North Carolina Biotechnology Center Announces Company Sponsors for New Industrial Fellowship

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center has announced the five sponsoring companies chosen for the first year of its Industrial Fellowship Program. The companies chosen are:

• Affinergy Inc. in Durham, which is focused on site-specific biological delivery systems (www.affinergy.com);

• Aldagen Inc. in Durham, which develops proprietary cell therapies (www.aldagen.com);

• BASF’s plant science group in Research Triangle Park; BASF is an international agribusiness company (www.basf.com/plantscience);

• Winston-Salem-based Targacept, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company (www.targacept.com);

• Tengion in Winston-Salem, which develops neo-organs and tissues (www.tengion.com).

A total of 18 companies applied for the program, which pays two years of salary and benefits for a postdoctoral researcher with academic-only laboratory experience to work in an industrial setting. Additionally, the industrial fellows will have access to programs in business, intellectual property, regulatory affairs, and other areas to complement their training. Fellows selected and hired by sponsoring companies will begin on October 15. The industrial fellowship program is designed to fill a gap for scientists in need of industry experience as well as for companies in need of scientific expertise. Few companies offer transitional opportunities, and PhD scientists coming out of academia are often dismissed as being overqualified for technical jobs but not qualified enough for senior positions.

For more information on the program please visit www.ncbiotech.org/fellowship.