Aug. 26, 2024 - When Timothy M. Block, PhD, an award-winning virologist and accomplished inventor, launched the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center (PABC) in 2006, he didn’t expect that his brainchild would grow into a powerful scientific and economic engine with nearly 100 member companies and flourishing high-tech facilities in both Doylestown and Philadelphia. The creation and development of the organizations are recounted by Dr. Block in a new book, “Curing Disease from the Ground Up: How to Operate a Biotechnology Business Incubator,” published this summer by Springer Nature, Switzerland. More here.
July 15, 2024 – The Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center (PABC) has appointed Nick Spring, BSc (Hons), DipM, MCIM, a former executive in the pharmaceutical industry, as its first Entrepreneur in Residence. At the outset, Nick is advising five spinout companies from the PABC’s parent organization, the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute: Cirna, Merlin, Harligene, Pentravalent and Rimmsting. He also is providing guidance to 10 other companies that received grants last year from the PABC’s Academic Innovation Zone (AIZ) program. More here.
March 30, 2024 - Café with Soul and a Bucks County family are donating $120,000 to support major enhancements to the teaching lab at the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center (PABC), which is used by high school students from the Central Bucks School District and other high schools across the region. The funds, which will pay for new advanced scientific instruments, equipment and supplies that students use for both instructional and applied research, have been donated by Café with Soul, a nonprofit restaurant with a charitable mission. More here.
Below is an up-to-date list of 17 US-based biotech incubators currently supporting the next generation of scientists and researchers. In 2001, Mark Schweiker, Pennsylvania’s governor at the time, awarded $7.9 million to the Hepatitis B Foundation in a move to fund the development of a biotech center in Bucks County, PA. Through this partial funding, the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center was born, a nonprofit life sciences incubator fostering and supporting the advancement of biotechnology in Bucks County and the neighboring region. It is managed by the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute. More here.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, in his first 100 days in Pennsylvania's top job, visited the PABC on April 27 with Rick Siger, acting secretary of the Department of Community and Economic Development. Five days later he shared on social media a positive review of our operation. Please watch it here. His office's news release is here.
For the second consecutive year, Louis P. Kassa III, MPA, chief executive officer of the Hepatitis B Foundation, Baruch S. Blumberg Institute and Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center (PABC), has been chosen by the Philadelphia Business Journal for its Power 100 list, which is being released this week. Kassa became named CEO of the organizations on July 1, 2022, succeeding co-founder Timothy M. Block, PhD. In 2019, Dr. Block was named by the Philadelphia Business Journal to its Power 100 list.
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