Attendees
S. Chien, B. Craig, G. Schmid-Schonbein, J. Penhune, L. Phillips, I. Tyus, A. Barrow, J. Goggins, L. Roteliuk, T. Ratcliffe, M. Heller, J. Griffin

Approval of Minutes from 02/27/02 meeting
Approved as submitted. Election of Chair of IAB Dr. Shu Chien thanked Dr. John Penhune for his excellent leadership and outstanding service to the IAB from 1995-2002, and presented him with a plaque to show the Board's appreciation. Dr. Penhune in turn thanked Dr. Chien and told the Board he brought in "some younger blood", then turned the leadership over to our new chairman, Dr. Bill Craig.

Dr. Chien announced the nominating committee had nominated Dr. Craig to serve as the next Chair of IAB and the Board's vote was unanimous. Dr. Craig is a valued member of the IAB. He is Vice President of Research & Product Development at ISTA Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Prior to joining ISTA, Dr. Craig served as Vice President of Research & Development at Alpha Therapeutics Corporation. Dr. Craig received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from UCSD and worked as Head of Core Biochemistry at the Salk Institute Biotechnology/Industrial Associates, Inc. He gave an outstanding keynote speech at the UCSD Graduate Students' Breakfast with Industry last November.

Dr. Craig spoke about his plans for the IAB in the coming year. Expansion of membership was his first priority, which will begin in the fall. The WIBE will continue to support and sponsor the annual Meet the Researcher, Breakfast with Industrial, Annual Bioengineering Symposium, other symposia and workshops, as well as the Bioengineering department and its students.

Presentation "Challengers of Nanotechnology/Nanofabrications" by Michael Heller
Dr. Heller's presentation was titled "Challenges for Nanotechnology and Nanofabrication", which he had recently presented at a special NSF meeting. One of the key challenges for Nanotechnology will be the development of new manufacturing or nanofabrication technologies. In particular, technologies which combine so-called "Bottom-Up" with "Top-Down" approaches would be very desirable. A general example would be to combine so-called self-assembling processes which is a bottom-up process used by living organism (biology), with a top-down process like photolithography which is used by the microelectronics industry. Such new synergistic "nanofabrication" processes might also incorporate the use of electric fields to direct the assembly of molecular, nanoscale, and microscale components on preformed semiconductor substrates. A second challenge for nanotechnology will be in the development of mechanisms. Again, biology would provide many examples which include photonic and electron transfer, catalytic mechanisms, and in particular mechanisms which efficiently convert chemical energy into mechanical motion.

Regulatory Issues Workshop
Dr. Tony Ratcliffe led the conversation on the idea of a workshop to discuss regulatory issues and concerns with the FDA and other regulatory agencies. Georgia Tech recently held a workshop which raised a lot of issues regarding this important topic. The workshop was thought to be extremely valuable in educating the attendees. However, it was not seen as having an immediate influence on changing the current practices. Industry was unable to fully express their concerns in the presence of the governing agencies.

Dr. Ratcliffe felt that there was value to having this meeting. He expressed the belief that academics can play a key role as a middlepersons or negotiators in this process. Dr. Bob Nerem, Head of the Petite Institute of Bioengineering and Biosciences at Georgia Tech, was the facilitator of this east coast meeting. Dr. Ratcliffe suggested hosting a west coast meeting similar to the recent one held at Georgia Tech, and suggested Shu Chien speak directly with Bob to begin the process.

Dr. Chien, who works closely with Dr. Nerem on AIMBE and other matters, will contact Dr. Nerem soon to start the process. The workshop will most likely take place in the winter and possibly be held in the Fung Auditorium in the new Powell-Focht Building. Dr. Abi Barrow, Director of the von Liebig Center, has agreed to contact BioCom when the time is appropriate, and Dr. Craig will appoint a committee to begin to discuss the objectives. It was agreed that the message should be positive suggestions to the FDA rather than criticism.

Powell-Focht Building Update & Announcements
Dr. Chien announced the dedication ceremony for the Powell-Focht building will be held on August 12, 2002 in the afternoon. This will be immediately after the Whitaker Foundation annual grantees meeting in San Diego. Dr. Chien recently received a letter from President Atkinson who accepted the invitation and will be in attendance.

Dr. Chien also briefly reported on the Fung Auditorium. Originally, the Development Office of the Jacobs School of Engineering had hoped that SONY would donate the audiovisual equipment for the Auditorium, but SONY has begun some organizational changes which has caused a change in their current position. Dr. Chien asked the Board to contact him with any suggestions of manufacturers in this area as potential donors.

Once again, Dr. Chien congratulated Dr. Craig on his chairmanship and thanked Dr. Penhune for his service.

Other Business and Next Meeting Date
The next Industrial Advisory Board Meeting will be determined later. A survey form will be sent to Board members to select the most suitable date.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:05 a.m.

Respectfully submitted: Jennifer Griffin