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.

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.

Carolina Liquid Chemistries launching new blood analyzer

Carolina Liquid Chemistries is launching the first product from its new headquarters located at the Piedmont Triad Research Park's Wake Forest Biotech Place building. The device, called the CLC 720, is a chemistry analyzer that can process 100 different blood chemistry tests for such things as glucose or cholesterol levels or drug abuse. The system received FDA clearance in March and is the second chemistry analyzer that Carolina Liquid Chemistries has developed in the research park. “This chemistry analyzer is the first in its class to be designed since the 1990s,” said Phil Shugart, President of Carolina Liquid Chemistries. Read More.