Editor’s note: A version of this article originally appeared on the Frederick National Laboratory website.
The National Cancer Institute and Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research will host the Technology Showcase on Wednesday, September 6, at the FNL’s Advanced Technology Research Facility in Frederick, Md.
The seventh annual event highlights NCI and FNL inventions and capabilities available to the external healthcare and biotech communities and offers the opportunity for networking with others in the biomedical research field.
Tom Misteli, Ph.D., director of the NCI Center for Cancer Research, will deliver the keynote address, discussing some of the NCI’s cutting-edge research and how companies, entrepreneurs, and investors can become involved.
An Evolving Event
The organizers—led by the NCI Technology Transfer Center and the FNL’s Partnership Development Office—have incorporated new elements while retaining features that consistently draw more than 200 attendees each year.
“Every year we tweak the event based on the feedback and interest from the attendees, which helps with keeping content fresh and up to date with current developments in the field,” explained Vladimir Popov, Ph.D., M.B.A., FNL’s chief innovation officer and a co-founder of the event.
In the lightning poster session, presenters will deliver one-minute pitches on available technologies. Attendees will vote on the winning pitch.
The Tech Showcase will begin at 10 a.m. this year, to enable more networking for in-person attendees. The ability to talk directly with the inventors—as well as other scientists, entrepreneurs, and professionals working across the space—has always been an important aspect of the event.
The itinerary includes four educational panels, lunch and poster sessions, and highlights of new technologies and unique research capabilities developed at NCI and FNL.
“This year, the audience will be introduced to a wide range of medically impactful programs—such as NCI’s Neuro-Oncology and Natural Products branches,” said Michael Salgaller, Ph.D., NCI tech transfer supervisory specialist and event co-founder.
Showcasing Frederick
The Technology Showcase—which is the only National Institutes of Health event where potential industry partners are the primary audience—has become an important event for Frederick.
“This event is a great opportunity to showcase the assets we have here in Frederick County as it brings businesses and organizations from around the region to our community for potential partnerships,” said Solash Aviles, senior business development manager of the Frederick County Office of Economic Development, a co-sponsor of the event. “It also strengthens Frederick County’s position as a leader in the life sciences industry.”
Additional co-sponsors include City of Frederick Department of Economic Development, Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer, and TEDCO (Maryland Technology Development Corporation).
Register to Attend
The event, offered both in person and online, is free and open to the public. Registration is required.
Victoria Brun is a partnership project manager in the Frederick National Laboratory Center for Innovation and Strategic Partnerships, where she provides project management support across the office’s broad portfolio of collaborative projects. Among its functions, CISP establishes the partnerships and collaborations among Frederick National Laboratory scientists and external researchers in government, academia, industry, and the nonprofit research sector.