Howie Rhee's Blog: October 2009

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Kirby Reading Room - two rows of catering tables then about four rows of 8 top round tables

sent from my treo

Monday, October 19, 2009

Kirby Reading Room, really well done, with lightshow

sent from my treo

Quite a setup in Kirby Reading Room for Coach K conference

Towers with lights on left and right
Two projector screens
Seating for maybe 150

sent from my treo

Kirby Reading Room with huge green towers

sent from my treo

Friday, October 16, 2009

EntoGenetics at P4E Investor Panel

sent from my treo

PTP Energy team presents P4E Investor Panel

sent from my treo

Investor Panel for P4E Program for Entrepreneurs

sent from my treo

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Kirby Reading Room setup with round tables and projector - 18 tables on far half of room, catering tables on near half

sent from my treo

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Fuqua Program for Entreneurs Fall Kickoff 42 students and 13 teams (of projected 8)

sent from my treo

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Mitch Mumma, Intersouth Partners, speaking at Duke Entrepreneurship Education Series, Venture Capital 101

sent from my treo

Kirby Reading Room setup for lecture, screen is on left by windows. High tables for networking are far right.

sent from my treo

Monday, October 05, 2009

Fwd: Exciting News: Chordoma-Causing Gene Discovered

Congratulations to Josh Sommer for this great discovery. It is quite remarkable to see what he and his team have been able to accomplish.

Howie

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Josh Sommer <Josh_Sommer@mail.vresp.com>
Date: Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 4:17 AM
Subject: Exciting News: Chordoma-Causing Gene Discovered
To: hwr2@duke.edu

Click to view this email in a browser

Researchers Identify Familial Chordoma Gene

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The Chordoma Foundation needs your generous support to continue making rapid progress towards new treatments and a cure. Please donate today to invest in a future for chordoma patients. Donations are tax deductible and very much appreciated!

Dear Howie,

Today is a momentus day for the chordoma community - after thirteen years of research, the hunt for the genetic causes of chordoma has reached an important milestone with the discovery of a gene linked to familial chordoma. In a paper published today in Nature Genetics, investigators at Duke University and the National Cancer Institute report that duplication of the gene brachyury is a cause of familial chordoma.

Other inherited cancers are caused by mutations (misspellings in a gene), or gene deletion, but familial chordoma is the first linked to an extra copy of an entire gene. This groundbreaking discovery is potentially paradigm-shifting for cancer genetics, as it may indicate that gene amplification could be a risk factor for other types of cancer as well.

According to Dr. Michael Kelley, whose lab analyzed the DNA of familial chordoma patients, "this discovery is a classic example of where science answers one question but raises many, many more." Questions such as: why does brachyury amplification cause susceptibility to chordoma? is brachyury amplified in sporadic (non-familial) chordomas? do chordomas depend on brachyury to survive? can the effect of brachyury amplification be reversed? does reversing brachyury amplification kill chordoma cells?

While this discovery represents a major advance in the understanding of chordoma biology, only by answering these questions will researchers be able to determine what implications it has for the treatment of chordoma. The Chordoma Foundation stands ready to support these crucial follow-on studies, which will open a new frontier in chordoma research.

The importance of today's discovery cannot be understated. We salute and thank all the researchers involved in the familial chordoma study who have devoted so many years of their careers to uncovering the genetic mysteries of chordoma. We are glad to have provided funding to Dr. Kelley's lab over the past year, and are very grateful to all the donors who helped make this work possible.

Today I am more optomistic than ever before that a cure for chordoma can and will be found. No one knows how long that will take, but without a doubt today's announcement is a sign that research is accelerating in the right direction. Thank you for being a part of the journey to a cure - I look forward to sharing much more progress with you as the wave of projects sparked by this discovery start to bear fruit.

Onward!

Josh

Read the press release from Duke University

Chordoma Foundation | PO Box 4562 | Greensboro, NC 27404 | 919-809-6779 | www.chordoma.org

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PO Box 4562
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--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director
Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Room E167J
919-617-1123 mobile
hwr2@duke.edu
www.fuqua.duke.edu/centers/cei

Watch our video: www.fuqua.duke.edu/wakeup

Duke Entrepreneurship Links:
- Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
- A Duke Resource for Entrepreneurs: www.dukeVEN.com
- Weekly Education Series - www.dukeDEES.com
- Connect with Duke Entrepreneurs - www.dukegen.com
- Find a startup - www.startupmatchmaker.blogspot.com
- Duke Start-Up Challenge - www.dukestartupchallenge.org
- Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club - www.dukeevcc.com
- Twitter - http://twitter.com/EshipAtDuke
- Entering the Duke Start-Up Challenge? See example business plans - email me for a copy of Business Plan Pro (advert)

Friday, October 02, 2009

For past presidents and winners - Event Summary for the Duke Start-up Challenge - Kickoff Event and Match Night

Hi everyone,

The student organizers had a great event last night for the Duke Start-up Challenge. Thought we'd share with the past presidents and winners. Please let me know if there's anybody on this list we missed.

See attached for the program and the powerpoint.

We are looking to help take the Duke Start-up Challenge to the next level and to help all Duke entrepreneurs. It is a core part of our vision to be one of the best places for students to start companies, and to eventually get into the same orbit as MIT and Stanford.

Also, for those of you who haven't connected yet, please take a look at the Duke Global Entrepreneurship Network (DukeGEN). We have a happy hour coming up on Nov 17th in 8+ cities. www.dukegen.com

Thanks,

Howie

Event Summary for the Duke Start-up Challenge - Kickoff Event and Match Night

Thurs, October 1, 2009, 6:30-9pm

Co-marketed by the Duke Entrepreneurship Education Series

www.dukestartupchallenge.org

www.dukeDEES.com

Executive Summary:

The Duke Start-up Challenge (DSC) had a fantastic start to the 2009-2010 academic year. With 140 registered on facebook and over 160 attending (estimate) it was an energetic, lively crowd. After a solid overview by Shalav Gupta, co-president of the DSC, there was a welcome by Adam Mangone, co-president of the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club, www.dukeEVCC.com.

Sponsors include Intersouth Partners, Wyrick Robbins, Hutchison Law Group, Hughes Pittman & Gupton, Square 1 Bank, iContact, and Palo Alto Software.

The main part of the night were the startup pitches, run by Katherine Ryzhaya, Team development lead for the DSC. There were over 20 startups that pitched, which ranged from:

-a few undergraduates including a freshmen at Duke who wanted to start a website that guided high school students on how to get into college.

-several Fuqua MBA students pitching startups based on technologies and innovations, including a medical device for to treat urinary incontincence , as well as a nanotechnology innovation that has created the world's longest carbon nanotubes

-a Master of Engineering Management student located in the DUhatch Student Business Incubator

-a few Duke PhD students wanting to bring their technologies out of their lab, including one prosthetic arm innovation recently profiled on 60 Minutes

-a few members of Research Triangle Park community with innovations looking for students to help them launch.

The formal part of the Kickoff Event was closed by Steve Pal, co-president of the Duke Start-Up Challenge.

Though it was late in the night, a surprising number of people (estimate of 75) stayed afterwards for the matching event. Color coded dots on the name badges helped people with similar interests connect with one another. Several of the presenters reported making good connections at the networking session.

The Kickoff event has been a part of the Duke Start-up Challenge in various forms, depending on the year, sometimes including pitches, sometimes not. I think tonight's formula, with the mix of introduction, pitches, and networking, was a solid formula and is worth repeating in future years.

The Duke Start-Up Challenge was conceived of in 1999 and the first academic year of the competition was 2000-2001.

Photos and videos of the event will be available at www.picasaweb.google.com/eshipatduke and www.youtube.com/eshipatduke.

Additional thanks to the great volunteers that are part of the Duke Start-Up Challenge who helped last night, including (but not limited to) Daniel Weinstein, Peter Brown, Jason Henderson, Jason Begleiter, Vatsala Kabra, Michelle Marais, Jozef Krakora, Vignesh Loganthan, Danni Lin, Lalith Devulapalli, Kwame Johnson, Justin Healy, and Nick Donowitz. And thanks to Cate Smith at Meriwe-ther-Godsey and to the BMO (Glenn Reynolds, Jeff Sturkey, Scott Plueddeman, Chuck Roberson). Thanks to advisors and supporters Barry Myers, Jon Fjeld, and Larry Boyd. Apologies to any names left off accidentally.

Written by Howie Rhee, Co-advisor to the Duke Start-Up Challenge
--
Howie Rhee, MBA
Managing Director
Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Room E167J
919-617-1123 mobile
hwr2@duke.edu
www.fuqua.duke.edu/centers/cei

Watch our video: www.fuqua.duke.edu/wakeup

Duke Entrepreneurship Links:
- Entrepreneurship at Duke - www.EntrepreneurshipAtDuke.com
- A Duke Resource for Entrepreneurs: www.dukeVEN.com
- Weekly Education Series - www.dukeDEES.com
- Connect with Duke Entrepreneurs - www.dukegen.com
- Find a startup - www.startupmatchmaker.blogspot.com
- Duke Start-Up Challenge - www.dukestartupchallenge.org
- Entrepreneurship Week - www.eweekatduke.com
- Twitter - http://twitter.com/EshipAtDuke
- Blog - www.howierhee.blogspot.com
- Photos - http://picasaweb.google.com/EshipAtDuke
- LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/in/howierhee
- Entering the Duke Start-Up Challenge? See example business plans - email me for a copy of Business Plan Pro (advert)
- Resources from Intuit at http://smallbusinessunited.com (advert)
- Learn VC - www.learnvc.com (advertisement)