Eli Lilly and Company Opens New Biotech Center

Eli Lilly and Company officially opened a new state-of-the-art biotechnology center in San Diego as part of its strategy to discover and develop more biotechnology medicines. The Lilly Biotechnology Center – San Diego is opening three months after Lilly announced it is moving its ImClone research headquarters (which specializes in developing cancer biologics) into a new biopharmaceutical research cluster in New York, and just one year after Lilly completed construction of its biotechnology research and development complex at company headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana.

“We are moving full speed ahead toward building a biotechnology powerhouse,” said John Lechleiter, Lilly chairman and CEO. “The science, technology and talent at our new center in San Diego will help bring novel biotech medicines to patients faster and more efficiently, and reinforces Lilly’s commitment and contributions to San Diego’s burgeoning bioscience industry.”

Lilly’s latest biotechnology center is located within an extensive hub of life science activity near UCSD and other prominent biomedical research institutes.

Of the nearly 200 scientists based at the center, more than half are from Applied Molecular Evolution (AME), a wholly-owned Lilly subsidiary that discovers, engineers and develops biotechnology-based therapies built specifically from human proteins. The center also is the work base for scientists from discovery chemistry research and technology, a division within Lilly that includes scientists from what was previously known as SGX Pharmaceuticals.

“The results of Lilly’s transformation into a biopharmaceutical powerhouse are quite evident and very exciting, with over 50 percent of our mid to late-stage pipeline now consisting of biologics — potential medicines for a range of diseases, including diabetes, cancer, autoimmune diseases, musculoskeletal disorders and Alzheimer’s disease,” said Steve Paul, executive vice president, science and technology, and president of Lilly Research Laboratories.

Work at the new biotechnology center is mostly focused on discovering, engineering and conducting Phase I and II clinical trials on potential biologic medicines, with an emphasis on cancer, diabetes and autoimmune diseases, areas of medicine that hold potential promise for biologic drug development.

The Lilly Biotechnology Center is located within a 450,000-foot facility known as Campus Pointe, which was developed, and is owned and managed, by Veralliance Properties of San Diego. Veralliance has partnered with Prudential Real Estate Investors on the development. Lilly is leasing approximately a quarter of Campus Pointe from Veralliance.

 

 

Outstanding Students to be Honored Nov. 8

Outstanding students in chemistry, physics, mathematics, biology, medicine and engineering will be honored on Nov. 8 at the Irwin M. Jacobs Qualcomm Hall, 5775 Morehouse Drive, San Diego, in a program hosted by the San Diego chapter of the ARCS Foundation. The event will begin at 2:30 p.m. The 2009 ARCS Scholar Recognition Event is open to the public.

Scholars being honored are among 42 academically excellent San Diego undergraduate and graduate students in science, medicine and engineering receiving scholar awards this year from the ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) Foundation.  A total of $317,500 in ARCS scholar awards will be presented this fall to San Diego students attending SDSU, The Scripps Research Institute, UCSD and USD. Corporations, foundations and individuals, as well as San Diego chapter members, contribute annually to this scholar support, with over $6.4 million awarded to 413 scholars since the chapter began in 1985.  
Norma Hidalgo-del Rio and Maureen Lamberti will co-chair the event marking the 25th anniversary of the founding of the ARCS San Diego chapter.  Highlighting the event will be an opportunity for the Scholars to discuss their fields of study and provide guests with brief explanations of their research through poster displays. There will also be a featured scholar speaker from each of the four institutions.
 

Scripps Scientist Awarded Paleontological Society Medal

Professor Jeremy Jackson of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD has been awarded the Paleontological Society Medal, the highest honor given to paleontologists. A coral reef scientist who has applied the lessons of historical marine ecology to help understand the complex range of ills facing today’s oceans, Jackson was given the honor at the Geological Society of America meeting in Portland, Ore. Jackson, a professor of oceanography and director of the Scripps Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, researches the long-term ecological effects of overfishing on coastal ecosystems and the ecological and evolutionary consequences of the formation of the Isthmus of Panama, which divided the Pacific and Atlantic oceans about three million years ago.

Jackson’s recent “Brave New Ocean” presentations describe the future of the

world’s oceans in the face of overfishing, habitat destruction and ocean

warming, effects that have transformed intricate marine food webs with large animals into simplistic ecosystems dominated by microbes, toxic algal

blooms, jellyfish and disease. He describes this degradation as “the rise of

slime.” Jackson believes, however, that successful management and

conservation strategies could renew the health and sustainability of our

oceans.

 

 

Five Educators Selected for Leaders Program

Five educators from San Diego and Imperial counties have been selected to join the class of USD’s School of Leadership and Education Sciences’ (SOLES) Remarkable Leaders program. SOLES will honor area educators who, through their expertise and service, have enhanced the field of education for students in San Diego and beyond. The honorees will be acknowledged during the Remarkable Leaders in Education ceremony on Nov. 7 at Mother Rosalie Hill Hall on campus.

The 2009 recipients are:

John Dekker Anderson — Anderson has led state, regional, district, county and local educational organizations throughout his 40-year career. Anderson is currently county superintendent of schools for the Imperial County Office of Education.

Constance Carroll — Carroll is chancellor of the San Diego Community College District, leading three comprehensive community colleges and six adult education centers, with enrollment of more than 100,000 students.

Robert Fellmeth — Fellmeth is a law professor at the USD School of Law and founder/executive director of the Center for Public Interest Law and its Children’s Advocacy Institute. He is the holder of the Price Chair in Public Interest Law at the School of Law, one of two such chairs in the nation.

Barbara MacNeil — MacNeil, who died in 2005, was an educator and administrator who championed quality education for deaf and hard of hearing children for more than 30 years. She received a credential as a teacher for the deaf, and served as a special-education administrator for the San Diego Unified School District.

Dorothy L.W. Smith — Smith has fought for disadvantaged students throughout her career as a teacher, college professor and member of the San Diego Unified School District Board of Education. She was the first African-American woman to serve on the school board, a position she held from 1981 to 1988. She has reached many milestones and spearheaded a number of initiatives on behalf of students, including the Common Core Curriculum, which ensures students get exposure to math, English, science and social studies courses.

 

 

Scholar to talk on ‘What Hope for Afghanistan’

Athanasios Moulakis, acting president and professor of government at the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, will speak on “What Hope for Afghanistan” at 7 p.m. Dec. 8 at the UCSD Faculty Club. The event is free and open to the public with no tickets or reservations required. Moulakis is a scholar who has taught at several universities in Europe and the U.S., including a visiting appointment at UCSD. The Kabul university Moulakis is building aims to help Afghans help themselves by gaining the tools of science, humanistic learning, and public administration. Moulakis and UCSD Professor Emeritus Sandy Lakoff will reflect on the hard choices facing American foreign policy concerning Afghanistan. The lecture is presented by the Helen Edison Lecture Series.

 

 

 

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