Biozona Weekly: BioAccel launches VC network; Mayo breaks ground on $182M facility; Trent to lead SU2C Dream Team

December 19, 2011

By hammersmith

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BioAccel launches venture capital network for AZ biosciences
12/16/2011 | Phoenix Business Journal | Angela Gonzales

BioAccel, a Phoenix nonprofit that helps startups commercialize their products, has created the Philanthro-Capitalist Network to bring together the business community and high-net-worth individuals looking to invest in biotechnology-related companies.


Mayo Clinic breaks ground on $182M Phoenix facility
12/14/2011 | Phoenix Business Journal | Angela Gonzales

The rain didn’t stop Mayo Clinic from breaking ground this morning on a $182 million facility to house a new proton beam cancer treatment program on its Phoenix hospital campus. Phoenix Mayor-elect Greg Stanton welcomed Mayo’s new cancer treatment center, and called it a boost to the economy.


Grant to fund melanoma-drug trials
12/14/2011 | Arizona Republic | Ken Alltucker

Skin cancer is a persistent threat for Arizonans, and there are few treatment options for those struck with the deadliest form of the disease. Arizona doctors and researchers are part of a team that will seek to bolster the pipeline of melanoma drugs tailored to an individual’s DNA.


TGen’s Trent to lead international study on skin cancer
12/13/2011 | Phoenix Business Journal | Angela Gonzales

Dr. Jeff Trent, president and research director at the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix, will be the principal investigator on a $6 million international study of deadly skin cancer. TGen and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute were selected after a rigorous bidding process funded by Stand Up To Cancer and the Melanoma Research Alliance.


Flinn, UA name first visiting scholar
12/12/2011 | Phoenix Business Journal

Dr. Michael Whitcomb, former senior vice president for medical education at the Association of American Medical Colleges, has been named the first Flinn medical innovation visiting scholar at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix. The Flinn Foundation and the college created the five-year visiting scholars program to bring innovators to Arizona to work in concert with the downtown Phoenix medical school. Each scholar will spend one year on a specific project.


AlgaeBio will expand facility
12/09/2011 | AzJournal.com | Linda Kor

In a region that is rapidly becoming known as a mecca for the natural resource industry with potash, solar and wind energy, another resource, algae, is now gaining notice. Six years ago Andrew Ayers bought 70 acres of land in an area east of Holbrook known as Adamana, believing it held something that to him was more precious than gold. In the vast open desert of northeastern Arizona Ayers discovered that beneath the surface lay pure salt water, and that salt water is ideal for Ayers’ research in macro algae.