In a recent “What’s the Buzz?!” LinkedIn LIVE session, BioBuzz CEO Chris Frew spoke with Patrick Hanley, Chief and Director of the Cellular Therapy Program at Children’s National Hospital, about the future of cell and gene therapy in the Mid-Atlantic.
Pioneering Pediatric Cell & Gene Therapy
Children’s National Hospital is at the forefront of innovation, standing out as one of the few institutions in the world with a dedicated pediatric cellular therapy program. While primarily focused on treating illnesses in children, the hospital’s groundbreaking research has far-reaching implications for adult therapies as well, broadening its impact on healthcare.
The program began in 2013 and reached a major milestone in 2014 when its first patient received cell and gene therapy as part of a clinical trial. Today, the program tackles complex diseases, including cancer, blood and immune disorders, and certain genetic conditions. Some its capabilities include:
- Manufacturing virus-specific T-cells for post-bone marrow transplant patients.
- Developing tumor antigen-specific T-cells for cancers such as brain tumors and AML.
- Advancing CAR T-cell therapy for various conditions.
This expertise is supported by unique capabilities at Children’s National, where the Program for Cell Enhancement and Technologies for Immunotherapy (CETI) houses three specialized labs. These labs enable the testing of new ideas, the development of T-cells and the processing of stem cells – all under one roof.
Collaboration for Greater Access
Children’s National is also shaping the broader cell and gene therapy landscape through strategic partnerships with leading institutions like Johns Hopkins, NIH, and NIAID. These collaborations expand access to cutting-edge therapies and leverage the collective resources and expertise of the Mid-Atlantic region to drive innovation.
Empowering Institutions with Cell Builder
Beyond their own advancements, Children’s National is committed to helping other institutions establish and grow their cell and gene therapy programs. Through their Cell Builder Initiative, they offer a complete support package. Think of it like cell & gene therapy “home chef.” as Patrick frames it. This includes Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), reagents, and tools developed from FDA-approved Phase 1 clinical trials. Additionally, the “package” includes advisory services and continued support to institutions lacking the expertise or infrastructure of major medical centers.
This initiative goals are clear: lower costs, accelerate the time to patient access, and democratize access to cell therapy innovations, particularly beyond the major medical centers. In this way “Cell Builder” seeks to empower other institutions beyond the walls of Children’s National especially those without the same level of expertise or infrastructure and ultimately ensuring that patients everywhere can benefit from these groundbreaking therapies.
Transforming Healthcare for All
Children’s National Hospital continues to leverage its collaborative experiences and innovative mindset to drive advancements in cell and gene therapy. From pioneering pediatric therapies to empowering other institutions through initiatives like Cell Builder, the hospital is not only transforming pediatric healthcare but also shaping the broader future of cell and gene therapy for all patients.
Watch the Full Interview:
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Transcript:
Chris Frew [00:00:00]:
3, 2, 1. Hello, everybody. It’s Chris Frew here, back again with another episode of “What’s the Buzz?!” This time talking about the future of cell and gene therapy here in the Mid Atlantic. I’m super excited today to welcome a good friend of mine, Patrick Hanley, who’s Chief and Director of cell therapy program and Associate Professor at Children’s Hospital. Hey, Patrick, Welcome.
Patrick Hanley [00:00:26]:
Thanks so much. Great to be here.
Chris Frew [00:00:30]:
Yeah, I’m excited to have you here today. And this is a great. It’s a Monday episode of “What’s the Buzz?!” So we’re starting the week off and I think we’re getting ready to give some people a lot of exciting information about what’s happening and what you all are doing really to kind of really spur this ecosystem here in the Mid Atlantic. So I’m really, really excited to talk to you today. As a starting point for those of you tuning in, BioBuzz has been around for 15 years building engaging ecosystems and life sciences. We care really about two things. One is building community. And we do a lot to really work and foster community in all of our markets, including Philadelphia, here in the Capital Region and in Research Triangle. And the other thing is talent. None of you can get your products to market and really build the innovations and the new technologies you’re working on without the right talent. So BioBuzz has been dedicated to growing our workforce for 15 years. We’re in the process of launching a new workforce platform for our community, which we’re excited about later next year. And so those. Those two things really center a lot of what we will focus on. Workforce and talent. I’m sorry, workforce and community. Today we’re talking about community. So, Patrick, let’s start. Maybe give an introduction to yourself and the work you do at Children’s as a starting point.
Patrick Hanley [00:01:50]:
Yeah, sounds good, Chris. And thanks again for hosting me. So, Patrick Hanley. I’m Chief and Director of the Cell Therapy Program at Children’s National Hospital. We’ve been here for 11 years now, and Children’s National, I applaud them for having the vision to build this cell and gene therapy program. It all started about 12 years ago when Dr. Catherine Bollard, who’s our current center director and the director of CETI, our immunotherapy program, came and gave grant rounds at Children’s National. And at that time, leadership said, you know, we had this vision for 10 years from now, we would build cell and gene therapy, but why don’t we do it now? And so they recruited Cath to come start the program, and Cath asked me to come and run our good manufacturing practices facility where we make the cells for patients and a host of other people as well to start faculty and staff. So we started in 2013 and found. Fast forward to May 2014 and we actually infused our first patient with cell gene therapy product on a clinical trial. So we focus on treating cancer, blood and immune disorders and some genetic disorders, I guess. So we manufacture virus specific T-cells for patients after a bone marrow transplant. We manufacture tumor antigen specific T-cells for patients with cancer, brain tumors, cell tumors, AML. And we also are developing CAR T-cells. Like many others in the field, we have mesenchymal stromal cells for newborn babies with congenital heart disease and we partner with neurology and cardiology for that. So we’re just developing new cell and gene therapies. And over the course of our time here in DC, we’ve formed a number of collaborations. And that is the hallmark of Kath Bollard leading our program is, you know, she’s really into collaborations and team science. And so we have a shared program project grant with Johns Hopkins University, we have a shared grant with the NIH and NIAID for norovirus led by Dr. Mike Heller. And so we’ve just been doing a lot of work in this region and actually nationwide to get access or provide access for patients to these cell engine therapies.
Chris Frew [00:03:58]:
That’s fantastic. You know, I think team science, you know, that’s a great term. A lot of people don’t, don’t use that or know kind of that concept. But I think that Children’s holistically, not just your program, they really embrace a lot of this collaborative approach and are really an ambassador for like anything that really kind of helps drive that access and move innovation forward. My experience. And so it sounds like your program is kind of built on that hallmark.
Patrick Hanley [00:04:28]:
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think you know Kolaleh Eskandanian very well. I liaise with her team. I’m an ambassador to CCIR from the Innovation Ventures team. So within Children’s, I think we have that same team science model and also external outside facing as well. And to be honest, I’m not sure that I would really enjoy what I do if I didn’t have that sort of that ability to be a team player. Obviously we’re all driven by making patients grow up stronger. That’s the Children’s motto. But you know, we being able to do that with a team is much more rewarding than trying to do it alone.
Chris Frew [00:05:06]:
Oh yeah, absolutely. So, you know, as a kind of captain of the team here for CHARM. Why don’t we talk a little bit about that? Because you. You’ve taken a lot of the work you’ve done and that kind of attitude and that philosophy of team science. And I think, you know, I know last year I was there for the first annual CHARM event. Could you talk a little bit about that? I mean, I think that’s a big thing we want to talk about today is what you’re doing to really kind of take that philosophy that you have in your organization, but then also use that kind of approach to kind of harness more of the community. So could you tell us a bit about what the CHARM Symposium is? Maybe a little historical about how we got here?
Patrick Hanley [00:05:48]:
Yeah. So CHARM is one of the two things that we’re going to talk about today where we’re trying to amplify the reach that we have at Children’s National. We started at Children’s National, we treated patients at Children’s National with the therapies we developed over the next couple of years, we started to collaborate, and we started treating patients at Johns Hopkins or other places, and now we’re treating patients across the country. We’ve been the manufacturing center for three clinical trials run through the Children’s Oncology Group, which is the largest pediatric cancer network in the world. And that was the first ever cell therapy trial run through cog. Right. And so we’re trying to take that, enable that patient access, and just amplify it. So what we’ve done with CHARM is form a network, a community, if you will. In the Mid Atlantic region, we have such a unique area geographically. Right. We have access to the FDA, we have access to the NSF, NAH, NIST, leading universities, and leading hospitals. You have access to ARM the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine. So many different players are in this area. And so we can do things that no other region can. I mean, I think Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, they each have their own niche, and ours is access to these unique entities, whether they be government or hospital systems or what have you, plus access to biopharma. Right. We have Kite, AstraZeneca, a lot of players in this region. So what CHARM is trying to do is create that network, bring people together to accelerate development, to increase patient access, and just sit side by side and say, what hurdles are we facing as a community? And what can we do by working together to address them?
Chris Frew [00:07:36]:
I love that. So. And CHARM stands for what?
Patrick Hanley [00:07:40]:
So it’s the Capital Health and Mid Atlantic Capital Health and Mid Atlantic Regenerative Medicine.
Chris Frew [00:07:46]:
Regenerative medicine.
Patrick Hanley [00:07:47]:
Great.
Chris Frew [00:07:49]:
And it’s coming up on November 14th, right? Your second annual symposium.
Patrick Hanley [00:07:53]:
Exactly, November 14th. So we have a few slots left. If you’d like to register for the symposium, it is free, but we’re asking that people that register plan to attend because it is, you know, it is fully funded by sponsors and we want to make sure that people are taking up those last remaining spots will actually attend. So please reach out to me. There’s also links on my LinkedIn page to register your interest. And Chris, the CHARM symposium is actually just one part of what we built stemming from that symposium that you attended last year. So we had listening sessions, we broke people into groups and said, what should we be doing in this region to drive innovation and clinical development, to accelerate development and increase patient access? And people said, well, we need an identity. So that’s where CHARM came. We need to have regular touch points and we need to have this symposium every year. And so we’ve done that. We’ve created the symposium happening November 14th. We have the identity CHARM and we are also creating touchpoints. So we have webinars where we regularly have people. I think Kath Bollard and someone from Virginia was one of our first speakers. Sorry, I forgot the name at the moment. We also have regular check in. So alongside ASGCT the state of Maryland made a check in there. We are planning a check in with Kite, thanks to Naren Kadaba. And we’ve had interest from a lot of different companies who want to host these check ins. Right. I just don’t know how many people, 15, 20, 30 people who just get together and talk about what they’re doing in the region. So it’s those kind of three things that we’re building to build that community.
Chris Frew [00:09:33]:
Yeah, you know, you, you mentioned something, you know, you mentioned Boston and some other areas. You know, I think, you know, geography is important. Right. And when it comes to regenerative medicine and cell and gene therapy, especially around Mid Atlantic, I’ve seen it. It’s woven into a lot of the events, it’s woven into a lot of the discussions happening. But I think you hit the nail on something if there wasn’t an initiative building community around, you know, around just that. And I think that that’s, I think it’s important because there are unique elements to it. There’s unique challenges, there’s importance to kind of bringing that community together because it is still a very evolving segment of the industry. So I commend you on that. I think when you look at community building. You do. You’re right. You need an identity. Right. You need kind of a shared mission. And the more focused that shared mission is, the better. Right. So if it’s like, hey, we all believe in biotech and we want to grow biotech in the region, that’s good. And there is an element of that. But when you can really narrow that down and saying, hey, we’re going to come together as a community to advance this field of science and this field of medicine, I think that really kind of is a good part of how you kind of better energize and better advance. And not only that, but it really kind of focuses towards a mission. So I’m excited that we are. It sounds like you’ve checked off some of those first key boxes you had for last year. What can we expect in year two at the event? Tell us a little bit about kind of, you know, whether it’s sponsors, speakers, keynotes, objectives of the event.
Patrick Hanley [00:11:12]:
Yep. So happy to report that sponsorship has essentially doubled or very close to doubling. So that’s fantastic. I think it just shows you how much people want to invest in this region, whether it be in the people and the business or economic development or in patient access. Right. So that’s fantastic. I think there’s more of an involvement in the government, local government. So Frederick County is speaking. Montgomery County has expressed interest. Virginia, the state of Virginia has expressed interest. And so it’s great just to see that the players here also want to be a part of it. One of the things we’re doing differently this year is we’re not having the breakout sessions, but we’re having longer breaks to facilitate discussion. And we’re also having panel discussion discussions that include all aspects of this, of the continuum. Right. So we will have patient advocates or foundations. We have the FDA speaking. We have, you know, local counties, we have hospitals and institutions just like before, as well as some companies who are developing products that want to tie together communities as well. So I think that’s it. That’s what you can expect. I think there’s always a great reception at the end, which is nice to just kind of unwind, let your hair down and, you know, network with your colleagues.
Chris Frew [00:12:28]:
Yeah, that sounds like a great day. I’m curious, are there any kind of challenges or kind of themes that have come up in your planning session that your community really is concerned about this year that have made their way into the. Into the symposium from a topic standpoint.
Patrick Hanley [00:12:48]:
Or a theme standpoint? Yeah, I think some. One of the things that came up is we want more of a patient voice or a patient family voice. And so, you know, we’re trying to capture that. We have Gavin from the Evan Foundation, who’s an eloquent, eloquent speaker, so really, really grateful that he’s agreed to speak. Last year, we had the Maryland Stem Cell Foundation speak about sickle cell, which was really timely given the approvals and sickle cell in December of 2023, and that children’s national was the first to infuse the lagenia product on September 11th of this year, which was the first gene therapy approved for sickle cell. So that I think that was really the biggest theme. And then the other one was we want time to cultivate these relationships. So not just so we have flash talks, which is important to me because I want as many people as possible to talk about what they’re doing in the research region. And then I asked them the final slide to be here’s what we offer in a partnership and here’s what we’re seeking so that people know who to talk to. And then I think the other theme, and you touched on this already, is workforce development. And so people really want to drive this. They see this as a unique area to drive workforce development. I think Montgomery County has been doing a great job. KITE has a number of key partnerships with Frederick Community College and I think Hood College that they’re going to speak. Speak about. So I’m excited about that. And we. One of the. So one of the things that I wanted to touch on during this conversation is what’s happened since the last symposium, in addition to forming the CHARM is we’ve had a lot of touch points. I can only speak from a Children’s National perspective, but we’ve partnered with Montgomery College. We visited their program, see, you know, seen how they do training programs, and they’ve actually brought students to Children’s National to see what it’s like in reality to run a manufacturing program. And I think that’s really important. ABB has reached out and talked about how they want to be a part of these workforce and development training programs. And so that’s fantastic. You know, Chris, I think I’ve had the opportunity to work with you in BioBuzz and from a personal standpoint, and I wouldn’t have had that opportunity if you didn’t attend that symposium. So I think that’s fantastic. And I’ve heard from some of the other participants, some of the businesses that they’ve actually had a lot of connections that derived from this symposium. So I think it is worthwhile for people to attend. And the last key component that touches our workforce is that it last year was really focused on leaders in the field. This year we’ve reserved about 50 spots for trainees for early stage professionals who are within their 10 years of graduation. Because it’s important that they have exposure to this community as well, since they’re the next generation of leaders.
Chris Frew [00:15:25]:
And so that’s awesome. That’s a great component to add in here. I mean, and to give them that opportunity to not only hear from presenters, but then have that interaction. And the ability to kind of build those professional relationships is key as well.
Patrick Hanley [00:15:40]:
Yep.
Chris Frew [00:15:41]:
Yeah. Well, that’s great. I mean, so it sounds like you’re tracking a lot of the output that is coming out of the efforts that you put out. And again, I think it’s all, I want to just reiterate that ability to kind of ground things in collaboration and team science. Nothing in science happens without collaboration. Yet sometimes the day to day work we do is an antithesis to that. So this is going to be a great opportunity, just two weeks away, less than two weeks away, for a lot of collaboration to be happening all in person right here in the Middle Atlantic. So I’m very excited about that. Based on the outcomes last year, are there any goals that you have or any outcomes you’re hoping to see from this year?
Patrick Hanley [00:16:24]:
I want to, I want to make sure that we’re, we’re getting the voices, I want to expand the reach. Right. So I think I’ve started to tap out my network. Right. And so I think it will only be successful if we can take it to the second and third layer. And so that’s why, you know, I’m really grateful that you’re hosting me here and I hope that we can continue to build that and I want to make sure that we continue to keep the mission in mind. I think you really emphasized that earlier. And also that patient access angle and the patient experience, making sure that we’re not forgetting and losing sight of that.
Chris Frew [00:16:55]:
Yeah, yeah. I mean, and so for everybody, anyone listening, you know, you can reach out to Patrick here on LinkedIn. We’ll make sure we include the links to that. But you know, the community grows and it only grows when there’s someone else that you think will benefit from being part of it. And you reach out and you say, hey, come along. This year it’s just a couple weeks away. So you said a couple slots left. And so hopefully some of our audience are taking you up on that and your LinkedIn is going to get a couple new messages for people interested. We’ll make sure we share the link so we can share your sponsors and all the other people that are committed to making this happen for you. Because again, it’s like the other thing that you didn’t bring up that I want to bring up is when it comes to building community, you do need an anchor or a few anchors that really kind of have to kind of get the flywheel moving. And so again, I commend you all and what you’ve done to get the flywheel moving. It’s really important to have that. Have a couple anchors that kind of ground it and the fact that you can stand on 10 years plus of success and what an incredible year with the number of firsts that you all have had. So I think, again, I commend you on children’s really stepping up to open up and bring people to you and really show what you’re doing to impact patients and move the industry forward. Because that anchor is critical to any community. Really kind of taking off the ground.
Patrick Hanley [00:18:29]:
Yeah, absolutely.
Chris Frew [00:18:31]:
So you’ve done a lot since last year and Children’s, you know, is continuing to evolve too. And some of your thinking on how you impact the industry beyond the patients and beyond the products that you’re infusing and the collaborations you’re making, beyond CHARM. So you’ve done a lot of work over the years and we were talking about beforehand too, you’ve done a lot of work over the years just to help people out. But some of that’s come, has developed some unique insights and some tools and technology. So one of the things I wanted to learn more about is you’ve just rolled out a new kind of a new package or a new support platform called Cell Builder. Do you want to do a better job than me at unpacking without.
Patrick Hanley [00:19:13]:
No, you’re much better than me. But sure, happy, take a stab at it. So, as you said, going back to this is the second way to amplify our reach. Right. And that is we can’t do it all alone. And so we’ve had over the years many institutions who have reached out to us, not just for access to products, especially virus T-cells, but helping to build their program. And we’re happy to do that. We don’t get paid for it, but we do that because that’s how we get started. And we’re so grateful to Helen Heslov, Cleo Rooney, Malcolm Brenner, Adrian G at Baylor College of Medicine who helped us get started. But at the end of the day, it’s not scalable. You know, there’s only one of me and I have all sorts of creatures, crazy ideas, so it’s very difficult to harness me. And so, you know, we had the thought, like, why don’t we package this together and then we can provide it to the institutions, you know, at a reasonable cost to jumpstart their journey in cell and gene therapy. That will help increase innovation because they don’t have to focus on getting started. They can focus on innovating with the next generation of what they want to do. So, we developed this cell builder kit, as we call it, which is basically the home chef, or the blue apron of the cell and gene therapy field. So here’s the SOP, here’s all the reagents that we’ve used in this clinical trial. And we’re not promising that it’s going to always work. Right. Like, we have experience getting that through a phase one clinical trial with the FDA. Right. But these reagents have been vetted and used before. And if we need to make a change, we’ll do that. But at least we have a starting point and you can, you can choose your meal of the week. Right. Whether it be CAR T-cells or virus T-cells or MSCs, you know, we have all these different modules that we plan to build. We’ll help you build the IND template and then we’ll also be advisors or consultants for you?, You know, you get a bundled hour, no number of hours to get started. And then if you need us for your second generation, you can come to us and will help you, will help you with that. And so it’s, it’s all in one. And I think that’s what people have been looking for instead of spending $30 million to recruit the next rising star of cell gene therapy. And so that’s what we’re trying to do.
Chris Frew [00:21:24]:
Yeah, that’s great. So, yeah. And instead of, you know, and it keeps it all in one kind of supply, you know, element as well, or one kind of continuum, instead of having 10 different consultants come in to advise on different areas, or having your team figure out what agents to use on its own, you’re like, hey, I know you’re. I like the chef analogy. It’s tried and true. It tastes great, it can be ready in 15 minutes. That kind of mindset really makes sense. And I think it probably helps lower cost and speed time to patients as well.
Patrick Hanley [00:22:04]:
Exactly. And you know, if you need a kitchen, we’re partnering with Hitachi to help build that kitchen, the clean room for you. Right, but you’re right. It’s. The whole idea here is to increase patient access for investigational studies and, you know, eventually commercial studies. And I think, Chris, that’s one of the innovative parts of this, is it takes the scariest and highest risk part of this, and it eliminates it. Right. So we are. We are an enabler. We’re a vendor who is providing you with the materials to go forward. Right. And you need to do it in a way that is sanctioned and approved or cleared by the regulators. Right. We are not enabling people to go rogue. But if you want to run a phase 1 clinical trial and get permission from FDA to see cost recovery for the manufacturer of that drug product, you can do that. And that is the thing. If you want to take this all the way to licensure, you can do that as well. But we just want to enable you to get going and start providing access throughout the country and not just in these large centers of excellence.
Chris Frew [00:23:07]:
Yeah, yeah. Well. And I think that’s probably how you’ll lower the cost of these things and really kind of enable more indications to get addressed. Patrick, what stage, you know, like, who are you. Who are you working with on these? Who’s engaging with you, or who’s the ideal? Is it someone who’s still preclinical, kind of looking to advance, you know, an enabling stage or earlier than that?
Patrick Hanley [00:23:33]:
So I think the ideal institution is one that’s thought about this kind of like Children’s National was 13 years ago. So they’re thinking about it. They maybe want to build something, but they don’t really know where to get started. That’s perfect for us. Right. Because we can make recommendations, we can provide you with the cleaning room facility, all that kind of stuff. It’s all just, hey, here’s your options. You know, we need to understand what your. What your footprint is, but, you know, we can help you build it. So that’s it. And also one other area that we found interest from or in is the regional blood services. There’s a lot of these different facilities throughout the country, and they’ve been wanting to move into cell therapy, but maybe they don’t have the expertise. And so we can help. Help provide that, which I didn’t think about at first, but there’s been a lot of interest.
Chris Frew [00:24:18]:
Yeah. That’s really interesting. So, you know, you said something earlier like, you know, you got a lot of crazy ideas. And, you know, it’s hard to wrangle you in. I feel like you and I are kindred spirits in that, in that way. But we think a lot of like. So, you know, BioBuzz is actually, you know, we’re scaling as well, and we’ve kind of created SOPs and created a package. It’s kind of like BioBuzz in a box. But we’re talking to emerging ecosystems right now that are kind of smaller and growing and looking to get a stronger workforce, looking to get more buzz and amplification so they can attract talent and they can attract companies and they can attract the investment to their region. And it’s interesting, we’ve done a similar thing to you. We thought about where we were over the past decade and we packaged that into a platform and we’re looking the same way. How do we drop BioBuzz in a box into these emerging ecosystems? Because we really believe, kind of like we talked about earlier, community is a bedrock to really, you know, strong innovation ecosystems. And some of the things that we’ve learned really well over the years is good storytelling is important for connecting the community and attracting people. Programming and events that kind of build community and bring people together and then the workforce that kind of ties it all together. Those three are critical and. And pull it also. Again, I like the Chef. I might steal that Chef idea from you. And now we’re talking about that as well. But so I think we both share some level of crazy and some level of wild ideas, but also some level of systematic thinking on how to make a difference.
Patrick Hanley [00:25:57]:
No, I love it. Absolutely love it. And I forgot I was gonna say something about going back to the regional Symbol symposium, but no worries.
Chris Frew [00:26:06]:
Well, we’re excited because that’s coming up soon. So, you know, just wrapping everything up here as we’re talking. It’s November 14th, the CHARM Symposium, where you’re going to get to engage with 200 cell and gene therapy, regenerative medicine, industry leaders, research and scientific leaders, and patients and patient advocates all in one place, as well as a lot of the industry support organizations, like you mentioned, some of them earlier as well. I mean, it sounds to me like if you want to get three or four months worth of conversations and advancements done in one day, there’s probably going to be no better place than November 14th down at Children’s National.
Patrick Hanley [00:26:47]:
Yeah, absolutely. And Chris, I remember what I was going to say. It was about the box that you were talking about. So I never thought about CHARM that way. And until I went to this meeting on the Mesa and someone from Fuji Irvine Scientific was one of the sponsors, said, you know, the reason we like this is because we want every region to do this.
Chris Frew [00:27:05]:
Yeah.
Patrick Hanley [00:27:06]:
Is a way that you can scale it. And I was, you know, there’s no way that we’re moving beyond the Mid Atlantic right now. We need to build this region. And it’s really special to me and I know it’s special to you, although you have a number of conflicting alliances. Yeah, but, but you know what’s great.
Chris Frew [00:27:20]:
Though is, is in our philosophy, Patrick, there’s a way to do this where you can build autonomy in a network. So we even renamed our company from BioBuzz Media to BioBuzz Networks. And we believe there’s a way to build autonomy and build community geographically and do it multiple times. And I think it’s even better when you do that because then you get to connect the nodes.
Patrick Hanley [00:27:43]:
Right.
Chris Frew [00:27:44]:
You think about from a network model, you know, how powerful would it be is if now you can connect to the Philadelphia node seamlessly or one of our partners, Science Works is just announced the launch of a Saudi Arabia chapter that’s founded, that’s a foundation of 100 million dollar pre seed fund. And that chapter is going to enable Science Works, which is a nonprofit tech transfer and commercialization organization, to then connect Saudi Arabia and the U.S. but it’s, it’s that node element that enables it. So I really, I mean, it’s going to take work or it takes the right symposium.
Patrick Hanley [00:28:23]:
But.
Chris Frew [00:28:23]:
But I think there’s value in that. And I don’t see my different markets as conflicting. I see them as additive and I’m.
Patrick Hanley [00:28:31]:
Just making a joke. But.
Chris Frew [00:28:32]:
Yeah, no, but you’re not the first to say that. That’s why I said some people are like, oh, well, you like them better than us now I’m like, no, I like patients and I like innovators and I want to drive innovation forward everywhere. And I like people gainfully employed and working. And that’s what I want to make sure happens.
Patrick Hanley [00:28:49]:
In rewarding jobs, right? Absolutely.
Chris Frew [00:28:50]:
In rewarding jobs. Yeah.
Patrick Hanley [00:28:52]:
And Chris, I think you touched on this before, but I’m so grateful to Children’s National for having this innovative spirit as well as Kath Bollard, our new CAO, Dr. Cooperman and Kolaleh, all of the Children’s National leadership to really support me because, you know, it does take time and I, I think we’re showing that it’s worthwhile. You know, we are looking to become a regional manufacturer as well and we’re in talks with, you know, other. Other interested parties. You know, the state of Virginia seems to be very interested. You know, we’re talking to the state of Maryland as well. Virginia Tech has been a great partner in, in other aspects, and Mike Freelander has really done such a great job of leading that Fralin Institute. So hopefully we can do something big for the region as well. And it all pays off from a children’s perspective, but also from a patient perspective and an ecosystem perspective.
Chris Frew [00:29:44]:
Well, that’s exciting. Well, don’t. Don’t anything here. Wait till the symposium to announce any new. Any of the big news.
Patrick Hanley [00:29:55]:
I will. It’ll be. It’ll be a. I’m sure I’ll write it up. I can provide it to you. So.
Chris Frew [00:30:03]:
I have you there, Patrick.
Patrick Hanley [00:30:06]:
Yep.
Chris Frew [00:30:17]:
Yeah, we’re having a little. A little delay here now at the end and it’s been a pleasure. You can hear me. Been a pleasure. I’m excited to be there on the 14th myself. And we’ll make sure we get the word out to as many new people as we can and activate our networks for you to help make sure that everyone knows what CHARM is doing, what children’s is doing, and anything else you can do, let us know.
Patrick Hanley [00:30:47]:
Awesome. Thank you so much, Chris, and to Biobuzz. Really appreciated having this conversation with you. Look forward to seeing you.
Chris Frew [00:30:53]:
All right, we’ll see you soon. Thanks to everybody for joining in today, and we’ll see you again very soon.
