Biotechnology tools presented to postdocs at biannual fair

Postdocs met with vendors earlier this week to fundraise and keep up to date with the newest biotechnology.

On Tuesday, the Biomedical Postdoctoral Council hosted their fourth Vendor Fair, which allowed biotech and biomedical companies to showcase their products to the 850 to 900 Penn postdoctoral fellows.

The biannual vendor fairs are conducted to mutually benefit both biotechnology companies as well as postdocs, and is a means for BPC to raise funds for its activities. The vendor fairs typically host 20 vendors, gather over 300 to 400 attendees and raise $13,000 for BPC.

“We’re keeping track of how many attendees we have,” said Lucas Smith, chair of the BPC fundraising committee. “Ultimately, this is a fundraising event. So at the end of the day, the more money we have the better. But the more people we have in, the better.”

One major event for which the BPC fundraises is its annual Postdoctoral Symposium in October. At this event, postdocs can showcase their research through oral or poster presentations to other postdocs and distinguished guests.

“The sales representatives of the biotech companies can come here and talk about their products and the postdocs will later buy from these companies,” BPC Co-Chair Rohintin Tarapore said. “The fair is open to all vendors. We can’t screen them, as they must be unbiased.”

“This is a win-win situation for both,” he added. “For vendors, they have access to a lot of post docs who are interested in their products for research purposes and the post-docs can know what’s new in the marketplace.”

The fair serves as a forum for communication between vendors and postdocs. In addition to exchanging ideas, if a postdoc has had problems with a vendor in the past, he can discuss it with the vendor at the fair.

“Vendors always want information,” Tarapore said. “We are the market. They will always want to know what the market wants.”

The fair attracted biotech vendors with various specializations. One of the vendors, Abcam, has one of the largest portfolios of antibodies in the market.

“Penn is one of our largest customers in the area,” said Jon Lenihan, who manages Abcam’s U.S. sales team. “We’re here at least once a month, not only for the vendor fair, but also to meet customers too.”

Mitchell T. Gore, the Business Development Specialist of Integrated DNA Technologies, a biotechnology research company and another vendor at the fair, said that he has gained insight from the several times he attended in the past.

“Many of the post-docs here use IDT so it’s good to reconnect,” he said. “It’s nice to find out how satisfied they are or if there are any new things we need to provide.”

“Some of these [products] could have helped make grad school two years shorter,” said Derrick Johnson, a postdoc in the Department of Pathology. “It can turn hours into minutes.”
His fellow post-doc laboratory researcher, Terry Cathopoulis, agreed.

“We’re only as good as the tools we have,” she said. “The tools we have determine what questions we can ask experimentally, and how trustworthy the results are. It’s good to find new tools.”

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.