WINTER 2022

 

Knowledge Community Insider

 

 

 

Aggie Square: ‘We Made It!”

The culmination of roughly five years of work was celebrated last Wednesday (Feb. 16) at the ceremonial groundbreaking for Aggie Square. More than 200 invited guests came to the Sacramento campus of UC Davis to share in the excitement.

Gary S. May told the crowd that in 2017, after he had been appointed chancellor but before he took office, he began working with Mayor Darrell Steinberg “to create a hub of innovation, economic development and community engagement here in Sacramento. … Today I’m happy to say, we made it!”

Partnership was an overarching theme for the day, as Steinberg and numerous other elected officials came to mark the milestone.

UC Davis News  |  February 22, 2022 

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The Commons Podcast is going into labs to talk with researchers about their science and passions

With season 2 of The Commons well underway, we are shifting our attention to highlighting the research, discovery, and academic inquiry that is at the very heart of most successful innovation districts around the world. While place, proximity, clusters, and connections are vital ingredients of any innovation district – it is the magnetism created by investigators and their labs that provides the foundation for research, corporate, start-up, and community collaborations.

Dr Anthony Atala is a bioengineer, urologist, practicing surgeon, and renowned researcher.

To say his contributions to the field of regenerative medicine have improved the human condition would be an understatement.  Besides serving as the W. Boyce Professor and Chair of Urology, he is the G. Link Professor and founding Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, where he leads a team of more than 400 researchers dedicated to developing cell therapies and engineering replacement tissues and organs for use in more than 40 different areas of the body.

Physicians and scientists at WFIRM were the first in the world to engineer laboratory-grown organs that were successfully implanted into humans. Today, this interdisciplinary team that numbers about 400 is working to engineer more than 40 different replacement tissues and organs, and to develop healing cell therapies – all with the goal to cure, rather than merely treat, disease. In fact, fifteen different applications of technologies developed in Dr. Atala’s laboratory are now in clinical use around the world.

Listen to Dr. Atala’s Interview on The Commons

This is the first in a series of conversations with leading researchers around North America, exploring the breadth of research being conducted at leading Knowledge Communities.
We welcome your ideas for future guests.

Suggest a Guest for The Commons

UW Regents approve milestone development in new Portage Bay Crossing area on Seattle campus

The University of Washington Board of Regents last week approved the development plan for the first major project in the UW’s newly named Portage Bay Crossing area on the west side of the Seattle campus. The Regents approved a ground lease of the property at Site W27 to Wexford Science + Technology and a lease of building space by the University.

University of Washington News   |   March 14, 2022

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Atrium Health names new innovation district The Pearl to honor neighborhood’s history

This branding is a nod to the area’s vibrant Black history, including that of Pearl Street Park and the Brooklyn neighborhood. CEO Gene Woods acknowledged how the area’s history has often been overlooked but also emphasized the importance of starting a new, more inclusive chapter. The innovation district will be an intersection of medical professionals, students, business owners, entrepreneurship and research. Atrium plans to break ground in the third quarter.

“Our journey to build an innovation district will no doubt require time. It will require energy and determination,” Woods said at today’s virtual announcement, also referencing the process of making a natural pearl.

The Pearl will be home to Charlotte’s first four-year medical school, a second campus of the Wake Forest School of Medicine.

Charlotte Business Journal   |   March 3, 2022 (Subscription needed to read for full article)

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French surgical institute to anchor Atrium Health’s innovation district in midtown

Atrium Health has secured an anchor tenant for The Pearl innovation district in midtown.

IRCAD, a French research and training institute for surgeons, will establish its U.S. headquarters at The Pearl, Atrium said today. The institute will anchor the first research building, with the office opening as soon as 2025. Atrium expects the IRCAD location to attract thousands of medical professionals to Charlotte each year.

Charlotte Business Journal   |   March 14, 2022 (Subscription needed to read for full article)

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Life sciences jobs growth ranking is more good new for Arizona economy

The recent study from CBRE Group Inc. showing that Phoenix was the highest in the nation for growth in life sciences jobs is phenomenal news for Arizona’s economy — and it didn’t happen by accident.

The life sciences industry includes areas such as medicine, bioscience, biotechnology or biomedical informatics. A concerted effort by Arizona State University and community leaders to grow and expand life sciences research, generate new spinout companies, attract new companies and produce more graduates trained in the life sciences areas has been underway for more than two decades.

AZ Inno   |   February 25, 2022

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Forging Ahead

The former site of a Ford Motor Co. Model T assembly plant in Pittsburgh is undergoing a major adaptive reuse that will result in a new mixed-use, life science development that marks the city’s broader evolution into a national hub of innovation and technology.

The Assembly, as the site is now known, marks one of the latest collaborations between developer Wexford Science & Technology, LLC and its strategic partner Ventas, Inc., as part of a pipeline agreement launched by the two companies in 2017.

REIT Magazine   |   January / February 2022

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Hidden in Plain Sight: The Growing Role of Computation in Science

One of downtown Durham’s most memorable landmarks, the Chesterfield building looks like it was aesthetically designed to maintain the country’s morale during World War II. On the former cigarette factory’s roof rests a brilliant red sign that’s visible from miles away.But don’t mistake the building’s quaint exterior for antiquity: the Chesterfield Building is home to one of the nation’s most powerful quantum computers. Managed by the Duke Quantum Center, the computer is part of Duke’s effort to bolster the Scalable Quantum Computing Laboratory (SQLab).

Duke University Research Blog  |  February 8, 2022

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Wake Forest Biotech Place Celebrates 10 Years

Ten years since the former R.J. Reynolds Tobacco company manufacturing facility opened its renovated doors as Wake Forest Biotech Place. Ten years since over 450 scientists and researchers set up shop in pursuit of advancing their research into commercialized products…

But despite its name, the 242,000-square-foot space, developed by Wexford Science & Technology, has been of service for more than science in its renovated lifetime.

Innovation Quarter  |  February 2022

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New bar opening in Bailey Power Plant

 

 

Winston-Salem Journal  |  February 24, 2022
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22 Projects to Watch

 

 

 

Philadelphia Business Journal  |  January 29, 2022
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Pittsburgh Life Sciences Sector Shows Off Potential

 

 

 

Commercial Property Executive  |  March 9, 2022
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