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Intellectual Capital game-changing people and ideas. Coming Soon: Peter Farrell and the Founding of ResMed; Stem Cells in Space Wirelessly Manipulated (The HNu-nanoPOINT Story); A Visit to the Produced By Conference at Warner Brothers where Legendary Producer JOE ROTH Tells Us How He Tweaks Myths, from Alice in Wonderland through Snow White and the Huntsman to Maleficent in order to Bring a Global Audience; Sir Richard BRANSON and candidate (?) HILLARY CLINTON visit BIO-- See Blog for details
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Featured Column
PET PROJECT MAKING IT BIG
Skip Coomber hangs out with Maggie and Cherry.
Charlie Neuman • U-T photos
Skip Coomber, 53, a Rancho Santa Fe attorney to “ultra-high-networth” clients, and a serial entrepreneur of tech and retail companies, did what can be done for fun and ultimate status, at least in California. He started a winery: Coomber Family Ranch Wines.
The Coombers — Skip, wife Maureen, 45, and daughters Amelia, 18, and Caroline, 16 — changed the traditional vintner game by bringing a high-tech approach to manufacturing, then adding a sweet giveback model to the marketing.
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The Coombers — Skip, wife Maureen, 45, and daughters Amelia, 18, and Caroline, 16 — changed the traditional vintner game by bringing a high-tech approach to manufacturing, then adding a sweet giveback model to the marketing.
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Most Recent Columns
PRESCRIPTION FOR LESS MEDICINE
After only five years as an internist at Scripps Clinic, Dr. David Clayton could tell what was wrong with many of his patients before they even took off their shirts.
They were men, 50 to 80 years old, overweight, with high blood pressure and bad cholesterol — the perfect trifecta for the chronic metabolic disease currently bloating America. If they did nothing, they might be dead before their time, candidates for diabetes and stroke.
Some 90 percent of people over 60 take at least one medication, and more than one-third of those over 60 are on five or more medications.
And even many men and women who do get exercise and try to eat healthy fail because in this hyper-hyped world of “natural this and natural that,” they don’t understand the biochemical truth underlying their choices.
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They were men, 50 to 80 years old, overweight, with high blood pressure and bad cholesterol — the perfect trifecta for the chronic metabolic disease currently bloating America. If they did nothing, they might be dead before their time, candidates for diabetes and stroke.
Some 90 percent of people over 60 take at least one medication, and more than one-third of those over 60 are on five or more medications.
And even many men and women who do get exercise and try to eat healthy fail because in this hyper-hyped world of “natural this and natural that,” they don’t understand the biochemical truth underlying their choices.
Read More
Former Qualcomm Exec's future of tech
Qualcomm's Co-Founder and Former Executive, Andrew Viterbi
Andrew Viterbi, co-founder and former longtime chief technology officer of Qualcomm, the giant San Diego company that creates the guts of the world’s cellphones, devised the Viterbi Algorithm, a mathematical formula for separating signal from noise. The Viterbi Algorithm has made cellphone communication possible, as well as the tracking of missiles, and even high-speed DNA analysis.
In person, Viterbi is like your gentle Italian uncle, soft-spoken but with a steel-trap mind. He often finishes a thought with a chuckle and a smile.
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In person, Viterbi is like your gentle Italian uncle, soft-spoken but with a steel-trap mind. He often finishes a thought with a chuckle and a smile.
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PARTNER AT DOMAIN SEEKS OUT INNOVATORS
Photo by Nelson Cepeda
Kim Kamdar of Domain Associates says the company is excited about biotech and medical device companies in the effort to tailor medicine to specific patients.
NELVIN C. CEPEDA • U-TDomain — which helped start Amgen, Applied Biosystems and Amylin, among others — is 21 percent invested in San Diego and is betting big on diagnostics companies. U-T San Diego recently talked with Kamdar, based in the San Diego office, about Domain’s investment strategy.
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NELVIN C. CEPEDA • U-TDomain — which helped start Amgen, Applied Biosystems and Amylin, among others — is 21 percent invested in San Diego and is betting big on diagnostics companies. U-T San Diego recently talked with Kamdar, based in the San Diego office, about Domain’s investment strategy.
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MAKING TECH TRANSFER WORK FOR UNIVERSITIES
Chancellor Pradeep Khosla of UCSD (photo by Howard Lipin)
Tech transfer is about dancing robots and curing brain cancer.
Google and Gatorade, sleep apnea and gene-splicing.
It’s how inventions and ideas — intellectual property — move out of university labs and get translated into commercial products and startup companies. Some $2.5 billion in licensing fees flowed to U.S. universities in 2010, with nearly 600 new companies formed.
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Google and Gatorade, sleep apnea and gene-splicing.
It’s how inventions and ideas — intellectual property — move out of university labs and get translated into commercial products and startup companies. Some $2.5 billion in licensing fees flowed to U.S. universities in 2010, with nearly 600 new companies formed.
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THE BEST CANCER FIGHTER? PREVENTION
Photo by Phil Channing
“A common sense solution to America’s health problems?” asks Dr. David Agus, author of the best-selling “A Short Guide to a Long Life” and co-founder of Applied Proteomics, a big-data La Jolla diagnostics company. “How about making elevators coin-operated?”
Agus, head of the University of Southern California’s Westside Cancer Center, an expert in molecular medicine and a CBS News contributor, has become an apostle of prevention.
He once stood up in an auditorium of oncologists and declared that metastatic cancer was better approached with preventive measures — before cancer was diagnosed — since cure rates after-the-fact are only marginally better than they were 50 years ago.
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Agus, head of the University of Southern California’s Westside Cancer Center, an expert in molecular medicine and a CBS News contributor, has become an apostle of prevention.
He once stood up in an auditorium of oncologists and declared that metastatic cancer was better approached with preventive measures — before cancer was diagnosed — since cure rates after-the-fact are only marginally better than they were 50 years ago.
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LUCIER DONE WITH LIFE TECH, BUT NOT WITH LIVING
Greg Lucier has made the 21st century — the biological century — into a wise business proposition.
In a deal completed Monday, Chief Executive Lucier and his team merged Carlsbad’s Life Technologies with Thermo Fisher, based in Waltham, Mass. Thermo paid $13.6 billion for Life, closer to $16 billion if you count assumed debt, in a deal that highly valued the company’s Ion Torrent genetic sequencing platform as well as Life’s bread-and-butter consumable lab products. The terms also provided Lucier with a $38 million personal exit.
How did he do it — drive up the business of Life from $778 million a year in revenue in 2003 to $3.8 billion in 2012 — and what does he plan to do next?
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In a deal completed Monday, Chief Executive Lucier and his team merged Carlsbad’s Life Technologies with Thermo Fisher, based in Waltham, Mass. Thermo paid $13.6 billion for Life, closer to $16 billion if you count assumed debt, in a deal that highly valued the company’s Ion Torrent genetic sequencing platform as well as Life’s bread-and-butter consumable lab products. The terms also provided Lucier with a $38 million personal exit.
How did he do it — drive up the business of Life from $778 million a year in revenue in 2003 to $3.8 billion in 2012 — and what does he plan to do next?
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Venter on adrenaline, science and the meaning of life
Darwin the poodle bursts into Craig Venter’s capacious new office on Torrey Pines Road just as he is explaining the meaning of life.
It’s digital, life. We are information systems. The chemical elements of our DNA “software” can be broken down into the four nucleotides or bases that make up DNA, “the A’s, C’s, G’s and T’s of the biological world,” and converted into the 1s and 0s of the computer world, says Venter, 67.
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It’s digital, life. We are information systems. The chemical elements of our DNA “software” can be broken down into the four nucleotides or bases that make up DNA, “the A’s, C’s, G’s and T’s of the biological world,” and converted into the 1s and 0s of the computer world, says Venter, 67.
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Catching up with Larry, King of media
Turning 80 hasn’t slowed enduring broadcast icon, who’s a big fan of San Diego
Larry King has been the king of the talk business — radio, television, and now the Internet — for longer than most Americans have been alive, 56 years.
He has a new deal with Carlos Slim, richest man in the world, to produce and distribute “Larry King Now” on Hulu and Ora.tv. His 80th birthday was Tuesday. And, oh, yeah, baby, he’s married to his seventh wife.
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He has a new deal with Carlos Slim, richest man in the world, to produce and distribute “Larry King Now” on Hulu and Ora.tv. His 80th birthday was Tuesday. And, oh, yeah, baby, he’s married to his seventh wife.
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QUALCOMM COUNSEL TALKS INNOVATION
Executive remembers friend who led Connect, reflects on wireless world
“Innovation Night” at the La Jolla Playhouse was both a sad and a raucous affair this year.
Sad, because it was dedicated to Duane Roth, the late director of Connect, an organization that brings inventors and investors together. Roth, who died after a bicycle accident in July, had coined the term Innovation Night as a way to link San Diego’s innovative wireless, biotech and high-tech industries to the innovative theater productions the Playhouse is known for.
But raucous, too, because the gala opening play was “Side Show,” which is about two female circus performers, conjoined twins, not unlike innovative technologies and the future of San Diego, someone laughed at intermission.
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Sad, because it was dedicated to Duane Roth, the late director of Connect, an organization that brings inventors and investors together. Roth, who died after a bicycle accident in July, had coined the term Innovation Night as a way to link San Diego’s innovative wireless, biotech and high-tech industries to the innovative theater productions the Playhouse is known for.
But raucous, too, because the gala opening play was “Side Show,” which is about two female circus performers, conjoined twins, not unlike innovative technologies and the future of San Diego, someone laughed at intermission.
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Reef brand’s co-founder eyes the horizon
Fernando Aguerre, 55, the co-founder with his brother Santiago of the iconic surf brand Reef, has reached the statesman stage of life.
The Surf Industry Manufacturers Association named him Waterman of the Year, one of only two times in 24 years that a business guy, as opposed to surf legends Greg Noll, Kelly Slater and Rob Machado, has been picked.
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The Surf Industry Manufacturers Association named him Waterman of the Year, one of only two times in 24 years that a business guy, as opposed to surf legends Greg Noll, Kelly Slater and Rob Machado, has been picked.
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3 KYOTO HONOREES DON’T REST ON LAURELS
This year's Kyoto laureates, from left: Robert Dennard, for advanced technology; Masatoshi Nei, for basic sciences; and Cecil Taylor, for arts and philosophy. — Steve Chapple
KYOTO, Japan — Kyocera is a company you don’t see.
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KYOTO, Japan — Kyocera is a company you don’t see.
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FLOATING AN IDEA: AIRPORT ON THE WATER
NOTED OCEAN SCIENTIST WALTER MUNK THINKS IT'S THE SOLUTION TO FUTURE PROBLEM
Walter Munk of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego
What happens when San Diego outgrows its new $1 billion expansion of Lindbergh Field?
Some 17 million passengers used Lindbergh in 2012. Noise, safety and environmental concerns become ever more vexing as the airport is surrounded by the high-rise city that San Diego is becoming.
Land is expensive. The Marines appear to have no interest in sharing space at Miramar for a new civilian airfield. It’s a long drive to the desert, if the county were to build one there.
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Some 17 million passengers used Lindbergh in 2012. Noise, safety and environmental concerns become ever more vexing as the airport is surrounded by the high-rise city that San Diego is becoming.
Land is expensive. The Marines appear to have no interest in sharing space at Miramar for a new civilian airfield. It’s a long drive to the desert, if the county were to build one there.
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A DRONE OF ONE’S OWN — MAYBE SOMEDAY
3D ROBOTICS RECEIVES NEW FUNDING FOR PRODUCTS THAT HAVE PRIVATE APPLICATIONS
Writer Steve Chapple with Jordi Munoz, co-founder of 3D Robotics. — Alex Fuller
Drones are flying high.
3D Robotics, started by kid genius Mexican engineer Jordi Muñoz, now 27, and Wired magazine visionary Chris Anderson, 52, just received $30 million in additional investor funding.
The company is expanding to 100 employees spread among current engineering headquarters on Convoy Court in San Diego, manufacturing facilities in Tijuana, and sales and marketing in Berkeley, with capacity expected to double.
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3D Robotics, started by kid genius Mexican engineer Jordi Muñoz, now 27, and Wired magazine visionary Chris Anderson, 52, just received $30 million in additional investor funding.
The company is expanding to 100 employees spread among current engineering headquarters on Convoy Court in San Diego, manufacturing facilities in Tijuana, and sales and marketing in Berkeley, with capacity expected to double.
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In search of the 2,400 SAT score
Christopher Hamilton, president and CEO of Summa Education — Eduardo Contreras
Test preparation for college entrance exams, especially for the crucial Scholastic Aptitude Test, has become a $2 billion to $4 billion industry, along with the market for downloads and book supplements.
There has been much debate about whether test prep can increase scores and by how much — a cost-ineffective 30 points or a healthy 100, enough to raise an admissions officer’s eyebrows and cause hand-clapping among parents who pay for all this.
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There has been much debate about whether test prep can increase scores and by how much — a cost-ineffective 30 points or a healthy 100, enough to raise an admissions officer’s eyebrows and cause hand-clapping among parents who pay for all this.
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ENTREPRENEUR’S BAGS SPARK SHOPPING ENVY
Emily Sugihara, 30, has made the lowly shopping bag fashionable.
With her mother, Joan, she is the creator of the Baggu, the colorful, “carry in style” reusable bag sold in hip stores from Urban Outfitters to Collette in Paris, as well as Nordstrom and J.Crew. Hundreds of thousands more, at a basic price of $9, are sold through the bright and spare Baggu website, which looks like a Google home page for the fashion-conscious.
“My mom and I just don’t like to buy ugly stuff. We care about function and fashion, and we feel we are representative of a demographic that appreciates this.”
Back in 2007 when modestly self-funded Baggu launched, the choices at checkout were plastic or paper, with the occasional dorky net bag from France. The Sugiharas felt a simple bag could double as a fashion accessory, an over-the-shoulder splash of pure color — saffron, cobalt — as a shopper walked home. Forget drab brown paper or eco-horrid plastic.
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With her mother, Joan, she is the creator of the Baggu, the colorful, “carry in style” reusable bag sold in hip stores from Urban Outfitters to Collette in Paris, as well as Nordstrom and J.Crew. Hundreds of thousands more, at a basic price of $9, are sold through the bright and spare Baggu website, which looks like a Google home page for the fashion-conscious.
“My mom and I just don’t like to buy ugly stuff. We care about function and fashion, and we feel we are representative of a demographic that appreciates this.”
Back in 2007 when modestly self-funded Baggu launched, the choices at checkout were plastic or paper, with the occasional dorky net bag from France. The Sugiharas felt a simple bag could double as a fashion accessory, an over-the-shoulder splash of pure color — saffron, cobalt — as a shopper walked home. Forget drab brown paper or eco-horrid plastic.
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BROKERAGE PIONEER MADE MOST OF GOOD TIMING
Jack White pretty much developed the concept of the discount brokerage, the way stocks have come to be traded on the Internet for a small fee. This was in the 1970s and ’80s, years before E-Trade, Ameritrade or Charles Schwab.
He sold his company to the Toronto Dominion Bank for $110 million in 1998, back when $110 million bought more than a good breakfast at Brick and Bell, and the company formed the basis for TD Waterhouse, which became TD Ameritrade.
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He sold his company to the Toronto Dominion Bank for $110 million in 1998, back when $110 million bought more than a good breakfast at Brick and Bell, and the company formed the basis for TD Waterhouse, which became TD Ameritrade.
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FATHER'S FRACKING SUCCESS A BONANZA
"George Phydias Mitchell, “The Father of Fracking,” a technique for extracting natural gas and oil that is making the United States energy-independent, died last month at the age of 94. The Texas oilman transformed global energy markets by figuring out how to drill into and along layers of gas-laden shale rock, then force a slurry of water, sand and chemicals under high pressure into the rock to crack it open and release the hydrocarbons. Engineers later learned how to adapt this process, known as fracking, to oil-bearing rock. His son, research scientist B. Greg Mitchell, head of the Photobiology Group at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, sat down with Intellectual Capital to reminisce about how his father did it."
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How 2 guys made watches cool to wear again
Andy Laats (left) and Chad DiNenna
“We like to say a watch is halfway between a T-shirt and a tattoo,” says Andy Laats, co-founder of Nixon, the surf/skate/snowboard accessories company in Encinitas. “If we can build something that you have never seen before, but you have always wanted, then we have done our job.”
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BIOCHEMIST’S SUCCESS IS IN THE GENES
Last year, biochemist Tina Nova sold Genoptix, the Carlsbad genomics testing company she co-founded in 1999, for $475 million to Novartis, making Nova a legend in the rarefied world of women at the top of U.S. science and business...
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Investor Took the Painful Route to Starting Biotech
How do you start a thriving biotech company? The most painful way might be as follows: You’re Jay Lichter, managing partner of Avalon Ventures, and you’re driving your car near the post office in La Jolla, and all of a sudden you have a horrible attack of vertigo. You pull the car to the curb, convince yourself you’re dying of a heart attack, notice you are still alive after 15 minutes, no pain in the chest, but you still can’t sit up, can’t get out of the car...
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Yoga By Video Is No Stretch For San Diego BusinessWomen
Carolina Vivas and Amanda McCarroll, two 35-year-old San Diego fitness instructors, have launched the Netflix of yoga. It’s called yourBuddhi, a name with ready-made branding because buddhi also means intellect or knowledge in Sanskrit. Yoga is an ancient practice, and Vivas and McCarroll aim to take it mobile. You can play their clever videos on....
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Bike Designer Wouldn't go Along on the Same Old Ride
It’s springtime. You’re starting to see them everywhere: the girl on the Electra pink Hawaii, the dude wheeling down the Crystal Pier on his Tiger Shark beach cruiser, the aging hipster-prof pulling up to the Pannikin coffeehouse on his retro-modern Italian Ticino...
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