2009 Colorado BioSymposium on Pulmonary Disease

A day devoted to Colorado's nationally acclaimed research on Pulmonary Disease. Join us for this all-day event, highlighting Colorado's cutting edge research on Pulmonary Disease on the beautiful University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus. Experts from the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine and National Jewish Health will discuss research pertaining to Airway Diseases, Lung Cancer, Vascularization and Hypertension, Interstitial Disease and Pulmonary Fibrosis, as well as the associated funding and commercialization.

The keynote speaker for the BioSymposium will be Eric Olson, PhD, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Molecular Biology at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. The topic of Dr. Olson’s remarks will be The Treatment of Pulmonary Artery Hypertension.

Conference Details:

WHEN: September 16, 2009 7:30am to 6:30pm This event is preceding the Rocky Mountain Life Science Investors Conference.

We are excited to extend a discounted rate to attendees.

WHERE: The conference will be held at Research Complex 2 (Trivisible on the 2nd Floor) at the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado.

REGISTRATION: Registration closes September 10, 2009, or as soon as all spaces are filled.

SPACE IS LIMITED - PLEASE REGISTER EARLY!! Visit: http://www.fitzscience.com/Pulmonary_BioSymposium.aspx for registration and more details.

DBJ: Companies invited to Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor Conference

The upcoming Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor Conference finalized its list of companies invited to downtown Denver on Sept. 17 to present their businesses to national investors.

It’s a debut event designed to show off the biotechnology, medical device and diagnostics industry startups throughout the inter-mountain West. The Colorado BioScience Association, the Arizona BioIndustry Association and the two trade groups’ industry partners are organizing the event at the Ritz Carlton.

Link to the Denver Business Journal article

Rocky Radar: Four More Colorado Companies Added to the Roster of the Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor Conference

The organizers of the Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor Conference (RMLIC) have announced the selection of the final 13 of the 30 total companies which will present at the event to be held September 17 in Denver. The event - co-hosted by the Colorado Bioscience Association (CBSA) and the Arizona BioIndustry Organization (AZBio) with regional partners in Montana, Utah and New Mexico - seeks to bring together emerging companies from the Rocky Mountain Region together with a national group of investors and senior industry executives.

Link to the Rocky Radar posting

Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor Conference Announces Final 13 Presenting Companies & Nationally Acclaimed Speakers

Organizers of the Inaugural Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor Conference (RMLIC) have announced the final 13 of 30 presenting companies that will showcase their innovations to leading investors and industry experts on September 17 at the Ritz Carlton, Denver. The announcement is made by John Collar, President & CEO of the Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA), who says the conference itinerary will also feature nationally acclaimed speakers Nobel Laureate Dr. Tom Cech and Roy Davis, President J&J Corporate Development.

“Both the Colorado BioScience Association and the Arizona BioIndustry Association along with our regional partners are simply thrilled to have both Roy Davis and Dr. Cech present during the Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor Conference,” Collar explains. “This will provide an opportunity for attendees to hear from two leaders within the industry and show the excitement around the biosciences that lie within the Rocky Mountain region.”

The final 13 of the 30 presenting companies at the RMLIC include:

* Allogenesis – Denver, CO – Website coming soon

* Applied Microarrays, Inc. – Tempe, AZ - http://www.appliedmicroarrays.com/

* Axial Biotech – Salt Lake City, UT - http://www.axialbiotech.com/

* Beacon Biotechnology – Aurora, CO - http://www.beaconbiotechnology.com/

* Castle Biosciences- Phoenix, AZ - http://www.castlebiosciences.com/

* Leap Frogg – Grand Junction, CO – Website coming soon

* LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals – Bozeman, MT - http://www.ligocyte.com/

* Medipacs – Tucson, AZ - http://www.medipacs.com/

* NanoMR – Albuquerque, NM - http://www.nanomr.com/

* Numira Biosciences – Salt Lake City, UT - http://www.numirabio.com/

* PharmaJet – Golden, CO - http://www.pharmajet.com/

* SenesTech, Inc. – Flagstaff, AZ - http://www.senestech.com/

* Western States Biopharmaceuticals – Aurora, CO - http://www.westernstatesbiopharm.com/

Last month, during the first-round of the RMLIC selection process, the following 17 companies were announced: Apoplogic, Aurora, CO; BioAmps, Aurora, CO; Biodesix, Broomfield, CO; BiOptix Diagnostics, Boulder, CO; Coherex, Salt Lake City, UT; GlobeImmune, Louisville, CO; High Throughput Genomics, Tucson, AZ; Inviragen, Fort Collins, CO; Kinetic Muscles, Tempe, AZ; LineaGen, Salt Lake City, UT; Medivance, Louisville, CO; miRagen, Boulder, CO; Myocept, Lafayette, CO; Regenesis, Scottsdale, AZ; ThermImage, Salt Lake City, UT; ValveXchange, Aurora, CO; and Vital Access, Salt Lake City, UT.

For registration information, visit the conference website at http://www.rmlic.com/

Link to the PR Web newswire

Rocky Radar - Recap of CBSA August BioBreakfast Discussing Commercialization of University Technology

"Wednesday’s [Aug 19, 2009] CBSA BioBreakfast offered insight into programs both inside and outside the University system designed to support the commercialization of bioscience technologies. Northern Colorado was showcased first with Todd Headly of the Colorado State University Technology Transfer Office speaking first. CSU has a unique approach to commercialization with Superclusters established in three specific areas to facilitate commercialization: MicoRx for infectious disease, NeoTrex for cancer, and Cenergy for clean energy. To the early success of the supercluster structure, Headly noted that since their formation invention disclosures have increased 135%. While Headly is proud of this accomplishment, he noted that the technology transfer office also provides support to technologies outside the Superluster areas. CSU is currently raising an early stage seed fund to support commercialization efforts." more. . .

Read the Rocky Radar Report

Rocky Radar: CU Announces $1.6M in Bioscience Commercialization Grants

The University of Colorado has selected eleven recipients for proof of concept grants, designed to help bridge the funding gap between basic research and commercialization. This grant program was established as part of House Bill 1001 whereby the state provides matching funds to a total of $1.5M to monies put forward by the University. Of the 13 technologies selected for grants through a similar program in 2006, four have since been licensed or optioned to Colorado based companies. This year’s recipients hail from both the Denver and Boulder campuses of CU and projects are related to the development of drugs, diagnostics, and medical devices.

Link to the Rocky Radar Report

Northern Colorado: Building the region's bioscience infrastructure

Thoughts from Kelly Peters, chief operations officer of the Rocky Mountain Innovation Initiative:

"Some of the latest terms coming out of the mouths of local economic development staff (including me) are entrepreneurial ecosystem, innovation economy, infrastructure.

They each are descriptors for what we are trying to build in Northern Colorado. Infrastructure in a traditionally used sense implies roads, sewers, power grids, etc. The eco devos are beginning to reference the term more broadly as Wikipedia defines it: the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society/ enterprise. With confidence, I can state that Northern Colorado is building its bioscience infrastructure."

Link to Kelly's article

Pharmaceutical Job Site: Colorado biotechnology cluster on the rise

When the general public thinks about the life science industry, Boston and San Francisco come to mind first, with other areas such as New Jersey, San Diego and RTP coming in second. In reality, there are many other areas that have thriving biotech centers, and we make it our business to find out more about these less known areas whenever we can.

Colorado is home to a larger than expected number of life science companies, ranging from biotech and pharmaceutical to medical devices and agricultural biotech. According to the Colorado BioScience Association, there are approximately 380 bioscience companies in Colorado, directly creating over 16,000 biotech jobs and another indirectly supported 20,000 jobs. The average salary for these positions is well in excess of $60,000 per year. . .

Link to the Pharmaceutical Job Site

Investors we're expecting at the Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor Conference September 17 in Denver

A sample (but not the full and final list) of investors attending the conference includes:

Frazier Healthcare Ventures
H.I.G. BioVentures
High Country Venture
Hunt BioVentures
Johnson & Johnson
Morgenthaler Ventures
NovaQuest
Novartis Venture Fund
PrairieGold Venture Partners
Puente Partners
Red Script
Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association
Sequel Venture Partners
Skyline Ventures
Sun Mountain Capital
Technology Partners
vSpring Capital
Yasuda Enterprise Development

Interested in attending?Register now to reserve your spot and gain access to the conference partnering system, biopartnering.com. To maximize your time at the conference, biopartnering.com lets you connect with potential partners weeks in advance and follow-up after the conference. Partnering is now open!

Colorado BioScience Association Announces 2009 Education Initiatives: Summer Externship Recipient, New Leadership Academy & BioNimbus Partnership

The Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA) has embarked on an ambitious roster of education initiatives this year. The announcement is made by John Collar, CBSA President & CEO, who says the organization is again sponsoring a high school biology teacher in a paid externship program at a member bioscience company, participating in the new statewide Elementary Science Teacher Leadership Academy, and partnering with the BioNimbus organization to create a new database that better connect teachers, schools and companies.

Tammy Heartly (left), a Fairview High School biology teacher, is the second teacher to take part in the CBSA’s externship program and has spent part of her summer at OSI Pharmaceuticals in Boulder. Her experience at OSI includes investigating a preservative on a tissue sample to see if the preservative will keep the tissue’s DNA intact and show whether the use of the preservative will allow the DNA to sequence correctly.

Link to the Business Wire Education Initiatives Release

From Rocky Radar: Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor Conference Selects 17 Presenting Companies

Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor Conference (RMLIC) has selected 17 of the 30 companies that will present at its inaugural event that will take place on September 17 in Denver. The event - co-hosted by the Colorado Bioscience Association (CBSA) and the Arizona BioIndustry Organization (AZBio) with regional partners in Montana, Utah and New Mexico - seeks to bring together emerging companies from the Rocky Mountain Region together with a national group of investors and senior industry executives. Of the companies selected to date, 10 companies are based in Colorado, 4 in Utah, and 3 in Arizona.

Link to the Rocky Radar story

Also included: an in depth look at, BioAmps, BiOptix and ValvExchange, via RockyRadar profiles of these companies.

Colo HB 1035 (Riesberg-Heath) Medical Device Tax Refund goes into effect Aug 5

HB 1035 (Riesberg-Heath) Clean Technology/Medical Device Tax Refund House Bill 1035, a jobs bill sponsored by bio-science advocate Rep. Jim Riesberg (D-Greeley), encourages growth in Colorado’s most promising high-tech, green industries.

The new law will allow small technology-based companies (50 or fewer employees) to receive refunds of state sales and use taxes related to research and development for clean technology and medical devices.

This bill was a key part of Governor Ritter’s economic recovery agenda.



Link to the news release