CHICAGO — The Freedom to Read Foundation ( FTRF ) — the First Amendment legal defense organization affiliated with the American Library Association — is unveiling of its new website . The site — which retains the URL http://www.ftrf.org — is a significant upgrade for the organization and will enhance the online experience for FTRF members, donors, grant and award applicants and those who want to know ...
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In Freedom Townships only contested primary election race, Rudy Layher defeated Ken Siler 139 to 67 for treasurer Tuesday, according to unofficial election results.
Im delighted, Layher said. Im just so glad and I look forward to working with everyone. Im happy I can be part of the township and hopefully I can give something back to the township.
Layher is a farmer with a Bachelors degree in agricultural engineering technology from Michigan State University.
He recently listed his key issues for the township as control of fiscal matters, practicing fiscal responsibility protecting the taxpayer and dealing with issues without increasing the township tax burden unnecessarily and preserving Freedom Townships rural heritage.
All other Freedom Township board races were uncontested.
Dale Weidmayer received 191 votes for supervisor, the position he currently holds.
Jennifer Alexa received 176 votes for clerk, also her current position.
Current trustees Dennis Huehl and Daniel Schaible earned 162 and 168 votes respectively in their bids to retain their seats.
The township had a voter turnout of 24.7 percent with 292 ballots cast.
All Freedom Township candidates in the primary election were Republicans. Tuesdays winners will face Independent and write-in candidates in the November election. Continued...
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Steve Mann, considered by many to be the world’s first cyborg, sits down to discuss augmented reality, wearable Apple and Google products, and the idea of connecting computers to the brain.
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Bits Blog: One on One: Steve Mann, Wearable Computing Pioneer
Steve Mann is considered by many to be the world’s first cyborg. He has been using wearable computers that assist his vision since the 1970s. Now he wears a display screen over his right eye and is connected to a computer and the Internet.
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Sharks or syringes, forget about it. That would totally ruin a beach vacation.
But people are more placid about poo, apparently. Although a raw-sewage spill prompted authorities to ban swimming at three of the busiest beaches in Ocean City, N.J., earlier this week, sunbathers crowded back into the ocean Tuesday afternoon, after Cape May County health officials declared the currents safe.
"Considering that Ocean City is seven miles long, I think it's a little bit overblown," said John Millon, 56, of Havertown, who spent Tuesday on the beach at Third Street. Millon, who has a house in Ocean City, swims in the ocean daily and didn't think that the sewage scare would keep him on the sand.
Authorities said that raw sewage backed up out of a grease-clogged sewer on Eighth Street, and recent rains swept it into storm drains, which empty into the ocean. Officials suspect that the clog was caused by someone illegally dumping grease into the sewer. Authorities forbade swimming at the Eighth and Ninth street beaches Monday and, because of how the tides ran, closed the 10th Street beach Tuesday morning, said Jim Mallon, Ocean City's director of community service.
The Cape May County Health Department tested the water?, and by midafternoon Tuesday deemed the bacteria levels acceptable to reopen all three beaches. Kevin Thomas, the department's health officer, said that crews test ocean water at 61 beaches from Ocean City down to Cape May Point every Monday, and it's not uncommon to have high bacteria readings during those tests. Closures, though, are required only after two consecutive days of high readings, which is fairly rare, he added. Thomas could remember just one other closure this summer one day last week at the beach off Stenton Place in Ocean City.
"Normally the water is fine," Thomas said. "But generally speaking, it's a good idea not to swim in the six hours or so after a major rainfall, when there's a lot of stuff coming out of those drains and washing off the streets."
Millon hopes that the city will find and punish the sewer dumper.
"If that's what happened, that a restaurant dumped grease in a sewer, they should really be fined, because tourism is the heart of the city, so you really have to protect the beach and the people at all costs," Millon said.
Millon said that the city won't start spying on sewers to detect the culprit. Rather, city officials will send out reminders to area merchants about how to properly dispose of grease.
Contact Dana DiFilippo at 215-854-5934 or difilid@phillynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @DanaDiFilippo and read her blog, phillyconfidential.com.
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South Beaches advanced to the Senior League Baseball World Series in Bangor, Maine.
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WASHINGTON NASA plans to wait until 2015 to lay out a proposal for its next big astrophysics mission, which could take the form of a single large spacecraft or a series of smaller craft performing related studies, a senior agency official said July 30.
A new flagship mission stands almost no chance of being funded until after work is finished on the budget-busting James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to launch in 2018, said Paul Hertz, director of NASAs Astrophysics Division. But the planning can begin before JWST begins its five-year mission to study the origins of the universe.
When the prime contract for the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, was awarded in 2002, the observatory, billed as the successor to NASAs hugely successful Hubble Space Telescope, was expected to launch in 2010 and cost a few billion dollars. The observatorys projected price tag has since risen to nearly $9 billion.
Unless a miracle occurs, our next opportunity to start a new strategic mission will be after [JWST] launches, Hertz told members of the NASA Advisory Committees astrophysics subcommittee. In 2017 we hope to start [work on] a new mission. We will put that plan in front of the community [in 2015] through the mid-decade review to find out whether they think we did a good job in following the decadal survey. [Giant Space Telescopes of the Future (Infographic)]
At the 2015 mid-decade review, the National Research Councils Committee for a Decadal Survey of Astronomy and Astrophysics will review NASAs progress in meeting the science goals laid out by the astrophysics community in a 10-year roadmap published in 2010. That document, New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics, is known informally as the astrophysics decadal survey.
Hertz said he will share more details about the options being considered for the 2015 mission proposal in a draft white paper to be released to the astrophysics community ahead of the American Astronomical Societys Jan. 6, 2013, winter meeting in Long Beach, Calif.
Hertz shared few details about the concepts being considered, but he did say NASA is keeping the option open for a Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, if the science that was supported in the decadal survey still drives us in that direction and if the politics allow us to do it.
Other options include missions that Hertz characterized as probes that in price and scale would fall somewhere between NASAs Explorer series of astrophysics missions, which cost up to several hundred million dollars, and a JWST- or Hubble-class observatory.
The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope was proposed as a $1.6 billion dark-energy mapping mission. Such an observatory could help scientists measure and understand the expansion of the universe and was accorded a high priority by the decadal survey.
However, the delays and soaring costs on the highly ambitious JWST mission forced NASAs Astrophysics Division to square its future plans with the budget realities of the present. The full effect of this fiscal calculus was manifest in the White Houses 2013 budget request, which proposed halting development work on the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope.
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Dubai, Aug. 2 -- AMAC Aerospace, a leading provider of corporate aviation maintenance and completion services, has appointed boutique aviation PR consultancy Emerald Media, to handle its external public relations activity. The contract is effective immediately.
Founded in Basel, Switzerland, four years ago, AMAC Aerospace, is headed by CEO Kadri Muhiddin. The company boasts a 500-strong workforce and an orderbook of US$1 billion plus. Its business is split 50:50 between VIP completions and maintenance work and its 23,000 sq ft hangarage facilities at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse have the capability to accommodate four wide-body and four single-aisle large jets, plus lighter business jet types. "This is a very exciting time for AMAC Aerospace as we expand the business into Turkey and inaugurate our third wide body hangar at Basel in September," said Kadri Muhiddin. "These new developments, coupled with the opportunities currently being presented in the business aviation sector, provide us with some excellent business prospects, which we intend to maximise to full potential. Emerald Media's experience and expertise in the business aviation fraternity will be very valuable in helping us publicise our objectives and achievements." Based in Hampshire, UK, Emerald Media marks its 19th year in aviation PR in 2012. The company has supporting offices in Dubai, Germany, Spain, the USA and Australia and is well positioned to support AMAC's media requirements as the company expands its activities. Emerald Media first ventured into business aviation PR in 2004, its success stories to date include a long-standing relationship with London Oxford Airport, which saw the inauguration of a brand new business aviation terminal in 2008, and has recently seen the relationship expand to include sister company the Barclays London Heliport. Other Emerald Media clients include; The Jet Business, the world's first ever street-level corporate aviation showroom for the acquisition and sales of private jet aircraft and ancillary services; Evergreen Apple Nigeria (EAN) which last year opened the first private FBO facility in Nigeria located immediately adjacent to Lagos' Murtala Mohammed International Airport; and ARINC, a premier provider of communications, engineering and integration solutions to customers in the defence, commercial and government sectors. Emerald Media will be supporting AMAC at the AIREX exhibition in Turkey in September and at MEBA in Dubai in December where the company will participate with a hospitality chalet and stand.
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AMAC Aerospace Appoints Emerald Media to Handle Press and Publicity
At Newspace 2012, hosted by the Space Frontier Foundation in Santa Clara, California, Armadillo Aerospace announced it has been awarded a two-year launch license by the FAA for the launch of its STIG-B payload-carrying vehicle into suborbital space this (northern hemisphere) summer from Spaceport America in New Mexico... Continue Reading Armadillo Aerospace gets launch release for STIG B ...
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Armadillo Aerospace gets launch release for STIG B reusable rocket
Biotechnology, nanotechnology and other high-tech industries could reverse decades of manufacturing job losses in New England but only if the region increases workforce development and attracts more startup businesses, members of Congress from Rhode Island and Connecticut said Tuesday.
U.S. Reps. David Cicilline and Jim Langevin from Rhode Island and Joe Courtney and John Larson from Connecticut attended a forum on manufacturing Tuesday at the Rhode Island School of Design.
"This has to be a key part of our economic development strategy for rebuilding our economies," said Cicilline, a Democrat.
Emerging fields such as nanotechnology and three-dimensional printing offer the region an opportunity to create thousands of well-paid, highly skilled manufacturing jobs, according to Michael Molnar, chief manufacturing officer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. But Molnar said universities, governments and business leaders need to do a better job of working together to ensure ideas dreamed up here aren't turned into reality in a foreign factory.
"A paper is written and it goes on a shelf," he said. "Let's take it and make new industries."
Speakers said onerous regulations and uncompetitive tax policies hurt the region's attractiveness to manufacturers as much as labor costs. Langevin, a Democrat, said the region must also get better at educating and training future workers. "We need to make sure our schools and training centers understand where the jobs will be," he said.
Defense manufacturing must also play a role in the region's economic future, Larson said. He highlighted legislation that has passed the House that would fund the continued production of two Virginia-class submarines per year. Electric Boat makes the submarines in New Groton, Conn., and Quonset Point, R.I., and employs 10,000 people at the two facilities.
"Our second submarine is vital ly important to Connecticut, Rhode Island and the security of our nation," said the Democrat.
The forum was sponsored by the New England Council and attracted several dozen small business owners and officials from economic development agencies and higher education.
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Rhode Island, Connecticut leaders: manufacturing key to growth
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- Biotechnology, nanotechnology and other high-tech industries could reverse decades of manufacturing job losses in New England but only if the region increases workforce development and attracts more startup businesses, members of Congress from Rhode Island and Connecticut said Tuesday.
U.S. Reps. David Cicilline and Jim Langevin from Rhode Island and Joe Courtney and John Larson from Connecticut attended a forum on manufacturing Tuesday at the Rhode Island School of Design.
"This has to be a key part of our economic development strategy for rebuilding our economies," said Cicilline, a Democrat.
Emerging fields such as nanotechnology and three-dimensional printing offer the region an opportunity to create thousands of well-paid, highly skilled manufacturing jobs, according to Michael Molnar, chief manufacturing officer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. But Molnar said universities, governments and business leaders need to do a better job of working together to ensure ideas dreamed up here aren't turned into reality in a foreign factory.
"A paper is written and it goes on a shelf," he said. "Let's take it and make new industries."
Speakers said onerous regulations and uncompetitive tax policies hurt the region's attractiveness to manufacturers as much as labor costs. Langevin, a Democrat, said the region must also get better at educating and training future workers. "We need to make sure our schools and training centers understand where the jobs will be," he said.
Defense manufacturing must also play a role in the region's economic future, Larson said. He highlighted legislation that has passed the House that would fund the continued production of two Virginia-class submarines per year. Electric Boat makes the submarines in New Groton, Conn., and Quonset Point, R.I., and employs 10,000 people at the two facilities.
"Our second submarine is vitally important to Connecticut, Rhode Island and the security of our nation," said the Democrat.
The forum was sponsored by the New England Council and attracted several dozen small business owners and officials from economic development agencies and higher education.
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RI, Conn. leaders: manufacturing key to growth
Public release date: 7-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mark L. Shelton mark.shelton@umassmed.edu 508-856-2000 University of Massachusetts Medical School
BOSTON, Mass. A pivotal clinical trial for an anti-rabies human monoclonal antibody (RMAb) being developed through a collaborative partnership between MassBiologics of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the Serum Institute of India, Ltd., is starting to enroll patients. The study, sponsored by the Serum Institute, will evaluate the efficacy of post-exposure prophylaxis following rabies exposure with RMAb and vaccine compared to standard treatment of human rabies immune globulin (hRIG) and vaccine. Post-exposure prophylaxis for rabies that includes a monoclonal antibody should provide a more affordable, safer alternative to prevent the disease, which is a world-wide public health problem impacting 10 million people a year and resulting in some 55,000 deaths.
"We are extremely pleased that this potentially life-saving product has moved forward to the pivotal clinical trial phase," said Deborah Molrine, MD, deputy director of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs at MassBiologics and an associate professor of pediatrics at UMass Medical School. "Rabies is a major public health problem in Asia and Africa, and we are hopeful that the findings of this study may result in a treatment option readily available in those areas where it is needed most."
The randomized, comparator-controlled study being conducted in India will enroll 200 patients who have had a high-risk (category III as defined by the World Health Organization) exposure to a suspected rabid animal. Study participants will receive proper wound care followed by injections of either the investigational RMAb or standard hRIG treatment in combination with a five-dose rabies vaccine series.
The primary endpoint of the study is to demonstrate that the level of neutralizing antibody to rabies virus in the blood of participants who received RMAb and vaccine is at least as much as the level of anti-rabies neutralizing antibody in the blood of those who received hRIG and vaccine.
While deaths from rabies in the United States are rare, rabies remains a significant problem with approximately 95 percent of human deaths from rabies occurring in Asia and Africa. Death from rabies is preventable with timely post-exposure prophylaxis consisting of wound hygiene, administration of rabies immune globulin, and active immunization with rabies vaccine. In persons wounded by a suspected rabid animal, the vaccine works to stimulate the immune system to fight the rabies virus, while the rabies immune globulin provides immediate protection with neutralizing antibodies before the immune system begins making its own antibodies.
Human rabies immune globulin, derived from human blood, is an expensive product and carries a potential risk of contamination with blood-borne pathogens. Equine immune globulin (eRIG), derived from horse serum, is used in many parts of the world, but its use is associated with significant adverse effects such as anaphylaxis or serum sickness. Both products are often in short supply and costly for inhabitants of areas of the world where rabies is endemic. In India alone, it is estimated only 2 percent of patients whose wounds require the rabies immune globulin receive appropriate post-exposure treatment.
To address the supply and adverse effects issues, MassBiologics and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed an anti- rabies monoclonal antibody with the goal that it might be used in place of hRIG or eRIG. MassBiologics then partnered with the Serum Institute to develop and manufacture the monoclonal antibody in India. "A monoclonal antibody for rabies has the advantage of being able to be produced in large quantities, at much lower costs than blood products," said Prasad Kulkarni, MD, medical director at the Serum Institute of India, Ltd. "And since they are not derived from blood serum, they have none of the safety issues associated with human blood products. If the primary endpoint from this pivotal trial is met, a new therapy could become available to thousands of patients each year to prevent the too-often fatal outcome of this infection."
In a phase 1 trial at the King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEM) in Mumbai, India, 74 healthy volunteers were randomized into several groups that either received RMAb or of hRIG combined with vaccine. Results showed that the RMAb was well tolerated by all subjects, with no serious side-effects. A dose of RMAb was selected from this study that produced comparable levels of rabies virus neutralizing antibodies in the blood from volunteers who received RMAb and vaccine compared to those who received the standard regimen of hRIG and vaccine.
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Council Member Mike Martinez suggested increasing the package to $400 million, while trying to work around Mayor Lee Leffingwell's reluctance to raise taxes.
Leffingwell says he is hesitant to increase the size of the bond package because the council has already approved rate increases for electricity, water and natural gas service, among others.
The mayor also supports State Sen. Kirk Watson's push to establish a medical school at the University of Texas, and to build a new, state-of-the-art research hospital.
"Realizing that it is such a high priority for our city and for our region, I think it's very appropriate for other jurisdictions to keep in mind that we have to respect that request too," Leffingwell said.
Sen. Watson says his law firm is not at all involved in the efforts to bring a medical school to the University of Texas, but voters need to be educated about the benefits higher taxes will bring.
"They are going to want to create 15,000 jobs and $2 billion in economic activity, Sen. Watson said. They are going to want to take care of the indigent population, so they save money because people aren't at the emergency room."
However, it all still comes with a price tag. Travis County voters would pick up about 10 percent of the tab, or $35 million a year. That would cost the average Austin area homeowner about $88 more a year in property taxes.
"For every dollar of local money we put up, the federal government will match it with $1.46," Watson said.
Leffingwell expects Austin's bond package to be broken up into about seven partsincluding transportation, affordable housing and parks.
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City weighs taxpayer burden of medical school, bond package
A chemical spill prompted firefighters to evacuated a Harvard Medical School building for several hours Tuesday afternoon after a doctor working in a lab spilled several large bottles of acids, according to firefighters.
The doctor went to get a bottle off a shelf in a 10th floor lab on Avenue Louis Pasteur at about 3 p.m. and inadvertantly knocked three bottles containing acids, which rolled off the shelf and smashed, said Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald.
The doctor, who was dressed in protective lab clothing, followed protocol and immediately jumped under a lab shower to decontaminate herself, said MacDonald, who told the Herald no one was injured in the spill.
MacDonald said Harvard hired a cleanup company to clean up the spilled bottles, which were about two liters each and contained acetic and hydrochloric acids.
Acetic acid is flammable and both acids are irritants. They can cause burns if you come in contact with them and they can cause some distress if you inhale the chemicals, said MacDonald.
Boston firefighters, who sealed off the street during the incident, also conducted air quality readings to ensure the 10-story medical school building was safe, according to MacDonald.
Harvard Medical School issued a statement saying the chemical spill on the buildings top floor happened in the Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology and confirmed the top three floors of the building would remain evacuated until further notice.
A Harvard Medical spokeswoman declined to say whether the incident would prompt a review of chemical storage practices in the labs.
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Acid spill at Harvard Med School prompts evacuation
By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff
A Harvard Medical School building was evacuated this afternoon after chemicals spilled on the 10th floor, the Boston Fire Department said.
Steve MacDonald, a Fire Department spokesman, said three two-liter bottles containing acetic and hydrochloric acid broke and the substances spilled about 3 p.m. inside a lab at the building at 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur in Boston.
MacDonald said the spill was contained to the 10th floor, and no one was injured. A doctor who was in the area of the spill was wearing the proper protective gear and followed procedure for self-decontamination, MacDonald said.
She was allowed to go home after paramedics examined her at the scene, he said. There were no injuries.
MacDonald said at the scene at about 5 p.m. that a hazardous materials cleanup team was en route and it was not clear when the building would reopen.
My experiments ruined, said Russell Griffin, 28, a research technician who was working on the 6th floor when the spill occurred.
MacDonald said both acetic and hydrochloric acids are irritants and can cause burns, and that acetic acid is flammable.
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Hazmat crews respond to Harvard Medical School after acid spills in 10th-floor lab
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) today announced more than 100 speakers covering the latest in industrial biotechnology at the 2012 Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy. The Summit will present four plenary sessions featuring international executives and academic leaders in industrial biotechnology October 10-12 at the Westin Bayshore in Vancouver, Canada.
Vancouver is an ideal location for this years conference with its fast-growing and successful life sciences and biotech industries and a robust forest biomass supply, said Brent Erickson, executive vice president for BIOs Industrial & Environmental Section. Our outstanding line-up of plenary sessions will highlight the growing biobased economy as we learn about advances in biofuels, renewable chemicals and synthetic biology. Industrial biotechnology can reduce dependence on foreign oil and also benefits consumers by revitalizing manufacturing and creating new opportunities for agriculture, generating jobs, making greener products and cleaner processes.
Plenary sessions include:
Status Report: The Synthetic Biology Pathway to Innovation in Fuels and Chemicals Wednesday, October 10, 12 2:15PM
Flying green: Why Airlines See a Bright Future in Biofuels Thursday, October 11, 8 9:30AM
Overcoming Regional Biomass Feedstock Supply Challenges with Public Policy and Science Thursday, October 11, 11:30AM 1:45PM
Biotechnology and Renewable Chemicals: The Future is Now Friday, October 12, 10AM 12PM
Now in its seventh year, the Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy will address the latest issues in industrial biotechnology, including algae, advanced biofuels, biopolymers and bioplastics, dedicated energy crops, green chemistry, and synthetic biology. The annual Pacific Rim Summit is the original conference dedicated solely to growth of the industrial biotechnology sector in Asia and the Americas. Visit http://bio.org/pacrim.
In addition to the plenary sessions, the Pacific Rim Summit will bring you four breakout tracks with 24 sessions, designed to keep you on the cutting edge of industrial biotech. New in 2012- The Technical Presentations Track will feature 20 minute talks from academics, private sector scientists and researchers.
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BIO Pacific Rim Summit to Address Innovation and Future of Advanced Biofuels and Biorefinery Development, Renewable ...
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) announces the 2nd annual BIO Convention in China, a partnering and investor conference that will bring together executives from biotechnology, pharmaceutical companies and investment firms from North America, Europe and Asia to meet and explore business opportunities with China's emerging biotech sector. The event will take place October 24-25, 2012 in Shanghai, China.
As China positions itself as a major global player in the international biotechnology arena, it has included biotechnology as one of the seven strategic priorities for scientific and technological development in its 12th Five-year Plan, said Alan Eisenberg, Executive Vice President of Emerging Companies and Business Development at BIO. "Through distinguished speakers, exemplary programming, compelling company presentations and exhibiting and networking opportunities, BIO China allows attendees to explore the vast business opportunities afforded by Chinas emerging biotech sector.
Dr. Michael Rosenblatt, M.D., executive vice president and chief medical officer for Merck, will provide one of two keynote addresses on October 25th. Directly following Dr. Rosenblatts keynote, Peng Wang, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Simcere will deliver his remarks. Governor Jon Huntsman, former U.S. Ambassador to China and Governor of Utah, will provide the third keynote address. Additional keynote speakers will be announced at a later date.
Panel sessions will highlight the latest issues and trends related to doing business in China. Preliminary program topics include the globalization of Chinese companies; innovation in generics and biosimilars; comparative legal systems in U.S., Europe and China; R&D trends in China; trends in cancer research and regulatory review in China.
BIO and the BIO China Advisory Committee set the event agenda and program. Advisory Committee members include:
BIO brings to China more than 15 years of experience in organizing international conferences for the biotech industry, including the BIO International Convention the global event for biotechnology. BIO is renowned for its successful business development, partnering and investor meetings in North America, Europe and Asia. Partnering at this conference will be powered by BIO One-on-One Partnering, an interactive environment to intelligently search, contact and schedule private meetings with potential partners and investors.
For more information on the BIO Convention in China, please visit here.
About BIO
BIO represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products. BIO also produces the BIO International Convention, the worlds largest gathering of the biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and partnering meetings held around the world. BIO produces BIOtechNOW, an online portal and monthly newsletter chronicling innovations transforming our world. Subscribe to BIOtechNOW.
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BIO Unveils Preliminary Program for the 2012 BIO Convention in China
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Puma Biotechnology, Inc. (PBYI), a development stage biopharmaceutical company, announced that Alan H. Auerbach, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, President and Founder of Puma, will present an overview of the Company at 12:45 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, August 14, at the Wedbush PacGrow 2012 Life Sciences Management Access Conference in New York.
A live webcast will be available on the Companys website at http://www.pumabiotechnology.com. The presentation will be archived on the website and available for 30 days.
About Puma Biotechnology
Puma Biotechnology, Inc. is a development stage biopharmaceutical company that acquires and develops innovative products for the treatment of various forms of cancer. The Company focuses on in-licensing drug candidates that are undergoing or have already completed initial clinical testing for the treatment of cancer and then seeks to further develop those drug candidates for commercial use. The Company is initially focused on the development of PB272 (oral neratinib), a potent irreversible tyrosine kinase inhibitor, for the treatment of patients with HER2 positive metastatic breast cancer.
Further information about Puma Biotechnology can be found at http://www.pumabiotechnology.com.
Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results and expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and actual outcomes and results could differ materially from these statements due to a number of factors, which include, but are not limited to, the risk factors disclosed in the periodic reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.
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Puma Biotechnology to Present at Wedbush PacGrow Life Sciences Conference
The climb up the steel steps is dizzying--like ascending the tower of a European church, except the steps lead to a platform bolted to the side of a gleaming new chemical plant. Here in Brazil, under a brilliant blue sky, Eduardo Loosli, the plant manager, pauses to explain a vision of the future. "I used to manage a Molson Coors beer manufacturing plant, and its not all that different," he says, leaning on a railing and surveying the scene around us. Directly below is a cityscape of huge stainless-steel tanks. Out beyond the tanks, and stretching far into the distance, are dense greenfields of sugarcane.
Yeast turns grain into beer, Loosli says. Here, in this new plant, genetically engineered yeast created by the plants owners--the California biotech company known as Amyris--turns sugar into liquid fuel. At the end of the platform, Loosli points to two special "seed" tanks. "The yeast enters the system here," he says. When production starts, a glass flask of Amyriss special strain will be poured into each tank, and the yeast will multiply until it becomes a thick, hungry broth. For two weeks, the yeasty stew chews up as much as 1.2 million liters of energy-rich cane syrup. The end product is farnesene, which can be adapted to a seemingly perfect replacement for petroleum-based diesel. Not only does farnesene-based diesel cut pollutants from vehicle exhaust pipes, but since it derives from cane syrup, it is also a renewable resource. These cane fields surrounding the plant are thus the rough equivalent to bottomless oil wells.
Amyriss great innovation is deep inside the genetically modified yeast that chews up the Brazilian sugarcane. The yeast serves as a host for a set of DNA instructions--scientists call the organism a chassis, as if it were a simple platform, waiting for an engine. Depending on their goals, engineers at Amyris can outfit the yeast with a variety of genetic material that tells the yeast how to digest what it is fed. The result is a cell that can (at least in theory) ingest simple sugars and produce virtually anything. Indeed, if the yeast cells work as theyre supposed to, they promise not merely to change the energy industry by producing farnesene. They may also be programmed to transform the way many commodity materials are made. The first step would be petroleum-type materials. Rubber, chemicals, and medicines would follow.
At least thats the idea. Already, in the short lifetime of the biofuels business, Amyris has become legendary--a stand-in for the sectors breathtaking promise and now for its troubling descent. The companys Brazilian plant is referred to as Paraiso, Portuguese for "paradise." It could be more aptly described as a grande esperanca, a great hope. Just a year ago, Amyriss stock price soared to $33 a share. More recently, as the company reported $95 million in losses last quarter, it has plummeted to as low as $1.52. Meanwhile, a once-grand expansion plan has been scaled back. A plant at Sao Martinho, double the size of Paraiso, sits half-complete, vacant as of February. Amyris suspended production at another plant this year.
Everything now rides on success at Paraiso. This summer, as the final bolts were tightened and the last pipes sealed, Loosli readied himself to take command and find out what the plant can do. The future has become a matter of simple economics. If Amyris can produce farnesene efficiently here, the company will gain precious time to perfect its genetic technology. And if not? Then Amyris will likely capsize and pull an entire sector--an entire vision of the future--down with it.
A few weeks before I travel to Brazil to see the Paraiso plant, I discuss Amyriss perilous situation with one of its founders, chief technology officer Neil Renninger. We meet at the companys Emeryville, California, headquarters, in a small lounge decorated with black-and-white photos of Red Sox players and filled with comfortable leather couches. He reminisces about growing up in California--his dad had worked as an engineer at Intel, his mom as a schoolteacher. As he speaks, his slender fingers sometimes search for his iPhone, sometimes hang in the air, and sometimes touch tip-to-tip as he considers a thought.
Circles of exhaustion rim his eyes. His company is ailing and he wears it on his face. Just before my visit, Amyris had announced it had produced a million liters of farnesene in 2011, rather than the 6 million it promised. Its executives declared they would no longer make predictions about future production. "Id be lying to you if I said that I didnt look at the stock price," Renninger admits.
He always knew a startup is a gamble. As an undergraduate at MIT in the mid-1990s, before casino bouncers recognized MIT kids on sight, Renninger played on the institutes notorious Black Jack Team. On nights and weekends, between engineering classes, Renninger traveled to Vegas and Mississippi River casino boats. He wadded up $100,000 of the teams betting money in his pockets, and when a table ran hot, hed clean up. The experience forged him. "The biggest thing I learned at MIT was go ahead and take risks because if you fail, youll land on your feet," he says.
He felt that way about Amyris. Ten years ago, Renninger was working in the lab of Berkeley chemical engineering professor Jay Keasling, a father figure in the field of synthetic biology. Keasling had come to believe that biology would ultimately follow the paths of engineering and computing, and that cells could in time be treated much like small factories, tiny machines whose insides behave like assembly lines. Keaslings idea was that one day a biologist in front of a computer could piece together the virtual genes of a virtual organism, program and test it on a computer model, and then press print. From there, automated machines could produce the actual organism, which would behave exactly as the computer predicted. This is the vision that Renninger signed on to and what he spent years working toward. Today at Amyriss California lab--downstairs from where Renninger is recounting the companys history--a team of 40 scientists works on a computer program called Thumper. Essentially, the program allows scientists to rearrange a yeasts genetic makeup and create new strains; more than 400,000 new strains are screened each week. In a sealed room, the fittest move from plates of colonies to half-liter fermenters--glass containers filled with soups of yeast and sugar, like mocha and cream. The fermenters resemble Cuisinart food processors. From there, the most promising strains are shipped to Brazil.
Back in 2002, Renninger recalls, before any of this was built, Keasling and his colleagues began sharing the details of their work with outside companies. One day, a postdoctoral student under Keasling named Vince Martin said, "We have some good technology and good people. Why dont we do something with it?"
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The Rise And Fall Of The Company That Was Going To Have Us All Using Biofuels
Edward A. Dennis is Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and of Pharmacology in the School of Medicine at UCSD. He received his BA from Yale University in 1963 and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1967, a Doctorate in Medicine (honorary) from Goethe University in Frankfurt in 2008, and he served as a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School 1967-69.
Edward Dennis
At UCSD, Dr. Dennis has served as Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Chair of the Faculty Academic Senate, and on the Board of Overseers. He has also been Visiting Professor at several universities and is an adjunct professor at The Scripps Research Institute. He has authored 350 research publications, patented 15 inventions, and edited 13 books. Dr. Dennis was named an inaugural Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1984, and was the recipient of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biologys Avanti Award in Lipid Enzymology in 2000, the European Federation for Lipid Science and Technologys European Lipid Science Award in 2007, and Yale Universitys Yale Medal in 2008.
What brought you to La Jolla? On Jan. 1, 1970 I started on a cross-country drive to a little village on the other ocean for my first job as an assistant professor in the formative days of UCSD. It was a great move and I never looked back.
What are your favorite places to go in La Jolla? I enjoy walking on the La Jolla Shores beach, the Coast Walk cliff and alongside La Jolla Cove.
If you could snap your fingers and have it done, what might you add to improve La Jolla? Rebalance the human and animal interests in the Cove.
Who or what inspires you? Im inspired by the creativity, curiosity, and inventiveness of the many outstanding educational/research institutions of La Jolla.
If you hosted a dinner party for eight, whom (living or deceased) would you invite? It would be a potluck six-course dinner, hosted by my wife and I with six memorable chefs, both past and present, each bringing their favorite dish. The list of chefs includes Julia Child, Pierre Troisgros, Tetsuya Wakuda, Alex Atala, Eric Pras and Thomas Keller.I
Tell us about what you are reading. The Entrepreneurial President, a recently published book about the leadership of Dick Atkinson, former Chancellor of UCSD and president of the University of California.
What would be your dream vacation? A flying tour of the greatest vineyards of the world starting in California and progressing south to Argentina and Chile, west to New Zealand, across Australia, on to South Africa, then to Germany, and finally, France.
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Edward Dennis of La Jolla takes scholarly approach to his long career in science