Joseph A. Cerro

R&D IT Best Practices for Growing Small/Mid-Sized Biopharmas

I'll be moderating a roundtable discussion next month on the topic of R&D I.T. Best Practices for Growing Small/Mid-Sized Biopharmas. The event is being coordinated by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, and it will be held at Microsoft's New England Research & Development Center from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM on Wednesday, April 14, 2010.

If you are interested in being a panelist, or if there is someone whom you'd like to see as a panelist, please send me a note via email or via twitter direct message.

You can register to attend the event at http://bit.ly/9gUR4p.

Panelists include:

• David Osterman, Director of Research Informatics, Biorelix, Inc.
• Tom Plasterer, Adjunct Professor, Northeastern University
• Keith Robison, Lead Senior Scientist, Infinity Pharmaceuticals
• Jeff Warhaft, Associate Director, R&D IT Solutions Delivery, Biogen Idec
• Barry Wythoff, Scientist & IT Project Manager, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
• David Yee, Head of Knowledge & Information Systems, Archemix Corporation

Here is the preliminary abstract:

R&D IT Best Practices for Growing Small/Mid-Sized Biopharmas

As smaller biopharma companies grow and mature into larger organizations, they need to transition from relatively ad hoc, spreadsheet heavy, lightly supported R&D IT environments to more comprehensive, scalable platforms and support models. This presents substantial challenges to scientists, managers, and IT professionals, ranging from prioritization of new features and functions, creation of new workflows, budget and staffing issues, in-house platforms versus COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) platforms, and getting organizational support for necessary changes. Our expert panel will discuss these issues and more in this Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council Life Science Cluster roundtable discussion.

A Call to Arms - Data Standards in Collaborative Research

I'll be moderating a presentation and panel discussion next month in Waltham, MA as part of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council's Life Sciences lecture series on "Technology And Life Sciences Collaboration."

Dr. Martin Leach, Head of Research and Biomarker IT at Merck Research Laboratories will present A Call to Arms - Data Standards in Collaborative Research. I've known Martin since my days at Bayer, when he was my counterpart at Curagen. He is an articulate and outspoken advocate for the collaborative benefits that are possible when data standards can be adopted and applied across industry and the academy. I anticipate that he will make a stirring call for biopharma groups working in areas like preclinical research and translational medicine to adopt some of the data standardization approaches that have been so successful on the clinic, such as CDISC, etc.

Immediately following Martin's presentation, we'll convene a panel to discuss what can and is being done toward the development and adoption of research data standards and asking 'if not, why not.' The panelists will include Dr. Chris Bouton, CEO of Entagen, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Bioinformatics at Boston University and former Head of Integrative Biology at Pfizer, Dr. Jens Hoefkens, Managing Director of GeneData USA, Michele Pontinen, MBA, Life Sciences R&D Practice Leader at CapGemini, and Matthew Trunnell, Manager of Research Computing at the Broad Institute.

For up to date information about the presentation and panel discussion, or to register to attend, please visit http://lifesciences081202.eventbrite.com/.