Daily Business Report-July 27, 2020
Photo courtesy of Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute
Sanford Burnham Prebys receives
CIRM award for COVID-19 research
Researchers will use ‘mini lungs in a dish’ to test promising drug candidates
Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute has received an award from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to advance promising drug candidates for COVID-19.
The award is part of CIRM’s Quest Awards Program, which promotes promising new technologies that can be translated to enable broad use and improve patient care. Evan Snyder, M.D., a professor and director of the Center for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at Sanford Burnham Prebys, is the principal investigator of the grant; and Sandra Leibel, M.D., an assistant professor at UC San Diego, who is currently conducting research in the Snyder lab, is the co-principal investigator.
“We are honored to receive this important award from CIRM,” says Snyder. “As the world continues to grapple with this rapidly spreading disease, our scientists will continue to work around the clock to find solutions for this public-health emergency. This grant will allow us to test drugs for effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2, and tackle key research issues that need to be addressed for this pandemic as well pandemics we may encounter in the future.”
With the support of the CIRM award, the research team will test two existing drugs, ONO5344 and VBY825, against “mini lungs in a dish” that have been infected with SARS-CoV-2. The drugs were brought to the team’s attention by Sumit Chanda,director of the Immunity and Pathogenesis Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys; and Laura Riva, a postdoctoral researcher in Chanda’s lab, who performed a high-throughput screening study of the reFRAME drug repurposing collection—a library of more than 12,000 existing drugs that have been FDA approved or have extensive human safety and toxicity profiles. The selected drugs are protease inhibitors that emerged as the most promising candidates to hit the “Achilles heel” of SARS-CoV-2.
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Badiee Development completes construction
of Carlsbad Innovate industrial building
Badiee Development has completed construction of Carlsbad Innovate, a 50,150-square- foot adaptive flex industrial building located at 2810 Caribou Court in the Carlsbad Oak North Business Park in Carlsbad.
Zense, an innovator in diabetic predictive health solutions, was the first tenant to call Carlsbad Innovate home, leasing approximately 15,000 square feet. Soon after, an international conglomerate signed a lease for approximately 14,000 square feet to make Carlsbad Innovate its new North American headquarters.
Most recently, The Berg Group, a commercial drywall contractor with headquarters in Minnesota and offices in Arizona, California, Florida and Montana, signed on to occupy 6,650 square feet.
Carlsbad Innovate offers leading-edge architectural layouts, energy-efficient lighting and appliances, polished concrete floors, and high-image creative office finishes with large-scale open spaces in a climate-controlled building. The building’s design allows for plenty of natural light throughout, including fourteen glass grade-level roll-up doors. Tenants can also enjoy outdoor seating with panoramic hilltop and coastal views that create an environment where work/life balance is a priority.
TFW was the general contractor for Carlsbad Innovate. Smith Consulting Architects was the architect and Ware Malcomb was the interior designer of all spec suites in this project.
Colliers International’s Conor Boyle, Ted Cuthbert and Tyler Stemley represented Badiee Development in leasing the building to 70 percent occupancy. Approximately 15,558 square feet of space is currently available for lease.
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San Diego researchers develop blood test to
catch cancer years before patient shows symptoms
Researchers from Shanghai and San Diego have developed a blood test that catches certain cancers up to four years before patients show symptoms, which could help doctors remove or treat tumors before they become deadly.
The blood test, called PanSeer, detects stomach, esophageal, colon, lung and liver cancer. The international research team published their results Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.
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San Diego International Airport adds
three new nonstop routes on Alaska Airlines
San Diego International Airport will add nonstop service to one new international destination and two U.S. cities on Alaska Airlines.
Alaska will offer flights from San Diego to the following cities:
- Cancun, Mexico via Cancun International Airport (CUN) – four times weekly beginning Nov. 20, 2020 through April 12, 2021.
- Fort Lauderdale, Fla. via Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport (FLL) – three times weekly beginning Nov. 21.
- Missoula, Mont. via Missoula International Airport (MSO) – daily beginning March 11, 2021.
The winter seasonal service to Cancun marks the first time the airport has had nonstop service to this popular destination in over a decade. This new route offering will be a convenient way for many of the region’s leisure travelers to get to their desired destination without having to connect or fly from regional hubs.
This is the first time Alaska will offer nonstop service from San Diego to Fort Lauderdale. Fort Lauderdale marks the second destination in Florida that Alaska Airlines serves from San Diego. It also provides nonstop service to Orlando.
This will be the first time the airport will have nonstop service to Missoula, Montana.
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Qualcomm Institute’s Prototyping Lab lends
equipment, expertise to combat COVID-19
By Katie E. Ismael | UC San Diego
In the midst of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic that had UC San Diego researchers racing to understand the complexities around the virus’s spread and to find ways to combat it, engineers and fabrication specialists at the Qualcomm Institute’s Prototyping Lab leapt into action.
The lab’s 3D printers, laser cutters and other machinery along with in-house expertise in mechanical and electrical engineering design, have been tapped by researchers across campus as they seek to protect patients and healthcare workers and provide mass testing for the virus.
“It’s exciting and gratifying to see how much the community has pulled together to help in every way possible during this time,” said Qualcomm Institute (QI) mechanical engineer Alex Grant, who along with Prototyping Lab Director Jeffrey Sandubrae has been stretching the lab’s capacity to help several important initiatives move forward.
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General Atomics awarded NASA
contract to build TSIS-2 spacecraft
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) has been awarded a contract by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to build the Total and Spectral solar Irradiance Sensor-2 (TSIS-2) spacecraft which will provide measurements of solar irradiance and high-quality data for the long term climate record. The company will leverage its proven Orbital Test Bed (OTB) platform architecture to design and develop the satellite for TSIS-2, which is scheduled to launch in early 2023.
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Honors Program turning out best and brightest
in San Diego Community College District
A record number of students took part this year in the San Diego Community College District’s (SDCCD) Honors Program, which is attracting an increasing proportion of participants from traditionally underrepresented communities and better preparing them to transfer to a four-year college or university, according to a new SDCCD report.
A total of 2,822 students at City, Mesa, and Miramar colleges participated in the SDCCD’s Honors Program in the 2019-20 academic year, an increase of 23.5 percent from the previous year and a nearly 38 percent jump from just two years ago, according to the report from the SDCCD’s Honors Program Committee recently presented to the SDCCD Board of Trustees.
The number of African American honors students grew by nearly 50 percent from 2017-18 to 2018-19, and the number of Latinx students grew by nearly 19 percent during the same period. Latinx students, at 44 percent, comprise the largest percentage of Honors students by far.
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San Diego businesses learn
how to properly expand outdoors
By Dave Schwab | sdnews.com
The dos and don’ts of outdoor dining were discussed at a how-to webinar sponsored by Downtown San Diego Partnership and City officials on July 9.
Nonprofit DSDP, with nearly 400 broad-based members, is a leading advocate for economic vitality and growth downtown. Included in that mix is the Gaslamp Quarter, one of the first communities to successfully switch to outdoor dining following recent COVID-caused indoor restaurant closures.
“All of your ups and downs are being taken very seriously, and we’re bringing forward opportunities for you to operate your businesses outdoors in San Diego’s sunny weather,” said Elyse Lowe, director of the City’s Development Services Department.
Lowe proceeded to walk webinar participants through what is required, and how to apply, for permitting to operate outdoor restaurant dining. A fact sheet can be found online at TemporaryOutdoorPermit@sandiego.gov.
Lowe noted the mayor’s executive order allowing city outdoor cafes requires them to clear four feet of sidewalk space as an ADA travel pathway. “We want to create an immediate opportunity for dining on sidewalks as well as in parking lots,” she said. “I know many of you are anxious – and perhaps even angry – that you are not immediately extended into parking space in front of your business. But the reason behind that is very important: to make sure when you put patrons in the parking lane very close to the path of vehicular traffic, that you do a safety review and put up the type of (physical) barriers required to do that.”
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Cradle Genomics expands executive team
with addition of Tanya Moreno and Sue Gross
San Diego-based Cradle Genomics announced the expansion of its executive team with the additions of
Tanya Moreno, Ph.D. as vice president of development and Sue Gross, M.D., as chief medical officer.
Moreno has over 13 years of experience in diagnostics development and the commercialization of genomic tests. As the head of clinical sciences in multiple clinical laboratories, she has led development programs across a broad range of advanced genomic tools to empower patients and physicians with precision medicine.
Moreno earned her Ph.D. in molecular genetics and developmental biology at the California Institute of Technology and received her postdoctoral training at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
Gross has had a distinguished clinical career with roles at Montefiore Einstein where she was professor of obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics and genetics; Natera, where she was chief medical officer; and most recently at Mount Sinai Hospital and Sema4, where she was the medical director for the Reproductive Lab and Clinical Analysis Division.
She is double board certified in obstetrics and gynecology as well as medical genetics.
Cradle Genomics is developing novel fetal genetic analysis and pregnancy health solutions at the earliest stages of pregnancy.
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San Diego Women’s Week Leadership Conference Goes Global
New virtual format with no boundaries features Daymond John, Linda Cureton, Ed Smart, Amy Trask
San Diego Women’s Week, celebrating 11 years of inspiring, empowering and connecting women is now virtual with leadership events for all ages and professions. Attendees enjoy virtual networking, keynote speakers, panel discussions, and more, all wrapped around creative solutions to everyday issues affecting leaders in the workplace and in their daily lives.
WHEN: Wednesday, Aug. 26 – Friday, Aug. 28, 2020
WHO: Keynotes for 2020 Leadership conference include:
- Daymond John from Shark Tank: Powershift, Transform Any Situation, Close Any Deal, and Achieve Any Outcome.
- Linda Cureton, Former CIO – NASA: Managing and Leading in a Tough Environment.
- Ed Smart, Father of Elizabeth Smart: Two Miracles, and Standing up for Yourself.
- Amy Trask, Former NFL Team Executive – Los Angeles Raiders: Leadership Vulnerabilities.
WHERE: Wednesday – Virtual Women and Wine 6-7:30 p.m.
Friday – Virtual Leadership Conference 8:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Click here for complete list of speakers and additional details.
