Category: News

Ruby James: Trailblazer in the Southern Research chemistry labs

Posted on March 28, 2016
Ruby James works in Southern Research lab
Ruby James

Ruby James was a chemistry major at Birmingham-Southern College when she got her first glimpse of the laboratories at Southern Research Institute. The tour opened her eyes to the power of applied chemistry.

“I was extremely impressed, and it encouraged me to want to know more and to be a part of the institute,” James later recalled.

When she joined Southern Research in the early 1950s, the labs, manned by a half-dozen chemists, were in the Morris-Cartwright House that served as the institute’s headquarters. Four decades later, James retired as head of the analytical chemistry department at Southern Research, her instinct about applied chemistry completely validated.

“It was probably the most exciting thing in my life to come and work for the institute, and that was 40 years ago,” she said in 1991. “I still feel that excitement about the institute.”

To mark Women’s History Month, Southern Research is remembering some of the female scientists who helped the Birmingham-based organization make discoveries that led to safer space flight, effective cancer treatments and many other advances over its 75 years.

“Ruby James was a trailblazer at Southern Research whose work in our chemical labs earned her respect in a traditionally male-dominated field,” said Art Tipton, Ph.D., president and CEO. “Her long-lasting contributions, along with those of our other women scientists, helped to position the institute as a premier research organization with international recognition.”

She joined Southern Research at a time when there were few jobs for female chemists in Birmingham, and most industrial chemistry labs didn’t even have a women’s restroom.

FUMING ACID

James’ first project at Southern Research involved working with red fuming nitric acid – a corrosive, combustible concoction used for rocket propulsion. The team was attempting to measure water in the acid because too much moisture would render it useless as an oxidizer for rocket fuel.

The acid “was as bad as anything you could possibly work with,” she admitted.

At one point, after the supplier quit manufacturing the fuming acid, James had to distill it herself at the Southern Research labs because the supplier quit manufacturing it. One chilly day, she had to open the windows in the lab to get the conditions right for producing the acid – an innovative move not appreciated by shivering co-workers.

“Sometimes you do things scientifically that do not appear to the casual observer to be so,” she recalled.

In the 1960s, James became involved in the space race. Southern Research won a contract to staff an engineering materials lab at Kennedy Space Center during the Apollo program. The lab provided technical support to the contractors helping NASA to launch giant Saturn rockets.

By this time, she had become Southern Research’s specialist in gas chromatography, a means to separate the different components of a mixture by forcing gas through a column.

“Since it was a new technique, they did not have anyone trained in that area, and so they asked me to go – and I was happy to go,” James recalled in 1991. “I bought a house, moved my family, and lived in Florida for two years.”

FAR-SIGHTED RESEARCH

Soon after her retirement at Southern Research, James looked back at the cutting-edge work performed in Birmingham, much of the investigation far ahead of its time.

Beginning in the 1950s, this included looking at the health and safety of food products, water toxicity, hazardous waste, and air pollution, along with many other topics that grew in importance over time, she recalled. In addition, there were key contributions to the nation’s space program, starting in the early days.

For James, the groundbreaking work showed just “how important it was for a research organization to be formed here when it was formed.”

Mary Trader: Unraveling leukemia’s mysteries in a Southern Research lab

Posted on March 28, 2016
Mary Trader
Mary Trader

When Mary Trader joined Southern Research in 1966, she had a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from St. Mary’s Dominican College in her hometown of New Orleans and plans to stick around for one year.

Trader’s one year blossomed into a long career at Southern Research that saw her rise to head the Experimental Leukemia Section, where she played a significant role in the institute’s pioneering chemotherapy work.

“You can’t help but feel you have made some contribution to eradicating a dread disease,” Trader recalled in a 1981 interview marking her 25th year at Southern Research.

Because March is Women’s History Month, Southern Research is highlighting the contributions of several of the organization’s prominent female scientists over its 75 years of operation.

“Southern Research has been fortunate to have employed many great women scientists like Mary Trader in its history,” said Art Tipton, Ph.D., president and CEO. “Their careful and thoughtful work in our labs has deepened the scientific community’s understanding of cancer and other diseases.”

Trader’s career at Southern Research began as the search for new cancer-fighting drugs accelerated in its Birmingham labs, thanks to a steady stream of funding from the National Cancer Institute. For Trader, the first few years were spent in a crowded lab in the Ingalls West building.

“At the beginning of the screening program, there was already a backlog of drugs that had never been tested against cancer,” she recalled. “We had a field day testing everything the government had to send us.”

IN THE LAB

In 1973, Trader was appointed head of the Experimental Leukemia Section. Her lab conducted work in mouse leukemia that contributed to improved cancer treatments, particularly of acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL.

In those days, ALL spread rapidly and often fatally in children, but because of advances coming from Southern Research and other organizations, survival rates began to rise sharply.

The work performed by Trader’s team contributed to these advances in several ways. For one thing, her lab developed at least 20 lines of drug-resistant leukemias that proved useful in testing drug treatments. These resistant forms of leukemia were utilized in biochemistry and cell culture studies to expose the mechanism of drug resistance.

“We want to know why a drug does not work in a person’s body and what happens to it,” Trader said in 1980.

In addition, extensive testing carried out in Trader’s lab demonstrated the validity of famed Southern Research cancer researcher Dr. Howard Skipper’s theory that just one cancer cell can trigger the fatal disease. Skipper introduced the concept that every single cancer cell must be eliminated to ensure the survival of the patient.

“This added some basic knowledge to understanding the magnitude of the disease of cancer,” Trader recalled.

Her lab also conducted studies on combination chemotherapy that explored how new and existing drugs could be used together or in sequence as an effective treatment regimen for leukemia and many different forms of cancer.

“Everything we have learned — proper scheduling of drugs, problems of drug resistance and demonstration of one cancer cell’s impact — has tied in with increasingly successful treatment of children with leukemia,” Trader said in 1980.

‘INSTANT RECALL’

Soon after marking 30 years at Southern Research, Trader died from a heart attack in 1987. She was 64 years old.

Dr. Russell Laster, then head of the institute’s Cancer Screening Division, noted her immense contribution to the organization’s work. “She was like a computer with 30 years of storage and instant recall, and you can’t replace that.”

During her career as an experimental cancer chemotherapist, Trader contributed to at least 30 scientific papers, including several with Skipper and another prominent figure in cancer research, Dr. Frank Schabel. She also presented her leukemia findings at national meetings held by the American Association for Cancer Research and others.

Southern Research scientists develop an assay to find a cure for Zika

Posted on March 22, 2016
Aedes aegypti mosquito
Aedes aegypti mosquito

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – As reports of the Zika virus outbreak began to emerge from Brazil and portions of South and Central America, infectious disease researchers in the Drug Discovery labs of Southern Research were already taking steps to help combat its spread.

Today, Southern Research is proud to announce the development of a unique antiviral assay – a test that can be used by researchers worldwide to detect the virus in infected cell cultures. The assay is immediately available to meet the requirements of international clients. In addition, teams of experienced scientists at Southern Research are working to develop in vivo models that can be used to evaluate vaccines and therapeutic approaches aimed at preventing the further spread of Zika virus disease.

“Southern Research is uniquely positioned to support the efforts of the global scientific community as we work collectively to better understand, and ultimately stop the spread of this disease,” said Dr. Jonathan Rayner, Director of Infectious Disease Research at Southern Research in Birmingham. “With such a wide variety of skills and backgrounds under our roof, this team is comprised of experts from a number of different fields, including drug discovery, mosquito-borne infectious disease research, and biomedical engineering. This assay represents a crucial step in the global search for a vaccine, and we’re proud to be able to contribute to the growing body of science in this impactful way.”

Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that is thought to cause birth defects such as microcephaly in newborn children, if transmitted to women during the early stages of pregnancy. Earlier this year, the World Health Organization declared the spread of Zika a Public Health Emergency of international concern, and has since coordinated a global response. Southern Research has been able to support these efforts by leveraging their assay development and drug discovery experience.

Southern Research’s infectious disease research team focuses on a wide array of human infectious diseases including programs involved in the HIV Cure Initiative, Biodisease, Influenza clinical trial support, Dengue virus vaccine evaluations, Hepatitis and Poliovirus.

Drug development is deeply ingrained in the fabric of Southern Research. To date, research teams from the institute have discovered and developed seven cancer medications. Several of these drugs are currently being used by pediatric oncologists as an effective treatment in the fight against childhood cancer.

About Southern Research
Southern Research is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization with more than 400 scientists and engineers working across four divisions: drug discovery, drug development, engineering, and energy and environment. We work on behalf of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy, NASA, major aerospace firms, utility companies, and other private and government organizations to solve the world’s hardest problems. Founded in 1941, Southern Research is headquartered in Birmingham with additional laboratories and offices in Wilsonville and Huntsville, Frederick, Maryland, Durham, North Carolina, Cartersville, Georgia, and Houston. Visit southernresearch.org for more information.

Southern Research works to recover rare earth elements from coal ash

Posted on February 4, 2016
Jay Renew, principal investigator at the Water Research Center, works on column leaching experiments with coal combustion products. Southern Research is working to recover REES from coal combustion products.
Jay Renew, principal investigator at the Water Research Center, works on column leaching experiments with coal combustion products. Southern Research is working to recover REES from coal combustion products.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – February 4, 2016 – Southern Research is using $1 million in federal funding to develop and test a method to extract valuable rare earth elements (REEs) from coal fly ash, the minuscule waste particles captured by anti-pollution devices in coal-fired power plants.

Southern Research’s Energy & Environment division is launching the work amid concerns about the U.S.’s near-total reliance on foreign sources for REEs, which are used in high-tech products ranging from smartphones to missile systems. At the same time, questions are emerging about the destructive environmental impact of mining for these and other elements, as well as the human toll of those mining operations in the developing world.

Southern Research scientists are focusing on the development of a plasma-based process to recover these strategically important elements from post-combustion ash originating from bituminous coal mined in the Eastern U.S. The scientists will carry out testing to evaluate two concepts for recovering REEs from coal fly ash utilizing a plasma-arc technology. The first concept involves a smelting process and the second includes element volatilization and sequential condensation.

To support its research into the recovery of REEs from coal and coal byproducts, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in December 2015 awarded the Birmingham-based organization $1 million in Phase 1 funding for the project. Nearly $300,000 in funding from other public and private sources complements the NETL support.

NETL is providing funding for a total of 10 projects that focus on developing cost-effective and environmentally benign methods for recovering REEs from domestic coal. NETL plans to select no more than four of these projects for around $6.5 million in Phase 2 funding, which targets technology that will lead to the economical recovery of rare earth elements at scale.

“Our innovative development work to recover rare earth elements and metals such as lithium from waste streams has the potential to deliver significant and long-lasting benefits,” said Bill Grieco, vice president of Southern Research’s Energy & Environment division. “While we are concentrating on providing a domestic source for these elements, our work could also serve to mitigate environmental problems and human rights abuses associated with the mining of these elements around the globe.”

SPECIAL PROPERTIES

REEs are a series of chemical elements found in the Earth’s crust that are widely used because of their special properties. The elements are utilized by technology companies and advanced manufacturers as catalysts in chemical processes, as strong permanent magnets in electric motors for electric and hybrid vehicles, as phosphors to illuminate displays in televisions, mobile phones and laptops, and in rechargeable batteries.

In addition, REEs have important military applications in jet fighter engines and various missile systems, requiring high-temperature materials.

With China accounting for around 90 percent of global production of REEs, national security concerns were raised in Washington about their access after Beijing imposed export restrictions in 2009. The export quotas were lifted last year — but not before triggering a World Trade Organization case and intensifying the search for new U.S. production sources.

Southern Research’s project to recover REEs from coal fly ash stands in stark contrast to conventional mining techniques. Existing REE mining processes are environmentally costly. REE mining usually includes open pit mining, which is a source of three major contaminants: radionuclides (including thorium and uranium), dust, and metals. These mines also require the disposal of solid wastes such as tailing and waste rock stockpiles that can also release contaminants to the environment.

The proposed technology in this project does not include mining, since the coal fly ash will already be at the surface. In addition, the coal fly ash does not have to be milled due to its small particle size (typically 2 to 10 µm). The proposed technology is also designed to be part of a vitrification process for coal fly ash to reduce metal leaching.

Hence, the REE recovery process could be part of an integrated system that positively impacts the environment by producing REEs in a more sustainable and environmentally benign way. The process would also generate solid byproduct materials that leach less contaminants, making them more stable than the original coal fly ash used as feedstock for the process.

RECOVERING LITHIUM

Meanwhile, the Energy & Environment division’s Water Research Center is also involved in another project to recover REEs. In 2014, the Department of Energy awarded Southern Research $500,000 in funding for a project focusing on the recovery of lithium – a light metal that never occurs freely in nature – from geothermal brines.

In that project, Southern Research is working on an innovative system to provide renewable energy to the grid and extract high-value lithium from low-temperature geothermal fluids. Southern Research is currently applying for the project’s second phase, which will expand the recovery effort to REEs, cobalt and nickel.

As with rare earths, cobalt mining practices have been mired in controversy. In early January, Amnesty International and Afrewatch issued a report charging that children as young as 7 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are working in perilous conditions to produce cobalt used in the lithium-ion batteries that power smartphones and electric cars.

About Southern Research
Southern Research is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization with more than 400 scientists and engineers working across four divisions: drug discovery, drug development, engineering, and energy and environment. We work on behalf of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy, NASA, major aerospace firms, utility companies, and other private and government organizations as we solve the world’s hardest problems. SR, founded in 1941, is headquartered in Birmingham with additional laboratories and offices in Wilsonville and Huntsville, Alabama; Frederick, Maryland; Durham, North Carolina; Cartersville, Georgia; and Houston. Visit southernresearch.org for more information.

Southern Research Engineer Lauded for Space Flight Contributions

Posted on January 22, 2016
John Koenig is presented with an award by Tim Lawrence, System Manager, SLS booster motor program for NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Leaders from the nation’s space flight community gathered in Birmingham to honor Southern Research engineer John Koenig, whose work with NASA enhanced the safety of space missions and inspired many in the aerospace industry.

Koenig’s career was the focus of a ceremony on Wednesday, January 20, marking his retirement from Southern Research, where he concentrated on materials research and development for 39 years. He remains a consultant to the Birmingham-based research organization, investigating methods to develop and test new advanced materials with multiple space applications.

Koenig was a long-time collaborator with NASA, which recognized him for numerous technical achievements over the years. He also served on high-level NASA investigation boards that explored the causes of accidents, including the 2003 Columbia shuttle incident, and formulated solutions and strategies to prevent future problems.

In 2006, Koenig received a Silver Snoopy Award, an award given by NASA astronauts for contributions that improve the success and safety of space flight. The award was tied to that year’s launch of STS-121, a shuttle mission that tested new safety technologies adopted after the Columbia accident.

“John Koenig is a national asset,” Dr. Raymond “Corky” Clinton Jr., Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, said at the Wednesday night ceremony.

Clinton praised Koenig’s work with Marshall on research and development initiatives, space flight component development, and critical analysis efforts. At the event, Koenig was presented with the Director’s Commendation Certificate from NASA for his expertise in high temperature materials.

Others who presented special recognition awards at the event included Kevin Rivers, Deputy Director of the Research Directorate at NASA’s Langley Research Center, and Tim Lawrence, System Manager of the SLS booster motor program for NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Both Rivers and Lawrence worked closely with Koenig on manned spaceflight critical programs and both credited him as being a mentor to their own careers as well as to the community.

Also presenting Koenig a special recognition award was a team from Orbital ATK in Promontory, Utah, where he was instrumental in materials development for improved safety and cost reduction on the Space Shuttle’s solid rocket boosters.

“I am proud to have worked alongside such an innovator and leader in materials engineering as John,” said Michael Johns, Vice President of Engineering at Southern Research. “For nearly four decades he has successfully built and sustained a dynamic technical group that has consistently solved our sponsors’ hardest problems.”

Koenig joined Southern Research in 1973, after retiring from the Air Force as captain. In 1980, after a brief return to the Air Force research labs, he began his decades-long journey with Southern Research as director of the materials research team, which became one of the most consistent and innovative groups in Southern Research Engineering over the last 35 years.

Koenig has received several prestigious awards and recognitions during his career, including being named a semi-finalist for the Air Force’s Charles J. Cleary Scientific Achievement Award for outstanding research contributions. He has authored many technical papers and presentations, organized sessions at national and international events, and chaired international committees and working groups.

Art Tipton, president and CEO of Southern Research, said Koenig’s technical accomplishments exemplify the mission of the Birmingham research organization, which has a long history of advances in drug discovery and development, engineering, and energy and the environment.

“The lifeblood of Southern Research has always been innovative leaders like John, who work collaboratively to solve problems others think are intractable,” Tipton said. “It’s particularly impressive to me that so many important members of the space flight community took part in the celebration and still consider John their mentor. I’m thrilled that John will continue to be a resource for our teams at Southern Research as we continue to support space missions.”

About Southern Research
Southern Research is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization with more than 400 scientists and engineers working across four divisions: drug discovery, drug development, engineering, and energy and environment. We work on behalf of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy, NASA, major aerospace firms, utility companies, and other private and government organizations as we solve the world’s hardest problems. SR, founded in 1941, is headquartered in Birmingham with additional laboratories and offices in Wilsonville and Huntsville, Frederick, Maryland, Durham, North Carolina, Cartersville, Georgia, and Houston.

Southern Research Names Tom Blasey New Director of Intellectual Property

Posted on November 23, 2015
Thomas Blasey, Director of Intellectual Property
Thomas Blasey, Director of Intellectual Property

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – November 23, 2015 – Today, Southern Research announced that Thomas Blasey has been named director of intellectual property. Blasey will lead Southern Research’s IP functions, including the identification, evaluation and protection of intellectual property, as well as the transfer of technology through the commercialization process.

He has an extensive background in the strategic management of intellectual property, including the design, management and leveraging of IP portfolios consisting of a wide variety of technologies. From 2001 to 2015, he served as chief intellectual property counsel for ITT Defense, ITT Corporation and ITT’s aerospace, defense and information solutions spinoff, Exelis Inc.

“Tom brings with him vast experience in intellectual property management from both the business and legal perspectives,” said Allison Taylor, vice president and general counsel, Southern Research. “He will play a strategic role in the development of appropriate technology transfer paths, maximizing the value of Southern Research’s intellectual property assets, and bringing together Southern Research scientists/engineers with external partners.”

Blasey is active in a number of professional organizations, including the American Bar Association, American Intellectual Property Law Association, Licensing Executives Society, Association of Corporate Counsel, and Federal Circuit Bar Association, of which he is currently co-chair of its Corporate Counsel Committee. Additionally, he is past chair of the Aerospace Industries Association’s Intellectual Property Committee, which, among other endeavors, monitors developments in data rights regulations and other intellectual property issues relevant to the aerospace and defense industry.

Blasey earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering at Rice University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Texas at Austin. He is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and he is a certified licensing professional and certified patent valuation analyst.

“We have had a notable history of generating and monetizing IP here at Southern Research,” said Arthur Tipton, Ph.D., president and CEO, Southern Research. “Great innovations need a process of IP development on the path to commercialization, and the resulting strong patent is a critical step to have effective products that will help people. We are thrilled that Tom will be part of that team going forward.”

About Southern Research

Southern Research is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization with more than 400 scientists and engineers working across four divisions: drug discovery, drug development, engineering, and energy and environment. We work on behalf of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy, NASA, major aerospace firms, utility companies, and other private and government organizations as we solve the world’s hardest problems. Southern Research, founded in 1941, is headquartered in Birmingham with additional laboratories and offices in Wilsonville and Huntsville, Frederick, Maryland, Durham, North Carolina, Cartersville, Georgia, and Houston. Visit southernresearch.org for more information.

Media Contact:
Rossi M. Carlson
205-581-2266
rcarlson@southernresearch.org

Southern Research Announces 2015 Excellence Award Winners and Presidential Award Winner

Posted on November 20, 2015
Art Tipton presents the Presidential Award to John Koenig.
Art Tipton presents the Presidential Award to John Koenig.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – November 20, 2015 – Today, Southern Research celebrated its employee Excellence Awards program with an organization-wide event to acknowledge the winners. Individuals and groups at Southern Research’s Alabama, North Carolina, and Maryland facilities were awarded for going above and beyond their standard roles and responsibilities to deliver exceptional customer service, project results, and teamwork. The work of these winners impacts HIV/AIDS research, emerging infections, new fuels, hypersonic materials, and safety for Southern Research employees and the population as a whole. The Presidential Award recognized the accomplishments of a four-decade employee who has made critical contributions to manned space flight.

“This year and moving into 2016, we are bringing a renewed energy to our corporate culture with a renewal of our core values, and intentional appreciation of employee achievements, such as the Excellence Awards and Intellectual Property Awards,” said Southern Research President and CEO Art Tipton, Ph.D. “Our employees are working to make the world better in a wide range of areas. I am thrilled to be celebrating these employee-nominated awards today, and at this time of year.”

Winners and their accomplishments:

  • August Meng, advanced chemical engineer, Energy & Environment, North Carolina, submitted new concept papers and proposals that led to new Energy & Environment programs.
  • Zora Govedarica, engineering chemist, Energy & Environment, North Carolina, exceeded her normal duties to assure enhanced safety and ISO compliance, including chemical inventory enhancement that will lead to a reduction in chemical waste.
  • Bini Mathew, research chemist, Drug Discovery, performed extraordinarily on a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases database project where chemical structures needed to be entered; the project was done ahead of schedule and on budget.
  • LaVinia Ray, pathology supervisor, Drug Development, demonstrated technical excellence, customer focus, and exceptional resourcefulness in aiding in the completion of the largest commercial project in Drug Development and one focused on emerging pathogens.
  • Charles Hebert, senior program manager, Drug Development, displayed outstanding customer service, revenue, science, staff, and safety focus in managing one of Drug Development’s largest government programs, a program focused on the potential impact of early life exposure to certain chemicals and to determine their impact to developmental and reproductive systems. He was also recognized for mentoring young scientists, and chairing important committees for multiple years.
  • Michael Moser, engineering project leader, and Ben Carmichael, mechanical engineer, Engineering, both led efforts at White Sands Hypervelocity with high speed testing of composites; valuable data was generated that will help long-term technical and business growth in the Engineering division.
  • Margaret Wiginton, advanced controlled document specialist, Quality, developed innovative and collaborative tools to aid the Quality team in enhancing Southern Research’s drug development efforts for commercial and government customers.
  • The Frederick, Maryland, Drug Development Team exceeded their responsibilities in order to maintain safety, compliance, business focus, and a spirit of camaraderie.
  • Birmingham technical divisions, the Facilities department, the Environmental Health & Safety department, and the Security Team combined strengths to work through two facility electrical outages around the clock to assure safety, compliance, and a return to standard operations quickly.
  • John Koenig, senior engineering fellow, Engineering, received the Presidential Award. Koenig has dedicated his career to driving technical excellence, while maintaining strong client relationships, revenue, and processes to assure future growth. His work with NASA also led to a Silver Snoopy Award, the astronauts’ personal award.

About Southern Research
Southern Research is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization with more than 400 scientists and engineers working across four divisions: drug discovery, drug development, engineering, and energy and environment. We work on behalf of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy, NASA, major aerospace firms, utility companies, and other private and government organizations as we solve the world’s hardest problems. Southern Research, founded in 1941, is headquartered in Birmingham with additional laboratories and offices in Wilsonville and Huntsville, Frederick, Maryland, Durham, North Carolina, Cartersville, Georgia, and Houston. Visit southernresearch.org for more information.

Media Contact:
Rossi M. Carlson
205-581-2266

Pharmaceutical-Biotech Veteran Dan Hayden Joins Southern Research Board of Directors

Posted on November 17, 2015
Dan Hayen, Southern Research Board of Directors member
Dan Hayden, Southern Research Board of Directors member

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – November 17, 2015 – Southern Research announced today that Daniel O. Hayden has been appointed to its board of directors, effective November 10, 2015. Hayden brings almost 40 years of expertise in the biotechnology-pharmaceutical industry and joins a prestigious group of leaders in the business, financial, medical, and academic sectors on the SR Board. His involvement with both for-profit and non-profit entities complements Southern Research’s portfolio of both government and commercial clients.

In his extensive career he has grown an international business, cultivated several commercial-based businesses, and developed tremendous operational knowledge. In 2011, he retired as senior vice president and general manager of the Pharmaceuticals Division from the Genzyme Corporation, now a Sanofi Company. He then transitioned into the nonprofit world with more than five years’ experience as a management advisor, interim executive director, and board member at FightSMA. Hayden is currently an independent management consultant specializing in the commercialization of branded and generic pharmaceutical drugs, custom manufacturing including small molecules, CNS drug delivery technologies, and specialty pharma-chemical materials.

Notably, Hayden is the first Southern Research board member to reside outside of Alabama in several decades. In the organization’s early 75 years of history, the board and advisory council maintained a more national composition, with members including inventor Charles F. Kettering, General Motors magnate Alfred P. Sloan, and IBM leader and visionary Thomas J. Watson.

Southern Research presently has robust capabilities at the board level across key industries. More recently, the strategy has been to add subject matter experts in each of the industries that the organization serves: drug discovery, drug development, engineering, and energy and environment. In 2014, the board elected subject matter experts from both the defense and the energy sectors, with Hayden’s recent appointment representing the drug development sector.

“As we drive more commercial business in the life sciences sector, and as we look to license drug candidates from our robust drug discovery pipeline, Dan brings a high level of expertise that will help these endeavors,” said Arthur J. Tipton, Ph.D., president and CEO, Southern Research. “I have known Dan for over 10 years and developed a strong respect for him in many areas, particularly in his strategic vision and broad sales-based approach to business opportunities. I look forward to those skills helping at Southern Research.”

“Dan brings a unique and valuable perspective to Southern Research and to our board,” said Ray L. Watts, M.D., board chair and president of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “His combined experience in major leadership roles in both the pharmaceutical industry and non-profit organizations is a good fit for Southern Research, which is working on solutions for major real world problems in the life sciences/medicine, energy and engineering industries.”

 

Prominent Scientist to Lead Southern Research’s Drug Discovery Infectious Diseases Program

Posted on November 11, 2015

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – November 11, 2015 – Timothy Sellati, Ph.D., has joined Southern Research’s Drug Discovery division as senior research fellow and chair, Infectious Disease Department. Sellati will lead infectious disease researchers who are currently working to identify novel mechanisms, targets, and strategies for prevention and treatment of both bacterial and viral infectious diseases that occur throughout the world.

Sellati comes to SR from the Trudeau Institute in Saranac Lake, New York. Before joining the Trudeau Institute in 2013, he established his independent research program in the Center for Immunology and Microbial Disease at Albany Medical College. Sellati’s current research is focused on immunity to Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, vaccine development against biological threat agents and emerging pathogens, and harnessing self-assembling antimicrobial nanofibers to target antibiotic resistant pathogens.

“We are excited to have Dr. Sellati join SR,” said Mark Suto, Ph.D., vice president, Drug Discovery. “His broad expertise in infectious diseases, particularly emerging pathogens, will be critical to the success of our programs in these areas.”

Sellati most recently completed research under the New York State Senate Task Force on Lyme and Other Tick-borne Diseases, and he has written or co-authored 40 publications on Lyme disease and Tularemia research. He brings with him more than $4 million in funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health. Sellati is currently the Immunology Scientific Councilor for the International Endotoxin and Innate Immunity Society and past president of the Eastern New York Branch of the American Society for Microbiologists.

“Tim is a great addition to our ongoing strategy of drug discovery at Southern Research, as Mark Suto is executing a strategy of complementing our deep capabilities in HTS and medicinal chemistry with experts in the clinical areas our drugs will serve,” said Art Tipton, Ph.D., Southern Research president and CEO. “Tim will be chairing the area of infectious disease, the largest research area for Southern Research and a growing focus worldwide, with recurring diseases such as influenza, and emerging or re-emerging threats such as dengue, West Nile, SARS, and Ebola. His role parallels additional chairs at Southern Research in oncology and central nervous system research; together these describe the deep novel drug pipeline we are developing.”

About Southern Research
Southern Research is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization with more than 400 scientists and engineers working across four divisions: drug discovery, drug development, engineering, and energy and environment. We work on behalf of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy, NASA, major aerospace firms, utility companies, and other private and government organizations as we solve the world’s hardest problems. Southern Research, founded in 1941, is headquartered in Birmingham with additional laboratories and offices in Wilsonville and Huntsville, Frederick, Maryland, Durham, North Carolina, Cartersville, Georgia, and Houston. Visit southernresearch.org for more information.

Media Contact:
Rossi M. Carlson
205-581-2266

Local High School Students Perform Life Sciences and Engineering Experiments in Southern Research Labs

Posted on October 23, 2015

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – October 22, 2015 – On Thursday, October 22, a total of 40 students from George Washington Carver High School, Holy Family Cristo Rey High School, Huffman High School, P.D. Jackson-Olin High School, Ramsay High School, and Vestavia High School visited Southern Research’s Birmingham campuses to participate in life sciences and engineering experiments with SR scientists and engineers.

This was part of SR’s second annual Future Scientists & Engineers of Alabama – the organization’s local community outreach initiative to further educate high school students who show interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers.

“We have scientists and engineers working every day to solve some of the world’s hardest problems, and having these students interact with members of this team, and doing so in a real-world, R&D setting, gives them a view to a range of career choices available to them,” said Art Tipton, Ph.D., Southern Research president and CEO. “We hope the interaction continues their inspiration for technology and further equips them for living in our knowledge-based world, wherever the future takes them. And we hope some of these students become future scientists and engineers in our city and at Southern Research.”

SR scientists and engineers instructed and supervised the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior high school students as they conducted experiments within SR drug discovery, drug development, and engineering labs. Experiments were followed by a group Q&A session with the students and SR scientists and engineers.

Additionally, students attended an evening reception in the courtyard of SR’s Southside headquarters where they met with business, government, and non-profit executives from across Alabama.

The Experiments

Engineering: Students were able to perform several tasks that both engineers and technicians at SR’s Engineering Research Center perform every day for customers such as NASA, Boeing, and the U.S. Navy. The work done at ERC provides valuable information needed to develop and improve materials used in spacecrafts, rockets, turbines, airplanes, and missiles. Students were exposed to many different technologies that are used to produce real-world material property data that engineers utilize every day to perform their jobs, and they saw how science and mathematics play an integral part in producing that data. Participants performed both destructive and non-destructive tests on five metal materials. The non-destructive tests measured the density and ultrasonic velocity of the different materials. A destructive test, called a tension test, was performed by pulling apart a specimen until it broke, and different technologies were used to measure the load to break the specimen and how much it stretched before it broke.

Drug Development: Midazolam is a common anesthetic within the benzodiazepine family, and it is known to be metabolized by the liver. In the Drug Development experiment, students cultured liver cells in a three-dimensional bioreactor and dosed them with midazolam. Media aliquots were taken at different time points, and mass spectrometry was performed to monitor the metabolism of midazolam. Biology and chemistry were the foundation of for this experiment, while physics and engineering were principles used in developing the three-dimensional bioreactor. While midazolam is a well-studied compound, similar experiments are performed in the development of next-generation pharmaceuticals.

Drug Discovery: In SR’s Drug Discovery labs, students performed experiments that applied both biology and chemistry: DNA extraction and agarose gel electrophoresis; analysis of the principles and uses of fluorescence microscopy, including an overview of a typical staining protocol and visualization of various organelle and protein stains; and synthesis of aspirin – the first research-based pharmaceutical.

Since 1941, Southern Research has been conducting innovative science and engineering work that helps make people’s lives better. Here are just a few highlights of that work:

Developed seven FDA-approved cancer drugs, and is developing 18 other treatments for diseases as part of the Alabama Drug Discovery Alliance with the University of Alabama at Birmingham

Developing vaccines to combat infectious diseases around the world

Created a state-of-the-art solar research facility to study the effects of the Southeast’s unique atmospheric conditions on solar power systems

Helping to make water safer and provide healthier habitats for fish and wildlife

About Southern Research

Southern Research is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) scientific and engineering research organization, founded in 1941, that conducts preclinical drug discovery and development, advanced engineering research in materials, systems development, and environment and energy research. Approximately 450 team members support clients and partners in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, defense, aerospace, environmental and energy industries. SR is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. Additional laboratories and offices are located in Wilsonville and Huntsville, Alabama, Frederick, Maryland, Durham, North Carolina, Cartersville, Georgia, and Houston.

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