Biotech Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes
Monday, March 3, 2014 4:30pm – 6:00pm
University of Washington, Foege Building, S110
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Call to order by Maureen Munn at 4:30
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Introductions and attendance - please see sign in sheet
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Damon May, Computational Biologist and Genomics Student of the FHCRC Jim Olson Lab, presented
on Project Violet
o Their mission is to develop drugs from nature and get them to patients. There is a focus on
rare diseases.
o Tumor Paint is a small protein derived from the Israeli Death Scorpion, conjugated to a
fluorophore. Tumor Paint has an affinity for the protein Annexin 2, which while present
inside many cells, flips to the outside of cancer cells. It is being used to distinguish
cancerous cells of the brain from healthy cells during surgery. Human trials started in 2013
in Australia.
o Optides are optimized Knottins, 20-60 amino acids long, made recombinantly in the lab in
kidney cells. Ideally they are tough and can cross the blood-brain barrier. Knottins are made
by venomous organisms such as scorpions, spiders and cone snails. They are also made by
plants such as potatoes, sunflowers and oubli, as well as bacteria and viruses. They are also
made by humans, which suggests that they could potentially be engineered for therapeutics
without issues of rejection.
o Optimization could include the conjugation of fluorophores, as in Tumor Paint, “warheads”
to kill targeted cells, or radiosensitizers for use during radiation therapy.
o Starting therapy development with drug-like candidates found in nature can shave years and
billions of dollars off development time and costs.
o There are potential applications for use of peptide drug conjugates for colon cancer,
because even when metastasized, the GCC receptors still appear on cell surfaces. There are
also applications for breast cancer therapies in which peptide drug conjugates could be
introduced to the lymph nodes nearest the tumor to follow possible metastatic routes.
o Dravet Syndrome and Alzheimer’s Disease also present potential targets for therapies based
on Optides.
o The Project Violet website serves as a community outreach from the lab to teach the public
about this work. www.projectviolet.org
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Approval of minutes of November 25, 2013. Moved to approve by Rita Smith and seconded by Dina
Kovarik.
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Janis Wignall, NWABR – The Student BioExpo is progressing well with 322 student mentor matches
made! The event will occur at Shoreline Community College on May 22.
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Nancy Hutchison, SEP/FHCRC – The SEP Summer Teacher Program deadline for application has been
extended.
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Dina Kovarik, ISB – shared information on several fronts:
Institute for Systems Biology Updates (from Dina Kovarik and for Claudia Ludwig)
1. The Baliga Lab will be hiring 2 new teachers for the summer. We are looking for teachers
who have not worked at ISB previously. The pay is $30/hour. One teacher will work on a
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curriculum module about Evolution & Adaptation. The other teacher will work on a
modeling module, requiring knowledge of both science and math state and national
standards. Claudia will email an announcement to teachers, or email her at
cludwig@systemsbiology.org.
We’ll be hiring 4 high school interns this summer! This is a good time for your rising seniors
to apply. For more information, see: http://www.systemsbiology.org/laboratory-intern-hs
The Baliga lab will also be holding a week-long Summer Systems Academy. Date TBD, but
likely the beginning of August. Participating teachers will build a take-home photometer and
receive systems biology curriculum kits to use in your classrooms.
ISB is partnering with NOAA on a series of webinars about ocean acidification. The Opening
Presentation is Wed, March 19. Claudia’s webinar on the Ocean Acidification module is on
Wed, April 23 at 3pm. For a full schedule and more details see:
http://oceanacidification.noaa.gov/AreasofFocus/EducationOutreach/WebinarSeries.aspx
Note: If the webpage doesn’t load, it’s undergoing periodic edits or maintenance.
We need teachers for Dynamic DNA! This is a three-week course integrating 2 systems
biology modules and 2 bioinformatics modules. Claudia and Dina will help! The course has
been taught for 3 years and is OSPI approved. Locations:
 Kirkland (Lake Washington Institute of Technology)
 Gig Harbor
 Seattle (tentative)
Bellevue College Update (from Jennifer Pang via Dina Kovarik)
The 2014 Bellevue College Science Fair is this weekend, Saturday, March 8. Public
Viewing is from 1-3 pm. If any teachers would like to come by and check it out, Jenn will help
you and your students participate next year!
Shoreline Community College Amgen Biotech Experiences Program (from Dina Kovarik and for
Adrienne Houck)
There are still a few slots left in the third and final “Applications of Biotechnology in the
Classroom (ABC) workshop.” “Part C: Cloning DNA to Make Protein” will be held Friday &
Saturday June 27 & 28 at Shoreline Community College. In this workshop, teachers will work
through the entire process of cloning the red fluorescent protein, expressing it in vitro, and
using bioinformatics to study the protein sequences and structures. For more information visit:
http://www.shoreline.edu/biotechnology/outreach/workshops.aspx or email Adrienne
(ahouck@shoreline.edu) or Dina (dina@digitalworldbiology.com).
Looking for internship opportunities for your students? (from Sandy Porter)
Bio-Link has created an internship page on their biotech careers site: http://biotechcareers.org/internships The parent site, biotech-careers.org, is also full of very useful career
and education planning information, including career profiles of recent graduates and
information on certificate and degree programs.
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Our next meeting is on Monday, June 2.