UC San Diego students who are interested in attending “What’s Past is Prologue: Creating the Life Sciences Industry in San
Diego” just might get free tickets. Keep reading to find out more about the event. For info on getting a hold of free tickets, contact Andy Newsham at anewsham@ucsd.edu
San Diego’s Biotech Industry Legends
to Discuss Insights into Past & Future Nov. 7
Three
legendary San Diego
venture capitalists will discuss past lessons learned and thoughts about the
future of local commercial biotech ventures during the first in a series of
planned “conversations” Nov. 7 in Calit2’s Atkinson Hall at UC San Diego. The
event is being billed as the first of its kind in San Diego.
“What’s Past is Prologue: Creating the Life Sciences Industry in San
Diego” is sponsored
by the Life Sciences Foundation and the UC San Diego Library, and is
co-sponsored by Connect and Sughrue, with community partners Biocom and San
Diego Venture Group. The panelists, who
will offer their insights into the past and future of San Diego biotech, will
include Jim Blair of Domain Associates, Kevin Kinsella of Avalon Ventures, and
Tim Wollaeger of Sanderling Partners. Ivor Royston of Forward Ventures will
serve as moderator. The 4 p.m. discussion will be followed by a reception at 5
p.m.
Blair, Kinsella
and Wollaeger helped to create the San Diego life sciences industry more than
30 years ago, and remain active today. Creating such high profile companies as
Dura Pharmaceuticals, Vertex and Pyxis, they will discuss the birth of San
Diego’s life sciences cluster, current conditions, and their vision for the
future.
Moderator Ivor Royston, M.D., is a founding managing partner of
Forward Ventures. Dr. Royston has been involved in the biotechnology industry
in San Diego
from its inception in 1978 with the founding of Hybritech, Inc., later acquired
by Eli Lilly, and with the founding of Idec Pharmaceuticals in 1986, which
later merged with Biogen.
Jim Blair has been a partner of Domain
Associates since its founding in 1985. Dr. Blair has over 40 years’ experience
with venture and emerging growth companies. He has been involved in the
creation and successful development at the board level of over 40 life sciences
ventures, including Amgen, Aurora Biosciences, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Applied
Biosystems, Dura Pharmaceuticals, GeneOhm Sciences, Molecular Dynamics,
NuVasive, Pharmion and Volcano.
Kevin Kinsella founded Avalon Ventures in 1983. He
has specialized in the formation, financing and/or development of more than 100
early-stage companies. Kinsella was the founding chairman of Athena
Neurosciences, Aurora Biosciences Corp., Landmark Graphics, NeoRx, Onyx
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Synaptics, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, X-Ceptor and Sequana
Therapeutics.
Timothy Wollaeger has more than 30 years’ experience
in the medical products and biotechnology fields in both corporate management
and venture capital. Wollaeger joined Sanderling Ventures as a managing
director in 2002, and opened the firm’s San
Diego office. He founded Amylin Pharmaceuticals,
Biosite, Columbia
Hospital, Digirad Pyxis,
Senomix, Sotera Wireless and Vical.
Over the last
20 years, San Diego has
developed to become one of largest and most dense biotechnology hubs
in the nation. Regional clusters in telecommunications,
information and software technology are also continuing to take grow and take
shape. To increase scholarly and public understanding of San Diego’s culture of
innovation, the UC San Diego Library has launched the San Diego Technology
Archive (SDTA), an online, interactive archive documenting the history,
development, and growth of the companies and entrepreneurial entities that make
up San Diego’s technology clusters. The archive focuses on San Diego’s
life sciences and information technology clusters. For more information on the
SDTA: http://libraries.ucsd.edu/sdta/
Tickets for
the Nov. 7 event are $25. For more information and to register, please visit: lifesciencesfoundation.org/sandiego
The Life Sciences Foundation is dedicated to capturing the
history, preserving the heritage, and sharing the stories of biotechnology. The
foundation collects and organizes historical information to educate and inspire
future innovators, to engage the general public, and to provide lay audiences
with an understanding of life sciences and biotechnology.
The
UC San Diego Library, ranked among the nation’s top public
academic research libraries, provides access to more than 7 million digital and
print volumes, journals, and multimedia materials to meet the knowledge and
information needs of faculty, students, and members of the public. For more information: http://libraries.ucsd.edu/
