Robin Deacle

It was a gray afternoon in March, 2008 at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. A kindly looking gentleman stood in our Congressional Room, surrounded by a group of North Carolina’s brightest young scientists, winners of various science competitions across the state that year. The kind gentleman, the guest of honor, had won the mother (or maybe the father) of all science competitions – the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. And despite the recognition for a discovery that had changed the face of medicine, the gentleman stood among the rising stars and asked them a simple question. “Have you...

North Carolina’s life science jobs continue to grow at more than triple the national average, pushing the total number of people employed in the sector statewide above 70,000 for the first time. The numbers are part of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s State Initiatives Report 2016, conducted by TEConomy and released at the BIO 2016 International Convention Tuesday. The report shows job growth across the nation of 2.2 percent from 2012 to 2014. North Carolina’s jobs grew by 6.6 percent to 70,466 during that time. North Carolina continues to be strong in drugs and pharmaceuticals; research, testing and medical laboratories;...

Editor’s note: This post is adapted from a “Med Talk” given earlier this week at the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Annual Tribute Luncheon. DURHAM, N.C. – At the Biotech Center, our vision is for North Carolina to continue to be a global leader in life science. To realize that vision, we work across the state to grow companies and technologies that will help to heal, fuel and feed the world. As you can imagine, we hear a lot of great stories while doing this work. And nowhere are there more stories than right here in Durham. For example,...

Two days filled with conversations. Reuniting with old friends. Making new ones. Listening to thought leaders, company pitches and predictions of the next scientific breakthroughs. The annual CED Life Science Conference had all of that. And after two full days of networking, we all went back to our offices to catch up on the work that we had missed in those two full days. But we have conferences like this so that we can keep up-to-date, refresh our connections and our brains. So that all of that learning isn’t lost, we did a quick survey of the NCBiotech team...

Cancer. We’ve found some treatments that have great results for some cancers. We have ideas about other treatments, some that may work broadly against many cancers. Those ideas were widely discussed at the 2016 CED Life Science Conference. So it was with great anticipation that we awaited the presentation by Katherine Yang. She led off the closing lunch session with her talk “Developing Cellularly Active Inhibitors of CARM1 for a New Anti-Cancer Treatment.” OK. It wasn’t the title of the talk that we were waiting for. It was the fact that Katherine is currently a student at the North...

(Editor’s Note: Robin Deacle is vice president of corporate communications at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. She provides here an in-depth look at workforce topics discussed last week at BIO 2014 conference.) RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – Workforce was the topic as three biomanufacturing leaders sat down to chat Tuesday at the North Carolina pavilion at BIO 2014. Biogen Idec’s Machelle Sanders and GlaxoSmithKline’s David Stewart discussed the importance of talent to success. Nathaniel Hentz added the perspective of the Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), one of the partners training that talent. BTEC is one part...

Editor’s Note: As the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and a host of biotech and life science companies within the state head to San Diego, Calif., for the national BIO convention, Robin Deacle, vice president of corporate communications for the center, provides an overview of a key sector of the North Carolina’s life science industry: Agbio. On Monday, Jim Shamp of the Center reviewed the state’s contract research organization sector. RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. - The United Nations projects that by 2050, we’ll have nine billion people in the world. Those additional 1.8 billion people will need to eat. Where will all...

MedImmune’s Peter Greenleaf summed it up nicely: Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina together have incredible muscle in the life sciences. With more than 120,000 direct jobs, the region tops all biotech clusters, except California, for size. We initiate 40 percent of the nation’s clinical trials. This critical mass was evident during the two-day Mid-Atlantic Bio 2012 conference in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, Md. The conference ended Friday.  At the center of it all was the number-one concern for companies in the pre-conference survey: capital. Funding panels gave young companies new ideas on how to navigate this tricky economy...

This year’s pre-conference survey revealed a less-than-shocking result before the Mid-Atlantic Bio event opened on Thursday. Companies are most concerned about capital. Clovis Oncology’s Patrick Mahaffy had just spoken about the “selective” IPO market and careful investors. What’s an early-stage company looking for development funding to do? At Mid-Atlantic Bio, attendees with this question crowded the room for the panel “Novel Funding Sources for Bioscience Companies.” From government organizations to patient advocacy groups, the panelists had one main theme. Get to know us. Funding is becoming more common from patient advocacy groups, and more competitive from federal programs. Panelists had...