Tag: Biotechnology Industry Organization

I met my friend, Dr. Craig Shimasaki, at a conference 1,600 miles from OKC

Dr. Craig Shimasaki at OKBio booth on the floor of a past Biotechnology Industry Organization conference.

Two decades ago, I was one of a group of more than 50 Oklahomans who represented Oklahoma’s life science community at the annual BIO — Biotechnology Innovation Organization — conference in San Francisco.

It was my first time to attend the BIO show and to travel as part of the group that identified itself as OKBio. The annual BIO show brings thousands of people — scientists, entrepreneurs, investors, economic development professionals and reporters — together for a week of networking and showcasing emerging life science technologies.

There was a joke that we had to travel 1,600 miles to get to know our neighbors.

Only it was not a joke, but, in fact, reality.

That 2004 BIO show was my first of what became more than a dozen trips with the OKBio group to pitch Oklahoma and our growing life sciences community in major cities like San Francisco, Chicago, San Diego, Washington, D.C., and more.

So, I met a lot of people on that first BIO trip who became important sources to me as a newspaper reporter for future articles about local startups or emerging research.

In fact, I specifically recall meeting Craig Shimasaki, MBA, Ph.D., on the floor of San Francisco’s Moscone Center. Dr. Shimasaki was stationed along with his wife in front of a display that showcased the OKC-based startup he was guiding at the time.

If you’re not familiar with Dr. Shimasaki, he’s a California native who emigrated from his home state to Oklahoma to help develop a technology that diagnosed the flu virus. Along the way, he also earned his MBA from Northwestern University, his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from the University of Tulsa, and never left the state.

Since that first introduction, I’ve become friends with Dr. Shimasaki and interviewed him probably a dozen times or more for newspaper articles on Oklahoma-based startups he founded or guided, groundbreaking research in which he was involved and books on entrepreneurship he wrote.

I’ve watched him participate in a panel discussion on ‘gut health’ at one BIO show and engage with potential investors in a Startup Stadium presentation at another. I’ve sat in on Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup pitches by college teams for which he served as advisor. He’s led me on a tour of a world class laboratory that he oversees.

It was from Dr. Shimasaki as he discussed one of his books on biotech entrepreneurship years ago that I first encountered the term “you don’t know what you don’t know.”

And, you know, I don’t know.

Dr. Craig Shimasaki making a presentation at a past BIO show.

I’ve written all of this because of how life sometimes leads you back to where you began.

Recently, I reconnected with Dr. Shimasaki through Moleculera Labs,  the Oklahoma City-based company for which he co-founded and serves as CEO. Molecular Labs describes itself as “a precision medicine company focused on identifying the underlying immune-mediated root of neurologic, psychiatric, and behavioral disorders.”

The company has gained a lot of attention both local and nationally for its technology that can identify the underlying cause of apparent psychiatric and behavioral disorders that afflict both children and adults. Moleculera Labs has tested more than 15,000 patients since it began offering its test panel on a commercial basis about a decade ago.

So, when Dr. Shimasaki asked me to provide some assistance in crafting press releases for breaking news the company sought to share, I was all in.

Over the past two weeks, Molecular Labs announced the addition of a long-time life science industry veteran to its Board of Directors, and also revealed that it has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) that will help it develop AI technology that will be integrated into its test panels.

Here’s a link to the announcement of Rodney Cotton as a new Moleculera Board member.

And here’s a link to the news release about OCAST Oklahoma Applied Research Support grant the company received.

There is even more breaking news from Moleculera Labs this month. The company announced this past week a strategic collaboration with Quest Diagnostics by which its offers patients of its neuropsychiatric autoantibody test services the option to provide blood specimens to any of Quest’s lab centers across the U.S.

Here’s a link to the Quest Diagnostics announcement.

It’s all big news not only for Moleculera Labs, but for the state’s entire life sciences community and all of Oklahoma.

For me, it’s the latest development in a relationship that began two decades ago on the floor of the BIO show 1,600 miles from OKC.

We’ve been good ‘neighbors’ ever since.

BONUS COMMENT FROM DR. SHIMASAKI:

“The BIO International Conferences allowed us to connect, and it’s been a wonderful relationship working with Jim Stafford over the many years as he has been actively covering the biotech and life science scene in Oklahoma,” Dr. Shimasaki said.  “Jim has an innovative way to tell audiences about the interesting stories in a way that inspires and informs,”

Thanks for the kind words, Dr. Shimasaki, but it’s innovators like you who have shown me the impact that your research can have — and is having — on human health worldwide.

An unexpected gift and a flight to remember

 

Editor’s note: Back in 2005, I covered the annual Biotechnology Industry Organization convention in Boston as technology reporter for The Oklahoman. I was moved by an incident that happened on the flight back home and wrote about it in a column a week later. It’s short and not of anything of real consequence, but I’m proud of the message that it has. So, I’m sharing it in this blog.

I settled into my seat – row 24, seat D on the aisle – for a four-hour flight from Boston to Houston last week.

A woman occupied the window seat, and I was pleased to see the middle seat was empty.

Then I looked up and saw a really big man walking toward the back of the plane, and I knew where he was headed.

I mean “big” in the same way we envision Santa Claus as “big.” Rotund. My mom would be nice and say he was just big boned.

Anyway, I stood up and let the big guy into the middle seat. He spilled over into my seat and that of the poor woman in the window seat.

I resented every inch of his girth, but said nothing. I read my paper, listing toward the aisle.

I guess I couldn’t hide my discomfort because the flight attendant stopped and offered me another seat.  She said she had only middle seats available. I said I was fine and went back to my paper.

Meanwhile, the big guy folded his arms, leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes.

The plane took off and here we were, swapping the cotton off our shirts as our bellies rubbed against one another. He slept. I read and fumed.

There he was, standing by the rear emergency exit adjacent to the two bathrooms and the galley. He was nursing a cup of coffee. ‘So there you are,’ I said, not knowing really what to say. ‘I wanted to give you some space,’ he replied.

About an hour into the flight, the big guy said he wanted to get up and stretch his legs. I gladly stood and let him out.

He went toward the back of the plane and disappeared.

Now I really could enjoy the paper and the book I brought with me.

But time went by and I began to wonder where the big guy was. An hour ticked off, then two hours. I decided to wander back to the rear of the plane and see if I could find him.

There he was, standing by the rear emergency exit adjacent to the two bathrooms and the galley. He was nursing a cup of coffee.

“So there you are,” I said, not knowing really what to say.

“I wanted to give you some space,” he replied.

I went back to my seat.

About 45 minutes before we landed in Houston, the big guy reclaimed his middle seat.

I didn’t mind so much now.

“I really appreciate what you did,” I said to him. “You certainly didn’t have to do that.”

“You deserved it,” he said. “Is your mother still living?”

“Yes, she is.”

“Then do something nice for her on Mother’s Day.”

I felt about one-inch tall.

The plane landed, and we departed with no more words. I regretted that I didn’t ask his name or even introduce myself.

So, on Sunday I called Mom, wished her a happy Mother’s Day and told her this story. She told me it made her day.

Thank you for the present, big guy.