Archive for the ‘Research Triangle Park’ Category
Gephardt visits Triangle on tour to spur medical innovation
Wednesday, June 30, 2010, 2:12 pmDick Gephardt is traveling across the country to reinvigorate medical innovation and on Wednesday the former Congressman, U.S. House majority leader and two-time Democratic presidential candidate visited North Carolina, a U.S. biotech hot spot.
U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt
He carried a to-do list with him that he plans to take to Congress and the Obama Administration.
Changing the way the Food and Drug Administration regulates the development of new medicines, making the research and development tax credit for companies permanent and establishing a federal office to spearhead public-private partnerships between universities, the National Institutes of Health and R&D companies were among the suggestions on the list.
“It needs to be the new space program in my view,” Gephardt told about 100 people at the packed Capital City Club in Raleigh. Read more…
Lyme disease, ecologists, and public health
Friday, June 25, 2010, 9:10 amLast week I wrote about the impacts of swine operations on our water quality. It’s one example of how land use patterns can disrupt the environment and affect public health. That subject came up again this week during a conversation with Dr. Laura Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL), a unit of the EPA’s Office of Research and Development that is housed in Research Triangle Park.
Dr. Laura Jackson of the EPA's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL), a unit of the EPA’s Office of Research and Development that is housed in Research Triangle Park.
Dr. Jackson and her colleagues in this RTP lab—more than 100 scientists—conduct research on ecosystem services, those benefits provided by the environment over and above the psychological benefits of being out in nature. These services can have tangible and measurable economic value.
For instance, in a normally functioning ecosystem, vegetation would take up nitrogen and phosphorus from animal waste and keep those nutrients from overburdening groundwater and streams. In last week’s example, when hogs were added to an ecosystem, they knocked it out of balance by depositing more nutrients than the vegetation could handle and by removing plants that could take up the nutrients and provide erosion control. The researchers at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems were developing countermeasures to keep the water clean near hog farming operations and restore ecosystem function. Read more…
Serious Gaming at Sigma Xi
Sunday, May 30, 2010, 10:33 pmLast week I went to this season’s last American Scientist pizza lunch at Sigma Xi featuring Phaedra Boinodiris (Twitter, blog), Serious Games Product Manager at IBM.
I first saw Phaedra Boinodiris speak as the opening speaker at TEDxRTP (my review) back in March, but this was a different kind of talk, geared more towards scientists and science communicators.
I remember playing Pong when it first came out. I remember spending many hours back in 1980 or so playing The Hobbit on Sinclair ZX Spectrum. And I played many games at arcades (still not knowing which games started out as arcade games adapted to computers and which the other way round). Then I quit playing games for a couple of decades until my kids were ready for them. I loved Zoombinis – an amazing game of logic and a brilliant preparation for taking IQ tests! I loved Richard Scarry’s Busytown – the one and only game I know about infrastructure, where players build stuff and deliver it to others for the good of the town – from baking bread to paving roads – learning along the way how those things are done.
And sure, Phaedra Boinodiris started with a slide depicting Pong (to the chuckle of the audience) but soon got into the real stuff – the serious gaming and the story of how she got involved in developing such games, as well as about studies of gaming and how different kinds of games help develop different real-work skills, from eye-hand coordination to leadership to cooperation. Her first game – INNOV8 – was developed as a prototype, a proof of concept, in only three months and instantly became a huge hit. It is used by businesses and business schools around the world to teach Business Process Management. It is essentially a first person shooter game (without guns) in which the player is brought as an outside consultant into a company where s/he has to figure out the flow, the bottlenecks, etc. (including by interviewing employees, as well as data-sheets) and experiment in making it more efficient. The 2.0 version came soon after, adding such problems as traffic, customer service and supply chains.
The next game, recently announced and coming out in October 2010, will be a Sim-City-like serious game CityOne, designed to help city planners, town councils, citizens, and engineers plan better, more efficient infrastructure for their cities. Put in your city’s specs and start building new infrastructure, see how much it will cost, see what problems will arise, see what solutions are available – probably something you could not have thought of yourself and may be surprised.
As I am currently reading ‘On The Grid’ it occured to me that the developers of CityOne should read that book, and that Scott Huler should be given a test-run of the game, perhaps for him to review for Charlotte Observer and Raleigh News&Observer and the local NPR station. And for Science In The Triangle, of course.
RTP Week Ahead, May 17-21
Monday, May 17, 2010, 10:04 am
Monday, May 17
BizMix: A Professional Approach to After-hours Business Connections
5:00 – 7:00pm
The Matthew House, 317 West Chatham Street, Cary, NC 27511
Looking for a business after-hours that’s worth your time? Benefit from a structured setting, connect with leaders and meet our reporting staff.
$15 Triangle Business Journal subscribers; $25 others. Read more here.
Tuesday, May 18
Widening the Pipeline: Excellence in STEM Education (Luncheon)
12:00 – 1:30pm
CED’s Entrepreneurship Center, 100 Capitola Drive, Durham, 27713
How Do We Build the Pipeline of Next Generation STEM Employees? Join the Contemporary Science Center for lunch as we explore and discuss with award-winning Science, Technology, Engineering & Math educators from Charlotte and Raleigh.
Registration $20. Register here.
TARDC May Lunceon
12:00 – 1:15 pm
RTP Headquarters, 12 Davis Drive
Speaker: Dr. Maria Escolar, Director of the Program for the Study of Neurodevelopmental Function in Rare Disorders at UNC Chapel Hill. Lunch will be provided.
Free for TARDC members; $35 others; $25 CED members. RSVP to rousseau@rtp.org
Wednesday, May 19
President’s National Export Initiative Luncheon
11:30am – 1:00pm
Hotel Indigo, 151 Tatum Drive, Durham, NC 27703
TOPIC: President’s National Export Initiative; Speaker: Ro Khanna , Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, Office of Domestic Operations.
Free. More info here.
CED’s BioTech Forum
5:30 – 8:00 pm
North Carolina Biotechnology Center, RTP, NC
During this presentation and interactive panel discussion we will answer several key questions to provide insight into what will likely drive the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries’ partnering efforts moving forward.
Find out more here.
Speed Networking in the Triangle
5:45 – 8:45pm
Wyndham at RTP, 4620 South Miami Boulevard, Durham, NC
Based on the format of speed dating, attendees will have five minutes to network with each new person you meet. Once the five minutes is up, you will move to the next person and continue networking.
Only 50 attendees allowed! Purchase a ticket here.
Thursday, May 20
If It Isn’t Broke, It Will Be! Reinvent your Business Model
11:30 – 1pm
CED Headquarters, 100 Capitola Drive suite 106 Durham , NC 27713
Participants will focus on evaluating, creating and re-inventing current business models. This seminar teaches state-of-the art methods that produce transformative ideas and solutions.
$20, including lunch. Sign up here.
Quality In BioPharma Conference (through Fri, May 21)
8:00am (5/20) – 5:00pm (5/21)
NC State University, Centennial Campus, 2410 Campus Shore Drive #218, Raleigh, NC 27695
The focus of the two-day event will be Environmental Monitoring in Biomanufacturing, and will have noteworthy talks, discussions, and networking events for professionals involved in the Quality, Manufacturing, Environmental Microbiology, and Process Engineering areas of the industry.
Register here.
Friday, May 21
BTWW: Cyclists’ Breakfast at RTP HQ
7:00am – 9:00am
Cyclists can mingle and enjoy free breakfast
courtesy of the Research Triangle Foundation.
Saturday, May 22
ProductCamp RTP: Share In The Innovation!
8:00am – 6:00pm
Cambria Suites @RDU Airport, 300 Airgate Drive, Morrisville, NC
In the spirit of BarCamp, ProductCamp is a collaborative, user organized unconference, focused on Product Management and Marketing.
Register online here.
Ongoing (All Week)**
Bike to Work Week
All around the Triangle!
Sponsored by GoTriangle.
Find out more here.
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To view a complete calendar of RTP community events, please visit the Science in the Triangle calendar.
RTP Week Ahead
Monday, May 3, 2010, 8:20 am
Monday, May 3
Why Scientists are Rhetoricians, Too: They don’t have any choice
11:00 AM – 12:45 PM
Thomas Hall, Room 3503 (Stevens Room) NCSU
Lecture by Dr. Carolyn Miller, SAS Institute and distinguished Professor of Rhetoric and Technical Communication at North Carolina State University
Free
Global Health Lecture “Risk and Cost Analysis in Pest Management: Application to Genetically Modified Mosquitoes”
4:00 – 5:00 PM
LSRC A109 (Nicholas School of the Environment) Duke University
Speaker: John Mumford Professor John Mumford of Imperial College London, and the director of the Centre for Environmental Policy
Free. More information.
Tuesday, May 4
Meet the New Media: Celebration of Women Event
10:00 — 11:30 AM
The Pavillions at the Angus Barn, Raleigh
Wanted: Women in the News Meet national journalists who cover business and women’s issues. Space is limited – Register today!
UNC/NCSU Research and Design Symposium
3:00-8:00 PM
NC Biotechnology Center, RTP
The UNC/NCSU Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering Research and Design Symposium is the annual showcase event for senior design and graduate students. The event attracts an industrial and academic audience and features oral and poster presentations and a networking social.
More information and registration.
Wednesday, May 5
JobNob Raleigh Happy Hour
4:30-7:30 PM
Solas Raleigh, 419 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh
Come “Jobnob” with cool new start ups and talented job seekers at this informal networking happy hour where you can find startup jobs.
Free but registration required.
Thursday, May 6
Mike Duke Seminar: Species Delimitation in Spiders
2:00 – 3:30 PM
Clark Labs, NCSU
Lecture by: Dr. Jason Bond, East Carolina University
Friday, May 7
40 Under 40 Leadership Awards
11:30 AM – 2:00 PM
North Ridge Country Club, Raleigh
To view a complete calendar of RTP community events, please visit the Science in the Triangle calendar.
Regenerative medicine: Taking lessons from salamanders
Wednesday, April 21, 2010, 9:30 pmDr. Anthony Atala likes to start his talks with a time-lapse video of a salamander regrowing an injured limb over two weeks. Then, the director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine asks his listeners to imagine humans regenerating limbs, tissue or organs that have been damaged or are missing.
“Salamanders can regenerate. Why can’t we?,” Atala asked during a TEDMed talk last fall.
Dr. Anthony Atala
Actually, we can and we do, he responded Tuesday during a presentation at Research Triangle Park headquarters, where he had traveled from Winston-Salem to talk at the TARDC luncheon. “It’s real,” he said.
The human body replaces bones every 10 years, skin every two weeks and intestinal tissue every six days. Regenerative medicine taps into the body’s ability to regrow tissue, expands on it and speeds it up in the laboratory. Read more…
Wanted: Global innovation (part 2)
Saturday, April 17, 2010, 12:13 pm… Continued from Part I of this two-part series:
While it would be impossible to separate the global from the state-level issues discussed at the forum, some of the local business people offered examples for specific challenges to innovation that they faced.
Alexander Macris is the president of Themis Group which is based in Durham, N.C. and is a strong example of the power of a science park like RTP to attract additional tech-based businesses to the region. Macris said that the Triangle region is one of the largest concentrations of gaming companies in the U.S. Most of the innovation potential in gaming is at the gaming engine and software level, he said, and the average median income of someone in the gaming industry is about $75,000. He expects to see about 300 to 400 new gaming-related jobs in the area over the next three to five years, he said, because the industry is growing in the double digits. But at the same time, the cost of game development is going up – whereas a decade ago it may have cost $1 million to develop a game, it costs $20 to $30 million to do so today, Macris said. Foreign countries give more tax credits to their gaming companies, he said, which makes them more competitive in the global field and is hurting U.S.-based gaming companies. “Targeted tax credits are a huge attractant to small and start-up businesses in the gaming industry,” Macris said. “And cool downtowns, the creative class really likes a vibrant downtown too.”
While deeper tax credits may help some start-ups get a toe-hold in emerging markets, retaining the best talent is necessary to sustain them over time. And while uber cool downtowns like the American Tobacco District in Durham are one component of enticements to retain the best brains, it’s a smaller part of the issue. Read more…
Wanted: Global innovation (part 1)
Saturday, April 17, 2010, 11:39 amRepresentatives of businesses and research organizations in the Triangle met Friday April 16 at Research Triangle Foundation Headquarters to explore the role of government in spurring homegrown global innovation. The meeting was the first of a handful planned by the National Foreign Trade Council, a Washington DC-based organization that advocates for both domestic and foreign trade policies favorable to its member businesses.
“We’re here today to learn from you so that we can go back to Washington and do what we do,” said NFTC president Bill Reinsch in his opening remarks. “We want to build relationships with companies and open a conversation with them to develop stronger links.” Reinsch said that his group was traveling to technology-innovation clusters like RTP and Silicon Valley to find out first-hand from companies what sort of policies were encumbering them from doing business globally, which were helping, and what sort of ideas they had for the future.
How to create and sustain jobs and businesses is a question that both federal and local governments have wrestled with sharply and frequently since the economic downturn. Research Triangle Park, NC has long been a technology-hub and economic engine for the state, noted RTP CEO Rick Weddle, and the area has excelled in life sciences, information technology, and biotech markets, but capturing emerging markets like gaming and clean energy technologies will be vital to RTP maintaining its vitality in the future. But how can science parks like RTP, and the states they’re rooted in, cultivate homegrown small businesses (and they jobs and economic resilience they generate) in emerging and established markets, especially when the banks are slow to lend — if they lend at all — and cash is plain hard to come by?
Read more…
RTP Week Ahead
Monday, April 12, 2010, 1:14 pmMonday, April 12
NIEHS Seminar: Transcription factor-DNA interactions: cis regulatory codes in genomes
2:30 – 3:30 PM
NIEHS, Rail Building, Rodbell AB
Open to the public. Speaker: Martha L. Bulyk, Ph.D. Speaker Professional Title: Associate Professor of Medicine and Pathology. More information.
Tuesday, April 13
NC BioNetwork Course
Tuesday-Wednesday, All Day
BioNetwork Capstone Center, BTEC, 250 B 850 Oval Drive, Centennial Campus, Raleigh
A Hands-on Approach to Cleaning Validation Addresses the elements of cleaning validation from start to finish and includes in-field exercises. Cost: $495. Instructor: A. Ari
Registration For more information regarding registration, please visit the website.
UNC Emerging Company Showcase
6:00 – 7:30 PM
Koury Auditorium, McColl Building, Kenan-Flagler School of Business, UNC Chapel Hill
Together NC BioStart of the NC TraCS Institute, the Office of Technology Development and Kenan-Flagler Business School are pleased to announce UNC-Chapel Hill’s Emerging Company Showcase. This event will highlight early stage companies built around innovative UNC-Chapel Hill technologies, primarily in the life science space. A series of short company presentations will be followed by a networking reception. More information.
TriDug Meetup
6:30 – 8:00 PM
Duke Corporate Education, 310 Blackwell Street, Durham
The April meetup will be an open mic night. Presenters: Greg Monroe has agreed to present on the Web File Management module. Other presentations TBA as folks come forward and volunteer. The meeting is scheduled to start at 6:30 with a half hour for meet and greet. Presentations should start at 7:00PM. More information.
Periodic Tables
7:00 – 9:00 PM
Broad Street Cafe, 1116 Broad St, Durham
More has been discovered about dog intelligence in the last decade than the preceding 100 years. The Duke Canine Cognition Center was founded to continue studying how dogs understand their world, how dogs might have evolved, and how we might help dogs be even more successful at helping people. Dr. Brian Hare will share some of his work comparing dogs to various species like wolves and chimpanzees. He is also interested in hearing your ideas for dogcentric research questions that you wish they had the answer to. Speaker: Dr. Brian Hare, Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University. More information.
Wednesday, April 14
Innovation in RTP Speaker Series
4:00 – 5:00 PM
RTP Headquarters, 12 Davis Drive, RTP
Topic: Russ Gyurek of Cisco Presents: The future of the Internet: challenges and opportunities! Free event. RSVP required.
Thursday, April 12
Triangle Global Health Consortium Job Fair
12:00 – 5:00 PM
NC Biotechnology Center, 15 TW Alexander Drive, RTP
The Triangle Global Health Consortium is sponsoring this Job Fair/Industry Networking event. Individuals and companies are welcome to participate at no cost. To register please email nicole.fouche@triangleglobalhealth.org.
Friday, April 16
Going Global to Support North Carolina Innovation: The Role of Innovation Policy in Growing Exports, Creating Jobs, and Solving Global Challenges
RTP Headquarters, 12 Davis Drive, RTP
Hosted by the Global Innovation Forum of the National Foreign Trade Council in partnership with: The Research Triangle Foundation, Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions of Duke University, CED, North Carolina Biotechnology Center and North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association. More information.
For a detailed listing of RTP and regional events, please visit the Science in the Triangle calendar.
If the U.S. falls off the flat earth, so does RTP
Sunday, April 11, 2010, 5:41 pmNeal Lane, a physicist who in the late 1990s was President Clinton’s top science advisor, worries when he looks at federal spending on research and development.
R&D spending as percentage of federal budget, FY 1962-2009
Sure, federal spending on R&D more than tripled in the past 50 years to about $147 billion in fiscal year 2009, as Lane pointed out Saturday in a talk at N.C. State University. But R&D’s share of all federal spending has been shrinking from nearly 12 percent during the height of the Apollo program in the late 1960s to about 5 percent in 2009, according to numbers from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Lane, a professor at Rice University and a senior fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, is particularly concerned about federal funding for research in physics, mathematics and engineering, the disciplines that brought forth computers, the Internet and mobile devices such as the cell phone. Read more…
