World-Class Biorepository to Open this Fall in Los Angeles
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Life Sciences Industry to Benefit from First-and-Only Independent, OffSite cGMPC Compliant Biostorage Facility in Southern California
LOS ANGELES, CA, October 14th, 2011 — Pacific BioStorage announced today the upcoming fall opening of its newest world-class biorepository, this one located in the heart of Los Angeles. The new facility will cover the Southern California region, and meet the local needs of the Life Sciences industry in Los Angeles — the second largest metropolitan area in the country.
A Division of Pacific Bio-Material Management, Inc. (PBMMI), Pacific BioStorage also owns and operates repositories in Fresno, CA, and New York, NY. Now with its new Los Angeles facility, the company will be better suited to serve Southern California with the additional benefit of an expanded bi-coastal and regional presence. “We are very excited to open our Los Angeles biorepository,” said Michael Lebbin, PBMMI’s CEO. “It’s location is ideal — just five minutes away from LAX International Airport, and a stone’s throw away from Interstate Freeways 405, 105 and 5, as well as from other major thoroughfares connecting the state and the country.”
The new facility will adhere to the same rigorous safety and quality standards as the other PBMMI biorepositories. “It will offer cGMP compliant storage at any temperature, and 21CFR Part 11 compliant monitoring,” added Mr. Lebbin. “Clients will have anytime acess to their materials; and rely on our many other services such as material management, routine equipment maintenance, freezer validation, inventory control and monitoring.”
Another advantage to having a repository in Los Angeles has to do with its proximity to the company’s own corporate and operational headquarters. PBMMI is vertically integrated, so local clients will benefit from a whole range of value-added services, including: laboratory and freezer transport, same-day pick up and delivery, emergency services, backup equipment, and equipment servicing.
“Southern California is a major Life Sciences hub, and we’ve been serving this industry successfully for over a decade,” Mr. Lebbin pointed out. “Now with our new L.A. biorepository added to the mix, we’ll be in an even better position to meet our customers' most critical biomaterial storage and transportation requirements.”
ABOUT PBMMI
Founded in 2000 to assist the Life Sciences industry, Pacific Bio-Material Management, Inc. (PBMMI) is based in Southern California and provides frozen biomaterial storage and transportation services. A Division of PBMMI, Pacific BioStorage has repositories in New York, NY, Fresno, CA, and soon in Los Angeles, CA. Biomaterial, freezer and laboratory transport services are provided by Pacific Scientific Transport, a Division of PBMMI. Laboratory supplies and equipment, and equipment service are provided by Pacific Science, a Division of Air Liquide Healthcare America.
CONTACT
Michael Lebbin
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Pacific Bio-Material Management, Inc.
22841 Lockness Ave.
Torrance, CA 90501
Tel. (866) 977-2664
Fax: (310)517-8617
pbmmi.com
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Advances in Regenerative Medicine: Printing a Human Kidney
"Can we grow organs instead of transplanting them?" -- Dr. Anthony Atala
If the above question didn't come from the lips of Anthony Atala (who happens to be our Medical Director at Novare Biologistics, our New York City branch), it would sound like another well-intentioned yet vacuous proverbial question -- like Rodney King's "Can we all get along?" But when Dr. Atala asks a question, you know he's already working on the answer; and one that is revolutionizing the field of regenerative medicine.
As I watched Dr. Atala's latest presentation on Ted.com (inserted below), I was once again blown away by the importance of his life-saving work, and that of so many other dedicated professionals in the scientific community -- the very people we at PBMMI are proud to serve, by helping save their life's work!
When Freezers Take Up Valuable Space
University-based research institutions face a lab space dilemma affecting their research -- and their finances.
The two players in this dilemma are:
a) THE RESEARCHERS. Institutions have the goal of attracting and keeping the best researchers in a particular field. These scientists come with their own grants to fund their research.
b) THE SPACE. This is one of the requirements/perks researchers get. The larger their grant, the more space they get.
So, from the perspective of the University, research lab space is a huge asset. The more researchers an institution has, the more money it will take in. The larger the grants, the better. So it only makes sense for an institution to want to maximize its research lab space. But there’s a catch.
The invasion of the LN2 freezers
Researchers do research, and research leads to biomaterial samples – many samples – that need to be frozen and stored at ultra-low temperatures. And as everyone involved in research knows, freezers tend to multiply themselves like rabbits.
An obvious problem with freezers is that they are expensive to buy, and expensive to maintain. What’s more, since the contents are crucial to the research, it’s essential to have a reliable back-up power generator. Still, for many research facilities the expense related to owning freezers is no big deal.
Here’s the undeniable biggie, though: Freezers take up a lot of space – as much as 30 square feet each, and every square foot occupied by a freezer is one square foot less to house grant-awarded researchers.
The bottom line
Making a simple cost/benefit evaluation, the results seem obvious: It makes sense to use as much lab real estate as possible to house as many researchers as possible, and to store the freezers at a back-up facility.
We usually recommend our clients to move one half of their freezers to a safe and professionally managed location. This simple action will free considerable laboratory real estate for what's truly important: THE RESEARCH. As we always tell our clients: "You are in the business of saving lives. We are in the business of saving your life's work!"
I'll Stop Procrastinating...Tomorrow!
"Nobody ever wakes up and feels that 'today is a good day for a colonoscopy'." -- Dan Ariely
Ouch! I've been postponing the dreaded "c" exam for over two years now. I know, I know. That's why, when I saw the following clip from Dan Ariely, the famed Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University and author of "Predictably Irrational," I knew I had to do something about it... So I wrote this blog entry!
Anyway, Prof. Ariely's scientific approach to the topic of procrastination is fascinating. He even came up with a way to help his students avoid procrastinating on important stuff. "Will the good professor's advice make me call the doctor today to schedule my way overdue examination? We shall see.
Daniel Hernandez's More Remarkable Quality
There’s no denying that Daniel Hernandez , the unassuming 20-year-old intern of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, is a remarkable young man. But is he deserving of the “hero” label that, despite his objections, everyone’s pinning on him?
The more one learns about Daniel, the more one realizes that he is not your run-of-the-mill YouTube overnight sensation (a-la Ted Williams "the homeless man with the golden voice” currently enjoying his 15 minutes of fame). On the contrary, the University of Arizona junior has demonstrated a very valuable, scarce quality -- one highly regarded in our industry: Trustworthiness.
Daniel Hernandez has proven that he’s not only a fast-thinking, courageous guy, but more importantly, someone who can be trusted when it’s crucial. It’s easy to trust others with trivial stuff, but not so with one’s own life. Gabrielle Giffords probably never imagined her very survival would one day depend on the young man who just 5 days earlier had become her intern. I suspect Daniel has now earned her family’s trust for life.
Heroic acts are like flashes of light that come and go in an instant. But true heroism is never improvised, and often the result of a lifetime of character building. I admire Daniel’s recent display of heroism in those critical minutes after the shooting and before the paramedics arrived at the scene. I admire his inner strength and trustworthiness even more – developing these qualities took him years of hard work, and a lot of guts, too.
The Library of Alexandria: A Setback We Haven't Recovered From
The late astronomer Carl Sagan had it right when he made it clear that one of the greatest setbacks for humankind took place in the year 48 BC, with the destruction of the Ancient Library of Alexandria -- then the Western world's SOLE repository of human knowledge.
Take a look at the following video clip from Carl Sagan's popular TV show, Cosmos. One can't help but wonder where might human civilization be today had this avoidable tragedy not happened? Which also makes you wonder about the wisdom of NOT keeping all your eggs stored in one basket -- or all your critical frozen vials in a single location. Just sayin'...
Something to ponder as we begin this 2011. Best wishes!
A Great Deal to Help You Fulfill A New Year's Resolution
Here's a deal you won't want to miss
What would the New Year be without those good old New Year resolutions? So I dug out my old list from last year and...lets see... Lose weight, exercise more, blah blah blah. Promises, promises.
How about this for a totally doable, totally critical resolution involving protecting your life's work? Like, keeping a portion of your critical frozen biomaterial stored at a secondary location for safekeeping purposes?
Because you don't want to wait for "The Big One" or the next Katrina to start taking measures to protect your important frozen vials, right? At Pacific BioStorage we want to make it easier for you to fulfill this resolution, so we are offering the following DEAL...
Get 3 MONTHS OF FREE STORAGE
of your critical frozen bio-material
in one of our strategically located,
cGMP compliant repositories.
Regardless of inventory size.
This offer applies to BOTH new clients AND existing clients with NEW inventory to store.
So call us today at (866) 977-2664, or REQUEST A QUOTE here. Offer good through January 31st, 2011.
"This is my whole life's work, and it's melting"
When hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, cancer researcher Tyler Curiel, of Tulane University, risked everything to save a medical treasure. Originally aired five years ago on the PBS show Nova Science Now, this is an amazing story of heroism and dedication worth remembering as we start a new year. It is also a cautionary tale about the importance of risk management and preparedness when it comes to protecting one's most valuable treasures.
Watch the full episode. See more NOVA scienceNOW.
PBMMI's (Kind-of-Extreme) Makeover
In the past few months, we've been hard at work giving our brand and corporate identity an extreme makeover. We think this is a big deal not only for us, but also for you, our valued customers. Let me explain. But first, take a look at the new "us"...
Our Brands
Ten years ago, we started out as a regional West Coast company under the name of Pacific BioMaterial Management, Inc (PBMMI). Now that we are a nationwide company, we want our PACIFIC name to imply the vastness and strength of our services. BTW, did you know the word "pacific" actually means "peaceful"? (I know! What was Magellan thinking when he named it the "Pacific" Ocean, right?). If Magellan got away with it, would you let us get away with saying that our name also stands for "Peace of Mind"?
We also had the problem of people not knowing how to call us. Is it PBMMI? PBBMI? PBMI? Not too memorable, I know. Then we had the problem of having different, unrelated logos. It just got too confusing, so we decided to unify all our services under the PACIFIC brand with a single, unifying symbol for all our Divisions. So while we've kept the PBMMI name, our three distinct services will each have it's distinct brand, with a unified look: PACIFIC Scientific Transport, PACIFIC BioStorage, and PACIFIC BioManagement.
Our Logos
Busy as we were in those first years of our company life, we never got to developing a real, solid company brand identity. The only brand that used to have a logo was Pacific Scientific Transport, and we weren't that excited about that logo either (if that rickety truck looks like clipart it's because it is!).
Core Message
Then we had the problem of describing ourselves clearly and succinctly. Were we a "moving company"? A "storage company"? Were we a mere commodity in a heavily competed industry?
While our daily work involves things like trucks, freezers, accessioning, and stuff like that, that's not really what we're about -- and we wanted our new branding to reflect that! Here's the bottom line:
Our customers (the scientific community) are in the business of saving and protecting lives.
We are in the business of protecting their life's work.
To reflect this, we built our new symbol around one specimen vial. It represents the single, most important unit of our customers' work. The vial is surrounded by a double swish that represents both the flow of cold air that protects your frozen specimen, and the road that frozen specimens sometimes take. So, whether on the road, or inside a repository, your critical frozen material is ALWAYS safe with us.
So we hope you like them as much as we do -- and that you get a clearer picture of what our company is all about.
What's in it for you? A FREE T-SHIRT!
Let us know what you think! And we'll send you a FREE T-shirt with our shiny new logo (include your email address so we can get in touch to get your mailing address).
Welcome to Our Blog
Welcome to our new website!
Here, on the Blog portion of our site, we'll focus on current events, ideas and discussions that are relevant to the scientific community and the challenges, issues and opportunities having to do with the storage, management, and transport of biological material. Thanks for visiting, and stay tuned!
The Case for a Centralized Repository - Introduction
How many ultra-low temperature freezers do you have in your lab or research facility? Maybe you haven't given it much thought, but there is a strong case to be made for having a centralized repository. In coming days and weeks we will be exploring this topic and many others.
If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to post a comment!
Godzilla Is Back!
The bad news: Rumor has it, Godzilla just woke up from his 100-year hibernation and is on a quest to destroy the frozen specimens of the world!
The good news: This freezer is NOT stored at -- or managed by -- Pacific BioStorage! So (assuming that you are a client of ours, of course) your specimens are safe. Otherwise, you MIGHT want to give us a call: (866) 977-2664.
Blog Categories
PACIFIC BioStorage
PACIFIC Scientific Transport
PACIFIC BioManagement
22841 Lockness Ave.
Torrance, California 90501
(866) 977-2664
Fax: (310) 517-8617
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