When I visited UCLA’s Boelter Hall last Wednesday, I took the stairs to the third floor, looking for Room 3420. And then I walked right by it. From the hallway, it’s a pretty unassuming place.

But something monumental happened there 50 years ago today. A graduate student named Charley Kline sat at an ITT Teletype terminal and sent the first digital data transmission to Bill Duvall, a scientist who was sitting at another computer at the Stanford Research Institute (now known as SRI International) on the other side of California. It was the beginning of ARPANET, the small network of academic computers that was the precursor to the internet.

Few major companies have been as aggressive as IBM in experimenting with different ways of hiring tech workers.

Citing a serious skills gap, the multinational International Business Machines Corporation is looking for different recruiting channels for its workforce of 360,000 employees. IBM's view is that “new-collar” jobs in cybersecurity, cloud computing and other high-demand fields don’t necessarily require a traditional college degree.

Image: Kelli Jordan

Close scrutiny of VC deal terms in India reveals a nuanced pattern of objectivity and discrimination.

No matter how rational we may claim or want to be, no human being is entirely free of bias. The challenge is to be aware of one’s own bias – or, failing that, to design processes that mitigate bias – so that objective considerations can prevail. This challenge becomes especially pertinent in a field such as venture capital, where intrinsic uncertainty renders decision makers particularly prone to irrational influences.

The European Commission has put the Horizon Europe mission on climate neutral and smart cities at the heart of the Nordic Edge Expo, the largest smart city event in the Nordics (Stavanger, Norway, 24-26 September 2019).

On 24 September 2019, the European Commission brought together key players like the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC), the Smart Cities Information System (SCIS) and European networks like EUROCITIES and Open & Agile Smart Cities (OASC) as well as actors from across the continent in the workshop “On a Mission for the European Cities of the Future - Achievements, Challenges, Opportunities” to discuss the Horizon Europe mission on carbon neutral and smart cities.

(CNN)The Russian Navy has discovered five new islands in the Arctic after they were revealed by melting glaciers.

The Navy first spotted the islands in 2016 using satellite imagery, but only confirmed and mapped them in August and September during an expedition to the site, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday. The new islands are located near the Vylki glacier off the coast of the remote Novaya Zemlya archipelago, which lies in the Arctic Ocean northwest of the Russian mainland. They range in area from 900 to 54,500 square meters (about 9,690 to 586,630 square feet) -- as big as 10 football fields.

Imagine You’re an Atom

If you walk into one of Stacey Lowery Bretz’s chemistry classes, you might find dozens of students flapping their arms like a bird. Or they could be climbing across a long row of chairs, hoping to find a mate on the other side of the aisle.

No need to worry. They’re just imagining what it’s like to be an atom.

The particle life, it turns out, is quite dynamic. There’s a whole lot of spinning, vibrating, shape-shifting and match-making going on at the atomic level. But you wouldn’t know if you stuck to memorizing equations.

Being available 24/7 has its advantages, but as we have seen tweet after tweet, it also has its drawbacks. For businesses with a social media presence, it means establishing a few rules of etiquette to avoid regrettable faux pas. A new report and survey from Influence.co titled, “ Social Media Etiquette: Exploring the Code of Courtesy in the Age of Social Media,” looks at how people should act in the digital world.

Overwhelmed by student debt and underwhelmed by your career choices? It’s normal to feel anxious. The economy is undergoing a radical transformation as technology changes the nature of work and some jobs disappear. To make matters more complicated, most industries are dominated by a handful of superstar, productive firms that shower their employees with most of the economy’s wage gains. If you work at these firms, you get more raises, learn useful skills, and get a stamp of approval that offers credibility throughout your career. If you don’t, your career and wages could stagnate.

Utah-based venture capital firm Peak Ventures announced a third fund of $75 million on Oct. 24. The fund is its largest to date and the firm changed its name to Album VC.

Firm leaders felt it was necessary to change the name because another venture capital firm also had “peak” in its name. The new name was inspired by the creative and collaborative processes involved in investing and how that process mirrors the work of musicians creating a new album, Album VC general partner John Mayfield said.

Image: Five team members of the newly named Album VC, left to right, Sid Krommenhoek, John Mayfield, Lisa Thomas, Steve Hale and Diogo Myrrha, look forward to collaborating with new companies in Utah and elsewhere after announcing their third funding of $75 million. (Preston Crawley)

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)’s recently announced $4.2 billion partnership to co-develop and co-commercialize Merck KGaA, Darmstadt’s cancer immunotherapy candidate M7824 was a reminder of just how much biopharma giants are willing to invest in a therapeutic area that has generated sometimes-dazzling results.

How high is up for immuno-oncology? Numerous firms have ventured their best projections for the size of the market over the next few years. Transparency Market Research estimates that cancer immunotherapy will grow from $37.5 billion in 2015 to $124.88 billion by 2024, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.5%. Other forecasts put the size of the potential future immuno-oncology market by 2024 even higher: from $128.3 billion (KBV Research), to $152.829 billion (Meticulous Research), to $173 billion (Market Research Engine).

While the size of the future m

September 23, 2019As we’ve discussed extensively, agile organizations operate in fundamentally different ways to traditional organizations (see our previous articles here and here). But what is the role of the leader in this new open, empowered organization?

The roles of leaders in traditional organizations

In traditional organizations, the focus of leaders is to maximize value for shareholders. To do this, they play the roles of planner (developing strategy and translating it into a plan); director (assigning responsibility); and controller (making sure everyone does what they should to minimize variance against the plan).

October 21, 2019It’s a fairly typical scenario: An organization is in the midst of a large-scale change. The management invests intensive time and resources to develop protocols and programs to support their new direction. In the beginning, these efforts work; KPIs may even increase. But before long, old behaviors begin to pop up and progress toward the new direction slows down. In this way, driving behavioral change can be like a game of “Whac-a-mole” in an arcade. You implement programs that pound one mole (behavior) into its hole only to find the same mole (behavior) keeps popping up around you.

Super Angel Investor, Faz Bashi, MD, guests on BioTalk from the BioHealth Capital Region Investor Conference to talk about his background in Immunology/Virology, Venture Investing, and coming to the BioHealth Capital Region.

Listen on Google Podcasts bit.ly/2qR2cRE, Apple Podcasts apple.co/32Ta8A3, and TuneIn bit.ly/2Nip5VJ.

Dr. Faz Bashi, M.D., has a background in Immunology and Virology from UCSF. Faz is the Chair of the Medical Device Screening Committee of Life Science Angels and is an active member of the LSA screening committee for Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals. He is also the Chair of the Angel Capital Association’s Life Sciences Syndication Group, is a member of the Berkeley Angel Network, and was one of the founding members of Healthtech Capital, where he served two years on the Board of Directors.

He is an adjunct professor in the Integrative Health Studies program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Faz is an active advisor to the UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute. He had worked previously at San Mateo Medical Center developing and implementing special clinical projects targeted towards helping those who are under-served, which included projects focused on TeleDermatology, Diabetic Retinopathy, Screening, and advancements in electronic medical records. Faz is an active consultant to Coleman Associates as a Deep Dive expert, and he coaches public health clinics and safety net organizations on improving their workflow processes. He currently serves as an External Advisory Board Member at The Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design.

Drones are being taught to deliver food and medical supplies to customers. Now, doctors and scientists at the University of Maryland at College Park are creating special, custom-made drones that can literally save lives. Alexey Gorbachev has the story narrated by Anna Rice. 

Cartesian Therapeutics’ President & CEO Murat Kalayoglu, MD, Ph.D., guests on BioTalk from the BioHealth Capital Region Investor Conference to talk about developing novel cell and gene therapies, building his company in the region, and also being an investor.

Listen now on Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/2pNSKhr, Google Podcasts http://bit.ly/2qCatIU, and TuneIn http://bit.ly/2Wb14DP

Dr. Kalayoglu is co-founder and CEO of Cartesian Therapeutics, a fully-integrated, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel cell and gene therapies to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases. Before Cartesian, he was co-founder and CEO of Topokine, which he led from concept to late-stage clinical trials, followed by a successful sale to Allergan (NYSE:AGN). Prior to Topokine, he was co-founder and COO of HealthHonors Corporation, which he led from concept to commercialization, followed by a successful sale to Healthways (NASDAQ:HWAY). Dr. Kalayoglu is a board-certified ophthalmologist who completed his residency and research fellowship at Harvard, MD/Ph.D. in immunology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Founded in 2016, Cartesian is a fully-integrated, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel cell and gene therapies to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases. All of the company’s products are manufactured internally at the company’s wholly-owned cGMP manufacturing facility in Gaithersburg, MD. Cartesian has three programs in clinical development. The lead product, Descartes-08, is a CD8+ CAR T-cell therapy with a defined and predictable half-life, enabling repeat dosing to maximize potency while minimizing risk of toxicity. Descartes-08 is currently in Phase I/II clinical trials to treat patients with multiple myeloma.

No professional has a perfect record: at some point, you’ll apply for what seems like a dream job — and be rejected. Taking a little time to wallow is natural. But eventually, you have to will yourself to move on. That doesn’t mean giving up on your dream, but it does mean recalibrating. Here are four strategies you can use to overcome the disappointment and take action.

Setting up and running a start-up is no easy feat. Entrepreneurs, businessmen and women worldwide come across many challenges daily. Funding, finding the right talent and time management are only some of the issues they are faced with on a daily basis. But sometimes, all it takes are a few small changes to processes in order to increase the level of productivity and efficiency in a business.

IN BRIEF: Current students of entrepreneurship want to explore ethical perspectives and principled decision-making. Better training tools and stronger institutional support for values-based entrepreneurship education will help scale lasting change.

For several decades, civic leaders and government officials who wanted to downplay the decline of manufacturing and the importance of Wall Street have been talking about New York City as the thriving center of the "creative economy."

The Brooklyn Navy Yard and Industry City in Brooklyn, for example, proclaim themselves as the home of creative industries.

Pocket-size ultrasound devices that cost 50 times less than the machines in hospitals (and connect to your phone). Virtual reality that speeds healing in rehab. Artificial intelligence that’s better than medical experts at spotting lung tumors. These are just some of the innovations now transforming medicine at a remarkable pace.