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Dear Members, Community Partners and Prospects:
Despite the challenges we’re facing right now – and perhaps because of them – it’s important for our bioscience community to come together and hold the association’s annual marque event, the Knowledge Fair & Expo. It’s also important that we gather safely and responsibly. That’s why we’ve made the decision to hold an all-virtual conference this year. While our format is changing, we remain committed to providing quality programming and exceptional speakers. Board Chair Rick VanNess is busy selecting the format for the digital conference. Other board members and I are working on the dates, programs and speakers. We’re anticipating scheduling the event in late October over three consecutive days — two hours per day. We’ll forward details by mid-September.
In the meantime, I’ll be marketing sponsorships. The association’s balance sheet has taken a significant hit due to COVID-19. Board members and I are hoping this event will reduce or, even better, erase the red ink. Please contact me for details on and the benefits of sponsorship, which starts at $500. Early and repeat supporters from 2019 include US Bank, PhRMA and BIO. You can also help by purchasing tickets and recommending the event to your colleagues.
We will host our first digital luncheon on Tuesday, September 29 from 11:30 am to 1 pm with networking from 11 am to 11:30 am.
Topic: Where The Biggest Problems Are Solved: New Mexico’s National Labs. Our panel of guest speakers includes Matt Fetrow, Director, the Tech Engagement Office, Air Force Research Laboratory, Mary Monson, Senior Manager, Technology Partnerships and Business Development, Sandia National Laboratories and Kathleen McDonald, Acting Division Leader, Feynman Center for Innovation, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Lisa Kuuttila,
President & Chief Economic Development Officer, UNM Rainforest Innovations,
will serve as moderator.
As some of you may recall, I successfully lobbied earlier this year for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization and the Council of State Bioscience Associations to hold their annual leadership retreat this December in Santa Fe. Unfortunately, the pandemic put those plans on hold. BIO & CSBA sent out the following note yesterday: “Although our hearts will be in Santa Fe, our Annual Retreat will be virtual this year. As we transition to a virtual format your feedback on programming will be very important. Let’s hope we get the opportunity to host the event in 2021.
 I’m delighted to recognize and report that Lillian Petersen, a Los Alamos High School Class of 2020 graduate, won the top prize in the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2020 contest with a $250,0000 award. The Regeneron Science Talent Search is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors.
The competition took place virtually this year, in order to keep finalists and their families safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Forty finalists. The competition judges the competing students based on the scientific rigor of their projects, their exceptional problem-solving abilities and their potential to become scientific leaders. In this oldest and most prestigious STEM competition for high school seniors, more than $1.8 million was awarded to the competition finalists.
Lillian has been a top finisher in the Supercomputing Challenge for the last few years and used her project from the Supercomputing Challenge for her entry. She won first place for her invention of a simple tool used to predict harvests early in the growing season.
Lillan’s tool will help address global food insecurity by helping to improve planning for food distribution. The tool analyzes daily satellite images using accepted measures of vegetation health on known domestic crop data. She tested it on various countries in Africa and was able to successfully predict crop harvests with a high accuracy against reported yields.
Lillian will attend Harvard University this fall and major in Computational Molecular Biology (I’m sure she’ll be a first round draft choice of LANL after her college graduation). See the full press release at https://www.societyforscience.org/press-release/virtual-regeneron-science-talent-search-2020-winners/
I’m also delighted to report that Los Alamos-based Innate Immunity was one of only 30 companies in the Southwest selected to give a presentation at this year’s White Hat conference in Phoenix, AZ. Michelle Miller, co-founder of Innate Immunity with Goutam Gupta, will pitch investors for funding. Innate is focused on plant and crop health. It aims to clear some of the most devastating bacterial, viral and fungal diseases affecting crops, including citrus, grape apple and pear.
If you have yet to sign up for the NMEDD Weekly Resource wrap up, I highly encourage doing so. The department sends out a list of resources, grant and funding programs and relevant webinars each Friday via email.
You can SUBSCRIBE HERE!
Finally, The SFBI BioScience Advisory Council was formed to provide assistance, expertise and counsel to SFBI clients in the bioscience category; create a community of interested and likeminded companies and individuals; and contribute to the success of the burgeoning bioscience cluster in northern New Mexico. The BioScience Advisory Council Meetings are held quarterly at the Incubator. If you are interested in participating, contact Jessica Moose at jmoose@sfbi.net
Healthy regards,
Greg Byrnes Executive Director NMBio 610-731-3671 (M) |
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Virtual Talk on Series A Fund Raising, Sept. 1 @ 12pmThe Santa Fe Business Incubator, Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, and ActivateNM will be hosting a virtual talk by Peter Formanek, CEO of Young America Capital, on Series A venture fund raising on September 1st from 12pm to 1pm. Peter has 30+ years of experience advising fund managers, family offices and companies. He has been involved in over 300 transactions. His talk is targeted towards entrepreneurs who are considering an equity capital raise in the future and it will cover sources of capital, the fund raising timeline, choosing the best partners, the capital raise process, and the investing environment during the COVID crisis. There will be time at the end of the talk for Q&A so please bring your burning fundraising questions with you.
Please RSVP to greg@yacapital.com to receive a calendar invite.
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Future of Health Conference – Virtual, September 23-25With 4 tracks, 35+ fireside chats, 25+ startup presentations, exclusive CB Insights research, and a full day of partner content, the conference will address the technologies, trends, and challenges during the current pandemic that will shape the way we deliver care and combat diseases now and in the future.
· Digital Health
· Life Sciences
· Medical Devices
· Wellness Tech
· Women’s Health |
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BioProcess International USA Conference & Exhibition, September 21-25More than 20 leading biopharmaceutical companies announced yesterday the creation of an estimated $1 billion fund to help support the pipeline for new antibiotic treatments. The AMR Action Fund was launched as antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, continues to grow and take lives. In a statement, BIO President and CEO Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath said, “Even as the world’s scientists work tirelessly to fight COVID-19, we must not ease up on our battle against antimicrobial resistance.” |
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The MedTech Conference | The Leading Medical Device Event, Oct 5-7The Virtual MedTech Conference will feature a mix of live and on-demand content, available to all registrants from their homes or offices. Content will be available in early September, with a live online event taking place the week of October 5. There will be more than 100 sessions covering a variety of topics including cybersecurity, EU MDR, trade, inspections, M&A, precision medicine, AI, value based care and many more.
Partnering and attendee-to-attendee communication will be available as soon as the virtual conference platform opens on September 8, 2020. Featuring a robust attendee directory and search capabilities, the platform allows you to maximize your participation during The Virtual MedTech Conference by helping you find key stakeholders to request meetings with. The system lets you request and self-schedule virtual meetings from September 8 – October 23. Meetings will be hosted on a built-in video conference system, making virtual partnering seamless. More information: https://themedtechconference.com |
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BIO is now accepting applications for company presentations; more than 130 investors have already registered.
Registration rates have been reduced to $790 for BIO members/ $995 for non-members when you reserve a company presentation (includes registration for one person). BIO has already approved 50 companies for the 160 planned presentation slots, so act now and submit the brief application to request your slot. BIO One-on-One Partnering™ opens September 1—apply and register now to ensure you have first access when the system opens to maximize your investment. 
Presenters benefit from registration that includes access to BIO One-on-One Partnering, and a new audience networking platform for video conferencing, presenting, and Q&A opportunities will supplement on-demand hosting of company presentations for 30 days.
Company presenters tend to receive double the number of BIO One-on-One Partnering requests than non-presenters, and schedule twice as many meetings than non-presenting companies. Presenting companies are also spotlighted in BIO Investor Forum marketing outreach, investor communications, and social media leading up to the event. For questions, please contact Emily Longvall at elongvall@bio.org. |
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Win a BIO IMPACT Registration + Exposure to BIO’s Ag & Industrial Biotech Audience of 25,000 The Buzz of BIO contest provides an excellent opportunity for companies looking to make the connections needed to take their product to the next phase. Five companies will be nominated in each of the three categories: Food and Farm Innovation, Sustainable Fuels, and Bioscience-based Manufacturing.
There are two phases to the Buzz of BIO Contest: Nominations and Voting. During the nominations period, we will collect nominations and review them to ensure they qualify for one of the three categories listed above, and that they meet the guidelines outlined in the contest rules here. Nominations will be open from August 12 – August 26. During the voting period, nominees are encouraged to promote their participation in the contest via social media, email, etc. Voting will be open from August 31 – September 2. The companies with the most number of votes in each category at the end of the voting period will win a free company presentation and full-conference registration to BIO IMPACT Digital! *Contest winners must complete and submit their recorded company presentation by September 14 to be featured in the BIO IMPACT Digital online education platform. More instructions for submitting to follow.
Read the official rules here. |
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State Receives Major DoD Grant for CybersecurityThe $771,000 grant will help businesses meet new federal requirements, according to Alicia Keys. Secretary of Economic Development. The training will initially focus on optics and photonics technology-based businesses and, with the help of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership and Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, will evaluate individual security needs.
“This grant will allow New Mexico businesses to meet the new cybersecurity requirements and remain competitive in applying for government contracts,” Office of Science and Technology Director Myrriah Tomar, PhD, said. “Most importantly, businesses will have the tools they need to protect sensitive data and deter cyber-attacks,” added Myrriah, an NMBio board member.
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New Mexico Small Business Recovery Loan FundThis program provides financial assistance to businesses that are experiencing hardship due to the public health order resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Please note that this is a loan program. Learn More |
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 Airgas, an Air Liquide company, is the largest U.S. supplier of industrial, medical, specialty gases, dry ice, and nitrous oxide. NMBio members receive 10% to 25% discounts on cryogenic equipment, gas distribution equipment, and safety products. More »
Here’s a link to UPS, Office Depot, VWR and other BIO Business Service providers offering NMBio members significant savings on their products and services: https://www.bio.org/save/programs
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Weekend Reads & VideoA medical Imaging Breakthrough: Imagion Biosystems — https://imagionbiosystems.com/
BIO: New Social Justice Movement to Combat Inequality Through Biotechnology — https://go.bio.org/index.php/email/emailWebview
Sandia Science and Technology Park Is Still Growing —
https://www.abqjournal.com/1487217/sandia-science-amp-tech-park-still-growing.html?utm_source=newsletter |
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