Local Life Sciences Professionals Gather to Learn the Latest and Meet the Greatest

Always one to extend a warm welcome, we wanted to introduce our newest tenant to our Bridgeside community in hopes of sparking connections and cultivating culture. So, we invited our members and prominent local leaders, executives, educators, and students to join us at Eliza at Hotel Indigo for a life sciences-focused happy hour, complete with delicious drinks, complementary cuisine, and numerous networking opportunities.

With Avista Therapeutics moving into the building in January 2023, we asked CEO, Rob Lin, to stop by to speak about the company and its mission to develop innovative gene therapies for retinal diseases.

Prior to taking the stage, over 50 people gathered to catch up with familiar faces and meet new ones. Of course, always focused on fostering new relationships, we encouraged networking by asking attendees to answer our question in order to get a free drink:

“If you could give a talk about anything you wanted, what would be the topic?”

• Academic research

• Ancient engineering

• Babies

• Banking

• Branding

• Cocktails

• Covid

• Cures for diseases

• Digital healthcare

• Golf courses

• Hobbies

• Legos

• Life sciences technology and tools

• Machine learning

• Music

• Neuroplasticity

• Orthopedics

• Pets

• Research training

• Space

• Student housing

• Synthetic biology

• Thank you notes

• The arts

• Travels

• Vintage bikes

• Work/life balance

The unique range of answers perfectly reflected our melting pot of a community, showcasing that our members have both very similar and vastly different interests. For instance, everyone in attendance was clearly interested in life sciences, as that was the theme of the happy hour. However, James Leslie, CFO for TrialSpark, listed his topic of discussion would be centered around rebuilding his Lego collection to share with his nine-year-old daughter. 

Upon capturing participants’ responses around what they would discuss at their “TED Talk,” it was finally time to hear from our speakers that evening. 

Helping to kick things off was Amanda Weaver, Community Manager and Activation Specialist of Bridgeside. In addition to introducing herself to new attendees, she also thanked everyone for coming and shared some insight into her role and our community activations. “While I’m not a scientist, nor do I claim to even begin to understand the intricacies of lab work, my job is to get to know the people that do and to help form connections between such like-minded individuals.”

Next up was Christian Manders, CEO of Promethean Life Sciences and Founder of BioBreakfast. A renowned public figure in the greater Pittsburgh area, Christian discussed the history of BioBreakfast and encouraged the audience to attend the weekly gathering of individuals in the life sciences sector every Tuesday morning. Christian was also a big component of planning this specialized happy hour and showed his appreciation for the Bridgeside owners, The University Financing Foundation (TUFF) and property managers, Collaborative Real Estate:

“They’re making a really big investment in Pittsburgh –  it’s a huge deal. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the real estate sector is going to push the biotech sector forward. These guys want to build buildings, but they also play in politics where most life sciences companies don’t – and they know how to get stuff done. Pay attention to these guys and come to their events!”

Then came the moment everyone was waiting for. Rob Lin informed everyone about Avista Therapeutics, a recently launched spinout of leading health system, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), and how they aim to develop innovative gene therapies for rare ophthalmic conditions.

In order to create next-generation gene therapies for blindness, Rob spoke about how making the right tools and addressing issues with those tools is critical. Additionally, he touched on the importance of combating the high, unmet medical need in inherited retinal diseases in order to profoundly impact patients’ quality of life. Rob also proudly announced Avista’s recent partnership with Roche Therapeutics to develop novel adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors for the eyes and their upcoming clinical trials. He ended the evening by saying, “I moved to Pittsburgh for great opportunities like these and I look forward to [Avista] moving into Bridgeside very soon!”

The night continued with more networking and fresh ideas for future activations here at Bridgeside. Be sure to check out our events page for the latest happenings and stay in the know by subscribing to our newsletter.