News Items:  (listed chronologically)

* Chad Beyer and Dennis Gross are the co-editors of Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship

* ALS Biopharma, LLC, was designated as the Gold Best Early-Stage Company by the Philadelphia Business Journal in October 2010, as part of the journal's Life Sciences Award Program. Allen Reitz, the CEO of ALS Biopharma, attended an award breakfast for honorees in Philadelphia.

* On 2 October 2012, President Allen Reitz presented a keynote address on “Challenges and Opportunities in Biomedical Research: Entrepreneurship, Focused Research, and Globalization” at the KlingStubbins Benchmarking Conference, a meeting that addressed entrepreneurship and business development in the life sciences arena.

* In August 2012, at the ACS National Meeting in Philadelphia, Joseph Vacca was inducted into the ACS Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame.

* Bruce Maryanoff is recipient of the 2013 E. B. Hershberg Award for Important Discoveries in Medicinally Active Substances, an ACS National Award that was conferred at the ACS National Meeting in New Orleans in April 2013.

* Allen Reitz and Chad Beyer are Editors of a new journal entitled Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship, from Bentham Science Publishers (http://benthamscience.com/tte/).  The journal will be published quarterly, starting in January 2014.

* In November 2013, chemical biologist Doron Greenbaum, Ph.D., was appointed as Distinguished Institute Professor and Director of Research Operations to pursue research activities of the PDDI.  Doron and his group left the PDDI in February 2015.

* In July 2014, Dennis M. Gross joined the PDDI as Professor of Pharmacology and Chief Executive Officer.  As CEO, he will report to Dr. Allen Reitz, President and Chairman of the Board.  Dennis will have broad executive responsibilities, including the management of PDDI site operations and overseeing Prof. Doron Greenbaum, Director of Research Operations, and his research team.  Dennis will be focused on implementing and developing the mission of the PDDI.

* The PDDI has been involved in fostering entrepreneurship and technology transfer. Two recent publications in these arenas are: (1) Policies and Incentives Offered by the Top Ten American States in Biotechnology that Promote Start-Up Activities. Kamat, K. D.; Crawford, D. J.; Leslie, G. J.; Zhang, M.; Jiang, Q.; Gupte, R. K.; Tsai, E. A.; Reitz, A. B. Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship 2014, 1, 51-61.  (2) Entrepreneurship: Drug Discovery Innovation at Start-Up and Medium-Sized Biotechnology Companies.  Reitz, A. B.; Czupich, K. M.  In Collaborative Innovation in Drug Discovery, Chaguturu, R., Ed., Wiley Series on Technologies for the Pharmaceutical Industry, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hoboken, NJ, 2014, pp 341-354.

* PDDI sponsored the annual BIO Boot Camp to be held in Philadelphia on June 14/15 in 2015, as a satellite meeting associated with the National BIO Meeting.  In subsequent years, PDDI will continue to sponsor the annual BIO Boot Camp.  Some details for the 2005-2014 Boot Camps follow.
 
* The Biotechnology Entrepreneurship Boot Camp was founded by Prof. Arthur Boni (Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon), Prof. Steve Sammut (Wharton School and Burrill & Company), and Jeffrey Libson (Partner, Pepper Hamilton LLP; Lecturer at Wharton School).  The first Boot Camp was launched at the 2005 Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. The Boot Camp was originally designed as a program for CSOs, but is now expanded in scope and design to address a broad range of issues for entrepreneurs more generally. The Boot Camp was created in response to the growing need in the managerial, scientific and academic community to learn about the necessary elements and skills to transform technology and invention into a viable company. The Boot Camp, which will travel from year to year to each of the BIO Annual Meeting venues, was offered at BIO’s annual meetings in Philadelphia (2005), Chicago (2006, 2010, 2012), Boston (2007, 2012), San Diego (2008, 2014), Atlanta (2009), and Washington, DC (2011). Future co-chairs will be James Jordan (Carnegie Mellon University), Dennis Gross (PDDI), and Allen Reitz (PDDI).

* At the end of October 2014, Senior Administrator Rhoda Joseph retired.  The PDDI management wishes her well.  A photo of Rhoda has graced the PDDI Brochure since its inception.  The new Administrator is Jennifer Halgas.

* Cynthia Maryanoff is recipient of the 2015 Perkin Medal, for her important contributions in chemical science.  The award was conferred in Philadelphia in October 2015.