MacArthur Fellows Announced For 2013: Here Are 24 Luminaries You Should Know This Year

What do a 60-year-old video artist, a 36-year-old atomic physicist, and a 53-year-old behavioral economist have in common? Not much, probably, except they've each been awarded the 2013 MacArthur Foundation genius grant, a coveted accolade that earns them $625,000 and a spot in cultural history.

Carrie Mae Weems, Ana Maria Rey and Colin Camerer are three of the 24 people in this year's class of MacArthur fellows, announced Wednesday. A total of 13 men and 11 women received the honor, working in fields that include organic chemistry, medieval history and ballet.

The MacArthur accolade, which has been around since 1978, is handed out annually to a select group of high-achieving individuals in disciplines ranging from science and medicine to literature and art. What was once a $50,000 award has since morphed into a six-figure bounty. Past winners include writer Susan Sontag, choreographer Merce Cunningham and World Bank president Jim Yong Kim.

The 2013 MacArthur roster has its own fair share of big names, too, including Swamplandia! author Karen Russell and jazz pianist Vijay Iyer. Below, the 24 geniuses you should know this year:

1. Playwright Tarell McCraney, 32

An ensemble member of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Co., Miami-born McCraney is known for his triptych of works, "The Brother/Sister Plays (2009)," which focus on West African Yoruba cosmology, familial bonds and young love.

2. Writer Karen Russell, 32

A graduate of Columbia University's master of fine arts program and a native of Miami, Russell was nominated for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her debut novel, Swamplandia!.

3. Audio preservationist Carl Haber, 54

Haber is a senior scientist in the Physics Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who specializes in the preservation of deteriorating sound recordings.

4. Research psychologist Angela Duckworth, 43

Duckworth is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania who studies the way grit and self-control affect educational achievement.

5. Choreographer and dancer Kyle Abraham, 36

Abraham is the founder and artistic director of Kyle Abraham/Abraham.in.Motion. His dance works have focused on urban life in his native Pittsburgh, incorporating baroque opera, contemporary classical compositions, spoken word and rhythm and blues.

6. Writer Donald Antrim, 55

An associate professor in Columbia University's writing program, Antrim is best known for his fiction, The Verificationist (2000) and In The Hundred Brothers (1998), as well as his first work of nonfiction, The Afterlife: A Memoir (2007).

7. Immigration lawyer Margaret Stock, 51

An attorney at Cascadia Cross Border Law in Anchorage, Alaska, Stock is recognized for her written scholarship and for contributions to policy debates that challenge American immigration legislation.

8. Artist Carrie Mae Weems, 60

Weems is a photographer and video artist who explores the legacy of African-American identity in contemporary American culture. Her most famous works include "Ain’t Joking" (1987), "The Kitchen Table Series" (1990) and "Roaming" (2006).

9. Organic chemist Phil Baran, 36

Baran is a chemistry professor at Scripps Research Institute who works in pharmacology. He recently developed an affordable method for synthesizing cortistatin A, a steroidal alkaloid thought to be useful in treating macular degeneration and cancer.

10. Paleobotanist C. Kevin Boyce, 39

Boyce is an associate professor at Stanford University's Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences who is solving mysteries about the morphology of plants using modern technologies like X-ray microscopy and spectroscopy.

11. Primary care physician Jeffrey Brenner, 44

Brenner has been working on a health care delivery model for sick residents of Camden, N.J. -- one of the poorest cities in America -- based on a strategy of comprehensive preventive and primary care.

12. Behavioral economist Colin Camerer, 53

Most recently, Camerer has combined behavioral modeling with functional magnetic resonance imaging technologies, analyzing brain activity during economic interactions that prompt humans to guess how other individuals might behave.

13. Medieval historian Robin Fleming, 57

Fleming is a history professor at Boston College whose work Britain after Rome: The Fall and Rise of the Middle Ages, c. 400–1070 (2010) documents how people traded, worshipped and commemorated their dead.

14. Pianist and writer Jeremy Denk, 43

Denk is a concert pianist and popular blogger who writes about his own classical music experiences in The New Yorker, The New Republic and his own blog, Think Denk.

15. Astrophysicist Sara Seager, 42

Seager is a professor of planetary science and physics at MIT. She focuses on the study of exoplanets as well as the creation of low-cost nano-satellites that are used to observe planetary transits.

16. Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, 45

Ratmansky is an artist in residence at the American Ballet Theatre known for re-imagining ballet classics such as "The Nutcracker" and "The Firebird."

17. Atomic physicist Ana Maria Rey, 36

Rey conducts research on ultracold optical-lattice systems, helping to further the fields of quantum simulation and quantum information and explain the complex behaviors of the natural world using mathematical models.

18. Statistician Susan Murphy, 55

Murphy focuses on developing new methods that can be used to evaluate treatment for individuals coping with chronic or relapsing disorders like depression or substance abuse, such as her sequential multiple assignment randomized trial.

19. Agricultural ecologist David Lobell, 34

Lobell is an associate professor at Stanford's Department of Environmental Earth System Science who investigates the impact climate change has on crop production and food security around the world.

20. Neuroscientist Sheila Nirenberg

Nirenberg , whose age was unavailable, is an associate professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medical College who is developing an alternative procedure to restore sight after photoreceptor cell degeneration.

21. Jazz Pianist and composer Vijay Iyer, 41

Iyer is recognized for his rigorous investigation of musical genres from South Indian classical music to West African drumming, contemporary European composers and 20th century African-American piano legends.

22. Computer scientist Dina Katabi, 42

A professor in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Katabi specializes in wireless data transmission, aiming to improve the speed, reliability, and security of data exchange.

23. Materials scientist Craig Fennie, 40

Fennie is an assistant professor at Cornell University's School of Applied and Engineering Physics who combines the tools of theoretical physics with chemistry to discover new materials with the necessary electrical, magnetic, and optical properties for new communications technologies.

24. Public health historian and anthropologist Julie Livingston, 46

A professor in Rutgers University's Department of History, Livingston uses archival research and ethnographic studies to investigate individuals with chronic illnesses and debilitating ailments in Botswana.

ORIGINAL: Huffington Post
By Katherine Brooks
09/25/2013

LightSail’s Danielle Fong on the Most Exciting Science

As 2013 was winding down, I asked Danielle Fong what she considered the biggest scientific breakthroughs in the last year.

Fong is the co-founder and chief scientist at LightSail Energy, a Khosla-backed company trying to reinvent the energy grid by storing excess energy in the form of compressed air. (Fascinating profile of Fong, who started college as a teen, and LightSail here.)

Fong’s answer arrived a little late for the obligatory wave of looking-back-at-the-year-that-was stories. But … the response was so compelling we decided to run it in full (edited lightly for clarity, length and to make Paul Graham look sexist — kidding!).

Stick through to the end for hints of some potentially exciting things coming up for LightSail, a company I’m planning to watch closely in 2014.

Photo Credit: Robert Schlatter Danielle Fong, chief scientist at LightSail

My top two picks are, really, themes, and they represent a deepening of our understanding, and an increasing perfection of technology.

It’s hard to pin down exactly one “breakthrough.” The paradigmatic examples are in fact not what they seem.

For example, Alexander Fleming isn’t even the first one to have discovered or written about antibiotic properties of penicillin (as early as the 1870s the mould was written about). He was in a position to look for antibiotics, given his work on antibacterials during the war. And he made the initial discovery in 1928, abandoned clinical work on it in 1931, restarted in 1934, and continued to try to get a chemist to purify it until the 1940s. The development of antibiotics was not just one thing.

For that matter, the lightbulb was a filament, plus a vacuum, plus a high resistance, plus a whole electrical system — generator, mains, feeders, the works. Bulbs existed before Edison, but he brought a system forth to provide lighting.

And the Wright Brothers weren’t the first ones to have achieved flight, but heavier than air (Zeppelins were first) *controlled* flight. They needed to invent new flying paradigms, wing warping, new engines, new propellors, control systems, developed elevators and wings. They tested in wind tunnels, an invention of their own. It wasn’t just one thing — though there certainly was a moment of truth in the air!

Hence, themes. My two picks for the most exciting things in science last year:

1) Exoplanets! – so many worlds teeming with life, all in the sky, perhaps within reach.

So much happened this year. We are in a galaxy with perhaps 100 billion worlds, 17 billion “earth like.” The galaxy may be a fertile garden of life.

What’s driving all of this is an incredible refinement of the transit technique for the detection of exoplanets, culminating in the Kepler spacecraft.

Researchers are really finding their stride in data analysis and techniques, and a plethora of discoveries have resulted.

These discoveries have helped make it possible to imagine humanity spread throughout the stars, and innumerable worlds, and lifeforms abound, waiting to be discovered.

2) How Genes Really Work

Specifically, steadily increasing control and understanding. Take a look at how many of these advances listed here involve epigenetics or gene therapy or the discovery of an important gene or the sequencing of a new species or the use of genetic modification to understand a new organism.

We’re still only scratching the surface here. But genetics isn’t like computer code; it’s chemistry and systems science and ecology. Genes are regulated by the environment, and other genes, and genes regulate the environment in turn. We’re understanding more and more how to introduce genes into new lifeforms, how they’re expressed, regulated, how they mutate, change, how they fold (we caught a ribosome in mid fold!).

We can now even make machines — it is a stretch to call them robots — but machines, nanomachines, out of DNA. (See video below.)

I’m both excited and disappointed with my two picks. They give us amazing new capabilities — dreamt of for a long time, now made real. But they are not the broad new continents of possibility that some hope for in breakthroughs.

Personally, I think that at least one of three things I’ve been working on in 2013 should be on there, eventually. In the future, perhaps, on whatever Wikipedia page you’d read, you’d read that I came up with the idea in 2013. But since none of it is public, and none of it has been proven yet, you’ll only hear about it in a few years, and if LightSail is any indication, it will be another three years before anyone writes about it as a breakthrough, and another three until it is actually real.

ORIGINAL: ReCode

By James Temple

January 6, 2014

IROS 2013: Aqua Hexapod Gets New Amphibious 'Ninja Legs'

RHex-type legged robots are great at getting around. Like, really, really, really great. They can walk and run on land, and a RHex-based hexapod called Aqua can swim in water as well, with just a simple change of legs from something rigid for walking to something flexible for swimming. Technically, this makes RHex amphibious, but in practice, it's more like the robot is amphibious if you've got a human around to swap its legs out. The problem is that it's impossible to make legs that are flexible enough for efficient swimming and simultaneously rigid enough for efficient walking. And when we say "impossible," we mean "impossible until someone figured out how to do it," which happened at IROS last month.

These new amphibious legs from McGill University roboticists—the creators of the Aqua robot—are called "Ninja legs," because the researchers figure that "the design resembles a spinning ninja star." I'm not sure I entirely get that, but it's a cool name anyway. Essentially, Ninja legs are flippers that can flex up to 120 degrees, each contained inside a carbon fiber and spring steel frame that are mounted on Aqua's rotary leg joints . On land, the frame works just fine as a leg, while in the water, the frame allows the flipper inside it to move freely, resulting in efficient swimming.

As is usually the case when you take two very different things and combine them into one thing, the Ninja legs involve some compromises. The most obvious disadvantage is perhaps complexity, and the efficiency for both walking and swimming decreases relative to legs that are designed and optimized specifically to perform one of those tasks. This decrease is not nearly as bad as might be expected, though. For walking gaits, the ninja legs require perhaps 15 to 20 percent more power to rotate at a given frequency, but they can also achieve higher stable speeds due to higher inherent compliance. And for swimming, the Ninja legs hit a sweet spot at a 2.5 hertz oscillation frequency and 50 degree oscillation amplitude where they produce nearly as much thrust as flippers can (35 N as opposed to 40 N). 

There is a lot more that can be done as far as figuring out whether the Ninja legs might do better with a completely different gait than a more traditional RHex configuration, so it's possible that they could get even more efficient. And there's also plenty of space for hardware optimization. The future work that we're most looking forward to, however, is some more field testing to see just what hexapods with Ninja legs are capable of.

"Ninja Legs: Amphibious One Degree of Freedom Robotic Legs," by Bir Bikram Dey, Sandeep Manjanna, and Gregory Dudek from the Centre for Intelligent Machines at McGill University, was presented last month at IROS 2013 in Tokyo, Japan.

ORIGINAL: IEEE Spectrum

By Evan Ackerman

Posted 9 Dec 2013

The BIOLATAM 2013 program:

PROGRAM

BIOLATAM 2013 will feature a program of conferences addressing the following topics:

Conferences, December 9th

“VENTURE CAPITAL SEMINAR”

Monday, December 9th – 9h00-15h00

Room 1

• Success stories in public-private funding
• Opportunities for cross participation between Europe, USA and LATAM
• How to attract private wealth & business angels to the biotech industry

Chairwoman:

• Cristina Garmendia, Former Spanish Minister of Science and Innovation (Spain)

Part 1 (9h00-10h30): Public policies to support biotech Venture Capital

Moderator:

• MatTeo Grazzi, Specialist in the Competitiveness and Innovation Division, Inter-American Development Bank, (USA-DC)

Confirmed Speakers:

• Catalina Ortiz, General Manager, INNPULSA COLOMBIA (Colombia)
• Elisa Robles, General Director, CDTI (Spanish Center for the Development of Industrial Technology)- Innvierte Program (Spain). "Venture Capital Initiatives for Technology Companies"
• Consuelo Valverde, Founder, SV LATAM FUND (USA-CA)
• Felipe Camposano, General Partner, AUSTRAL CAPITAL & President, ASEMBIO - Chilean Association of Biotechnology Companies (Chile) "What we need to build a Biotech Industry in Latin America"

Part 2 (10h30-12h00): Biotech Venture Capital: the experience of international investors

Moderator:

• Joël Jean-Mairet, Managing Partners, YSIOS CAPITAL PARTNERS (Spain)

Confirmed Speakers:

• Gilles Nobercourt , Partner, EDMOND DE ROTHSCHILD (France)
• Sander Slootweg, Managing Partner, FORBION CAPITAL PARTNERS (Netherlands)
• Arun R. Jayadev, Principal, WELLINGTON PARTNERS (United Kingdom)

Part 3 (13h30-15h00): What investors seek in the latinamerican biotechnology

Moderator:

• Ángel Santos, Director of Business Development, CRB INVERBÍO SGECR (Spain)

Confirmed Speakers:

• João Paulo Poiares Baptista, Managing Director, BURRILL BRASIL GESTÃO DE RECURSOS S.A. (Brazil)
• Santiago de Torres, President, INVEREADY BIOTECH II SCR (Spain). "Venture capital as a lever of growth for biotech companies. Risks and strengths"
• Susanna Mesa, Senior Associate, THE TROUT GROUP LLC (USA-NY). "What makes biotechnology companies attractive to US investors"

 “BIOSIMILARS”

Monday, December 9th – 10h30-12h00

Room 2

• Regulatory environment
• Experiences in manufacturing
• Situation and outlook in Latin America

Moderator

• Katherine Garzón, Manager, BIOTECHNOVA SAS (Colombia)

Confirmed Speakers:

• Oriol Argemi, Responsible of Business Development, GRIFOLS ENGINEERING S.A. (Spain). "Design of Protein Manufacturing Plant"
• Erick Sabido Ruiz, Biotechnology Division Manager, SARTORIUS DE MÉXICO S.A. (Mexico). "Efficient and Flexible Facilities for the production of Vaccines and mAb's"
• Sundar Ramanan, R&D Policy AMGEN INC (USA-CA). "Realizing the Full Potential of Biosimilars"
• Edita Mistiniene, Scientific Director, 3P BIOPHARMACEUTICALS S.L. (Spain)

“PERSONALIZED MEDICINE BASED ON BIOMARKERS AGAINST CANCER”

Monday, December 9th – 13h30-15h00

Room 2

• Assessment of the results of the study "Cancer Control Planning in Latin America and the Caribbean" published by Lancet Oncology
• Population screening strategies
• Early & Cost effective diagnostic & pronostic systems

Moderator:

• Juan Carlos Alvarez, Social Policies Department Adviser, Spanish Government Presidency Cabinet (Spain)

Confirmed Speakers:

• Gabriela Cezar, Senior Director and Head, External R&D Innovation, Brazil, Latin America & South Africa, PFIZER (Brazil). "A key role for Latin America in global Precision Medicine R&D"
• Patricio Manque, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences& Director of the Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics, Universidad Mayor (Chile). "miRNAs as biomarkers for disease"
• María del Carmen Álvarez-Buylla Roces, Liaison and Institutional Development Manager, INMEGEN-Instituto Nacional de Medicina Genómica (Mexico)
• Augusto G. Silva, R & D Director, ALTHIA HEALTH (Spain). "New Predictor Models Under Personalized Medicine Scope"

“TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE BIOECONOMY FOR LATIN AMERICA”

Monday, December 9th – 15h00-16h30

Room 2

• Bioeconomy Strategy of the European Union: Opportunities for Latin America in the framework of Horizon 2020. What is there for Latin America?
• Market trends in Biofuels
• Bioplastics: Opportunities in a growing market 

Moderator:

•  Carlos Eduardo Calmanovici, President, ANPEI - Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento das Empresas Innovadoras (Brazil)

Confirmed Speakers:

• Javier Velasco, CEO, NEOL BIOSOLUTIONS S.A. (Spain)
• Roberto Horcajada, Project Dept. Sub-Director & International Projects Manager, INKEMIA IUCT GROUP S.A. (Spain). "Renewable feedstocks, one of the bases of industrial biotechnology for biorefineries, biofuels and high added value products"
• Aleck Santamaría de la Cruz, General Manager, BIOENERGY S.A. (Colombia). "Biofuels: an alternative in the transport sector"
• Antonio José Vallespir, Executive Vice President - Institutional Affairs Europe, ABENGOA BIOENERGY (Spain)

“ADVANCED THERAPIES”

Monday, December 9th – 15h00-16h30

Room 2

• The role of organ donation and transplantation systems in the light of the challenge presented by regenerative medicine
• Map of scientific excellence in Latin America
• Opportunities in the field of private health providers

 Moderator:

• Bernardo Camacho, Scientific Director, Distrital Health Secretariat of Bogotá (Colombia)

Confirmed Speakers:

• Gabriel Márquez, Technologies Manager, GENETRIX S.L. (Spain). "Regenerative Strategies for Myocardial Regeneration"
• José Terencio, COO, GRI-CEL (Spain). "Recent Advances in Gene Therapy"
• Matías Vial Valdés, General Manager, CELLS FOR CELLS S.A. (Chile)

“AGROBIOTECHNOLOGY”

Monday, December 9th – 16h30-18h00

Room 1

• Situation in Europe & in the U.S.A
• Is there room for Biotech SMEs?
• Crops of interest in Latin America

 Moderator

• Albert Sasson, President, BIOEUROLATINA (France)

 Confirmed Speakers:

• Marianela García-Siverio, Business Development Executive, CIGB - Cuban Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Cuba). "Agribiotechnology in Cuba. Practical experience at CIGB."
• Alexander Grobman, President, ETHANO PERU LLC (Peru)
• Adriana Gutiérrez, Secretary for Science, Technology & Innovation, Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation of the Cundinamarca Governance (Colombia)
• Carlos Simancas, District Secretary for Economic Development, Bogota Economic Development Secretariat (Colombia) 

"BIOBASED MEDICAL DEVICES"

Monday, December 9th – 16h30–18h30

Room 2

• Biomedical innovation and entrepreneurship
• Future of medical devices based on biotechnology
• In vitro diagnostics for infectious diseases

Moderator

• Hugo Fernando Villegas, President for Latam Area, COVIDIEN (USA -MA)

Confirmed Speakers

Diagnostics:

• Juan Carlos Briceño, Director, Biomedical Engineering Department of Los Andes University (Colombia). "Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Biomedical Engineering at Uniandes"
• Walter García, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Biotechnology Research, LABORATORIOS SILANES SA de CV (Mexico). "Molecular Diagnosis and Pharmacogenomics in Mexico"
• Maria Tuominen, Key Account Manager, International Sales, BIOHIT HEALTHCARE (Finland). "GastroPanel test for the primary diagnostics of stomach health"
• Eduardo Giacomazzi, Deputy Coordinator, COMITÊ DA CADEIA PRODUTIVA DE BIOTECNOLOGIA - COMBIO at FIESP (Brazil). "Brazilian LIfe Science and Medical Devices Map. Convergency and Challenges for the future." 

Medical Technologies:

• Xavier Abad Lloret, Product Manager, BTI BIOTECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE (Spain). "Regenerative and personalized medicine: therapeutic solutions"
• Mauricio Orozco-Levi, Head of Pneumology Service, FUNDACIÓN CARDIOVASCULAR DE COLOMBIA (Colombia). "Two New Medical Devices for Respiratory Therapy of Adults and Pediatric Patients: Oxygen Fraction Control (Controlizer) and Airflow Vibration (BURTER)"
• Mauricio Alberto Lizarazo, General Manager, OSTEOPHOENIX (Spain). "Design and production of customized osteosynthesis devices and reconstructive medicine. Future or history?"

Conferences, December 10th   

“BIOTECHNOLOGY FOR COSMETICS”

Tuesday, December 10th – 8h00-9h30

Room 1

• Strategies for finding new natural extracts
• In vitro assay technologies
• Nanotech Solutions 

Moderator:

• Jaime Mauricio Concha, Managing Director, ANDI, National Business Association of Colombia (Colombia)
  

Confirmed Speakers:

• Carlos Moro, Presidente, ABROBIOTEC S.L. (Matarromera Group) (Spain)
• Alba Lucía Valenzuela, Head of Efficacy & Safety in Vitro Laboratory, BELCORP (Colombia)
• Oscar Expósito, CSO, PHYTURE BIOTECH S.L. (Spain). "Plant Stem Cell Technology: an eco -sustainable tool for obtaining a new generation of plant extracts with high added value for its application in dermocosmetics"

 "NEGLECTED DISEASES"

Tuesday, December 10th – 8h00-9h30

Room 2

• Treatment of neglected diseases: an opportunity for biotech companies
• Excellence research in the field of neglected diseases
• Main challenges and advances in research and innovation in this area

Moderator:

• Elkin Osorio, Promotion & Prevention Manager, COLOMBIAN MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL PROTECTION (Colombia)

Confirmed Speakers:

• Isabel Amat, RUTI Vaccine Co-Inventor, ARCHIVEL FARMA S.L. (Spain)
• Walter García, Medical Director, INSTITUTO BIOCLON (Mexico). "Anascorp, the successful development of an antivenom for the treatment of an orphan disease"
• Silvio Wandalsen, Technical Director, BIOCLIN (Brazil)
• Sofía Duque Beltrá, Parasitology Group Coordinator, Branch of Scientific and Technological Research, Direction of Public Health Research, COLOMBIAN MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL PROTECTION (Colombia). "Onchocerciasis Elimination in Colombia"
• Águeda Cabello, General Manager of Health Surveillance, Paraguay's Ministry of Public Health and Social Wellbeing (Paraguay)

"LATIN DIASPORA: SUCCESSFUL LATINAMERICAN BIOENTREPRENEURS AROUND THE WORLD"

Tuesday, December 10th – 9h30-11h00

Room 1

Moderator:

• Joseph Fernández, CEO, ACTIVE MOTIF (USA -CA)

Confirmed Speakers:

• Willy A. Valdivia-Granda, Founder & CEO, ORION INTEGRATED BIOSCIENCES INC (USA -NJ). "Developing an Innovation Environment to Integrate Diagnostics, Prophylactics and Therapeutics"
• Carlos Encinas, CFO & VP for Business Development, AMERSTEM INC (USA-CA)
• Julio Castro, CEO, PALO BIOFARMA S.L. (Spain). "Coffee and Caffeine: Opportunities for the development of new medicines"
• Esteban Pombo Villar, COO, OXFORD BIOTHERAPEUTICS LTD (United Kingdom)

“FOOD BIOTECHNOLOGY, THE BIG BET”

Tuesday, December 10th – 9h30-11h00

Room 2

• Tools for quality control and traceability
• Latest developments in fermentation & probiotics
• Functional ingredients and nutrigenomics

Moderator:

• Sandra Rodríguez, Technology Intelligence Manager, CLARKE, MODET & Co (Spain)

Confirmed Speakers:

• Daniel Ramón, Consejero Delegado, BIOPOLIS S.L. (Spain)
• Gianfranco Grompone , Director Científico, DANONE RESEARCH (France). "New models for probiotic screening: a synergic study case between Europe and Latin America"
• Pablo Ortiz, Market Strategy Manager, OWL METABOLOMICS (Spain)
• Bernadette Klotz, General Manager,  ALPINA CORPORATIVO (Colombia)
• Surendra Surejdeo-Maharaj, Plant Pathologist, COCOA RESEARCH CENTRE (Trinidad and Tobago). "Understanding the Potential of Cocoa Through Innovation and Commercialization"

“BIOPROSPECTING AND BIODIVERSITY”

Tuesday, December 10th – 13h30-15h00

Room 1

• Regulatory Status
• Opportunities in marine and terrestrial prospection
• Success stories in the sustainable management of biodiversity

 Moderator:

• Óscar Manuel Cobar Pinto, Dean of the Faculty of Chemical & Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (Guatemala)

 Confirmed Speakers:

• María Mercedes Zambrano, Scientific Director, Corporación CORPOGEN (Colombia)
• Laura Charry, Business Development for South America, MAGELLAN BIOSCIENCE GROUP INC (USA-FL). "Development of sustainable technologies through marine microorganisms"
• Olga Genilloud, Scientific Director, FUNDACIÓN MEDINA (Spain). "Prospection and valorization of microbial biodiversity at Fundacion MEDINA"
• Jorge Huete-Pérez, President, NICARAGUAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (Nicaragua)

“THE IMPACT OF BIOTECHNOLOGY IN ANIMAL HEALTH AND AQUACULTURE”

Tuesday, December 10th – 13h30-15h00

Room 2

• New vaccines
• Diagnostic Systems
• Genomic technology applied to the sector
• New sources of supply

 Moderator:

• Belén Barreiro, Marketing Manager, IMMUNOLOGY AND APPLIED GENETICS S.A. - INGENASA (Spain)

 Confirmed Speakers:

• Pedro Bustamante–Gallardo, IBPG LTDA (Biotechnology & Genomic Platform) (Chile)
• Alfredo Sánchez, Sales Manager, VECOL S.A. (Colombia)
• Mirko Zimic Head Bioinformatics Group, FARVET S.A.C. (Peru).). "New technologies for the development of safer and more efficient avian vaccines"
• Geraldine Mlynarz, Gerente, ACTIVAQ S.A. (Chile)

  “GOOD MARKET ACCESS PRACTICES IN LATAM”

Tuesday, December 10th – 13h30-15h00

Room 1

• The regulatory diversity in LATAM
• The critical role of distributors
• Success stories

Moderator:

• Christian López-Silva, Head of Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences, Baker & McKenzie (Mexico)

 Confirmed Speakers:

• Antonio Vila-Coro, Head of Business Development, VIVOTECNIA RESEARCH S.L. (Spain). "GLP Drug Development as a requirement to access EU and USA markets"
• Mario Alanis Garza, International Affairs Manager, COFEPRIS- Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risk (Mexico)
• Claudia Patricia Vaca, Adviser, Colombian Ministry of Health and Social Protection (Colombia)
• Henrique Kruger Frizzo, Attorney at Law, TRENCH, ROSSI E WATANABE ADVOGADOS (Brazil). "Brazilian Market and the Government as a Relevant Stakeholder".

"BIOENTREPRENEURIAL COLOMBIA"

Tuesday, December 10th – 14h00-16h00

Room 2

The Main Character in Biolatam, Know 8 from the hottest Biotech Companies in Colombia

Moderator:

• Carlos Estévez, Biohacker, LABORATORIO DE INVESTIGACIÓN EN SISTEMAS INTELIGENTES BIOLISI (Colombia)

 Speakers:

• Jorge Soto, CEO, KERADERM (Colombia)
• Jorge Mario Giraldo, CEO, INBIOTECH (Colombia) o Germán Castaño, CEO, SOLAR CIENCIA AGRÍCOLA (Colombia)
• Camila Lecaros, GP- Investor, NAZCA VENTURES (Colombia)
• Patricia del Portillo, Executive Director, Corporación CORPOGEN (Colombia)
• Gloria Niño, CEO, SATECH (Colombia)
• Susana Fiorentino, CEO, PHAIRILAB (Colombia)
• Xavier Fargetton, CEO, ARCANATURA (Colombia)

“BIOTECH CLUSTER POLICIES IN LATIN AMERICA”

Tuesday, December 10th – 15h30-17h30

Room 1

• The role of industry associations
• Bioparks & Bioincubators
• International networks

Chairwoman:

• Elisa Robles, General Manager, CDTI-Spanish Center for the Development of Industrial Technology (Spain)

Moderator:

• Cristina Rechy, Section of Competitiveness, Innovation and Technology, OAS-Organization of American States (USA-DC)

Confirmed Speakers:

• Gabriela Couto, Founder & Director, MARKETPLAZA COSTA RICA (Costa Rica). "LatinAmerican Biotech: our potential in the world´s biotech industry"
• Vanessa Silva da Silva, Executive Coordinator, AMBIOTEC, Associação Mineira de Empresas de Biotecnologia e Ciéncias da Vida (Brazil)
• Nuno Arantes-Oliveira, President, P-BIO (Associaçao Portuguesa de Bioindústria) (Portugal). "Clustering in Portugal: finding critical mass in a small country"
• Victor Fuentes Tassara, Regional Manager, CORFO - Chilean Economic Development Agency (Chile)
• Óscar Manuel Cobar Pinto, Dean of the Faculty of Chemical & Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (Guatemala)
• Cecilia Pérez, Sectorial Coordinator, URUGUAY XXI (Uruguay). "Biotechnology Sectorial Council- Uruguayan Experience"
• Lisa Melton, News editor, Nature Biotechnology (United Kingdom)
• Jorge Andrés Muñoz Guerrero, Adviser, Sustainable Rural Developmente Directorate, National Planning Department (DNP) (Colombia)

The BIOLATAM 2013 program:

MONDAY, 9 DECEMBER 2013
TIME		CONFERENCES		PARTNERING
		Room 1	Room 2
7:00 AM	7:30 AM	DOOR OPENING & REGISTRATION
7:30 AM	8:00 AM
8:00 AM	8:30 AM	BIOLATAM 2013 OPENING CEREMONY
8:30 AM	9:00 AM
9:00 AM	9:30 AM	VENTURE CAPITAL SEMINAR Part 1: Public policies to support biotech Venture Capital		ONE-TO-ONE MEETINGS
9:30 AM	10:00 AM
10:00 AM	10:30 AM
10:30 AM	11:00 AM	VENTURE CAPITAL SEMINAR Part 2: Biotech Venture Capital, the experience of international investors	BIOSIMILARS
11:00 AM	11:30 AM
11:30 AM	12:00 PM
12:00 PM	12:30 PM	LUNCH (will not be provided by the event)
12:30 PM	1:00 PM
1:00 PM	1:30 PM
1:30 PM	2:00 PM	VENTURE CAPITAL SEMINAR Part 3: What investors seek in the latinamerican biotechnology	PERSONALIZED MEDICINE BASED ON BIOMARKERS AGAINST CANCER
2:00 PM	2:30 PM
2:30 PM	3:00 PM
3:00 PM	3:30 PM	TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE BIOECONOMY FOR LATIN AMERICA	ADVANCED THERAPIES
3:30 PM	4:00 PM
4:00 PM	4:30 PM
4:30 PM	5:00 PM	AGROBIOTECHNOLOGY	BIOBASED MEDICAL DEVICES
5:00 PM	5:30 PM
5:30 PM	6:00 PM
6:00 PM	6:30 PM

TUESDAY, 10 DECEMBER 2013
TIME		CONFERENCES		PARTNERING
		Room 1	Room 2
7:30 AM	8:00 AM	DOOR OPENING & REGISTRATION
8:00 AM	8:30 AM	BIOTECHNOLOGY FOR COSMETICS	NEGLECTED DISEASES	ONE-TO-ONE MEETINGS
8:30 AM	9:00 AM
9:00 AM	9:30 AM
9:30 AM	10:00 AM	LATIN DIASPORA: SUCCESSFUL LATINAMERICAN BIOENTREPRENEURS AROUND THE WORLD	FOOD BIOTECHNOLOGY, THE BIG BET
10:00 AM	10:30 AM
10:30 AM	11:00 AM
11:00 AM	11:30 AM	BIOPROSPECTING AND BIODIVERSITY	THE IMPACT OF BIOTECHNOLOGY IN ANIMAL HEALTH AND AQUACULTURE
11:30 AM	12:00 PM
12:00 PM	12:30 PM
12:30 PM	1:00 PM	LUNCH (will not be provided by the event)
1:00 PM	1:30 PM
1:30 PM	2:00 PM
2:00 PM	2:30 PM	GOOD MARKET ACCESS PRACTICES IN LATAM	BIOENTREPENEURIAL IN COLOMBIA
2:30 PM	3:00 PM
3:00 PM	3:30 PM
3:30 PM	4:00 PM	BIOTECH CLUSTER POLICIES IN LATIN AMERICA
4:00 PM	4:30 PM
4:30 PM	5:00 PM
5:00 PM	5:30 PM
5:30 PM	6:00 PM

 

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ORIGINAL: BioLatAm 2013

Patent Power 2013

With high-quality portfolios, newcomers are making waves

Image: Baris Simsek/Getty Images

Consumer-facing companies continue to rise against the conglomerates of the past, as household names keep being added to the Patent Power Scorecards. Over the years, we have charted the rise in the patent prowess of Google (No. 1 this year in Communication/Internet Services) and Apple (regaining the top spot this year in Electronics).Facebook takes its bow this year, debuting at No. 2 in the Communication/Internet Services scorecard. This is particularly impressive given Facebook’s relatively small patent output—just 46 U.S. patents granted in 2012, versus over a thousand for both Google and Research in Motion (nowBlackBerry)—and it reflects the high impact and general applicability of its patents.

The Patent Power Scorecards are based on quantitative benchmarking of the patent portfolios of more than 5000 leading commercial enterprises, academic institutions, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies worldwide. This benchmarking—carried out by us at 1790 Analytics, based in Haddonfield, N.J.—takes into account not only the size of organizations’ patent portfolios but also the quality of those portfolios, as reflected in characteristics such as growth, impact, originality, and general applicability. This enables smaller but higher quality portfolios such as Facebook’s to fare well against much larger portfolios. (See “Constructing the Patent Power Scorecards” for an explanation of our methodology and an explanation of the table headings.)

Patent Power 2013: Our annual roundup of which companies have the best high-tech patent portfolios.

And Facebook is far from the only newcomer using quality to punch above its portfolio’s weight. Within the same Communication/Internet Services category, there’s SeeReal Technologies (developer of holographic and 3-D display technology) at No. 5 and Cleversafe(provider of dispersed storage solutions) at No. 7. Looking at other scorecards shows DigitalOptics Corp.debuting at No. 1 in Semiconductor Manufacturing. This subsidiary ofTessera Technologies developsimaging systems for smartphones. Other interesting newcomers this year include Validity Sensors (No. 10 in Computer Peripherals and Storage) with its fingerprint sensor technology, VoiceBox Technologies (No. 13 in Computer Software) with its conversational speech recognition software, andCrestron Electronics (No. 6 in Computer Systems) with its home automation systems.

Moving beyond the electrotechnology space, the Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals scorecard has a number of interesting new names, includingVertex Pharmaceuticals (developer of cystic fibrosis and hepatitis C treatments) at No. 3; Enanta Pharmaceuticals (also a developer of hepatitis C treatments) at No. 4; and Isis Pharmaceuticals (developer of antisense RNA-based drugs) at No. 8.

Finally, there’s a noteworthy move in the Universities/Education/Training scorecard. Last year saw a Chinese university qualify for the scorecards for the first time, namely Tsinghua University at No. 15. This year, Tsinghua has continued to strengthen its patent portfolio, and it is ranked third in this year’s Universities/Education/Training scorecard, behind only theMassachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California.

About the Author

Patrick Thomas and Anthony Breitzman are cofounders of 1790 Analytics. They specialize in technology assessment and intellectual property evaluation, publishing widely on the subjects and working with leading commercial, governmental, and financial organizations worldwide.

Each scorecard below is an interactive table containing the top 20 companies in each industry segment. By default, each scorecard displays the first 10 companies: to see more either adjust the number of companies display using the drop down menu, or click "next" at the bottom of the table. Tables can be ordered according to the contents of any column by clicking on the label of that column. For an explanation of the different label, read the sidebar, Constructing the Patent Power Scorecard."

AEROSPACE AND DEFENSE | AUTOMOTIVE AND PARTS | BIOTECHNOLOGY AND PHARMACEUTICALS | CHEMICALS
COMMUNICATION/INTERNET EQUIPMENT | COMMUNICATION/INTERNET SERVICES | COMPUTER PERIPHERALS AND STORAGE
COMPUTER SOFTWARE | COMPUTER SYSTEMS | CONGLOMERATES | ELECTRONICS | GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
MEDICAL EQUIPMENT/INSTRUMENTS | SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS | SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING
SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING | UNIVERSITIES/EDUCATION/TRAINING

Google Science Fair winners: Flashlights without batteries, ‘bat signals,’ non-viral viruses

ORIGINAL: Venture Beat
John Koetsier  

September 24, 2013

Google

Google Science Fair is clearly where minor miracles happen. Flashlights that work without batteries, traffic that moves itself out of the way of an oncoming emergency vehicle, and new flu medicines — designed on a computer — that are effective even against pandemic strains.

And all, of course, from teenagers.

Google announced the winners of its 2013 science fair today, and three teens from Australia, Canada, and the USA have emerged from the 18 finalists that Google invited to Mountain View, and won their age categories.

Bat signal for ambulances

In the 13-14 age category, Aussie teen Viney Kumar designed a system that allows ambulances and other emergency vehicles to send out a GPS-informed “bat signal” to cars within 500 meters (a third of a mile) notifying them via cellular connection that an ambulance or fire truck is coming, and requesting that they pull over.

Kumar designed the system, he said, when he saw an ambulance stuck in traffic in India, unable to move, and wondered how many people were dying for lack of prompt emergency response.

Flashlight without batteries

Canadian teen Ann Makosinski won the 15-16 year-old category with a novel flashlight idea that requires no battery. The “Hollow Flashlight” runs solely on the heat of your hand, Makosinski’s flashlight uses Peltier tiles that capture energy from the flow of heat to cooler areas, such as the surrounding air. Incredibly efficient, the light can produce up to 5.4 mW and generate a light that is five foot-candles in brightness.

Since a foot-candle is basically the brightness of a lit candle at one foot distance (shocker), her battery-less device is producing more light than five candles — impressive.

The no-viral flu virus

Tim Evanson  Model of an HIV virus

Eric Chen of the USA was both the 17-18 category winner and the grand prize winner for an extremely ambitious project with the goal of stopping the flu virus before it goes viral. Chen realized that the influenza endonuclease, or enzymes, are essential for viral growth. To stop the flu, therefore, scientists need only stop its reproduction, killing the infection by not allowing it to spread.

To find the best way of doing so, Chen set up computational models and computer-aided designs of flu viruses and the endonuclease components, and “virtually screened” potential medications that could molecularly bind to the enzymes, rendering them inert, and killing the flu dead.

It sound like science fiction, or at least something the Center for Disease Control is doing in some billion-dollar lab in Atlanta, but this teen pulled it off, finding “a number of novel, potent endonuclease inhibitors,” and laying the groundwork for further study and optimization.

This teen isn’t just smart at science — Chen has filed a patent on this discovery.

The winners all received prizes from Google and CERN, Lego, National Geographic, and Scientific American. The grand prize winner, Chen, will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to the Galapagos Islands, and $50,000 in scholarships.