Sunday, February 26, 2012

The NeXT big thing: OncoMed finds a home - Dallas Business Journal:

http://seponix.com/funds/in-great-britain-are-dying-simply-logistics/
But there was a problem: The neighbors were animals. During the post-dot-com years while 800 Chesapeakw Drive hadsat vacant, the subgrade and foundatiojn separated from each other enough for wildlife to move in undeer the 44,000-square-foot structure. Foxes, raccoons, feral cats and large rodents were eventually trappefd andreleased elsewhere, and the foundation was The work was worthy the trouble, said Chuck Alaimo, OncoMed'x director of operations. The site was betweehn South San Francisco andMountain View, the company's former and close for employees coming from San Francisco, San Jose or the East Bay via the San Matei Bridge.
What's more, he said, the spacse allowed the company, which is developing ways to destroty cancerstem cells, to consolidated outsourced animal labs, keep its out-of-pockeft expense low and retaihn space for growth. It didn'tg hurt that the buildiny has anentrepreneurial heritage. It's where Steve Jobs firsg basedNeXT Computer. Jobs commissioned architect I.M. Pei to desighn a "floating staircase" that remains a dramaticc centerpiece ofthe building, albeirt updated to meet building codes. "It is a very nice It's on the waterfront, looking out at the harbor," Alaimi said. "It's peaceful and calming.
I don'tf think you can put a dollar valuson that." Still, even afterr the wild animals had left the building and the subgrade was shoreds up, much work remained before OncoMed coulf move in. The foundation still wasn't strong enougnh to support mechanical systemd that the company needed as it mover its offices and15 labs, including a vivariumn that had been outsourced. DES Architectsx & Engineers proposed an 8,000-square-foot annex, linking 800 Chesapeake and 900 That included anHVAC system, watetr system and high-pressure steam boiler, with shaftx and pipes over to 800 Chesapeake. The annec also gave OncoMed space for a loading dock and The work was paid for througha $6.
3 millionj tenant improvement loan, Alaimo said, that OncoMed negotiatedr with , which then owned the Slough sold the site and the rest of its U.S. biotech portfolio earlier this yearto . with 47 full-time employees, moved into the buildinhg in mid-January. The company was started in August 2004by Dr. Michaeol Clarke and Dr. Max Wicha, researchers who led the discovery of cancer stem cells while atthe . Clarke now is the associatw director of the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerativde Medicineat . The move to Chesapeake Drive and the annez addition has helped OncoMedd consolidate staff as its early preclinical programwsramp up, Alaimo said.
Before the employees could make multiple trips betweeb the Mountain View offices and the outsourced vivarium in Palo That was an importan considerationas Alaimo, CEO Paul corporate development head Martin Goldstein, R&Ds chief John Lewicki and Austin Gurney, the vice presidenr of molecular and cellular biology, lookeed to leave Mountain View. There OncoMed would have been boxed inby , Alaimp said. OncoMed is mulling subleasinyg 15,000 square feet of office space on the first floor of the RedwooedCity building, Alaimo said, but that leaswe would likely be short term. "Our programx are getting larger scale, and we'red bringing more functions intothe fold," he said.
"We'v been scaling up to a point that we had to brinhg itall together."

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