Earlier this month Aldevron hosted its first scientific conference, the Breakthrough Symposium. We felt the time was right, given 2018 is Aldevron’s 20th anniversary, to invite those in the gene and cell therapy fields to Fargo, North Dakota, for collaboration, networking and fellowship. We were overwhelmed and gratified by the response!
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is recognizing Aldevron CEO and Founder Michael Chambers as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs at the 2018 Builders + Innovators Summit in Santa Barbara, California.
Aldevron is privileged to work with some of the most innovative and groundbreaking companies, academic institutions, and government laboratories in biotechnology today. Since the company’s founding 20 years ago, Michael Chambers and John Ballantyne have always focused on clients, with the goal to improve the lives of the customers and patients they serve. Researchers across the globe are making tremendous breakthroughs in gene and cell therapy and gene editing, resulting in advances in medicine, agriculture, energy and many other fields. We are honored to serve as the basis for many of these transformative products.
Area organizations Aldevron, Sanford Health, and North Dakota State University (NDSU) have joined forces to bring together a special event titled, "From the Valley to the Mountain: The RARE Impact of the Red River Valley," on Wednesday, April 11 from 5:30-8 p.m. at Aldevron corporate headquarters, 4837 Amber Valley Parkway, Fargo N.D. The evening will start with refreshments, a Meet and Greet, and a silent auction, followed by leaders in science and medicine from the Red River Valley sharing their contributions toward advancing gene therapy and rare disease research efforts around the world.
Aldevron is a sponsor for the Rare Disease Day program, "Gene Therapy for Rare Diseases: Promise and Challenges", presented by the University of Minnesota Center for Orphan Drug Research and Stem Cell Institute on February 23, 2018. Dr. Jakub Tolar, Dean, Medical School, University of Minnesota, will moderate the event, which will include presentations by University of Minnesota faculty and a representative from Abeona Therapeutics.
Both immunotherapy and regenerative medicine are experiencing explosive growth. It was a pleasure to learn about the advancements in these fields at two excellent conferences, the CAR-TCR Summit organized by Hanson Wade, and the Cell and Gene Meeting on the Mesa sponsored by the Alliance of Regenerative Medicine.
Excellent scientific talks and great weather were on tap when I attended the 2017 Cell & Gene Therapy World in Miami in January. Ed Field from BioRestorative Therapies started off with the top events of 2016, which was populated with some sizable deals.
Last month I took part in a workshop on gene and cell therapy manufacturing at the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine’s Cell and Gene Meeting on the Mesa. It was a pleasure to participate with very distinguished colleagues: Matthew Caple, Vice President of Site Operations at Brammer Bio; Mike Kelly, Director, Asset Leadership and Portfolio Management, Gene Therapy, Biogen; and Michael Roberts, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Synpromics.
The workshop was moderated by Jessica Carmen, Ph.D., Director of Business Development, Cellular Therapy Partnerships, MaxCyte and sponsored by MaxCyte and Brammer Bio. Dr. Carmen did a great job taking us on a journey through manufacturing from construct design through raw material manufacturing, viral vector manufacturing, and ultimately commercialization.
Last month, I participated in a panel discussion at the Rejuvenation Biotechnology 2016 Conference sponsored by the SENS Research Foundation at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, California. The title of our panel was "As Paths To Clinic Are Expedited, The Distinction Between Development And Manufacturing Is Becoming Increasingly Blurred".
One of the panelists was Alan Moore, Vice President and Commercial Chief for Biologics and Advanced Therapies of Wuxi AppTec. Alan and I have known each other for some time and it was great to reconnect with him. His presentation covered the impressive work that Wuxi has done in autologous cell processing.
