Kansas City Area Life Sciences

“Anne d. St. Peter and steven st. Peter,md have a family relationship.”

“The organization has a policy for the organization's audit committee to review the 990 before it is filed.”

“All staff and directors must submit any conflicts of interest on an annual basis. If a conflict arises within the board, the disclosing individual shall neither vote nor endeavor to influence the decision.”

“Compensation of the organization's president is agreed upon by the board of directors and finalized via a written employment contract. This approval is documented in the minutes of the board. In 2013 the organization created a compensation committee and conducted a compensation study to further refine the compensation process.”

“The organization's governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements are only available upon request.”

“2018 accomplishments: 1. Name change and rebranding 2018 was a year of change! Our organization rebranded to bionexus kc from the kansas city area life sciences institute. Why bionexus kc? Because we are the nexus of animal and human health and, as our tagline reflects, we are the "catalyst for innovation in animal and human health." 2. Regional life sciences strategic assessment - "path to 2025" bionexus kc engaged deloitte to execute a strategic assessment of the regional life sciences in 2015. The process was led by an experienced steering committee comprised of community and business leaders in the life sciences. The committee looked at both drivers of cluster enhancement and regional scientific strengths. The regional vision developed through the assessment process states, "the kansas city region is a global leader at the nexus of human and animal health benefiting all our citizens and the economy." these nexus opportunities will be different for each strategic area and will likely range from using naturally occurring cancer in dogs for accelerating human discoveries to advancing our strength in health it and outcomes research. Bionexus kc is the "catalyst for innovation in animal and human health." we lead programs where appropriate, we catalyze relationships and opportunities, and we stimulate collaboration and help bring emerging technologies from concept to reality. Bionexus kc is leading: - collaborate2cure to engage scientists, clinicians and the community to collaborate and solve vexing healthcare and scientific problems - the development of two proof of concept funds that drive commercialization and economic development while supporting entrepreneurs - regional workforce development programs identifying critical skills needed by industry to inform timely academic solutions - the rebranding of bionexus kc and developing a cohesive message with our regional stakeholders bionexus kc is catalyzing: - the cancer working group vision for a regional veterinary clinical trial facility to operate at the nexus of human and animal cancer and accelerate new therapeutics for people and pets - public/private partnerships and integrating outcomes research goals into neurodevelopmental disorders (autism spectral disorder) - partnerships in human and animal health data leveraging our regional health it expertise into a platform called "1data" for translational research - regional interest in value-based healthcare leading a sea change of innovation in human health improving clinical outcomes and reducing costs - a regional dementia care network 3. Collaborate2cure bionexus kc created the collaborate2cure program with the goal of stimulating regional scientific collaboration and developing innovative ways to solve scientific challenges. Bionexus kc identifies a topic with significant interest to researchers which aligns well with regional expertise, and then coordinates a series of presentations from researchers over the course of several months. The 2018 collaborate2cure (c2c) series focused on "value-based healthcare and quality outcomes." this series was co-chaired by drs. Stacy farr and carole decker from the university of missouri-kansas city (umkc) school of nursing & health studies and saint luke's mid america heart institute (mahi), respectively. The two, along with dr. John spertus (umkc, mahi), are leading the regional quality & value innovation consortium (qvic), whose vision is to bring multiple stakeholders together to improve the quality and value of healthcare. The qvic is made possible through the regional, nih-funded, frontiers: clinical and translational science institute (ctsi) administered by the university of kansas. Multiple key stakeholders gathered during this series, including researchers, healthcare providers, quality improvement professionals, commercial and public health insurers, students, patients, entrepreneurs, community-based organizations, and the department of health. This c2c series provided two”

“(continued) 4. Workforce development workforce development was identified in bionexus kc's path to 2025 report as a significant threat to, and critical weakness in, the regional life science cluster. Kc rising, a civic initiative underway across the kansas city community, established a human capital work group to address workforce development issues. Recognizing the opportunity to leverage a parallel effort, bionexus kc integrated its efforts and expertise with kc rising to develop a regional plan of action. 2018 activities in support of workforce development included the following: - a key recommendation from the life sciences talent to industry exchange (tie) process, conducted as part of kc rising, was to establish a regional advisory council (rac). The rac can assess a variety of workforce issues and identify education solutions more rapidly, efficiently, and meeting industry needs. - bioinformatics was selected as the first focus area for the rac, as companies in this industry sector struggle to acquire adequately skilled workers. The rac is co-chaired by barbara bichelmeyer (provost, umkc) and harlen hays (manager, lead analytics adviser, cerner). The group works closely with cerner, netsmart, and iqvia - companies employing 80% of the bioinformatics workforce. - contract research organizations will be the second focus area. Given the ever-changing nature of their workflow, this industry sector is ripe for using stackable credentials to meet training needs. These short-term credentials can be "stacked," leading to two and four-year degrees. - the emerging entrepreneur proof of concept fund (e2poc). The goal of the emerging entrepreneur proof of concept fund (e2poc) is to support our region's young emerging entrepreneurs and secure evolving technologies for regional economic development. The e2poc program invests in early-stage, high potential technologies developed by students participating in regional stem competitions. To increase entrepreneurs in the region, the e2poc program strengthens student inventors through online resources, business plan development assistance, market assessments, intellectual property protection, and access to capital. In the program, students will receive $5,000 per year in scholarship money (up to $20,000 total). The e2poc will fund the work and patent fees. The entrepreneur is paired with business mentors to augment their entrepreneurial education. Local universities and colleges have committed to matching the e2poc scholarship funds, providing a strong incentive for these students to stay in the region. 5. Bionexus kc's research development grant programs bionexus kc's research development grants program is our oldest and most popular program. Grants are awarded to generate preliminary data that support submission of major multidisciplinary research proposals to government or private funding agencies. Applicants receive written peer reviews, regardless of whether their project received funding, to help them improve future grant applications. This is a valued service appreciated by all ten stakeholders. From 2007 to 2018, bionexus kc managed 108 grants totaling $5 million. On average, for every $1 invested in grants, $11.70 has been returned to the region from follow-on federal sources. Importantly, this number should be viewed conservatively as no information is readily available regarding grants made to regional scientists by private foundations and patient advocacy organizations. The 2018 bionexus kc research development grant portfolio includes: blue kc outcomes research grants bcbs announced in 2018 that they would be changing their approach in future grants. In 2019, bionexus kc will work with bcbs in seeking higher community impact for their grant program by offering one $400,000 grant over two years for projects assessing the impact of access to healthful foods on food insecure populations. Paul patton charitable trust grants focus on genetic diseases mainly affecting children. The”

“(continued) 8. Bioinformatics in partnership with children's mercy and the university of missouri, bionexus kc presented the third annual midwest bioinformatics conference on april 11-12, 2018. Featuring 31 speakers, this event brought together nearly 200 bioinformatics-minded researchers from academia and industry to discover capabilities, share tactical approaches to problem-solving, and explore synergies and potential collaborations. The conference was hosted on the university of missouri campus. Additionally, bioinformatics students learned about employment opportunities within the region and participated in mock interviews. Introduced this year, a subset of 33 student posters was considered for podium presentations, with four students selected for this honor. Keynote speakers were johnny park, phd, founder and ceo of spenca technologies, "precision ag - the next revolution in agriculture to feed 10 billion people in 2050 and marylyn dr. Ritchie, phd, principal investigator, director, center for translational bioinformatics, institute for biomedical informatics, associate director for bioinformatics, institute for biomedical informatics, associate director, center for precision medicine at the university of pennsylvania, "machine learning strategies in the genome and the phenome - toward a better understanding of complex traits".”