Featured Videos
Arizona Bioscience Overview:
Arizona is home to one of the fastest growing bioscience industries in the U.S. Watch the video to see how a statewide collaboration built the research infrastructure and attracted a growing talent base of thought leaders committed to making Arizona a leading bioscience state.
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Arizona Pioneer Thomas M. Grogan, MD:
Thomas M. Grogan, M.D., Founder of Ventana and SVP, Medical Affairs of Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. (Ventana), a member of the Roche Group, receives the AZBio Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 2013 AZBio Awards on October 10, 2013.
Dr. Grogan was a pathologist and professor at the University of Arizona when in the mid 1980’s he and a small team set out to challenge the limitations of the then current standards and processes for cancer pathology. What was to become the company’s first digital pathology instrument evolved from Grogan’s notes on a yellow pad into the BenchMark IHC/ISH staining platforms. Under Grogan’s leadership, Ventana was founded in 1987, went public in 1996, and was acquired by Roche for $3.4 billion in 2008. Over the last 25 years, Ventana has grown to become a global leader in developing and manufacturing tissue-based diagnostic instruments and tests focused on the detection of cancer. Ventana employees continue to pursue the same deeply rooted mission of innovating diagnostic testing and enabling personalized healthcare to improve the lives of all patients afflicted with cancer worldwide.
Dr. Grogan has made it his personal mission to make life better for the millions of patients who battle cancer each day. His passion and dedication are infectious and has spread across the company that he and his team built. Through their efforts they have revolutionized the field of cancer diagnostics and are pioneering new roads in the field of personalized healthcare.”
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Dr. Grogan was a pathologist and professor at the University of Arizona when in the mid 1980’s he and a small team set out to challenge the limitations of the then current standards and processes for cancer pathology. What was to become the company’s first digital pathology instrument evolved from Grogan’s notes on a yellow pad into the BenchMark IHC/ISH staining platforms. Under Grogan’s leadership, Ventana was founded in 1987, went public in 1996, and was acquired by Roche for $3.4 billion in 2008. Over the last 25 years, Ventana has grown to become a global leader in developing and manufacturing tissue-based diagnostic instruments and tests focused on the detection of cancer. Ventana employees continue to pursue the same deeply rooted mission of innovating diagnostic testing and enabling personalized healthcare to improve the lives of all patients afflicted with cancer worldwide.
Dr. Grogan has made it his personal mission to make life better for the millions of patients who battle cancer each day. His passion and dedication are infectious and has spread across the company that he and his team built. Through their efforts they have revolutionized the field of cancer diagnostics and are pioneering new roads in the field of personalized healthcare.”
Tomorrow's Leaders Take a Bow:
Students from across Arizona display their research in the Student Discovery Zone sponsored by Northern Arizona University at the 2013 AZBio Awards.
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Leslie Boyer, MD 2013 Arizona Bioscience Researcher of the Year:
In 2013, Dr. Leslie Boyer was been named one of 30 heroes of rare diseases by the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Orphan Products Development. Her work includes a clinical studies program conducted throughout Arizona with protocols for placebo-controlled, double-blind trials, open-label studies, historical control studies, and the statewide STING project. She has coordinated phase 2 and phase 3 multicenter clinical trials of pit viper antivenom, developed the Antivenom Index, and participated in the establishment of the Pan-American Lymphotoxinology Taskforce. Boyer, who is a member of the UA’s BIO5 Institute, has focused her scientific career on venomous bites and stings, which are often unrecognized public health issues. She began by developing public education programs that offer poison and toxin emergency treatment advice. In 2004 and 2005, with an FDA Orphan Product grant, she led a team that conducted clinical studies leading to the marketing approval of the first scorpion antivenom – representing one of more than 40 products developed through orphan grant-sponsored research.
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Linda Hunt of Dignity Health Arizona, 2013 Arizona Bioscience Leader of the Year:
The Jon W. McGarity Arizona Bioscience Leader of the Year Award honors the person in Arizona who provided the most outstanding leadership that contributed significantly to development of the State’s bioindustry and/or recognition of the advancement of bioscience in Arizona.
Recognizing that collaboration builds a stronger community, Linda Hunt has taken a leadership role to advance healthcare and the biosciences for the people of Arizona. Hunt has worked diligently with legislators, business leaders, educators, scientists and community organizations in order to identify, formulate, and support policies that will give Arizonans better healthcare and raise the bar of knowledge.Hunt has served as the head of Dignity Health in Arizona since 2012. Dignity Health includes three major hospitals in the Valley, St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center and Chandler Regional and Mercy Gilbert Medical Centers. A fourth hospital, St. Joseph’s Westgate, is under construction.
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Recognizing that collaboration builds a stronger community, Linda Hunt has taken a leadership role to advance healthcare and the biosciences for the people of Arizona. Hunt has worked diligently with legislators, business leaders, educators, scientists and community organizations in order to identify, formulate, and support policies that will give Arizonans better healthcare and raise the bar of knowledge.Hunt has served as the head of Dignity Health in Arizona since 2012. Dignity Health includes three major hospitals in the Valley, St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center and Chandler Regional and Mercy Gilbert Medical Centers. A fourth hospital, St. Joseph’s Westgate, is under construction.
Recently Added
White Hat
2018-10-18 15:08:37White Hat Opening Keynote with Greg Carlisle, Warren Investments & Family Office Panel
Keynote: Greg
Carlisle, Warren Investments
Followed by a Panel Discussion - Working
with Family Offices
Christopher
de Souza, PhD, MBA, is a Director at Broadview Ventures. He brings to this role over 20
years experience in cardiovascular and metabolic related biopharmaceutical
R&D, corporate strategy and business development. Broadview’s mission
is to accelerate the development of promising technology for the diagnosis and
treatment of cardiovascular and neurovascular disease through targeted
investments. The mission and structure of Broadview Ventures can be traced to
the Leducq
Foundation and its supporting trust, created in 1996 by
French entrepreneur and industrialist Jean Leducq, together with his wife
Sylviane.
Eugene
Durenard, PhD serves as the Managing Director of the
Stetson Family Office. Eugene brings a deep expertise
in multi-asset class investment and the entrepreneurial experience
spanning 20 years. A third and fourth generation company focused on
philanthropy, Stetson Family Office has formed two foundations – Essentials in
Education (EIE) and Healthcare Impact Foundation (HCIF). Stetson Family
Office also manages money for separate accounts in private equity.
Raimondo
del Balzo di Presenzano, CFA serves as a Director at
Stetson Family Office. Raimondo brings a deep and international
expertise in multi-asset class investment.
Moderator: Greg Carlisle
White Hat
2018-10-18 15:08:37Panel: Bridging the Funding Gap
Igor DaCruz is
a Senior Vice President for Silicon Valley Bank. He leads the Biotech and
Diagnostics practice for the Southwest geography, including AZ. His
specialties include provide financial solutions for high growth public and
private life science companies with a focus in venture debt. For 35
years, SVB has helped innovative companies and their investors move bold
ideas forward, fast. SVB provides targeted financial services and expertise
through its offices in innovation centers around the world. With commercial,
international and private banking services, SVB helps address the unique
needs of innovators. Learn more at www.svb.com.
Rosemarie
Truman is Founder and CEO of the Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI), a
501c3 non-profit with a mission to identify breakthrough inventions and
maximize their commercial potential. With over 25 years of experience in
entrepreneurship, executive leadership, and philanthropy, Rosemarie’s
specialty is venture investment strategy, having led growth strategies for 50
of the global Fortune 100 companies in over 15 countries.
Russ
Yelton currently serves as Chair of the
AZ-HCIF Trustees; President of Yelton Associates; Board
Member at Pinnacle Transplant Technologies, Inc. where he previously
served at CEO; Member of the Arizona Bioscience Roadmap Steering Committee; a
member of the Phoenix Forward Bioscience Leadership Council; and Past-Chair
at AZBio. A leader in Arizona’s Bioscience and Business
communities, Russ served as CEO of Pinnacle Transplant (2014-2017), is
a past Board Member of the National Business Incubation Association; and is
nationally recognized for his expertise in the business acceleration and
incubation sector.
Moderator: Dirk Beth,
Hyalescent Ventures
White Hat
2018-10-18 15:08:37Fireside Chat – Bill Burkoth – Pfizer Ventures
Bill Burkoth is currently an Executive Director of Pfizer
Ventures, the venture capital arm of Pfizer Inc. Since joining Pfizer in early
2004, Bill has played an instrumental role in numerous new venture capital
investments, including Avid Radiopharmaceuticals (acquired by Eli Lilly),
Clovis Oncology (Nasdaq: CLVS), DVS Sciences
(acquired by Fluidigm), Evolution Benefits (acquired by Genstar Capital),
HandyLab (acquired by Becton Dickinson), and HD Biosciences (acquired by Wuxi
AppTec). Bill currently serves on the board of directors of AMRA,
Biodesy, DIR Technologies, G-Con Manufacturing, NeuMoDx Molecular, Novocure
(Nasdaq: NVCR), Palleon Pharma, RefleXion Medical, and Strata Oncology.
He is also a member of the investment committee of the Investment Fund for
Health in Africa (IFHA) and FinHealth Gestão de Recursos S.A. (Rio,
Brazil).
Prior to joining Pfizer, Bill worked in Business Development
at Galileo Pharmaceuticals and at IntraBiotics Pharmaceuticals. Prior to his
roles in business development, Bill was an analyst at Bay City Capital. Mr.
Burkoth received a BA in chemistry from Whitman College and an MBA from
Columbia Business School.
White Hat
2018-10-18 15:08:37Patient Driven Innovation and Investing
Tammy
Crawford is the Founder and Executive Director of Focus on Lyme and leads the
team in achieving its mission to improve diagnostics, treatment, prevention,
and advocacy for patients suffering from Lyme and associated tick-borne disease. Tammy was inspired to create Focus on Lyme by
her daughter Jessica’s journey and is motivated every day to try to ensure no
one has to experience what she did.
White Hat
2018-10-18 15:08:37Calimmune - A case study from the innovator and investor perspective
Calimmune, Inc. (acquired by CSL Limited in 2017) is the 2018 Arizona
Bioscience Company of the Year.
Louis Breton is the former CEO of Calimmune, Inc., a gene therapy
development company he co-founded with Nobel Laureate Dr. David Baltimore,
which was recently acquired by CSL Behring.
Calimmune focused on liberating patients from chronic and currently
incurable diseases. Mr. Breton is a
husband, father, Chaplain, inventor, author, mentor, serial entrepreneur and
is involved in local charities. He has
a career in biotechnology spanning more than 2 decades. He has now built and successfully sold 3
life science focused companies, including a biotech consulting firm. He has raised more than $100M for the
companies he has launched, and has conducted approximately 500 licensing
deals with academic and government institutions. He has established international
subsidiaries, negotiated with global regulatory bodies, and has collaborated
with ministries of health of multiple governments. He has been intimately involved in more
than 20 different product launches. He
has been a board member of 12 biotech and high tech companies, and was a
Business Advisory Council member for a sitting president. Mr. Breton has presented to the House of
Lords, and participated in a special conference at the Vatican to bridge
faith and science. In the last decade,
he has helped to craft a new paradigm for the delivery of stem cell gene
therapy and regenerative medicine, and is now taking on the esteemed roles of
chauffer, Dance Dad, swim instructor, baby sitter and courier.
Harry George, President and CFO, Radiance Therapeutics, Inc.
For over four decades, Harry George has been starting, funding, and
operating rapid-growth technology companies.
In 1995, Harry co-founded Solstice Capital, an early-stage venture
capital firm with offices in Boston and Tucson, which raised $80M in two
funds. Solstice was active until 2015
and invested in 44 companies that generated positive returns for both
funds. In 1981, prior to Solstice,
Harry was the co-founder, a director and the CFO of Interleaf, Inc., a
pioneer in electronic publishing.
Interleaf was the seventh-fastest growing private company in the US
for a five-year period and went public in 1986 with 800 employees. In January
of 2000, Interleaf was acquired by BroadVision for $900M. Before Interleaf,
in 1973, Harry was a co-founder, a director and the CFO of Kurzweil Computer
Products, the leader in optical character recognition and early use of
AI. Mr. George has served on 26
boards for both public and private companies.
He is currently serving on the boards of HTGMolecular, Medipacs,
PostBidShip, RxActuator, Medipacs, Radiance and Splash Pharmaceuticals. Mr.
George has been active in a number of community organizations and has served
as Treasurer of both the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and the Tucson Museum
of Art. He is currently a board member of the Southern Arizona Leadership
Council and, earlier, helped start Tucson’s Desert Angels and Start-up
Tucson. Mr. George graduated from
Bowdoin College and was given an Honorary Doctor of Science from the U of A
in 2012.
Moderator: John M. (Jock)
Holliman, III, Valley Ventures;
Executive Chairman at LipimetiX Development and Capstone
Therapeutics. Since February 1993,
Jock has been a general partner of entities, which are the general partners
of Valley Ventures, LP (formerly known as Arizona Growth Partners, LP),
Valley Ventures II, LP, Valley Ventures III Annex, LP, all of which are
venture capital funds that invest principally in life science companies. He also serves in an executive capacity at
Capstone Therapeutics, Inc. He became Executive Chairman and Principal
Executive Officer of Capstone on April 5, 2006 and has served as a director
of the company since September 1987 and as Chairman of the Board of Directors
since August 1997.
