Another successful BioProcess Theater at the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s annual BIO Conference and Exposition (Boston, MA) led BPI into the summer on a high note. In fact, a number of our presentations this past June attracted standing-room–only audiences in the exhibit hall’s BioProcess Zone, with steady attendance throughout the three days of the event. The BioProcess Theater creates a forum for discussion of technologies and applications for both exhibit-hall–only attendees and full-conference registrants. Presenters enjoy long conversations afterward…
Author Archives: S Anne Montgomery
From the Publisher and Editor
At about this time of the year, 10 years ago, the four founders of BioProcess International were in arguably the most creative period of their lives. By the middle of 2002, we began designing our collaborative production and operating processes with our new Informa colleagues (then Eaton Publishing). We were assembling author and advertising contacts pretty much from scratch, trading opinions about page designs, building a manuscript pipeline, choosing fonts (something those outside of publishing might not…
From The Editor
In this anniversary year, I find myself thinking back on things I once was told would never happen in — or never apply to — biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Initially peripheral (seemingly) topics ease into relevance and, by surprising us, emphasize the importance of keeping our eyes on the big picture(s). When I was an editorial assistant in the late 1980s, I was told simply to toss press releases related to, for example, anything having to do with centrifuges…
From The Editor
Quality control isn’t only a scientific priority; editorial QC, proofreading, and knowing when and what to question is becoming more and more complicated, even as (ironically) the Internet facilitates research and information sharing. Plagiarism can be entirely unintentional. Most accomplished editors notice when a paper seems pieced together and styles clash — one reason that we copyedit fairly rigorously in BPI. But you have to work harder to infringe a copyright. Editors worry whether authors have acquired proper permissions to…
From The Editor
Only recently did I finally get to watch the film Contagion, which was released this past fall. Sometimes the most provocative tests of our imagination come from our extreme fictional interpretations, and I was hopeful. (But remember Outbreak, the disappointing (if earnest) movie from the 1980s?) And I do believe this is a film worth recommending — both within and outside the industry. Mostly taking place in biosafety-level laboratories, Contagion does show how hard it is to isolate and grow…
From The Editor
One disadvantage of having covered this industry for so long is that we can get too used to terminology that is no longer quite adequate. This emerged in discussions with our advisors and readers throughout the creation of our anniversary awards program. For want of other available terms, BPI has (from the start) rotated issue themes of upstream, downstream, and “manufacturing” — that third category or “pillar” that encompasses filling and finishing and activities that occur throughout process and product…
From the Editor
This issue marks the beginning of BPI’s tenth volume of publication. We debated how and when to launch our tenth-anniversary year: Issue 1(1) was published in January 2003, but the magazine was actually “born” in mid-2002 with its adoption by Informa. We founding editors had six months in our 400-ft2 Eugene, OR, office to build an acquisitions database, create a manuscript pipeline, and design the magazine’s first templates. (A radical idea: BPI was designed by editors, who still create all…
From the Editor
Kudos once again to our IBC colleagues for another excellent BioProcess International Conference and Exposition. Throughout the week of 31 October– 4 November more than 1,400 attendees and 125 exhibitors engaged in lively discussions on critical issues affecting our industry. The Long Beach, CA, convention center proved to be a comfortable and accessible venue for multiple session tracks, technical workshops, and seminars. Among the trends and topics that made frequent appearances in presentations were the ongoing challenges…
From The Editor
In one company I worked for, we were all given a year to participate in a project called “Budget Busters.†Each person and department was tasked with figuring out ways to save operating costs on all levels. Monthly cash awards were given to those who had made significant contributions to the program. Our mailroom manager created notepads for us from scrap paper. We began reusing manila folders, and our editorial department began using both sides of manuscript-tracking…
From The Editor
Not long ago I assembled a few current and former coworkers to meet with a young woman who is contemplating a career in journalism. Part of that visit involved comparing experiences of those who had been in the field for many years with those who had finished their formal education only a few years ago. We wondered whether the field still welcomes newcomers with degrees other than in journalism; or whether publishers now insist on that specific…