June 2007

The Post-Dispatch continued its analysis of St. Louis' DOE rejection today, publishing quotes from StrathKirn Inc. consultant Jim McLaren, Wash U Chancellor Mark Wrighton and RCGA President and CEO Dick Fleming, all of whom seemed to be looking on the bright side of things.

Interestingly enough, one idea raised in the article as to why the St. Louis proposal was passed over has to do with political connections. All three of the selected project consortiums includes a current DOE facility, suggesting that in this case the selection board went with what they know. This begs the question, though: Where are our political connections?

If the only thing that distinguished the winners was who they new in Washington, what was our 4-term Republican senator doing during the last year? Or the US House Majority Whip? Or his son? I know that the Wisconsin political machine is pretty fearsome, but seriously!

(...more from stltoday.com)

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The US Dept. of Energy is expected to announce later today that they have selected three sites for their upcoming bioenergy research centers. The centers, each of which will be funded with $125 million in federal grants, will be located in Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Madison, Wis.; and near Berkeley, Calif. Each center will involve a consortium of academic and industrial groups and will work to develop new processes for developing renewable biofuels.

St. Louis had hoped to gain one of the sites, but in recent days the outlook had grown grim. Washington University Chancellor Mark Wrighton was quoted over the weekend in the Post-Dispatch expressing concern for the region's chances, since he hadn't heard any news about the selection by that point. State funding for the St. Louis project was a major bone of contention in the spring, when conservative MO lawmakers tried to block any and all life science appropriations for fear of their use in stem cell research projects.

(...more from nytimes.com) (Subscription)

UPDATE 4:00 PM: Here's the link to the official announcement

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This is pretty far off-topic, but it's too awesome to pass up. Apparently, a recent national contest determined that St. Louis has the "Best Tasting City Water in America", beating out finalists in California, Colorado and Ohio. Not bad for the little brewing city.

(...more from stltoday.com)

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This month's edition of the St. Louis Plant and Life Sciences Network (PLSN) meeting was held on June 14th at the Sigma-Aldrich Life Science and High Technology facility on Laclede Ave. In case you missed it, here's what happened:

After an intro by Dr. Thomas George, 2007 Chairman of the PLSN, Dr. William Peck, Chairman of Innovate St. Louis, provided an update on that organization:

• Innovate St. Louis recently recruited its first CEO, Frank Stokes, chair of the Missouri Technology Corporation. Mr. Stokes played a major role guiding the preparation of the Battelle Report in 2000.


• The Venture Mentoring Service hosted its inaugural meeting. The event featured an appearance by the director of the MIT program and presented 5 startups interested in receiving mentoring

• Passage of the Lewis and Clark Initiative will provide $15 million for a plant sciences co investment fund and various SBIR projects


• HB 327, the "Quality Jobs Act", could provide between $12 million and $30 million for economic development and job creation


• The St. Louis Arch Angels completed their 9th funding deal. Each investment has averaged around $1 million. Half (4.5?) have gone towards life science firms


• The RCGA has begun a series of Strategic Alliance Breakfasts for regional business collaboration

After the PLSN business was finished, Sigma-Aldrich CEO Jai Nagakatti presented an overview of the company's strategic vision for its life science and high technology business.

This was my first, and it was some fun. Thanks guys!

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Cool column by Philip Ball in the online edition of Nature this week about the growing debate over IP protection for synthetic biology advances.

(...more from nature.com)

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Big week for some local federal projects. The site selection committees for both the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBADF) and the DOE Bioenergy Research Centers are expected to eliminate some of the competing proposals before the weekend. In the case of the NBADF, this will winnow the field of contenders down from its current list of 18 sites. However, the DOE center will be announcing its final winners.

Missouri has proposals in the running for both sites, either of which would be a tremendous win for the region. Over the weekend, the Post-Dispatch ran an interview with Washington University Chancellor Mark Wrighton, who has spearheaded the local effort for the DOE center. Wrighton expressed concern about that project, since no one involved in the site selection had contacted him yet with the news. Here's hoping he's just being pessimistic.

(...more from stltoday.com)

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Cool story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch today about an effort by the Science Center to update some of its aging life science exhibits:

(...more from stltoday.com)

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Earlier this month, Sigma-Aldrich announced it had signed a licensing agreement with New York-based Epigentek Group, Inc to develop and market technologies for epigenetic research. Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression without a change in DNA sequence, including DNA methylation. The Epigentek technology increases the speed, sensitivity and reliability of epigenetic assays, such as Bisulfite DNA modification and chromatin immunoprecipitation. Sigma intends to launch a suite of technologies for epigenetics research beginning in July, with its Imprint DNA Modification Kit.

(...more from sial.com)

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It seems that the saga of the Wash U's GU Biorepository may soon be at an end. The ownership of the repository, a collection of prostate cancer tissue samples located at the university's med school, has been under legal dispute since 2003. This was when one of the collection's primary investigators, Dr. William Catalona, left for Northwestern University and tried to bring the samples along with him.

Despite a number of consent forms indicating that some donors wished their samples to remain under the control of Dr. Catalona, U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh ruled in March that the repository was the rightful property of Washington University. In essence, his ruling claimed that donors have the right to have their tissue donations be destroyed, but not to specify their research use.

Yesterday, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis upheld this decision, allowing research to resume on the prostate cancer samples. Dr. Shapiro could still continue the appeal process, but the language in this latest opinion seems a little harsh for that:

"Dr. Catalona's habitual destruction of samples, in a manner consistent with apparent indifference to any proprietary interest of the donors, is at odds with his later assertion the research participants own the biological materials"

The Wash U legal effort was supported by a number of groups nationwide, including the American Cancer Society and several other research universities.

(...more from stltoday.com)

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Stinkbug

(...more from monsanto.com)

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This morning, Monsanto and German agricultural giant Bayer CropScience announced a series of long-term business relationships to share some of their pesticide tolerance and pest-control bioengineered crop trait technologies. As part of the arrangement, Monsanto will gain a royalty-bearing, non-exclusive license to Bayer's LibertyLink® herbicide tolerance technology, as well as a renegotiated license to its Dual Bt pest resistance. Bayer will also gain access to several unnamed Monsanto-owned technologies.

The tech swap will allow Monsanto to expand on their line of "stacked" trait crops, for instance allowing them to offer seeds with resistance to both Round-Up and LibertyLink. The two companies have also agreed to cross-license their RNAi technologies.

(...more from monsanto.com)

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Prof. Younan Xia

(...more from engineering.wustl.edu)

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On Saturday, 65,300 cancer survivors and their supporters filled the streets for the Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure. In all, the event raised over $2.5 million for breast cancer research and treatment.

The St. Louis race, which regularly sets attendance and giving records nationwide, has in previous years provided funds for a number of area programs. Last year's race alone funded $2 million in grants this spring to groups including Dr. William Gillanders' research team at the Siteman Cancer Center.

(...more from stltoday.com)

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An entrepreneurship mentoring program first developed at MIT has landed in the area thanks to the Innovate St. Louis business group. The goal of the Innovate Venture Mentoring Service (IVMS) is to match up local business and academic leaders with small groups of entrepreneurs just getting their feet wet. By making this advice easily available to the public, the IVMS hopes to make the region more supportive to early-stage ventures.

To prevent conflicts of interest, all mentors are bound by a strict set of regulations limiting their involvment to only providing education. The program is currently based out of Washington University's Skandalaris Center, although the program is available to all members of the community.

(...more from stltoday.com)

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Singulex, Inc. announced on Thursday that it had closed on a $19.1 million series D venture funding round. The new financing pushes the company's total investment earnings above the $30 million mark.

Singulex, with its R&D operations based out of the Center for Emerging Technologies, has focused on developing technology to measure trace amounts of protein biomarkers in human medical samples such as plasma. The company has previously demonstrated their technique to measure a particular marker of heart disease, cardiac troponin I. With the new funding, they expect to expand this work into developing assays for lung and pancreatic cancer.

The $19.1 million included investments from St. Louis' Prolog Ventures, Advantage Capital from New Orleans, Louisiana; and the Wisconsin-based Fisk Ventures.

(...more from redherring.com)

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Saw this on on Paul Kedrosky's site. Jan Rabaey, professor of engineering and computer science at the University of California at Berkeley, had a cool keynote address at the Design Automation Conference (DAC) today in San Diego. He summarizes it in this clip, comparing the development of synthetic biology to the way early electronic research progressed:

Events for the Week of June 11th - 15th

• Skandalaris Center Coffee with the Experts
  Washington University in St. Louis
  Wednesday, June 13th
  8:00 AM
• Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Weekly Seminar Series
  "Lipid Modification of Plant Proteins"
  Dr. Mark Running
  Danforth Plant Science Center
  975 North Warson Road
  Wednesday, June 13
  4:00 PM

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Dear Mr. Akers,

Congratulations on being named District VII "Young Entrepreneur of the Year" by the Small Business Administration. The big win means you've beaten out contestants from across Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska - 4 states! And can you blame the SBA? Your company, Akermin, Inc., has won fame and fortune for developing a new type of biofuel cell. You've raised nearly $7 million in venture financing. You're named as co-inventor on 4 USPTO applications. And, lest anyone forget... you're only 27!

Nebraska, now lacking both quality young entrepreneurs and passable college football

Feel like retiring yet?

I mean, really, the rest of us are trying the best that we can. We do cool science too. Granted, we haven't recieved $600,000 angel grants from Biogenerator, or completed two successful venture funding rounds with investment from Chrysalix, OnPoint and St. Louis-based Prolog Ventures. But all that money just stresses you out, you know?

And how about Akermin's fuel-cell technology, which you began prototyping within 2 months of starting your graduate program at SLU?

One of several beaches in the world

Did I mention that both President Bush and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman have called energy production the great international challenge of our generation? President Bush! Nobody likes him! And Thomas Friedman! He...um... works in New York! We don't want any of those types waltzing around here, getting any ideas.

Remember that time you were featured on WIRED.com? How about when Kevin A. Schulte, director of the Smurfit-Stone Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at St. Louis University's John Cook School of Business, said that Akermin "will eliminate barriers that have hindered the adoption of portable or micro fuel cells to date and meet the growing need for cost-effective portable power in mobile electronics and other applications"? What more do you want out of life?

In conclusion, Nick, I know you mean well. The kind of work you've done is exactly what our region needs to grow into a center of science and technology. I'm sure you've inspired countless others besides me with all of your accomplishments. I'm only saying ... slow down, man. You're making the rest of us look bad.

*sigh*

I need to go patent something...

(...more from stltoday.com)

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Yesterday, Wash U announced that it will be spending $55 million to create a new academic center for renewable energy research. The International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES) will foster local and international collaborations to develop new technologyies related to biofuels, carbon sequestration, and clean coal power.

As part of the project, Wash U will construct a new $40 million facility on the northeast corner of its Danforth Campus to house the center and the school's Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering. In additon to the new building, the university will spend $12.5 million to create 5 new endowed professorships and at least $2.5 million over five years to fund various research projects.

Potential Site for the new I-CARES facility on Washington University's Danforth Campus

The center will represent one of the university's largest capital investments to date and will draw on the strengths of several regional organizations, including the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and the University of Missouri - Columbia. In addition, the center will assemble an advisory board made up of executives from several local companies:

• Monsanto Co.


• Solae Co.


• Bunge North America


• Ameren Corp.


• Peabody Energy Corp.


• Arch Coal Inc.


• Emerson


• Anheuser-Busch Cos

Some have remarked that this list looks strikingly similar to the industrial team supporting Missouri's proposal for an upcoming $125 million U.S. Dept. of Energy biofuels research center. I-CARES is not affiliated with that proposal, although one would assume the capital commitment certainly does not harm the region's chances at winning. The selected sites for the DOE project will be announced in the fall.

This week's announcement builds upon an existing international partnership on renewable energy that the university presented in early May. That project, the McDonnell Academy Global Environmental and Energy Partnership (MAGEEP), will partner Wash U with twenty other universities from across asia to develop academic exchange programs and collaborations.

(...more from wustl.edu)
(...more from stltoday.com)

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