Daily Business Report-Dec. 12, 2017
Aerial view of The Plaza
Irvine Company’s The Plaza Wins
Outstanding Building of the Year Award
Irvine Company Office Properties’ six-building, 17-acre The Plaza has been awarded The Outstanding Building of the Year (TOBY) Award from the Building Owners and Managers Association of San Diego.
Located in the heart of La Jolla UTC, the project was honored in the 500,000-1 million square-feet category for its industry-leading building management and operations, excellence in building standards, sustainability efforts, community impact and customer relations and retention.
“We are honored to have received such prestigious recognition for The Plaza,” said Mike Bennett, senior vice president, Irvine Company Office Properties. “Our teams are passionate about delivering an unparalleled experience for our customers and workplace communities that set the standard for excellence in San Diego and across coastal California.”
The Plaza features three towers and three campus-style office buildings with 825,000 square feet of workspace in a park-like setting. It also offers on and off-site amenities for businesses.
The project includes two Irvine Company signature offerings: KINETIC, a state-of-the-art fitness center and wellness services provided by Scripps HealthExpress, and The Commons, an open-air workspace with complimentary Wi-Fi. It also offers on-site dining at Rick Bayless’ Red O restaurant and Specialty’s Café, and is adjacent to the newly revitalized Westfield UTC.
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ABC’s “Shark Tank” Daymond John
Coming to Rancho Bernardo
North San Diego Business Chamber will feature Daymond John for lunch on Jan. 26. John is a self-made multimillionaire with over $6 billion in global products sales, a starring role in the ABC’s hit show “Shark Tank” and a New York Times bestselling author of “The Power of Broke” and “Shark.”
John will discuss his latest book, “Rise and Grind,” an up-close look at the hard-charging routines and winning secrets of individuals who have risen to the challenges in their lives and grinded their way to the very tops of their fields. Along the way, he also reveals how grit and persistence both helped him overcome the obstacles he has faced in life and fueled his success.
Tickets are available to the public and includes lunch and an autographed copy of Daymond John’s book.
The chamber event will be held at Sony Electronics, 16535 Via Esprillo, San Diego. Check-in: 11:30 a.m. Presentation: noon to 1 p.m.
Admission is $59 for North San Diego Business Chamber members, $79 for nonmembers and $500 for a reserved table of 7. Guests will receive a complimentary signed copy of “Rise and Grind.” Limited quantities available. Event will be livestreamed at https://www.facebook.com/NSDBusinessChamber/
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Scientists Identify Promising New Approach
for Immune System Defense against Cancer
By Mario Aguilera | UC San Diego
Looking to bolster the body’s immune system in the fight against infection and cancer, researchers at the University of California San Diego and their colleagues have identified a promising new strategy to program the immune system to meet the pathogen or malignancy in the tissues where they first pose a threat.
A multidisciplinary team led by Justin Milner, a postdoctoral researcher in molecular biologist Ananda Goldrath’s laboratory, uncovered a novel function for a protein known as “Runx3” that is key to the development of killer T cells—immune cells important for fighting infections and cancer. The researchers discovered similarities shared by T cells in infected tissues and tumors, and leveraged this finding to enhance killer T cell abundance in tumors, which was driven by Runx3.
Their study is published in the Dec. 14 edition of the journal Nature.
“At this time, we are seeing great promise in treating cancer stemming from approaches that exploit the immune system to target tumor cells and our work describes a new tool for directing the immune system into the right place where it can do its job,” said Goldrath, the chair of the Section of Molecular Biology in the Division of Biological Sciences.
Runx3 has been known for its contributions to immune cell development but the researchers found a new therapeutic role for it. Their research in mice demonstrated Runx3 could program killer T cells to locate to and persist in infected tissues or tumors, helping to eradicate infections or slow growth of malignancies.
“We uncovered an unappreciated function for this molecule in setting up a frontline of defense in tissues throughout the body,” said Goldrath. “It’s really a repurposing of a protein used in development to regulate the functional properties of the immune system.”
The researchers believe Runx3, if properly directed, could be combined with other approaches to help T cells recognize and destroy tumor cells and enhance vaccine efficacy.
The collaborative project spearheaded with Matthew Pipkin at The Scripps Research Institute (Florida) included undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers as well as long- standing collaborative efforts with Shane Crotty at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology and Wei Wang in UC San Diego’s Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Medicine.
Other coauthors of the study included Clara Toma, Bingfei Yu, Kai Zhang, Kyla Omilusik, Anthony Phan, Dapeng Wang, Adam Getzler and Toan Nguyen.
The research was supported by the UC San Diego Molecular Biology Cancer Fellowship, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (U19AI109976), the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (RB5-07012), the Kimmelman Family Foundation and the San Diego Center for Precision Immunotherapy.
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Supervisors Waive Rebuilding
Fees for Lilac Fire Victims
County Supervisors on Monday adopted a resolution to waive permit fees for those who have lost their homes in the Lilac Fire. The resolution means fire victims who plan to rebuild their homes or other damaged structures will get a waiver of plan check fees for the rebuilding of structures damaged or destroyed in the unincorporated area, or other areas where County approvals are required.
Property tax relief is also available. Residents with damaged property can get their property reassessed and the reduced value will remain in effect until the property is rebuilt or repaired.
The county had seven days to ratify the local emergency, and supervisors did so during their meeting Monday. The action means the county can continue the local emergency, use multiple agencies to help fight the Lilac Fire and ask for disaster aid from the state and the federal government.
As of Monday, the fire has burned 4,100 acres and destroyed 184 structures.
The county opened a local assistance center for fire victims at the Vista branch library. The hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and a number of County departments and local agencies are on hand to help victims through the recovery and rebuilding process.
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General Atomics Hosts High-Tech
Aerospace Innovation Event
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., in partnership with Starburst Accelerator, a global aerospace and aviation incubator, hosted a selection committee titled “The Future Is Now” at its headquarters in Poway, on Dec. 1. The showcase featured pitch-style presentations from 10 aerospace startups sharing technology and innovations to a cross-section of industry experts and potential investors. The event provided an opportunity to hear about new ideas being developed and consider how the ideas could impact business growth.
“GA-ASI has embraced an entrepreneurial approach to its business throughout our 25-plus years in aviation and this event is a natural extension of our approach to innovation,” said Linden Blue, CEO. “We hosted this event as a way to provide aerospace entrepreneurs with an audience of enthusiastic industry leaders who are interested in investing in new technology that will fill critical capability gaps in support of the warfighter.”
Starburst Accelerator hosts quarterly selection committee programs as part of its mission to provide access to seed funding from the top business angels and venture capital firms dedicated to aerospace, defense and security. As an added benefit, this event also attracts major aerospace industry resulting in a collaborative environment for the advancement of new technology.
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City Council Approves Housing
for Substance Abuse Victims
The San Diego City Council on Monday gave the go-ahead for a 70-bed facility that will provide help for people whose substance abuse problems have led them to live on the streets. The S.M.A.R.T. (San Diego Misdemeanant At-Risk Track) House will create a safe, drug-free environment where people with substance abuse problems can get their lives back on track. It will operate from a rehabilitated Super 8 motel that the city purchased this summer. The motel, which has a history of low occupancy and a high rate crime, will be refurbished with new landscaping, lighting, and gating, and operate with round-the-clock staffing and security.
City Attorney Mara W. Elliott, whose office launched the S.M.A.R.T. Program last year, said the innovative program provides its participants with tailored drug treatment programs, counseling, bridge housing, case management, and wrap-around services that allow them to succeed on their own once they graduate.
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Jeffery Kelly Elected to National Academy of Inventors
Jeffery Kelly, co-chair of the Department of Molecular Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), has been named a fellow of the esteemed National Academy of Inventors, the organization announced today.
“My research group seeks to decode the basic principles of how cells generate, fold, traffic and degrade proteins, and from this information we have been fortunate enough to envision therapeutic strategies and discover drugs that slow the progression of neurodegenerative diseases and prolong life,” says Kelly.
The honor recognizes Kelly’s contributions as an academic researcher, whose work has “demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and welfare of society,” according to the NAI.
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Personnel Announcements
Juanita Brooks Inducted into Litigation Counsel of America
Juanita Brooks, principal at Fish & Richardson, has been inducted into the Litigation Counsel of America (LCA) as a fellow. The LCA is a close-knit, peer-selected and aggressively diverse honorary society of 3,500 of the best trial lawyers in the country. Less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers, vigorously vetted for skills, expertise and service are invited to join this network of lawyers who effectively represent clients across North America and around the world.
Brooks was elected and invited into the fellowship after being evaluated for effectiveness and accomplishment in litigation and trial work, along with ethical reputation.
Brooks is a leading trial and appellate litigator, who specializes in intellectual property, product liability and mass tort litigation. She is nationally known for her storytelling, hard-hitting cross-examinations and ability to decipher complex technologies for judges and juries
Often the only woman and minority in the courtroom, Brooks has spent her career dedicated to diversifying the legal profession. The first in her family to graduate from high school, Brooks graduated from San Diego State University at the age of 19 and Yale School of Law at the age of 22 before entering the legal arena.
Brooks was the first Hispanic woman to establish a private criminal defense practice in San Diego and has remained a frequent volunteer, speaker and advocate for women and minorities for decades.
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Aimee Hoyt Joins Illumina Inc.
Illumina Inc. has named Aimee Hoyt as senior vice president and chief people officer beginning Jan. 8, 2018. She will be responsible for leading all aspects of the company’s HR strategies, reporting to the CEO.
Hoyt has held senior positions at some of the world’s best-known technology companies including Hewlett-Packard, Cisco and Sun Microsystems. Most recently, she was the chief human resources officer at Rackspace, a leading managed cloud computing company, in San Antonio, Texas. She led the HR team and was responsible for helping build, align and develop high-performing global teams.
During her tenure, Rackspace was recognized as one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, Top 30 Best Places in Tech and Great Places to Work for Millennials.
Hoyt earned a master’s in human resource development from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
