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. 

Dr. Paul Keim is the Cowden Endowed Chair of Microbiology at Northern Arizona University (NAU), the Director of Pathogen Genomics at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and research affiliate at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Dr. Keim’s research focuses on the advancement of forensics and genomics analysis of bacterial pathogens. You may know this globally recognized researcher as ” Doctor Anthrax” (a moniker he gained after 9-11) but there is a lot more to the work Dr. Keim and his team focus on every day.

Take a tour of the wealth of bioscience talent and assets in Flagstaff, AZ.

Brain State Technologies  has a mission statement that is  three words: To Help People. The corporate headquarters is based in Scottsdale, AZ and has nearly 200 providers in 18 countries that have helped over 50,000 people. Lee Gerdes is the Founder and CEO of Brain State Technologies®  and the creator of the breakthrough neuro-technology Brainwave Optimization with Real-Time Balancing™, which helps people of all ages and conditions to overcome cognitive, emotional, and physical challenges and is transforming and likely saving lives all over the world.   The firm and its process have been featured on ABC, FOX, CBS, OWN, People, The New York Times, USA Today, PARADE, The Arizona Republic, BrainWorld, Frontiers in Neuroscience, and more.  Brain State offers a non-invasive process versus using drugs or surgery for a wide range of applications to overcome cognitive, emotional, and physical challenges including sleep disorders, alcoholism, meth addition, and PTSD. Their work has resulted in the largest relational database of brain patterns on planet Earth.  Brain State’s patent-pending procedure compares over 48,000 brain frequencies and its patented Relational Sound (Wave Aid) program provides for ongoing process support.  Committed to serving our veterans, the company offers pro bono services to soldiers with debilitating symptoms of PTSD. 

AZBio CEO, Joan Koerber-Walker shares highlights from  the 2011 AZBio Awards.  Meet some of this year's award winners.

The AZBio Awards are an Arizona tradition that recognizes the best of the biosciences, showcases our companies, connects our future bioscience leaders to today's. 

Flagship Biosciences  provides quantitative tissue analysis services for pharmaceutical and medical device development. Flagship offers a broad range of tissue assessment options, achieved through a diverse set of approaches. Flagship Biosciences provides tissue analysis solutions to over sixty biotech, pharmaceutical, and medical device clients, with global programs in place for tissue-based companion diagnostics with three of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Their sales grew 400% in 2011, and are on track to triple again in 2012. Flagship scientists published seven peer-reviewed articles in 2011, and filed 4 patent applications during the year. However, the largest development for Flagship was the acquisition of a histology and immunohistochemistry laboratory during the close 2011 which has added tissue procurement to complete their tissue-based analysis operations. Finally, the company’s image analysis technology won a best poster award at the Pathology Visions 2011 conference in San Diego, and a best presentation award at the Pathology Informatics 2011 meeting in Pittsburgh  The company is currently working on a medical device spinout of their existing operations and expansion into Phoenix later this year. Committed to growing not only the company but  also Arizona’s bioscience talent pool, the company currently utilizes many students from Northern Arizona University.  Flagship Biosciences was honored in 2011 with the  2011 AZBio Fast Lane Award .

W.L. Gore & Associates   was honored at the 2013 AZBio Awards as the  Arizona Bioscience Company of the Year by the Arizona Bioindustry Association in recognition of the development of the extensive Gore Medical family of products including vascular grafts, endovascular and interventional devices, and surgical meshes by its world class team of innovators in Flagstaff and Phoenix.   In this video you will learn about Gore and also gain insights on what we need to do together to continue our Arizona Bioscience Industry growth from Gore's Kurt Long.

Iron Horse Diagnostics was honored with the 2013 AZBio Fast Lane Award from the Arizona Bioindustry Association for Accelerating the Development of New ALS Diagnostic Tests. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease) is a devastating disease that is nearly always fatal within 5 years of onset. Due to similarities in their symptomatic progression is it difficult to differentiate ALS from several other disease mimics (motor neuropathy, progressive muscle atrophy, etc.) until it is too late for intervention to have any real effect. With an earlier diagnosis, and therefore earlier intervention, current clinical care may increase the lifespan of these patients and additional drug therapies that are likely to be introduced to the market could be more rapidly initiated. Not only might life expectancy increase, but patients would be given the chance for a higher quality of life for a longer duration due to more rapid inclusion of the patient into multi-disciplinary care treatment offered at specialized ALS clinics.

http://www.yulex.com/ Rubber and commerce go hand in hand and rubber products are everywhere. Yulex Corporation is the global leader in guayule-based biomaterials for a wide range of markets and diverse applications. Yulex’s Guayule BioRubber Emulsions and BioRubber Solids have medical, consumer, and industrial applications to grow an increasingly diverse market community with ultra-pure, high-performance products. From medical devices to fabric coatings, and from bedding to industrial packaging adhesives, Yulex also provides technical and product development guidance and support, and even custom material compounding and formulation. Yulex Corporation, a technology, marketing and biomaterial product development company that applies sustainable crop science, clean bioprocessing, and materials science for the production of natural, allergy-friendly BioRubber derived from the renewable, crop Guayule was honored with the 2013 AZBio Fast Lane Award from the Arizona Bioindustry Association