Daily Business Report-Feb. 23, 2017
DNA Electronics’ new plant in Carlsbad.
DNA Electronics Opens New Carlsbad
Plant in Preparation for New Product Launch
London-based DNA Electronics (DNAe), the inventor of semiconductor DNA sequencing technology, has opened its new United States facility in Carlsbad in preparation for commercializing its first product — a test for bloodstream infections.
The facility was officially opened by the Mayor of Carlsbad, Matt Hall, and Councilman Michael Schumacher with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday. Housing 15,000 square feet of laboratories including specialized cleanrooms and 9,000 square feet of office space, the Carlsbad site currently employs 38 people following relocation from the company’s previous facility in Albuquerque, N.M., with recruitment still ongoing.
The company said the new site in Carlsbad expands its operations in the U.S. and provides a specialized development and manufacturing base for its first product under the LiDiaTM brand.
“The Carlsbad facility will play a key role in integrating DNAe’s key technologies, namely high sensitivity sample processing and rapid DNA analysis,” the company said. “The Carlsbad site provides DNA with the capacity to complete final development and begin commercial manufacture of its first test for bloodstream infections.”
“As we prepare to begin manufacturing our lead product, our new facility in Carlsbad enables us to tap into a wide pool of local talent and world class industry partners to support the next phase in our development,” said Victor Esch, president and CEO of DNA Electronics, based at the Carlsbad facility.
“With these new facilities, and our strong and growing team, we are in an excellent position to make a game-changing impact in the infectious disease diagnostics space. Our first products will specifically address the huge global need for rapid diagnostics for sepsis.”
There are over 1 million cases of sepsis in the U.S. each year, and 28-50 percent of people with severe sepsis will die, according to the company.
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Researchers Develop New Tool
For Treatment of Ovarian Cancer
A team of 18 University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center researchers has developed a new tool to analyze an often overlooked aspect of cancer genetics — an alteration that results in the loss or gain in a copy of a gene.
This change, known as somatic copy-number alterations, may be key to disease progression and might offer new therapeutic approaches for ovarian cancer and other malignancies.
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Newmark Grubb Knight Frank
Moving to One La Jolla Center
Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF), a commercial real estate company, will be moving its San Diego regional office to One La Jolla Center, the new 15-story office tower in University Towne Centre.
The company said it is expanding to Irvine Company’s new tower to better accommodate its rapid growth over the last year. The firm more than doubled its team, bringing over a number of the region’s top brokers across a number of specialties including Pete Bethea, Rob Ippolito, Brunson Howard, Jess Lowe, John Jennings, Aaron Hill, Chris High and Steve Bruce.
“It’s an exciting move for our San Diego team. This highly-efficient quality environment is the perfect base for us to create a new work space that reflects our coastal location and encourages our teams to excel,” said Greg May, regional managing director.
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Women’s Advocacy Group Ladies Get Paid
To Hold Inaugural Town Hall on March 7
Ladies Get Paid, a membership-based organization that helps women advocate for themselves in the workplace, will hold its inaugural San Diego town hall on March 7 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Union Cowork East Village, 704 J St. in East Village. The event will feature talks from prominent female leaders in the San Diego community, as well as 100 female attendees, to discuss the theme of “Women and Money.”
The kickoff event will foster dialogue and breakout sessions around how money is tied to a woman’s identity and sense of self worth, why it is taboo to talk about, and how to identify ways women can be more supportive of one another as they move up in their careers. Tickets cost $15 per person.
Event panelists include:
Felena Hanson, Founder of Hera Hub.
Kara DeFrias, former director of Experience Design at The White House.
Marty Remmell, principal at Remmell Consulting.
Brook Larios, CEO and founder of Plain Clarity.
Ann marie Houghtailing, business development and storytelling expert, coach, and writer.
Saundra Moton, owner of SRPro Consultants.
Laura Rice, founder of The WE Society San Diego.
Town halls will be hosted on an ongoing basis through LGP’s newly-launched San Diego chapter.
For more information about LGP’s San Diego kickoff town hall, contact Angela Rivera at angela@blvr.com or call (619) 254-3818.
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Hughes Marino Makes Entrepreneur’s
Top Company Culture List
San Diego-based Hughes Marino has been ranked on Entrepreneur’s Top Company Cultures list, a comprehensive ranking of U.S-based businesses exhibiting high-performance cultures created in partnership with culture management software and service provider CultureIQ.
The Top Company Cultures list has ranked Hughes Marino as No. 3 in the nation in the Medium Company category. This marks the company’s second year for making the list, as 2015 was the inaugural year where Hughes Marino ranked No. 2 in the Small Company category. Hughes Marino was recognized for creating an exceptional culture that drives employee engagement, exceeds employee expectations and directly impacts company success.
“Great company cultures don’t happen on their own. They’re the result of great leadership, and a conscious effort to make everyone on a team feel engaged and important,” says Jason Feifer, editor in chief of Entrepreneur. “The honorees on our 2017 list are proof that strong cultures make even stronger companies. Entrepreneurs at all levels can draw inspiration from them.”
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Academy of Our Lady of Peace to Host
2nd Architects of Change at School Live
The Academy of Our Lady of Peace (OLP) has partnered with Shriver Media to host the second Architects of Change at School Live conversation on March 15.
The conversation series, which is open to the public, will feature the story and faith journey of Cyndi Peterson, U.S. Navy flight surgeon, dermatologist, speaker, author and mother of five. Peterson just recently published Waiting for a Miracle: One mother’s journey to unshakable faith.
“We are honored to be the first school to partner with Ms. Shriver and her team for the launch of Architects of Change at School and so excited to welcome Dr. Peterson to share her story,” said Dr. Lauren Lek, OLP Head of School. “These are the rich conversations about life and humanity that result in the powerful transformation of young women committed to making a difference in our world. I am privileged to see how our young women at OLP are architects of change in their lives and communities each and every day.”
An Architect of Change, according to Shriver, is “someone who challenges what is, imagines what can be, and moves humanity forward.” The premise in the Live series is to bring together a conversation in an intimate setting because when people come together to listen and share, “minds open, hearts move and change happens,” she says.
The school produced the first Architects of Change event in November 2016 featuring Lek and Assistant Head of School Jessica Hooper. The event and subsequent articles were covered on the front page of Maria Shriver’s website.
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A tugboat built by a Port of San Diego business, Marine Group Boat Works, is delivered to the U.S. Navy in the Port of Sasebo, Japan. (Photo courtesy: Stephen Whalen Photography.)
Port of San Diego Plays Key Role
in Marine Group Boat Works’
Delivery of Naval Tugboats
The Port of San Diego was a critical link in a U.S.-flag delivery of Navy support vessels to the Sasebo, Japan U.S. Naval Base on Jan. 11.
A Port of San Diego business, Marine Group Boat Works, built four 37-ton, 49-foot twin screw steel-hull tugboats for the Navy. The completed tugboats were shipped by Yowell International from the Port of San Diego’s Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal on December 17, 2016.
“The fulfillment of Marine Group Boat Works’ contract to provide Navy support vessels, and the use of the Port of San Diego to ship them out, illustrates the importance of our port to the U.S. military,” said Port of San Diego Chairman Robert “Dukie” Valderrama. “As a federally designated Strategic Port, we continue to play a special role in national security as well as our region’s military presence.”
In preparation for this voyage, the boats were disassembled and secured to special 62-foot mobile trailers and loaded onto the roll-on/roll-off U.S.-flagged commercial cargo ship M/V Green Bay. The delivery crew departed for Busan, Korea, covering a 20-day voyage of 8,000 nautical miles.
Upon arrival in Korea, Sanritsu America, Inc., commissioned by Marine Group Boat Works and Yowell International, placed the tugs under an international transit customs bond, re-assembled the pilot houses to their hulls, fueled them, and placed them in the water in preparation for the final stages of delivery. Finally, Marine Group Boat Works tugboat operators piloted the workboats safely in calm seas from Busan to the U.S. Naval Base in the Port of Sasebo, a Port of San Diego sister port since 1982. The U.S. Navy will use the tugboats to assist in mooring and moving support equipment within Japanese harbors.
“This was a complex and significant contract with many logistical challenges involved in reaching the final destination for these Naval support vessels. I am proud, not only that we built these quality tugboats, but also that we met all contract and U.S.-flag shipping requirements,” said Marine Group Boat Works President Todd Roberts.
“I want to congratulate Marine Group Boat Works on a job well done,” said Port of San Diego Commissioner Ann Moore. “This Chula Vista business is a great example of a Port of San Diego employer doing important work that provides jobs for the region while benefitting our United States military.”
Marine Group Boat Works has shipyards in National City and Chula Vista, and Los Cabos, Mexico. The family-owned boatbuilding and repair company recently installed a 500-kilowatt rooftop solar panel system for its facility in National City to further reduce the carbon footprint in manufacturing and boat repair.
Yowell International, a Veteran-owned small business, has been a key Port partner for routing project import and export cargo across Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal.
