Sustainability : Innovation + Job News

If you're interested in innovation and job news from throughout Pennsylvania, do yourself a favor and check out our sister publication called Keystone Edge. Keystone Edge covers Innovation and Job News from Erie to Easton in its weekly online magazine, which publishes each Thursday and is also available via free subscription here.

Studies in recent years have revealed that while Philadelphia welcomes up to 50,000 freshman to its colleges and universities every year, less than half remained in the region after graduation. That statistic, in part, is what motivates Young Involved Philadelphia, a comprehensive network of young professionals and student groups producing advocacy campaigns and social events to make Philly a better place to live.

This week, the group opens the State of Young Philly: Imagining Philly's Future summit, a massive, two-week event hosting over 30 partnering organizations for speeches, roundtable discussions and brainstorming sessions to make Philadelphia a more attractive place for young people. The summit will focus on four key areas--Community Engagement and Volunteerism, Government and Leadership, Business and Entrepreneurship, and Arts and Culture--in an effort to "engage, educate and empower" young Philadelphia.

"For the first time since the '50s, the city is gaining population, and although we don't have the newest census data yet, we would venture a guess that this growth is due partly to an increasingly vibrant youth culture," says YIP board chair Claire Robertson-Kraft.

With speakers as varied as former Mayor John Street and the Mural Arts Program's Jane Golden, the summit hopes to gain a wide-reaching perspective that can be gleaned into an agenda ranking priorities and creating concrete deliverables. This agenda will inform an ongoing blog and will serve as YIP's action plan for the coming year. YIP hopes to make the summit an annual event, creating a constant barometer on youth culture in Philadelphia.

"The most important thing we hope people take away from the event is a sense of empowerment," says Robertson-Kraft. "As young Philadelphians, we should be organizing, demonstrating our ability to contribute to the debate, and doing more to ensure our voices are heard."

Source: Claire Robertson-Kraft, Young Involved Philadelphia
Writer: John Steele

These days, there is a pill for everything from restless leg syndrome to erectile dysfunction. In fact, the only medicinal plant you hear about is illegal in the U.S.

That's all about to change. With a complete line of plant-based vaccines and antibodies, Newark, Del. pharma company iBio seeks to spread its green-thumb mentality, helping other pharmaceutical companies more efficiently make the switch to plant-based products. This month, the company announced a partnership with GE Healthcare to jointly develop and globally market manufacturing solutions for biopharmaceuticals and vaccines.

"We expect this relationship with GE Healthcare to accelerate and broaden market penetration for our technology through access to GE Healthcare's existing relationships and its skill and experience with project implementation and process development," says Chairman and CEO of iBio Robert B. Kay. "This is another implementation of our model to affiliate and out-source with best-in-class collaborators."

iBio's iBioLaunch model--which provides an easy transition from synthetic manufacturing to a biopharmaceutical system at a lower cost and higher efficiency--is going global. But with their primary research partnership just seven years old, the company felt a partnership with the behemoth GE would allow a smoother transition into the global market. But iBio's brass remains competent that they are delivering a finished product onto the world stage. Move over marijuana, a whole new breed of healing plants should arrive on the scene soon.
 
"We have already done considerable planning and work with GE Healthcare to prepare for implementation of this agreement," says Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Vidadi Yusibov. "Therefore, we expect this relationship to start quickly and continue long after its initial three-year term to provide important results for our collective customers."

Source: Robert Kay, iBio
Writer: John Steele