Daily Business Report-June 26, 2017
The center features a new technologically-advanced laboratory and an additional 180,000 square feet of working space, which is an increase of 145 percent compared to the former facility. (Credit: Eli Lilly and Company)
Eli Lilly Unveils Expanded
Biotech Center in San Diego
Eli Lilly and Company announced completion of a $90 million expansion of its Biotechnology Center in San Diego. Lilly said the new space will help foster and accelerate the discovery of medicines within the company’s core therapeutic areas of immunology, diabetes, oncology and neurodegeneration, as well as the emerging area of pain.
“This year we announced a commitment to invest $850 million in our U.S. operations based on our potential for growth and the company’s long-standing investment in the U.S. market,” said David A. Ricks, Lilly’s chairman, president and chief executive officer. “Today, as part of that commitment, we are pleased to say our research footprint in San Diego has been expanded.”
The center features a new technologically-advanced laboratory and an additional 180,000 square feet of working space, which is an increase of 145 percent compared to the former facility. In addition to the center’s established presence in preclinical and clinical immunology research, the new space allows for closer partnership between Lilly experts in biotechnology, discovery chemistry and research technologies while also fostering external collaborations.
As a pioneer in automated organic synthesis, Lilly is creating the Lilly Life Science Studio in San Diego. Building upon Lilly’s Automated Synthesis Laboratory in Indianapolis, the new facility will allow researchers across the globe to remotely design, synthesize and screen investigational molecules. Using the power of automation, the Lilly Life Sciences Studio will shape the next generation of drug discovery and expand the reach of individual scientists to test new ideas, while reducing the cost and minimizing the environmental impact of our research activities.
San Diego has long been an important location for Lilly. In 2004 Lilly acquired Applied Molecular Evolution Inc. before establishing the Lilly San Diego Biotechnology Center in 2009.
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Southwest Airlines to Add Non-Stop
Route Connecting San Diego and Tampa
Southwest Airlines announced the addition of a new nonstop route connecting Tampa, Fla. with San Diego beginning Jan. 8, 2018.
Flights between Tampa and San Diego are being offered for as low as $99 one way. (Travel is valid Jan. 8 through March 7, 2018. Travel to Florida is valid only on Sundays through Wednesdays. Travel from Florida is valid only on Tuesdays through Fridays.)
The center features a new technologically-advanced laboratory and an additional 180,000 square feet of working space, which is an increase of 145 percent compared to the former facility.
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Reserchers: Parkinson’s is Partly
an Autoimmune Disease
Researchers have found the first direct evidence that autoimmunity — in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues — plays a role in Parkinson’s disease, the neurodegenerative movement disorder. The findings raise the possibility that the death of neurons in Parkinson’s could be prevented by therapies that dampen the immune response.
The study, led by scientists at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, was published today in the Advance Online edition of Nature.
“The idea that a malfunctioning immune system contributes to Parkinson’s dates back almost 100 years,” said study co-leader David Sulzer, professor of neurobiology at CUMC. “But until now, no one has been able to connect the dots. Our findings show that two fragments of alpha-synuclein, a protein that accumulates in the brain cells of people with Parkinson’s, can activate the T cells involved in autoimmune attacks.
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San Diego Continuing Education Receives
Highest Level of Accreditation Recognition
The Western Association of Schools and Colleges has reaffirmed accreditation of San Diego Continuing Education for a six-year term ending June 30, 2023. The reaffirmation is the highest level of accreditation recognition an institution can receive.
For the past two years, a leadership team of faculty, staff, students and administrators conducted a Self-Study of the organization and prepared reports for the accrediting commission and visiting team of reviewers.
SDCE has maintained consecutive and consistent accreditation since 1983.
