Cat Care Society's Mickie and Scooter - 'Please Adopt Us Both!'

Today's the last day of September and we wanted to give one last cyber shout out about lovable Mickie & Scooter - siblings, both brown/tabby mix.

Here's what Mickie (pictured left) has to say: "Hello, my name is Mickie – and that's Scooter, my kid sister, who’s bigger than me. We just turned one year old, and for our birthdays, the staff made us Cats of the Month. When we were kittens, we were found stray – at McDonald’s! My paw was crushed, and not in good shape at all, so the Cat Care clinic had to amputate it after we got here. After that we went to a really good home, but in a few months they had to give us up, so they brought us back to Cat Care Society. Now we are looking for a new home. I really don’t want to be separated from my sister! Please adopt us both!! But before you do, let me tell you about us. I am the calm one. I like to play, but I enjoy the finer things in life also, like being held and purring in someone’s lap. I will stand up on my hind legs for you to pick me up. My sister, Scooter, is a bit more… spirited. She loves to play, play, play – and run, don’t forget run! She also likes to interrupt."

Scooter chimes in: "Hey, I can’t help it if I’m bubbly. And I’m more talkative than Mickie, anyway. I should do the bio. Well I’m the intelligent one, so hush. It’s true, you know. I like books like Homer’s Odyssey while Scooter never made it past Curious George!"

They both say: "Come by and meet us. We promise it will be worth your while!"

Link to information about Mickie

Link to information about Scooter

Link to Cat Care Society Adoption Information

Fish Farming News Feature - 'Bell Aquaculture: From tiny perch a mighty business grows'

Bell Aquaculture is featured in the current edition (Volume 10, Issue 4 2011) of Fish Farming News - Aquaculture's National Newspaper. Quoting from the article by FFN Contributing Writer Brian Robbins:

"'Vertically integrated' is a phrase that Bell uses frequently in describing itself: pretty much self-sufficient, relying only on outside suppliers for fee. Other than that, they've built their own little world in five years' time and can definitely call their fish their own, from broodstock and eggs, to harvesting and processing on the other end. With their existing facility, Bell is looking at producing 1.8 million yellow perch in a one-year growout cycle. The new addition that's currently under construction (with plans to be up and going by October) will add another 3 million yellow perch a year to Bell's forecast. But wait - it doesn't stop there: Bell's next expansion will boost that number significantly, with the company hoping to have the capacity to handle an additional 7.5 million perch by 2013."

Link to the FFN website for subscription details

CID4 Blog: 'Important Takeaways from a Successful RMLIPC'

Quoting from the CID4 Blog posting by Adam Rubenstein about the recent Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor and Partnering Conference (RMLIPC):

"The success metric for an investor and partnering conference is unambiguous, a company must achieve either an initial inquiry of interest or secure a follow-on meeting. Using such a performance metric illuminated a very satisfactory grade for the presenting CID4 portfolio companies. The Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor and Partnering Conference was more than simply a CID4 showcase, what transpired at the historic Brown Palace Hotel was the culmination of a biocluster clearly on the rise. Colorado had an important opportunity to spotlight their diverse array of high-impact technologies and high-quality intellectual capital, and put a stamp on the Rocky Mountain region as a bioscience node that demands the attention of industry and investors. A quick scan of attendees validates that the Front Range deal flow ranks on par with any other cluster across the U.S."

Link to the Colorado Institute for Drug, Device and Diagnostic Development (CID4) Blog posting

Today's IBJ: 'Swimming with Potential ... Fish farming could become $1B industry in Indiana'

Quoting from the special report in the Indianapolis Business Journal by Sam Stall:

"The ISA’s golden boy is Redkey-based Bell Aquaculture, the state’s only industrial-scale fish farming outfit. While Indiana’s aquaculture industry produces only 1 million pounds of fish annually, expansion plans at Bell will double that number by next year.

And the technology the company is developing could pave the way for even higher production. Put simply, company officials have figured out how to raise their fish—yellow perch—indoors under highly controlled conditions, just as chicken and hog farmers do.

The company’s plant raises 1.8 million fish annually. That number will balloon to 3 million when a $5 million expansion wraps up in 2012.

To no surprise, Bell President Norman McCowan is bullish on Indiana’s aquaculture potential, believing that the state (and his company in particular) possesses the three things necessary to make a go of it: sustainable technology, readily available food (soybeans) and water, and funding."

Link to the ibj.com article (subscription required)

GEN on Fort Collins-based VetDC: 'Firm Finds New Uses for Drugs, Diagnostics, and Devices in Companion Animals'

Quoting from the Biobusiness Profile in Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News by Carol Potera:

"Companies spend billions of dollars annually on the development of human drugs, devices, and diagnostics. Yet many promising products fail to reach the marketplace and their value is never realized. VetDC was started in Fort Collins, CO, last year to repurpose discarded and shelved technologies for veterinary use. The company in-licenses emerging, underexploited technologies from human biotechnology companies, then develops and commercializes them for dogs, cats, and other companion animals."

Link to genengnews.com

VetDC is a portfolio company of the Colorado Institute for Drug Device and Diagnostic Development (CID4) in Aurora, CO. Link to learn more.

VetDC was a presenting company at the 2011 Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor & Partnering Conference (RMLIPC) in Denver. Link to the RMLIPC presenting company list.

Business: 'Colorado biotechs court financing by showing off inventions'

Quoting from the Denver Post article by Steve Raabe:

"Saving lives with battlefield triage tools. Diagnosing cancer long before it spreads. Installing heart valves without open-heart surgery. Inventors of those technologies, and more, presented their best attributes Thursday in 20-minute pitches designed to entice venture capital. Thirty-one companies — many based at the Bioscience Park Center at Fitzsimons in Aurora — showed off their potential to prospective financiers at the Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor & Partnering Conference at the Brown Palace Hotel. The session was especially timely, officials said, because a struggling economy and volatile stock market have added competitiveness to biotech financing."

Link to denverpost.com

BCBR: 'Bioscience firms to make pitches for VC'

Quoting from the Boulder County Business Report website:

"Boulder County companies and investors feature prominently in the Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor and Partnering Conference slated for Wednesday and Thursday in Denver.

More than 30 bioscience companies from across the Rocky Mountain region will make 15-minute pitches to potential investors at the conference at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. Bioscience companies in the region have garnered more than $11.5 billion in financing and acquisition since the end of 2007, according to statistics compiled by the Colorado BioScience Association, an industry trade group."

Link to bcbr.com