CLSDF 2007: And That’s A Wrap!

Another amazing year is in the books for me and CLSDF! What resonates most is the incredible people who I am honored to interact with on a daily basis. Sure there is the business of the business to take care of, but it is always important to recall that the intent of this community is to cure disease and save lives. Sometimes that common denominator gets lost in the daily shuffle. What better way to dedicate ones life than to the effort to help the sick. Walking through the lobby of the beautiful new Children’s Hospital yesterday was an emotionally powerful reminder of just how lucky one is to be gifted with a healthy mind and body. It is a very special group of people in Colorado who I have been blessed to work with in addition to the doctors of discovery, that includes a significant layer of folks who go to work every day to enable the shepparding of scientific discovery to commercialization, from financiers, attorneys, legislators, consultants, executives, students, technology transfer experts and everyone in between, it truly takes a village to bring a drug to market. To all of you, too many to name here, I say thank you for what you do and for allowing me to be a small part of this important process.

Looking at 2008 I could not be more excited:

• CLSDF will emerge with a new look and feel
• Will be viewable in any browser you happen to be browsing in
  
• A variety of new topical series will be initiated that will dig deep into the business of biotech
• Will become more interactive with our growing community via CLSDF beat reporters knocking on doors and bringing you intimate interviews with prominent people in the community
  
• A new highly interactive commenting system

...just to name a few.

So thank you, loyal readers, for your support and inspiration to grow and continue to develop CLSDF.

CLSDF WILL BE BACK ON-LINE FRIDAY 4 JANUARY

...bigger and better than ever.

Until then, enjoy the season and wishing you and your loved ones a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

And...Cut!

If you enjoyed this post get free email updates (here).

BioSoCo Coming on Strong!

What do HemoGenix and Aspire Biotech have in common (insert Jeopardy theme song here)? Answer…they are working to anchor the Colorado Springs biocluster and are providing contract services for all phases of development of biomaterials, devices and applied clinical hematology. Lean all about these companies and more at the upcoming BioSoCo event sponsored by the Colorado BioScience Association and Snell & Wilmer. Register to attend the 22 January 7:30-9:00am event (here).

On another note don’t forget to sign up for BioBeers updates at BioBeers.com. Recall this is a monthly networking social club. A January date should be set shortly. Read all about our newest member Freddie Peyerl and, if you have attended functions in the past and not yet provided your member profile to the BioBeers staff, well let’s get to it...and let the world know who you are, what you do and how you will change the world!

If you enjoyed this post get free email updates (here).

CLSDF: We Want You!

That’s right, Colorado Life Science Deal Flow is in heavy recruiting mode, searching the Rocky Mountain region high and low, far and wide to assemble a crack team of beat reporters in order to cast a wider net in 2008. In the New Year CLSDF will stop at nothing to look under every eppendorf tube rack, in every cold room, and at every lab meeting to bring you the juicy stories…that’s right…CLSDF is going to dig in early and look upstream by roaming the halls of academia to bring you all of the news, breakthroughs and well yes, the inevitable breakdowns.

So…if you have an interest in bio and in writing, and are looking for your big break in the blogosphere then listen closely because as you can hear opportunity is definitely knocking. Who knows, this could be a springboard for that book you always wanted to write and when accepting your Pulitzer you may talk about how it all started for you at CLSDF. For more information (contact) CLSDF Department of Human Resources immediately for more information or to express interest in joing the CLSDF team for 2008.

Note: Additional changes are in store for 2008 at CLSDF including an entire site overhaul which means this blog will look pretty in every type of browser (including internet explore!) as well as a new logo and branding. New features and series will also be available, and perhaps some new voices too!

If you enjoyed this post get free email updates (here).

Bard Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program

Make certain to sign up for the first of four sequential Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program spring mini-courses at the Bard Center. The program, directed by Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA, is offering first New Product Development and is instructed by the very talented Bill Dalke who formerly headed business development for COBE Cardiovascular. The focus of the New Product Development course is to teach methods and provide tools to facilitate the rapid and successful development of new products. Some of the syllabus highlights include:

• How to develop an economic model to assess product opportunities and leverage such a model to make decisions throughout the development process
• How to understand the customer and translate customer needs into necessary product specifications
• How to create a manageable and flexible development process which may be tailored to both large and small development programs
• How to distinguish between productive and non-productive variability and manage accordingly
• How to determine critical factors affecting medical product development and ensure their incorporation in the development process and plan
  

It sounds like a wonderful learning opportunity. Mini-course I is held 22 January - 12 February. Click (here) for registration and additional information.

If you enjoyed this post get free email updates (here).

Now That Was Fun!

THIS IS A REPOST FROM BIOBEERS.COM

Wow…BioWest, Christmas Party and BioBeers all rolled into one fun and late evening! Our group grew by leaps and bounds attracting some 40+ folks. It was great to see a wonderful mix of Ph.D. and MBA students, faculty, bio-preneurs, start-up junkies and folks from biotech and pharma rubbing elbows while throwing back a few eggnog’s, why even Santa got into the BioBeers mix! I tried to post some videos from the evening but counsel recommended immediate removal based upon the series of FCC inquiries suggesting obvious infractions of the Telecommunication and Decency Act of 1996.

So we are now pointing the BioBeers ship towards 2008 and looking to nail down our next date and dance with debauchery. At the moment 10 or 11 January, again in Denver, appear to be bubbling to the surface. More on that later…

I’m afraid a few homework items are in order:

• Be certain to sign up for the BioBeers email list

• If you attended the December dance and plan a return trip to BioBeers in January please send me (arubenstein@rnaventures.com) your profile for posting to this site. Consider it your ticket to paradise, no profile then good luck getting past the bouncers

• The last thing we need is another url destination where I wax on, let’s make this site a bit more interactive, so…if you attended BioBeers please click on comments below and tell us a bit about your favorite part of BioBeers, BioWest, your start-up or anything else that may come to mind. For the founders consider your comments to be your ticket to paradise, no comment then good luck getting past the bouncers

• Finally, the February meeting will have a keg of brew brewed especially for BioBeers from a very special member, whose identity shall be unveiled at a later date, so…be certain to look to the left and down and vote for your favorite flavor

If you enjoyed this post get free email updates (here).

Jim Collins and More 2.0 Tools

I'm still on a high from BioWest 2007 and the presentation by Jim Collins. If interested, I’ve begun a Tumblog, that is tumble-blog, sort of twitter on blog-roids, where I will be jotting stuff down not entirely related to CLSDF. If interested…I just posted a one-hour interview of Jim Collins on Charlie Rose. Take a look see (here) or if the link does not work for you try http://rnaventures.tumblr.com/.

For you JC fans it may be very interesting to take the “Where are you on your journey from Good to Great”® diagnostic (here). If so moved please share your results with the CLSDF community in the comments section below this post.

If you enjoyed this post get free email updates (here).

Golden Ticket to VC Network!

Many thanks to Brad Feld, Managing Director of the Boulder-based Foundry Group for the golden ticket to the Feedburner Venture Capital Network, now the posts here on CLSDF will be incorporated into an aggregation of venture capital (and related bloggers) content. You may subscribe via email or RSS to all of this daily goodness (here).

Likewise my appreciation to the other 80 VC’s and many more subscribers of the Network who are now tolerating, if no at least skimming past, my musings. To any new potential readers the connection to the network comes via my work with Fitzsimons BioBusiness Partners and High Country Venture.

Today I am at Day 2 of the BioWest conference ready for the Venture Showcase, more on that to come. VCN, Here we go…