Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center Launches Wake Forest Innovations

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has created a new operating division to translate its academic and clinical research and discoveries into marketable products and services that will benefit patients. The new enterprise, Wake Forest Innovations, is being led by Chief Innovation Officer Eric Tomlinson, DSc, and Ph.D., who is also President of the Piedmont Triad Research Park.

The new division provides the institution with several new services:

Product Innovation & Commercialization Services is responsible for supporting the creation of innovative technology and products and commercializing these through licensing to existing and startup companies.

Scientific Business Services is a newly-formed business support group that helps to structure, promote and contract our research assets to external partners.

Park Development Services is focused on the growth of the Piedmont Triad Research Park –home for 10 Wake Forest Baptist departments and 30 companies – as a vibrant, knowledge-based community.  More.

Wake Forest's Atala Named to Power List

Anthony Atala, MD, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, has been named to AARP Magazine’s “Power List – 50 People Who Make Your Life Better.”

Atala is one of 10 people over age 50 recognized for “Moving Us to a Healthier Future” for his team’s work to engineer replacement organs in the lab. AARP is one of the top-circulation magazines in the U.S., with more than 23 million readers.  More.

Inmar CIO named to list of top 100 IT leaders

Mark Wright, chief information officer at Inmar Inc. in Winston-Salem, has been named to Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders list for 2013.

Computerworld, an IT news magazine, says the 100 leaders on the list display exceptional technology leadership and envision innovative approaches to business solutions. The honorees will be featured in the Feb. 25 issue of the magazine.

Wright joined Inmar in 2010 and has since led the company’s growth as a retailer software and service provider. The company’s client base of 1,700 retailers, manufacturers, health care companies and government agencies utilize Inmar for management of e-commerce networks and cloud-based systems.

Inmar is preparing to relocate its 900 workers to two former R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. buildings in Winston-Salem’s Piedmont Triad Research Park by next December, a move that will cost more than $100 million in redevelopment and renovation. Read more.

Tech Speaker Series Returns! New Technology Resources to Grow Your Business

“New Advanced Technology Resources to Grow Your Business”

Tuesday, December 11

8:30 - 9:30 a.m. (networking & refreshments follow)

Did you know that within Winston-Salem’s Piedmont Triad Research Park some of the most advanced equipment and resources in the Southeast are now being made available to entire community? Our next Tech Speaker Series event on Tuesday, December 11 at 8:30 a.m. in Wake Forest Biotech Place will tell you all about it! Do you quickly need a prototype for a new product? Or access to cutting-edge medical research equipment? Come learn about what is available and how these items can help take your business to the next level.

Speakers

• Eric Tomlinson, DSc, PhD; President, Piedmont Triad Research Park and Chief Innovation Officer, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
• Luke Burnett, PhD; Chief Science Officer, Keranetics
• Tom Clarkson, Associate Director, Entrepreneurship; Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
• Carol Strohecker, PhD; Director, Center for Design Innovation

Wake Forest Biotech Place

575 N. Patterson Avenue

Winston-Salem, NC 27101 Map

Hosted by the Tech Council of the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce.  Free and open to the public though registration is required.  Learn more and register.

Title Sponsor

·               Cook Medical

Series Sponsors:

·               B/E Aerospace
       Kilpatrick Townsend
    Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center

Food Sponsor  

          Gallins Foods

Hybrid 3-D Printer Used to Create Cartilage Implants at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Scientists at the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine have pioneered an approach to replace damaged cartilage, combining two low-cost techniques.

The team’s breakthrough mixes electrospinning with medical inkjet printing, also called bioprinting. 

The development has potential for the medical field. Injured natural cartilage is slow and difficult to heal, and has almost no ability to regrow itself. Currently, surgeons treat cartilage damage caused from injury or disease with techniques that remove small pieces of torn tissue or create microscopic grafts. But as of yet, they have been unable to fully regenerate the cushioning, lubricating tissue that keeps joints moving freely and bones from wearing against each other. As a result, degenerative cartilage conditions can eventually result in joint replacement surgery.

This new procedure may effectively eradicate these invasive procedures and spell relief for countless people who suffer from cartilage conditions. Read more.

Nanotech conference coming to Winston-Salem

For the first time, the Nanotech Commercialization Conference will be held in Winston-Salem.

The conference, which is in its fifth year, is aimed at spurring more research and business collaboration. It will be held April 9-10 at Wake Forest BioTech Place.

It is expected to attract more than 250 attendees and more than 50 speakers, of which there will be a significant Triad representation.

Nanobiotechnology is the science of developing materials at the atomic and molecular level and then using them to develop products and devices.

Hosting the conference “gives us the opportunity to again spotlight the opportunities in advanced manufacturing, coupled with advanced materials development that our community offers,” said David Carroll, director of the Center for Nanotechnology Molecular Materials at the university.  Read more. 

New Inmar Analytics unit looking to put data to use

Retailer software and service provider Inmar generates countless digital bytes of information from its clients each day as it redeems paper and electronic coupons, processes returns and generates promotions. The company’s newest division wants to make sure all that information is put to its best use.

John Ross joined Inmar in August as president of Inmar Analytics, which currently has just four of Inmar’s 700-plus total Winston-Salem employees. The company announced earlier this year that it would relocate its headquarters to the Piedmont Triad Research Park by the end of next year and expand to more than 900 workers.

The kind of data that Inmar generates companywide about shopper behavior could give brick-and-mortar retailers a “dot-com-like view of what’s going on in the business,” down to how a recommendation of one product impacts sales of another product, Ross said. That’s the kind of information that Amazon.com and other online retailers rely on routinely but is difficult for physical retailers to replicate, Ross said.  Read more. 

PTRP innovation among top priorities for Eric Tomlinson

People may know Eric Tomlinson as the president named this summer to head the Piedmont Triad Research Park, but for him, it’s his second title — chief innovation officer for Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center — that’s most important.

“When I was approached for the job, it was president of PTRP, and oh, by the way, chief innovation officer of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center,” Tomlinson said. “But actually the job is chief innovation officer, of which part is to develop the park.”

That change speaks to a shift in focus for the research park, which includes 145 developable acres next to the heart of downtown. The park is expected to support more than 6 million square feet of building space as it’s built out.

Earlier this year saw the opening of Wake Forest Biotech Place, followed by the announcement that Winston-Salem-based Inmar will relocate its 900 workers to the park. Employment in the park is expected to approach 2,000 by the end of 2013, with hundreds of thousands of renovated square feet coming online.  Read more.

Piedmont Triad Research Park Moving Right Along with New Project

A gift from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. could become an integral part of Winston-Salem’s research park, benefiting the city’s biotech industry and its burgeoning downtown revival.

In 2010, Reynolds gave the Bailey Power Plant, formerly used to generate energy for its downtown facilities, to Piedmont Triad Research Park. In August, the necessary environmental abatement work began in preparation for turning the plant toward its future use. And though that use isn’t fully determined yet, it will most likely involve retail, restaurant or entertainment uses.

“There are plans for retail and restaurants around this part of the district, and this could serve as an anchor to draw in consumers, as well as serve people living in the area,” said Eric Tomlinson, the park’s president. 

The area around BioTech Place — which itself served as various times as a Reynolds tobacco plant, a warehouse and a machine shop — is being transformed. And though it will largely consist of office, retail and lab space, the plan has always been to include residential and entertainment uses. It’s all part of the “work, live, play” concept.  Read more.

Piedmont Triad Research Park president shares vision

Eric Tomlinson became president of Piedmont Triad Research Park on July 2. A scientist and biopharmaceutical expert, he has assumed the role of guiding the park through its most pivotal growth spurt since its founding in the late 1990s. The park is considered by many to be the leading new-economy engine for the region.

Tomlinson presented a personal introduction, an infrastructure update and his vision for the park during a presentation Tuesday at Wake Forest BioTech Place.

The park's workforce will expand from about 850 now to more than 2,100. It will go from 400,000 square feet of space to 1 million and double in investment from its current $175 million to $350 million.

Tomlinson spoke of having more people living, working and playing in the area, projecting a fifth housing loft development and 130 more downtown residents adjacent to the park's boundaries. By spring 2014, significant work is expected to be completed on the Bailey Green Park and the 26-mile "rails-to-trails" greenway.  Read more.

Winston-Salem-based Targacept reports profit

Winston-Salem-based Targacept brought in net income of $14.5 million in the second quarter, up from a loss of $2.3 million a year earlier.

In its second-quarter earnings report, the company said it is currently in the midst of three Phase 2 trials and is expecting results from a drug targeting attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder next month. Other trials are aimed at schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, and the company is evaluating a potential trial related to Parkinson's disease.

Piedmont Triad Research Park -- A Whole New Future

Tipping point. Game changer. Momentum builder. Pivotal anchor.

Those are some of the terms being used in reaction to Inmar Inc.'s decision to move its headquarters into Piedmont Triad Research Park and relocate the bulk of its workforce to downtown Winston-Salem.

Winston-Salem business leaders called the move a major happening in a project that has been touted to be a key driver of the new Forsyth County economy.

Inmar said Tuesday that the company was moving more than 915 present and projected jobs to two vacant former R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. processing plants.

When Inmar moves into the renovated buildings in December 2013, it will become by far the park's largest tenant, potentially boosting the park's combined workforce to more than 2,300. Read more.

Inmar helps bring pieces together at Winston-Salem research park

Something big is happening in Winston-Salem. Something special, a possible game changer. Something that has the potential not just to help revitalize that city’s downtown area but reinvent it.

I’m talking about the Piedmont Triad Research Park, and before you ask, “what’s new about that?,” let me acknowledge that I recently gained a new appreciation for the significance and unique opportunity it represents, and how the pieces are coming together. And that was before Inmar Inc., the fast-growing technology company, confirmed Tuesday that it plans to relocate to a renovated R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company building in PTRP and bring 900 employees with it.

I had the opportunity last week to tour PTRP’s most recently completed project — Wake Forest Biotech Place. Suffice to say it is an amazing building. The developer basically took an old R.J. Reynolds building and turned it into a beautiful facility now home to several departments of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine as well as a number of private technology companies.

The building is also equipped with state-of-the-art wet labs, classrooms and meeting spaces. The centerpiece, quite literally, is a five-story, glass-roofed atrium, that opens up the place and lets natural light pour in. It’s the kind of stylish, hip but totally functional facility you might expect to find in Boston or Silicon Valley.

More importantly, though, I really got a chance to see how the building fits into the larger puzzle that is PTRP. True enough, Biotech Place, with 242,000 square feet of leasable space, adds to several facilities already in PTRP. But now, especially with Inmar coming in to take over much of the structures composed by Reynolds buildings Nos. 90-3 and 90-1A, one can really start to see a critical mass taking shape. Read more.

BioBiz Partnering Forum is Today!

Don't miss the BioBiz Partnering Forum -- today, 5:30-8:30pm at Wake Forest Biotech Place.

The BioBiz Forum will feature opportunities to form collaborative teams and acquire key resources in: advanced materials; regenerative medicine; healthcare IT; medical devices; and market-driven entrepreneurship. This goal-directed, interactive forum will feature opportunity-driven collective intelligence in action.

Participants will benefit from facilitated introductions and business development discussions catalyzed by: description of specific healthcare problems by clinicians and clinical investigators; overview of strategic business interests of corporate stakeholders; introduction of problem-driven technology innovations by leading researchers; and investor perspectives on the opportunities and challenges of investing in healthcare.

Download a BioBiz flyer for information and registration.

Biden visits Wake Forest Biotech Place in Winston-Salem

Vice President Joe Biden spoke Wednesday at Wake Forest Biotech Place in Winston-Salem, encouraging scientific research and highlighting the type of job creation needed in a changing economy.

Biden spoke to a large crowd at a former R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company facility that now houses cutting-edge biotechnology research. The location opened in February and is expected to bring 450 researchers and support staff to the Piedmont Triad Research Park.

Biden was introduced by Carolina Liquid Chemistries President Phil Shugart. Shugart, whose company is located at Wake Forest Biotech Place, recounted the story of his father and grandfather growing tobacco in the same place that he would later build a chemical engineering plant. More.

Carolina Liquid Chemistries expands, spins off new company

Phil Shugart moved Carolina Liquid Chemistries from California to Winston-Salem in 2008 and set up shop in the Piedmont Triad Research Park.

Now, four years later, he’s moved his company from a 1,000-square-foot lab space into one nearly 10 times larger in the newly renovated Wake Forest Biotech Place.

Shugart will soon take on even more lab space for a spinoff company, Carolina Immunochemistries LLC, which he just incorporated in May.

Carolina Immunochemistries will make what’s called a homogenous vitamin D essay — in other words, a blood test to measure the amount of vitamin D in the human body. Normally, the test is run on a high-priced, cumbersome piece of equipment, but Shugart is willing to bet that the new company can simplify the test to the point where it can be run on an everyday common chemistry analyzer. Read more.

Tech Council Event Provides Update on Area Research Parks

The Triad’s two research parks are booming, bringing in private companies and creating new jobs, according to panelists speaking Tuesday at the Winston-Salem Chamber’s Technology and Innovation Series, held at Wake Forest Biotech Place in the Piedmont Triad Research Park (PTRP).

Item: The Joint School of Nanotechnology and Nanoengineering at the Gateway University Research Park in Greensboro, which moved into its new building in December, is already running out of space with more students enrolled than expected, according to John Merrill, executive director of the park. The school and Gateway’s two campuses are joint projects of N.C. A&T State University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Item: Wake Forest University School of Medicine, which moved into Biotech Place in renovated R.J. Reynolds buildings in the PTRP earlier this year, is planning to use three more Reynolds buildings nearby, one for the Division of Public Health Sciences, according to Dr. Edward Abraham, dean.

Item: Carolina Liquid Chemistries, which looked at a wet lab launch pad in PTRP and moved in the next day, now has moved its headquarters – and 25 employees – to Biotech Place, said President Phil Shugart. The company makes automated blood chemistry analyzers. One can conduct up to 40 tests from one sample.

The company has a number of machines in development, some aimed at physician offices, some at small hospitals, some at commercial labs. They also are developing a toxicology system that will detect 22 drugs of abuse.

Nancy Johnston, executive director of the Piedmont Triad office of the N.C. Biotechnology Center, said “One of our goals is to grow jobs,” and one of the ways they do that is helping to commercialize new technologies developed at the research parks.

The schools have been concerned about the time that start-up companies spend raising money to keep going. Abraham said Wake Forest is developing an “accelerator” so the companies can focus on technology development rather than raising money.

Now, most inventions are commercialized through licensing to other companies, which often means the innovation, and the jobs it creates, go elsewhere. With the accelerator, it is hoped that most new jobs will stay in Winston-Salem, he said.

Startups on agenda at new Biotech Place

The next big biotech success story for the Triad may be nothing more than a fluid in a professor’s test tube right now. Coaxing a company to life from such a humble beginning is a key part of the business plan of the expanding Piedmont Triad Research Park.

That’s why within the sprawling 242,000-square-foot Wake Forest Biotech Place building, recently renovated by Wexford Science + Technology at a cost of $100 million, is about 15,000 square feet set aside as low-cost space for startups and young companies that could grow into major park tenants.

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, chief sponsor of the PTRP, is the biggest tenant of that building, and Dan Cramer, Wexford’s executive vice president overseeing Biotech Place, said attracting mature corporate users is also an important part of its plan.

“But the incubation of small startups and entrepreneurs — people that might spring off from the university or just want to be near the energy of others like them — is a big piece of it, too,” Cramer said. Read more

Technology Series Returns May 22 at Biotech Place

The Future of Research Parks and Biotech in Winston-Salem, the Triad & North Carolina. With the opening of Biotech Place, Winston-Salem’s attention has once again been focused on the importance of Piedmont Triad Research Park (PTRP) to our future economic growth. But PTRP’s and Winston-Salem’s ultimate success will not be determined on their own. Additional efforts in Greensboro and throughout North Carolina are strengthening the position of our entire region in regards to developing our technology-based economy, particularly in the area of biotechnology. This discussion will provide an opportunity for the public to learn about the benefits the PTRP and Gateway University Research Park -- and the companies and individuals working in them -- provide to our community; how they are a catalyst for job growth and economic development; how their plans complement each other and additional efforts across North Carolina; and how many resources are available to those working in a research park environment. Panel: Dr. Ed Abraham – Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center/PTRP; John Merrill – Gateway University Research Park; Nancy Johnston – NC Biotechnology Center, Piedmont Triad Office; Phil Shugart – Carolina Liquid Chemistries, PTRP tenant. Read more and register.

World-Class Biotech Research & Innovation Center Unveiled in Winston-Salem’s Piedmont Triad Research Park

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center opened the doors to Wake Forest Biotech Place, a new state-of-the-art, world-class 242,000 square foot biotechnology research and innovation center.

Biotech Place is the newest research facility in the growing Piedmont Triad Research Park. The premier facility is comprised of two completely restored former tobacco facilities once owned by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and donated to PTRP. Read more.