NCBiotech News

North Carolina will share its experiences and expertise in finance, international partnerships, devices, biologics and diagnostics Wednesday at the BIO 2010 International Convention.

The 10 speakers will participate in:

The Global Innovation Network - International Case Studies
3:00 PM S101B
John Chaffee, North Carolina Eastern Region

North Carolina women historically have more preterm births than the national average. And the state's infant mortality rate has also exceeded the American average.

Now, thanks to a $151,246 Institutional Development Grant from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, an interdisciplinary team of Appalachian State University researchers is buying lab equipment to study the preterm birth situation.

Global agricultural giant Monsanto has signed a long-term lease to set up a research lab to study vegetable taste and nutrition at the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis.

Monsanto, which already employs some 70 R&D people in Research Triangle Park and several more at a soy-breeding research station in Mount Olive, is the 18th company to set up shop at the growing Kannapolis facility.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center has awarded a $30,000 low-interest Company Inception Loan to a young Asheville medical therapeutics company, Venafair.

Vascular surgeon Richard Bock, founder of the firm, said the loan is key for the company's plans for commercial development of vascular agents for treatment of varicose veins, usually in the legs.

PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals, an 8-year-old Morrisville drug-development firm whose start-up was supported by three loans from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, has landed $25 million in new Series B venture funding.

A Catawba College student who won a $5,000 undergraduate research award from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center last year has added another major feather to his academic cap.

Nathaniel Griffin, a senior from the Wilkes County town of Boomer, N.C., who is pursuing a double major in chemistry and biology, has won the American Chemical Society's (ACS) 2010 Student Leadership Award.

Two young North Carolina bioscience-related companies are among the first 26 emerging technology firms chosen to give presentations to the Southeastern venture capital community next month.

The fourth annual Southeast Venture Conference, to be held February 24 and 25 at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, Virginia, will showcase some 60 promising technology firms from throughout the region. That's nearly twice the number participating in previous years.

North Carolina-based non-profit organizations can help their communities become biotech business beneficiaries.

How? By pursuing up to $75,000 in grant funding from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center's Regional Development Grant program.

But a January 27 deadline is fast approaching.

Bioscience companies throughout North Carolina can get reduced-price Internet access to science and business information, thanks to contract pricing arranged by the information specialists at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center library.

The service, especially useful to emerging companies around the state that have limited budgets, includes:

Pioneer Surgical Technology, which has a research facility in Greenville started with the help of $190,000 in funding from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in 1995, has entered the Chinese market with its full range of spinal-fusion products.

Pioneer's Chinese partner, Bonovo Orthopedics, Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of orthopedic products, has received its government's approval to distribute Pioneer's full product line there.

It isn't because he's so successful at avoiding rivalries by holding concurrent professorships at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University.

Joseph DeSimone, Ph.D., is just plain successful.

The promise of nanotechnology was weighed with its unknowns and potential downsides during a recent gathering of some 150 invited guests for the 2009 Summit on Environmentally Responsible Development of Nanotechnology, hosted by the Research Triangle Environmental Health Collaborative.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty surgeon Thomas Egan, M.D., M.Sc., has just added a $1.47 million federal grant to his recent spate of activity.

This year's Charlotte Biotechnology Conference was everything a one-day conference event should be. It started at a time where attendees could travel to Charlotte from elsewhere in the state, it brought in some impressive and engaging speakers, and it had a diverse attendance list that made networking fun. Oh, and the food was some of the best I've had at a conference.

Durham start-up Catena Pharmaceuticals, bootstrapped last year with a $50,000 low-interest loan from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, will strut its stuff on the main stage of the 2009 SEBIO Investor Forum being held Dec. 3 and 4 in Charleston, S.C.

Catena, which is focused on developing an anti-cancer therapy, is the only North Carolina company picked for a main stage presentation this year. Another dozen firms from the seven-state region also made the cut, from among dozens of applicants.