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Arcadia Weekly Mar 06, 2020
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By Brenda Trainor
MADIA:BioTECH 2020 is a series of meetings and lectures in March that provide a focuson the biotech industry in the San Gabriel Valley. Biotech is a burgeoning partof our local economy and MADIA Tech Launch believes it warrants a closeexamination.
The Oak Crest institute of Science hosted the first event on March 4; and Lab Launch is hosting a lecture about TCRCure on March 11. Events are free and open to students, future and current founders, and anyone interested in tech startups. Registration is requested through links on the MADIA Tech web site: MADIATech.org.
MADIA TechLaunch is a nonprofit educational organization that serves as a network oftechnology entrepreneurs and practitioners in the cities just east of Pasadena.So why focus exclusively on biotech? Bruce Lathrop, MADIA’s board president,explained: “With great biological and medical research coming out of Caltech,UCLA, USC and City of Hope, the San Gabriel Valley has long been home to greatinnovators and entrepreneurs in biotech … We want to spotlight this amazingecosystem.”
The focus onthis tech industry sector is important, Lathrop continued, as it can “let biotechentrepreneurs know they’re in good company here and can collaborate with othersand recruit scientists from the amazing university’s in our area, includingCaltech, UCLA, USC, and Keck Graduate Institute.”
The Oak Crestprogram offered several presentations from industry experts about building asuccessful science- or technology-based business. The first presentation wasabout intellectual property, because ideas and methods are worthy ofprotection. A second lecture was about corporate structure and fundraising, anda third event that afternoon offered a discussion of how to access servicesfrom the Small Business Administration. And throughout the day, there were live demonstrations of scientificinstrumentation being used at the Institute.
Oak CrestInstitute hosted this event under the auspices of its MOST-IP initiative: aprogram developed in collaboration with the City of Monrovia and Newton WorldEnterprises to help turn scientific discoveries into thriving businessenterprises.
The secondevent, sponsored by LabLaunch on March 11 puts Paul Bryson in the spotlight todiscuss TCRCure Biopharma Corp, a company that is using knowledge of T-cellsand immunotherapies to control the progression of cancer tumors. Bryson directsthe operations Los Angeles facility using his scientific and business acumen todeploy their technology to a wider audience of practitioners. His presentationwill take place at LabLaunch, 605 E. Huntington Drive, Suite 103, on Wednesday,March 11 from noon to 1 p.m.
LabLaunch isan 11,000-square-foot office and laboratory facility designed to provideaffordable space for the development of startup businesses and technologydevelopment. Its collaborativeatmosphere provides a place and the resources to enable scientists and entrepreneursto develop their ideas. TCRCure Biopharma Corp got its start at the Monrovialocation, and Dr. Bryson will discuss how his company has matured from itsstart in 2017 at LabLaunch.
MADIA Tech Launch is a career, company, and industry incubator for the area’s technical, scientific, and industrial workforce providing networking and educational events. The name MADIA is derived from a group of a core of five San Gabriel Valley cities (Monrovia, Arcadia, Duarte, Irwindale, and Azusa) that support and host a wide-range of exciting technology-based companies: MADIATech.org.
