September 2009 BioPark eNewsletter

BioPark News

Final Countdown to Café Opening

The long awaited café is soon to be a reality. Café Gourmet is set to open in September. Thanks to everyone who signed the petitions, the City of Baltimore approved the beer and wine license. You will be able to enjoy that beer or glass of chardonnay after work on the new outdoor patio that will be set amidst a soon to be landscaped green space. Café hours will be Monday through Friday from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm. Café Gourmet will offer a varied menu of sandwiches, paninis, salads, burgers and breakfast items. Plans call for a limited menu initially that will grow according to demand. Café Gourmet will also provide catering services for your meetings and events.

Construction Work on Baltimore Street

BGE is digging up Baltimore Street to extend a gas line needed for the Maryland Forensic Center, BioPark Three and future BioPark buildings. The construction is expected to last for three months.

Lunch at the Inner Harbor? New Shuttle Service will take you there

Sometime this fall the City of Baltimore will be launching a new free shuttle bus service— named the Charm City Circulator in a recent contest. With stops in the BioPark at the MTA bus stops at West Baltimore and Fremont Streets and in front of the garage at West Baltimore and Poppleton Streets, the new shuttle will take riders to Hollins Market and through UMB’s campus to the Inner Harbor, Harbor East and back again. The shuttles will come by every 10 minutes. A second shuttle route will travel north and south from Federal Hill along the Charles Street corridor to the train station and a third will go from Fells Point to Johns Hopkins Hospital. The expected late summer start date was postponed due to a delay in the delivery of the buses. Be on the look out for the brightly colored green, white, purple and orange buses. See the attached flyer for additional information.

With new tenants BioPark Two is 70 percent occupied

Three new tenants will move into BioPark Two over the next few months. The Baltimore City Community College opened the beautiful new teaching labs and classrooms of its Life Sciences Institute to students in August. Taking up the entire second floor of BioPark Two, the new institute will offer associates degrees and certificates in life sciences and healthcare related fields. Meanwhile, work on the first floor space for the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business is proceeding rapidly. Part-time MBA classes will begin in January 2010. Biomere LLC will also soon open its AAALAC-accredited small mammal vivarium in the lower level of BioPark Two.

Space remaining to be occupied in the building includes the third floor, roughly 17,000 square feet on the fourth floor, and 10,000 square feet on the fifth floor.

BioPark Communications

You may now sign up on the BioPark website to receive BioPark news announcements. Click here to register. We promise that we will not inundate you with e-mails.

Also, the BioPark is now on social media sites Facebook, Twitter and Linked In. We are still experimenting with how to effectively use these new communications technologies, but see it as another means to reach out. Please share your news with us to post. You can find us under University of Maryland BioPark.

Campus Happenings

New Campus Center Opens

The exciting news on the UMB campus is the opening on August 31st of the new Southern Management Corporation Campus Center at 621W. Lombard Street between the Library and the School of Nursing. The facility includes extensive fitness and recreation options, meeting space and ballrooms and a new café, Bon Appetit, with full service and to go options.

The fitness center includes a swimming pool, a 7,000-square-foot work out area with cardiovascular and weight equipment, a spinning studio, several multipurpose rooms, two basketball courts, two racquetball/squash courts, an elevated running track, space for power lifting, plus a variety of classes. BioPark tenants may join the new fitness center for $40 monthly or $360 annually. The BioPark branch of the fitness center will continue to operate and be available at the lower rate of $20 monthly or $120 annually.

Proposal deadline for MIPS Research Funding is October 15.

Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) promotes the development and commercialization of products and processes through industry/university research partnerships. MIPS provides matching funds up to $100,000 per year to help Maryland companies pay for the university research. Projects are initiated by the companies to meet their own research and development goals.

For more information on the MIPS funding program, visit their website

Campus Research Lectures

A number of departments and research centers within UMB’s School of Medicine organize seminar series with both in-house faculty and outside speakers presenting various research topics. While the School of Medicine does maintain an events calendar on its homepage, the departments don’t always post their events on the central calendar. It is best to check with the departments directly if you are interested in attending any of these seminars. Departments offering such programs include:

Company News

Gliknik

Gliknik Inc. raised a $1.1 million continuation of its Series A funding round which it will use for research and development of new drugs to treat autoimmune diseases and cancer. The company is expanding its footprint in the BioPark. Gliknik's lead compound to mimic IVIG for autoimmune diseases is advancing in preclinical studies and receiving increasing attention. The company's two compounds for Head and Neck cancer continue to enroll patients at the Greenebaum Cancer Center.

Upcoming Events

BioPark, UMB and regional bioscience events are listed on the homepage of the BioPark website

Highlighted Event

Stem Cell Researchers, Policymakers and Business Leaders Coming to Baltimore

The 2009 World Stem Cell Summit will be held in Baltimore on September 21-23 at the Baltimore Convention Center. The summit will attract more than 1,200 experts from more than 25 countries and across the United States. The Summit is unusual for a scientific conference in that it combines a mix of visionary researchers, key policy-makers, business leaders, regulators, advocates, and experts in law and ethics to discuss the latest breakthroughs and advancements in the emerging field of regenerative medicine together with ethical and policy issues.

This fifth World Stem Cell Summit is presented by the Genetics Policy Institute and hosted by Johns Hopkins University, the University System of Maryland that includes the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, Maryland Technology Development Corporation and Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund. Dr. Curt Civin, Founding Director of UMB’s new Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, is a co-chair of the conference.

Members of the general public are invited to a free special symposium on Stem Cell Science that is co-sponsored by the University of Maryland, Baltimore. The program, from 8:30 am – 12:00 pm on Monday, September 21, will include a tour of scientific posters and a lecture by Curt Civin, MD and Larry Anderson, PhD, Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Visit the conference website for additional information: www.worldstemcellsummit.com

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