber’s BioAustin Winter BioBash was held on November 28 at the Driskill Hotel.  About 150 of us celebrated the history of life sciences here in Central Texas with a keynote address from Dr. Matt Winkler, the chairman and CEO of Asuragen.  He was followed by Dr. Paul Lammers chairman and CEO at Mirna Therapeutics.  Mirna (from “micro RNA”), founded by Winkler, is a third-generation daughter of Ambion which Winkler created in 1989 while at the University of Texas and sold in 2005 to the Applied Biosystems Group of Applera and is now a Life Technologies^™ label.

I first met Kyle Schulz of the Round Rock Chamber. He was there on behalf of Austin Community College, seeking to place their biotechnology students in internships with companies.  He found Maggie Bishop for me.  Maggie is with the Austin Chamber and is active on the Austin Biotech group on LinkedIn. She was the emcee for the event. (She is also on the committee to coordinate the creation of the new medical center here.)

UT researcher Scott Rynbrandt with Dr. Simona Perra.
Perra's expertise is the legal regulation of medical devices.

Standing together at a table, were Gail Darling of Gail Darling Staffing who brought her experience in federal contracting, and Nancy Goedeke whose MedMarComm provides marketing and communication services, Jason Choyce of DPR Construction, which specializes in complex projects for advanced technologies, and Kevin Fincher, a tax partner with Padgett Strateman.

Later, Gail introduced me to Stephen Frayser, the new executive director of Texas State University’s STAR Park. The 38-acre Science Technology and Advanced Research Park opened officially on November 9 to provide secure wet labs, clean rooms, and office space.

Not everyone we met had business cards.  (I ran out quickly.  After the Technical Writer cards, I was down to the Criminologist introductions.  I even gave out my Capital City Coin Club Vice President cards.)  And we met a lot of graduate and post graduate students working in university and private labs. 

Our last contacts were a trio from the Austin Technology Incubutor: Mike A. Sandoval of the IC2 Institute, Dr. Lydia V. McClure, an Accenture Venture Partner with Texas Venture Labs at the McCombs School of Business, and Michael R. Pierce also an Accenture Venture Partner.  Earlier this year, the ATI announced the launch of two companies, Savara Pharmaceuticals, and Terapio, which markets the RPLI76 protein as a countermeasure to radiation exposure and chemical threats.  About 30 companies are now in the incubator, including Alafair Bioscience, Integrated Medical Systems, Inc., Admittance Technologies, and Xeris which makes ultra-low volume biopharmaceuticals in auto-injection pens.

Asuragen here

Mirna Therapeutics here

Ambion here

Austin Technology Incubutor here

The IC2 Institute at the University of Texas

ALSO ON NECESSARY FACTS

Biopunk: DIY Scientists Hack the Software of Life
Epigenetics
Disruptive Diagnostics and the Business of Science
Austin Biobash February 2013
Bob Swanson and Genentech

Mayim Bialik

Nerd Nation 4.5

We actually had cable-tv in the 80s and 90s; but from about 1996 on, it was just an offering on the glass wire that brought the Internet.  We were never much for television.  If I did not have CNN and Reuters for my home pages (PC and Mac), I would never know about Survivor or Dancing with the Stars.  But small screen cinema is a valid medium and we often browse the stacks at the library and even had Blockbuster cards.  

I found Big Bang Theory at the Ann Arbor Public Library.  Mostly we were wait-listed to view it.  Truth to tell, my wife could not watch it at first because it was too embarrassingly like the people she worked with.  But she got over that and we became fans; and came pretty much up to speed via CBS.com (where we also followed NCIS).  Enjoyinging Season 4 on discs here in Austin courtesy of the library (again long wait-lists) we viewed one of the special features.  In a tet-a-tet with show star Jim Parsons, Mayim Bialik said that she studied neurobiology.  That was interesting.  

Her biographies on IMDB and Wikipedia say that playing young Bette Midler was her “most famous” role.  I’ll take their word for it.  She also acted in something called Blossom, a role that first made her “famous” they say.  

We are living in a Renaissance, if there is a “rebirth” at all, and not the continuation of the long trajectory of civilization.  It actually raises the question of what a “dark age” is.  The Bronze Age collapse (1200-1150 BCE) is easy enough to see. The contraction of Rome in the fourth and fifth centuries CE was less dramatic.  Catastrophes happen.  It may be that the European Renaissance was not an exception, at all, but the norm.  Be that as it may, clearly, our electronic age is at once an effect and a cause of cultural complexity.  

Mayim Bialik’s website here.

Mayim Bialik’s doctoral dissertation at Google Books here.  (Hypothalamic Regulation in Relation to Maladaptive, Obsessive-compulsive, Affiliative, and Satiety Behaviors in Prader-Willi Syndrome by Mayim Chaya Bialik; ProQuest, 2007; 285 pages.)

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

• Nerd Nation 1.0 Big Bang Theory, NCIS, and NUMB3RS
• Nerd Nation 2.0: Danika McKeller, Natalie Portman, and Felicia Day 
• Nerd Nation 3.0: Dungeons and Dragons is Mainstream 
• Nerd Nation 4.0: Even GQ Says Smart is Sexy
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