Member News provides an opportunity for SDEE members to share news and announcements. This month's Member News features:

• Stephane Richard, CureMatch
• Mark Fortner, Aspen Biosciences 
• Claire Weston, Reveal Biosciences 
• Jiwu Wang, Allele Biotech
• Yinghong Gao, Viva Biotech
• Abdulkader Rahmo, SMSBiotec
• John Burd, Lysulin 

Stephane Richard, CureMatch

Sales Highlight – Thailand: Cancer knows no bounds – San Diego based CureMatch provides its decision support system to expert oncologists in Thailand ready to usher in a targeted Precision Medicine approach to cancer treatment. CureMatch signs a subscription licensing program to work directly with Bangkok Genetic Company and Chularat 9 Airport Hospital. Each are part of the Bangkok Medical Center (BMC) which is one of the most technologically advanced hospitals in medicine today. Located in Bangkok, Thailand, BMC is an expansive state-of-the-art medical campus providing comprehensive medical care. CureMatch is looking forward to a long-term relationship benefitting the oncology staff and cancer patients of Thailand.

Sales Highlight – Yuma: CureMatch begins a new clinical trial program with the Yuma Regional Cancer Center, at the Yuma Regional Medical Center. The Cancer Center is accredited by the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer and part of the Mayo Clinic Care Network. Yuma’s Center is highly acclaimed and nationally-recognized and meets the same standards and guidelines as the most highly-recognized cancer centers in the U.S. Adding CureMatch intelligence support for treatment guidance through a clinical trial program brings genomic-based treatment guidance to oncologists seeing patients in the Yuma Arizona region.

AI World Expo – Event: CureMatch shared its innovations in healthcare with AI World attendees in Boston. A large percentage of attendees were not medical and were enlightened as to where we are headed together. CureMatch currently has deployed several databases and algorithms to bring intelligence support for treatment decisions in oncology. Genomic sequencing data and curated approved drugs allows CureMatch to filter large complex data sets quickly. It’s not full on AI yet, but we’re inching closer. The AI World Conference and Expo is focused on the state of the practice of artificial intelligence. Now in its third year, the 3-day conference and expo is designed for business and technology executives who want to learn about innovative implementations of AI in the enterprise.

CONNECT Finalist -- Event: CureMatch was a finalist for 2018 Most Innovative New Product Awards by CONNECT. CONNECT, a premier innovation company accelerator in San Diego creates and scales companies in the technology and life sciences industries, announced the winners of its 31st annual Most Innovative New Product Awards at their grand gala. The prestigious competition, which begins with an application process in the spring and culminates in the awards ceremony in late fall, is CONNECT’s signature event which recognizes innovators and their latest groundbreaking products. CureMatch was honored to be a finalist in the Life Sciences category with other worthy finalists also finding success with their innovation.

Precision Health – Launch: There are over 350 Precision Health companies located here in San Diego and over 3600 patents collectively. Dr. Stephane Richard of San Diego's CureMatch was selected to be on a panel which helped launch Precision Health SD. This was a grand evening of celebration, which included a video with comments from renowned physician and author Eric Topal. This is a focused effort by the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation's (EDC for short) to springboard a precision medicine initiative. Stephane shared CureMatch’s experience and how oncology is changing from a "one size fits all" approach to a more targeted one. No matter what name you place on it, this is what it’s about.

Mark Fortner, Aspen Biosciences

In June, Aspen Biosciences released the latest version of Pipeline, a solution for managing drug discovery projects. And in December they launched Pharm2Market, a new business intelligence service for life science communities designed to connect biotech startups to the resources they need to advance their drug discovery programs. You can read more about these services in the Getting to Know SDEE Consultants article found in this month’s SDEE Newsletter.

Claire Weston, Reveal Biosciences

United Nations:  Making Global Goals Local Business -Athena, a voice for professional women in STEM in Southern California, recently became a signatory of the United Nations Global Compact.  Athena joins over 9,933 companies in 160 countries focused on aligning their strategies and operations with the UN Sustainable Development Goals for human rights, gender equity, labor, environment, and anti-corruption.  In December a group of Athena members from San Diego attended a VIP reception with the UN Global Compact, followed by a conference on gender equity at the Gap, Inc. headquarters in San Francisco.  Conference delegates included SDEE members Claire Weston (CEO, Reveal Biosciences), Valerie Gionis (CEO, Valtari Bio), and Kara Bortone (Head of JLABS, San Diego), as well as representatives from the UN, Athena, and large corporations such as Sony, Qualcomm, Johnson & Johnson, and Bayer.  The UN Global Compact is encouraging the small business majority to assess how Sustainable Development Goals can make an impact in their local communities.  You can learn more here:  https://www.unglobalcompact.org/sdgs 

Jiwu Wang, Allele Biotech

Allele Biotech partners with Scientist.com to develop nanoantibodies, https://www.lifesciencesipreview.com/news/allele-biotech-partners-with-scientist-com-to-develop-nanoantibodies-3287.

Allele Biotech Announces New iPSC Lines Created for Clinical Development, https://bioinformant.com/allele-ipsc-lines-clinical-development/

Yinghong Gao, Viva Biotech. On Nov. 14, 2018, Viva Biotech held its inaugural Partnering Reception in San Diego with SABPA being the event co-organizer. It was a hot ticket in the San Diego biotech community that attracted more than 120 enthusiastic entrepreneurs, scientific and business leaders in the life science industry. The event was chaired by Yinghong Gao, Viva Biotech’s US-based executive director of business development. Dr. Derek Ren, the president of Viva gave an excellent overview on Viva’s business model, focusing on early stage investment and incubation mechanism, which has great synergy with Viva’s early drug discovery service platforms. He also highlighted Viva Biotech’s leadership positions in the service areas of protein science, structural biology and ASMS screening, in addition to Viva’s medicinal chemistry and antibody discover platforms.

Abdulkader Rahmo, SMSBiotech

SMSbiotech was issued on Aug 7, 2018 the US patent with the title: SMALL MOBILE STEM CELLS (SMS) AND USES THEREOF. SMSbiotech is also preparing to launch its first product into the research market.

John Burd, Lysulin

Lysulin has had two manuscripts accepted for publication describing the results of their double-blind placebo-controlled clinical studies and the amazing A1c drops seen in only one month for customers taking Lysulin.