Blacksburg Bioscience Luncheon Draws Crowd
The Virginia Biotechnology Association, in partnership with Virginia Tech, held a luncheon on July 16 for key leaders of the bioscience community on campus and in the local corporate community. The hosts were forced to move the location of the meeting to accommodate the more than 50 guests who signed up to attend. The event was made possible by financial support from Latimer, Mayberry & Matthews IP Law, LLP and Sanofi-Adventis.“We hoped to get ten to twelve of the area’s leaders around the table for a networking lunch,” said Mark Herzog, the Virginia Biotechnology Association’s executive director. “I was amazed that so many people signed up to attend, especially in the middle of the summer.”
Those attending included senior university officials such as Dr. Mark McNamee, Virginia Tech’s provost, as well as corporate leaders such as Dr. David Ayares, the CEO of Revivicor, a xenotransplantation company based at the Corporate Research Center.
“Bioscience is a multi-disciplinary field that cuts across many departments and institutes,” said Mr. Herzog. “Our goal is to create opportunities for the biotech community at all levels, on and off-campus, to connect with each other.”
Following introductions and a presentation by Mark Herzog, 
there was a group discussion about opportunities to enhance the connections shared by members of the bioscience community in the region. A consensus was formed to hold regularly scheduled networking luncheons throughout the year as well as other initiatives designed to help build local and regional partnerships.
For more information, please contact the VaBIO office at 804-643-6360.
