Welcome to the November edition of OBN's Monthly Newsletter.
OBN Upcoming Digital Events
Isansys News: Manchester hospitals deploy new remote monitoring technology to free up beds for the sickest Coronavirus patients
The surge in Covid-19 patients in Greater Manchester has provided the opportunity for two hospitals to deploy a new wireless monitoring platform which they hope will allow clinicians to identify and predict deteriorating patients faster and with less nurse to patient contact. Originally planned for use in clinical research, the new technology holds the promise of saving many lives in Manchester and many thousands if rolled out across the whole country.

Dr Indy Kapila, intensive care consultant and chair of the North West Regional Consultants Committee of the British Medical Association, deemed the current situation in critical care units across the region as 'very concerning’. He said that while units do have capacity 'at the moment', beds may start to run out 'over the next week or so'.
OBN Event News
The re-launch of live events in the UK was due on 1 October but as you know has been ‘paused’ for the foreseeable future by the Prime Minister. We have made the decision not to transfer BioForward to a digital format, and instead plan to postpone the event to Thursday 17 June 2021.
 
All delegate bookings and event details remain exactly the same, and all sponsorship, panels and exhibitions will be transferred directly to the new date. We send our sincere thanks to all for their continued support of BioForward and OBN in general.

We send our sincere thanks to all our OBN Members, Sponsors, Supporters and all our network for your continued support in these unprecedented times. If you have any questions at all about the events then please contact the Events Team, events@obn.org.uk  and they will be happy to help.
Don't miss out on our online training courses coming up of the next couple of months - see details below. If you have any questions please email sarah.walker@obn.org.uk


12 November – Drug Discovery

7 December – Drug Discovery 

Welcome to our New OBN Corporate Sponsor
We are delighted to announce AggioSergeant as OBN’s new Corporate Sponsor.

AggioSergeant is an international boutique retained search firm that has been delivering life science leadership and connecting extraordinary businesses to outstanding people for more than 30 years. Working globally, they have an unparalleled network within the life science community and offices in California, the UK, and the EU.

AggioSergeant welcome their new relationship with OBN and look forward to working closely with the Member companies.

Victoria Sergeant, CEO said "As a resident of Oxfordshire I am delighted to be working with OBN - we look forward to supporting them to achieve their vision for our community".

John Harris, CEO of OBN, commented; “We are delighted to see AggioSergeant step up to be our latest OBN Corporate Sponsor. AggioSergeant is a very well established specialist recruiter in the Life Sciences space, with an excellent track record of strong service provision to clients and consideration to candidates. As such, they perfectly match OBN’s service philosophy and we look forward to working closely with AggioSergeant to help increase their profile and generate opportunity within the sector”.
Looking for new ways to promote your organisation?

If you are looking for new marketing opportunities for your organisation, then consider advertising in CONNECT, OBN’s bi-annual membership magazine that shares industry updates & hot topic features alongside a detailed OBN Member directory. CONNECT is distributed to our member network (400+) with an expected readership of 8k, as well as to Science Parks (30,000+ people) and at all OBN and other major industry events such as BIO and BioEurope. 

Due to current COVID situation and the pause on live events, the Autumn edition of CONNECT will be available online but will not be printed. This means that we are able to offer a reduced rate to place an advert in the magazine. Please click here for the advert specs and fees.

If you have any questions at all then please contact Rebecca Wilkes, Communications and Marketing Coordinator, rebecca.wilkes@obn.org.uk
John Harris, CEO, OBN, recently interviewed Dr Sunetra Gupta concerning her involvement in The Great Barrington Declaration and the Focused Protection approach.

Whatever your views or opinions on the matter, it proved to be a fascinating interview – simply click on the image to view.

Professor Chris Whitty / SAGE has been approached to provide a balancing interview – watch this space!
Welcome to our New OBN Media Supporter
We are delighted to announce that FreeMind Group are now an OBN Media Partner, and will be supporting all four of our major events; BioSeed, BioTrinity, BioForward and the OBN Awards.

Join the FreeMind Group for the 16th annual Non-Dilutive Funding Summit, taking place on January 13th, 2021. The Non-Dilutive Funding Summit is a free educational event, that brings together hundreds of life science industry leaders to learn from various non-dilutive funding sources about their interests, goals, and funding objectives. This year's event, which will be delivered virtually, will include speakers from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the National Institute for Diabetes, and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and more! To register: https://www.freemindconsultants.com/16th-non-dilutive-funding-summit/ 
Welcome to our New Members:
Is a consultancy dedicated to commercialising IP in food, life sciences and agritech.

Works with international enterprises to help them build strong links to the resources, skills and businesses that make British Columbia an attractive place to work and invest.
Oxford StemTech has developed a new method that drastically reduces the cost and hugely increases the scale of reprogramming (when an adult cell is turned back into a stem cell)
AccendoLAB is a privately owned laboratory. Purposely set up by Accendo as a Covid Testing Facility to help increase the UK's Covid Testing capacity.
Contact Lee Pratley to find out how you can make huge savings on Lab and office supplies, business travel, utility bills and online Purchasing Platform.
OBN Member News
Opportunity to provide feedback to Innovate UK on the IVDR
Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government.

They drive productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new ideas, including those from the UK’s world-class research base.

Specifically, they provide funding for health life science companies through our SMART, Biomedical Catalyst and Digital Health Technology Catalyst funding programmes. Innovate UK have commissioned a survey to understand how the EU IVD Regulation (IVDR) will impact on diagnostics companies. 
 
This is an opportunity for you to provide feedback to Innovate UK to enable them to develop support mechanisms for the industry (if needed) associated with implementation of the IVDR.
 
The IVDR came into force on 25th May 2017 with a five year transition period meaning it will be fully implemented on 26th May 2022.
 
We want to try and ensure that we get the views of as many companies as possible and would greatly appreciate it if you could fill out this confidential ‘IVDR Readiness’ survey. 
 
The deadline for completion of the survey is 6th Nov 2020. No company specific information will be divulged and the findings will be shared with the participants.
 
 
Who should fill in the survey?
  • Participants :    Manufacturers (Commercially available products); Pre-Market Innovators
  • Responses:      1 response per company
  • Respondent:    Individual responsible for coordinating IVDR compliance (e.g. CEO, regulatory affairs manager)
 
Time taken to complete
  • 10 – 15 minutes
OBN Member Events
Invitation to Merck's Webinar:

Live Cell Imaging: Novel Probes and Imaging Reagents

Wednesday, December 9, 2020
4 pm Central European Time  (3 pm UK Time)

In this webinar researchers will learn:

• About some of the new live cell probes for cell structures, reactive ions, endocytosis, exocytosis, hypoxia, nucleotide transporters, and more
• About probes for cellular stress by tracking reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in real time
• The benefits of imaging live cells as compared to fixed cells
• About development of new molecular transporter that is capable of delivering NTPs across cell membranes

For more information and to register please click here
Please share all of your COVID-19 related news, updates @CovidObn
Join Us!

If you haven't already joined OBN please take a look at all the benefits of becoming an OBN Member and join today!! If you have any questions then please contact Nicola Westgate, Membership Manager.

If you have any News, Jobs or Events you would like to share with OBN Members and Contacts, please email Rebecca Wilkes, Communications and Marketing Coordinator, with the details.
Thank you to all our Corporate Sponsors