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With the holidays next week, and my winter vacation the week after, I'll be away from the blog until Jan. 7. Posting will start back up after that.
Happy Holidays everyone! Thanks for a great 2007!
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Since the WGA is still on strike, I finally found the time to finish reading Rebuilding the American Dream: Restoring American Jobs and Competitiveness Through Innovation and Entrepreneurship, by Bob Skandalaris and Ken Harrington. Skandalaris established the entrepreneurship center that bears his name at Wash U, while Harrington currently runs the place.With those local connections, I was expecting a somewhat in-depth look at the state of entrepreneurship in the midwest. There's a little of this, but overall I was a little disappointed that I didn't find more.
The book approaches the problem of global competitiveness from a policy perspective. Much has been written about the rise of the industrialized "third world" - especially the increase in corporate offshoring, foreign IP development, and non-U.S. science and engineering students. Skandalaris looks again at these issues and detemines: 1) That the increase in globalization is actually a return to a pre-WW2 economic norm, and is here to stay, and 2) If the US doesn't act fast, the idea of a steady middle class will be gone for good. If a traditional "middle class" life is even still possible. Most of his solutions involve realizing that nothing is guaranteed anymore, either from corporations or the government, and that individuals must be encouraged to pursue their own independent ventures if they want any degree of financial security.
The one local bit was a chapter on entrepreneurship education, spent mostly on describing the graduate program at Wash U's Skandalaris Center. I'm assuming that Harrington helped out a good deal here. It seems a pretty rosy place, with outside industrialists collaborating with academics to provide a real-world education to students. I'd agree that my experiences with the center have been nothing but positive, but I'd have liked to see a little more real analysis of how the program is performing? Is a classroom experience, albeit one with substantial outside instruction, really the best way to teach entrepreneurs? What has the impact of the graduates been? Where has the program come up short?
In the end, Skandalaris describes 3 possible futures for the country, depending on how we react to the changing world economy:
Here's hoping that last one works out. In some ways, our region is a nice microcosm of the rest of america, at least from a globalization perspective. Lots of industry shutting down, offshoring or transferring of corporate headquarters (especially telecom and heavy technology), a struggling public educational system, and a strong academic research base still searching for the best way to improve tech transfer.
So, not quite the book I was looking for, but not bad either. Pick it up if The World is Flat happens to be checked out.
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CET-based Orion Genomics reported in PLoS One this week on their discovery of a panel of genomic biomarkers for breast cancer. The Orion team used their MethylScope Technology to look for genome-wide changes in DNA methylation. By comparing the results from healthy samples and those from breast cancer patients, the team was able to identify over 50 loci with diagnostic value for breast cancer. These biomarkers were later validated in 230 additional samples.
The concept of using methylation patterns as disease biomarkers is still relatively new. However, Orion reported that at least one of their marker genes, GHSR, showed a clinical sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 96% for infiltrating ductal breast carcinoma. Not bad at all.
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Last week, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute announced a new program to fund undergraduate programs in bacteriophage genomics at twelve US universities, including Wash U. The Phage Genomics Research Initiative (PGRI) courses will begin next fall, and allow students to isolate native viruses from the field, prepare the viral DNA for sequencing, and process the resulting sequence data.
HHMI expects to expand the program to 36 institutions by 2010. The program is the first of several planned by the institute to provide scientific resources to US educators.
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I got so excited to hear a new story on KWMU this morning about the current state of stem cell politics, only to have my hopes dashed by more news vomit. Supposedly, Julie Bierach was to be reporting on how November's adult stem cell (ASC) advance has impacted the debate here in MO. After interviewing all the usual suspects (Teitelbaum, Rubin, Cures Without Cloning Person), all as hardheaded as ever, her big conclusion was: nothing's changed.
Sigh. I sat in my car for 5 minutes to hear that story. NPR owes me a quarter gallon of gas.
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Wolff and her late husband have a long history of supporting the medical school, establishing two named chairs and a student loan program for medical students there.
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Monsanto made the cover of the new issue of Business Week, in an article describing the company's increasing fortunes since 2002. That year, the stock was in the tank, then-CEO Hendrik A. Verfaillie was on his way out, and worldwide fears over genetically modified food threatened to derail the company's entire business model. However, since then the company's fortunes have improved tremendously - the stock alone has risen more than 1,000%, and the price-to-earnings ratio currently stands two points higher than Google's.
The article credits current CEO Hugh Grant, who took the job in 2003, with the resurgence. It was Grant who decided early on to aggressively cut prices on herbicides, maintain a high level of R&D spending, and, perhaps most importantly, move the company's biotech efforts towards commodity crops like corn soybean. These plants aren't ones that appear on a kitchen table. Instead, they're sold by the ton to industrial customers who convert them into processed foodstuffs. Apparently it's harder for protestors to get worked up about a genetically modified ingredient - the controversy over Monsanto's seeds has lately slowed to a crawl.
Kind of a cheerleading piece, but still worth reading. You can find it online at BusinessWeek.com.
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If you haven't in a while, it's worth checking out the recently-updated website of Biotactica, LLC. The Sunset-Hills firm specializes in commercialization IP for life science ventures and they've put a lot of details online regarding their approach. Pretty cool stuff.
Check it out at www.biotactica.com
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Did you graduate from college after 2004? Have you worked in a Missouri life science organization since then? Did you collect your $2,500 in annual loan forgiveness from the state?
No?
Too bad, because the program ended in November. Since 2004, the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA) had been offering to forgive the student loans of graduates going into life science jobs as part of an effort to increase math and science education in the state. However, due to almost nonexistent promotion, only 35 individuals participated in the program over its 3 year lifespan. The total spending came out to around $10,000.
What a joke.
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The St. Louis Business Journal reported last Wednesday that Missouri Governor Matt Blunt would seek $15 million in improvements to the Pharmacy and Nursing building at UMKC, plus additional funds for the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia, as part of his supplemental budget recommendation. Money for the projects was originally included as part of the $350 million Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative last year. However, when conservative critics slashed the appropriation for fear of funding embryonic stem cell (ESC) research, money for the UMKC facility disappeared.
Interesting to see how this one turns out. The new facilities were identified as one where ESC research could theoretically occur, hence the cut. So, will this new funding experience the same resistance as before? Or have the critics come to their senses?
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In case you're at a loss for other, legitimate information sources, I just found out that the new NLM Style guide includes suggestions for how to best cite weblog entries in reference lists. Ahh, more ways for the uninhibited genius of the blogosphere to emerge in all its glory. I'll save you the trouble - nothing I've ever posted is worth citing. Except possibly in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology
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This one's a little bit old, but GEN had a nice overview last month of the inaugural TransMed Partnership Forum that came to St. Louis in September. The organizing committee is supposedly getting ready to put out a white paper describing some of the meeting's conclusions of the meeting, but there seems like there's been some delay. So, this will have to do for now.
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Of interest to the WashU folks working on bioenergy and/or renewable fuels, it looks like the university posted its first call for proposals as part of the new i-CARES energy sustainability initiative. The school looks to be giving out $500,000 in $10k - $50k grants to tenured and tenure-track faculty, but collaborations with outside groups are encouraged.
The full text of the call is available on the i-CARES website
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Imagine if the MO state legislature announced tomorrow that it would be spend $15 million to fund adult stem cell (ASC) research…
The analysis of last month’s adult stem cell development keeps coming in, and everyone seems to agree that it’s a significant advance. I think the term “breakthrough” is a little misleading, since the new technique for transforming human fibroblasts into so-called “Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells” (iPSC’s) was announced simultaneously by two international groups and supported by quite a bit of preparative work. Not quite the flash in the pan, this one. Support for the discovery has been overwhelming, with researchers as high profile as Ian Wilmut promising to begin work using the new procedure. Even California’s public stem cell authority announced last week that they would begin funding ASC research next year.
Meanwhile, if you’re reading this space, you’re probably familiar with the status of stem cell research in Missouri. Supporters won constitutional protection for the field in 2006. In response, opponents have blocked all efforts to secure state support of ANY biomedical research. Some local leaders, especially Kelly Gillespie of the Missouri Biotechnology Association (MOBIO), have made it sound like the best way to solve this dispute is simply to ignore it. By their reckoning, embryonic stem cell (ESC) research is a miniscule part of the life science work done in state (Only one group in the St. Louis area is involved in it), and rather than fighting old battles we should just try to ignore the debate and try and continue the push for state support of other fields. Problem is, the issue most certainly isn’t going away. As long as opponents feel ESC research is a possibility, they’ll try and prevent it by portraying scientists as cold and unethical.
Could iPSC research be an opportunity for compromise? National groups from both sides of the stem cell debate have hailed the new discovery as a vindication of their position, which suggests that both sides would be enthusiastic about supporting more research into iPSC applications. What if the MO legislature decided to start providing grants for this type of non-embryonic stem cell research? Imagine some of the possibilities:
In all honesty, MO cannot plausibly expect to compete with enormous ESC centers set up in California and Massachusetts. However, since we have the opportunity to start from scratch, there may be way to find our research niche in a cutting edge, international field. Along the way, deciding to fund adult stem cell research with state grants would help to resolve the stem cell debate, rather than ignoring it. This would set a precedent for future bioethics debates – that they can be debated honestly to a point of compromise
The biggest argument against this idea is a philosophical one. If you believe (As many of us do) that ESC research is ethically justified, and by all accounts should be funded with public money, why should we accept a compromise position? Would we, in effect, be selling out our beliefs for political expediency?
No.
Supporters of scientific honesty won a huge victory with Amendment 2. But there is a big difference between fighting to prevent a research area from being outlawed and asking the people of Missouri to support it involuntarily. ESC research remains an important field currently supported with private funds and voluntary embryo donations. You may oppose it on ethical grounds, but no one is threatening to take women’s eggs against their will. Petitioning for state funding, though, means that you’re essentially asking the public for a favor, for their monetary support. This requires a much greater consensus, one that does not exist currently in this state
This year, Missouri’s Life Science Research Board (LSRB) received just over $13 million to support veterinary and renewable fuels research. What if we could match that same amount next year with grants for ASC research? Could we gain enough public support? Would the conservative groups feel confident that this wouldn’t be a gateway to ESC funding?
Obviously there is some risk. Despite the international acclaim over the iPSC findings, science can be jumpy. There’s no guarantee the field will pan out. This, plus some serious concerns over the availability of the requisite IP (WARF has gained some notoriety for their ownership of previous stem cell discoveries) means that committing public money to this research could be risky. But that’s the name of the game. $13 million in ASC research is exactly $13 million more than the state legislature is currently giving out for biomedical research. However, if we don’t move quickly to secure even that, Missouri could be, once again, left in the dust.
The opinions expressed herein are soley those of the author and do not represent the views of any other individual or group, unless expressely stated.
Copyright © 2006-2007, Brian Loyal. All rights reserved
