Daily Business Report-March 13, 2017
The development will be on 16 acres overlooking Del Mar’s ‘Dog Beach’ (above).
Encinitas Developers Announce Plans to
Acquire Del Mar Land for Luxury Resort
The Robert Green Company – an Encinitas-based company specializing in hospitality development – and real estate development company Zephyr, also based in Encinitas, have agreed to jointly acquire and develop a 16-acre oceanfront parcel in Del Mar that could include a luxury resort, restaurants and meeting space.
The property is located between Via de la Valle and North Beach (also known as Dog Beach). It is comprised of seven parcels owned by three separate owners, all of whom have signed agreements with the developers, according to Zephyr CEO Brad Termini.
Zephyr and The Robert Green Company are seeking community input on the project’s scope and design, which has not been finalized. Currently, proposed elements include a luxury resort, branded resort villas, restaurants and meeting space. A public community meeting and planning schedule will be announced soon.
Zephyr has previously developed SummerHouse Carlsbad, a 35-unit enclave of luxury beach condos; South Cove, a community featuring 168 luxury residences and public park located across the street from Doheny State Beach in Dana Point; and The Park, Bankers Hill, a 14-story, luxury residential building located across from Balboa Park in San Diego’s Bankers Hill neighborhood. The Robert Green Company has developed the Four Seasons hotels and resorts in Carlsbad, Palo Alto and Jackson, Wyoming; The Everly Hotel in Hollywood; the Pendry Hotel in San Diego; and the recently announced Montage and Pendry Resort Hotels La Quinta.
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New Blood Test Could Help Detect
And Locate Cancer Tumor Early On
By Liezel Labios | UC San Diego News Center
Bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a new blood test that could detect cancer — and locate where in the body the tumor is growing.
The study could provide a way to diagnose cancer early on without having to do invasive surgical procedures like biopsies. Researchers published their findings March 6 in Nature Genetics.
Cancer blood tests work by screening for DNA released by dying tumor cells. These tests are showing promise for detecting traces of tumor DNA in the blood of cancer patients. However, the results don’t indicate where the tumor resides. “Knowing the tumor’s location is critical for effective early detection,” said Kun Zhang, a bioengineering professor at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and senior author of the study.
In this study, Zhang and his team discovered a new clue in blood that could both detect tumor cells and identify where they are. When a tumor starts to take over a part of the body, it competes with normal cells for nutrients and space, killing them off in the process. As normal cells die, they release their DNA into the bloodstream — and that DNA could identify the affected tissue.
The method screens for a particular DNA signature called CpG methylation haplotypes, which are the addition of methyl groups to multiple adjacent CG sequences in a DNA molecule. Each tissue in the body can be identified by its unique signature of methylation haplotypes.
“We made this discovery by accident. Initially, we were taking the conventional approach and just looking for cancer cell signals and trying to find out where they were coming from. But we were also seeing signals from other cells and realized that if we integrate both sets of signals together, we could actually determine the presence or absence of a tumor, and where the tumor is growing,” Zhang said.
To develop their new method, the researchers put together a database of the complete CpG methylation patterns of 10 different normal tissues (liver, intestine, colon, lung, brain, kidney, pancreas, spleen, stomach and blood). They also analyzed tumor samples and blood samples from cancer patients at the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center to put together a database of cancer-specific genetic markers.
Zhang and his team then screened blood samples from individuals with and without tumors. They looked for signals of the cancer markers and the tissue-specific methylation patterns. The test works like a dual authentication process — the combination of both signals, above a statistical cutoff, is required to assign a positive match.
“This a proof of concept. To move this research to the clinical stage, we need to work with oncologists to further optimize and refine this method,” Zhang said.
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Marine Capt. Corrie Mays — Blue Angel No. 8
For the first time in Blue Angels history, two female Marine Corps officers were selected to serve on the Blue Angels team at the same time.
Corrie Mats was selected to serve the United States Navy Blue Angels in July 2014 and joined the team in September 2014 as Blue Angel No. 8, where she served as the events coordinator and squadron naval flight officer.
She will be one of the speakers at the Dare to Dream event of San Diego Women’s Week on March 22 at Sony Electronics, 16535 Via Esprillo san Diego. The event is from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
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4 Million Expected to Call
San Diego County Home by 2050
San Diego County’s population is expected to swell to 4 million people by 2050, according to the latest official projections by the California Department of Finance.
That’s 700,000 more than the department’s official estimate of the population of San Diego County on July 1 of last year.
At 4 million people, San Diego County’s population would be larger than the current population of the state of Oklahoma, and just slightly smaller than Oregon.
The county’s residents in 2050 will be older and more diverse, according to the state projections released last week.
Hispanics will be in the majority at 41 percent of the population, with whites making up 38 percent, Asians 10 percent and blacks 5 percent. Individuals of mixed race will represent 6 percent of the population in 2050.
Residents 65 and older will make up 26 percent of the population in 2050, double the proportion now.
San Diego will not experience this growth alone. California’s population, which stood at 39.4 million on July 1, is forecast to grow to 49.2 million by 2050.
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Tocagen Seeks $86 Million IPO to
Fund Cancer Gene Therapy Trial
Tocagen, a San Diego-based gene therapy developer focused on treating brain cancer, will seek to raise $86 million through an initial public offering, according to an S-1 registration statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Tocagen’s lead product candidate is a combination of biologic Toca 511 (vocimagene amiretrorepvec) and small-molecule Toca FC, designed to be used together toward directly killing cancer cells and immune-suppressive myeloid cells thus resulting in activation of the immune system against cancer.
Toca 511 is an injectable retroviral replicating vector that encodes a prodrug activator enzyme, the yeast-derived cytosine deaminase (CD). Upon selective delivery to cancer cells, the infected cancer cells carry the CD gene and can produce the CD enzyme.
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USD to Welcome Kyoto Prize
Winner Martha Nussbaum
Philosopher Dr. Martha Craven Nussbaum, recipient of the prestigious 2016 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy, Thought and Ethics, will be at the University of San Diego on Thursday, March 16 for the 15th annual Kyoto Prize Symposium, giving one presentation in the morning and another in the afternoon.
The morning program, taking place at 10:30 a.m. inside Shiley Theatre, honors Nussbaum. Her talk, titled, “Philosophy in the Service of Humanity,” highlights the 90-minute event. The RSVPs for this free event, which is open to the public, have reached capacity.
In the afternoon, from 2:30 to 4 p.m. in the Joan B. Kroc Peace and Justice Theatre, Nussbaum, along with Philosophy Professor and USD Humanities Center Director Brian Clack, will discuss “Anger and Revolutionary Justice.”
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Nation’s Construction Jobs in February
Increases to Highest Level Since 2008
Construction employment in the nation increased by 58,000 jobs in February to the highest level since November 2008 with gains in both residential and nonresidential segments, according to an analysis of new government data by the Associated General Contractors of America.
“These numbers match what many contractors have been telling the association — that demand remains strong for a variety of construction projects and that firms are still hiring, when they can find qualified workers,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “The increase from January to February was the largest one-month gain since 2007.”
Construction employment totaled 6,881,000 in February, an increase of 58,000 from the upwardly revised January total and an increase of 219,000 or 3.3 percent from a year ago.
Residential construction — comprising residential building and specialty trade contractors — added 18,900 jobs in February and 136,200, or 5.3 percent, compared to a year ago. Nonresidential construction (building, specialty trades, and heavy and civil engineering construction) employment increased by 38,500 employees in February and 82,600 employees, or 2.0 percent, over 12 months.
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Randy Mize Named San Diego
County’s Top Public Defender
Randy Mize, 57, a veteran of the county’s Public Defender’s Office, has been appointed top public defender, effective March 31. Mize will replace outgoing Public Defender Henry Coker. The announcement was made by the county’s Public Safety Group.
Mize is currently the department’s chief deputy public defender.
One of the original attorneys to join the Public Defender’s Office, Mize started in the department shortly after it was created in 1988. Mize became the juvenile delinquency branch supervisor in 1996, working on some of the department’s highest profile cases, including defending the Santana High School shooter Andy Williams in 2001. Since 2009, he has managed the Primary Public Defender’s Office, which employs 290 of the department’s 365 overall employees. In recent years, he has navigated an array of major policy and operational changes including the passage of AB 109, the state mandated realignment of prison inmates to local custody and post release supervision, and many other voter-approved initiatives.
Mize will replace his longtime colleague Coker, who will step down after a lengthy career with the Public Defender’s Office. Coker became Public Defender in 2009, after 12 years as the chief deputy public defender in charge of managing all of the department’s branch offices.
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Xavier Leonard Named Director
of Malin Burnham Center
Xavier Leonard has joined The San Diego Foundation as director of the Malin Burnham Center for Civic Engagement.
Leonard is the former public technology and data strategist for the city of San Diego Civic Innovation Lab. He co-founded FAB LAB San Diego and also served as a chairperson for the California Broadband Policy Network, where he advocated for inclusion of community-based organizations as beneficiaries of California’s Teleconnect Fund, and for policies that improve access to Internet technologies and digital opportunities for underserved communities.
Leonard has spoken on the deployment of technology to empower and develop communities at the United Nations’ World Summit.
He has been honored as a Z-Fellow of the Zero Divide Foundation, an Ideas Institute Fellow of the MIT Media Lab, and a TEC Champion by Congress.
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General Atomics Announces Next
Generation Railgun Pulsed Power Containers
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems says it has developed a High Energy Pulsed Power Container (HEPPC) that provides twice the energy density than existing railgun pulsed power solutions.
The HEPPC can reduce the number of pulsed power containers required to launch projectiles or hybrid missiles from a railgun weapon system, providing greater flexibility for future Navy and Army railgun applications, according to the San Diego company.
“For the past decade, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems has provided pulsed power in support of the Navy’s railgun program,” said Nick Bucci, a GA vice president. “Our next generation HEPPC breaks our own energy density record and exceeds the capabilities of other available railgun pulsed power container solutions. What we have packed into a 10-foot standard shipping container is equivalent to what is currently available in a 20-foot shipping container, doubling the energy density to provide greater flexibility for ship and land-based installations and maneuverability for mobile applications.”
Railguns launch hybrid missiles using electromagnetic forces instead of chemical propellants and can deliver muzzle velocities greater than twice those of conventional guns.
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Personnel Announcements
Sullivan Hill Lewin Rez & Engel Adds 3 Attorneys
The law firm of Sullivan Hill Lewin Rez & Engel announce the addition of attorneys Erin Kennedy Clancy, Rebecca M. Soule, and Yaniv Newman to the firm’s San Diego office.
Erin Kennedy Clancy has joined the firm as a shareholder. She is a member of the firm’s construction, insurance, real estate, and commercial and business litigation practice groups. Clancy has substantial experience in representing businesses and individuals in complex multimillion dollar residential and commercial construction defect claims, property damage and contract claims throughout California.
Rebecca M. Soule is an associate in the firm’s construction, insurance and commercial and business litigation practice groups. She practices primarily in the areas of construction and insurance litigation matters. Soule received her B.A. from the University of Washington in 2005 and her J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law in 2010.
Associate Yaniv Newman is also a member of Sullivan Hill’s construction, insurance, and commercial and business litigation practice groups. He practices primarily in the areas of construction and insurance litigation matters. Prior to his undergraduate studies, Newman served in the United States Marine Corps for four years, including one tour of duty in Iraq in 2003.
