Archive for category: News

by Lauren Owens

Residents took to the streets of Florence on Saturday morning to clean litter during the 2019 Great American Clean Up.

In its 19th year, the event, which was sponsored by Keep Florence Beautiful, sent more than 250 people across Florence. People from multiple organization and companies took part in the event.

Volunteers started their morning cleaning at their various work sites and ended their cleanup at Naturally Outdoors for lunch.

The event is a part of an almost three-month long cleanup project that will end May 31.

Michelle Bailey, the chairwoman of Keep Florence Beautiful, said the Great American Clean Up is the largest of multiple projects the group sponsors each year.

“I think it’s the one time of year, you know, the three months we can really show the community that we have a concentrated effort in making sure we are keeping our streets clean so I think that’s why it’s important to be a part of the Great American Clean Up,” Bailey said.

Bailey said over the years Florence’s litter index has decreased, meaning there is less litter on the roads from when Keep Florence Beautiful began hosting the Great American Clean Up. Each year, Bailey and a few volunteers go out and survey one area from each of the four quadrants of Florence to record how much litter is on the street.

“We are seeing a trend year after year of our litter index numbers going down, and that is going down,” Bailey said. “That means that less people are littering and that more people are recycling, which is so great.”

The organization actually won an award in 2018 for an improvement in the Florence litter index.

Among the volunteers, Newspring Church members took part in the 2019 Great American Clean Up. The day coincided with their annual “For SC” day, a day when the church focuses on service in the community.

“Our church does the For SC day and so we go around to different organizations in Florence and we try to spread the word of God and just help out wherever we can our project was the Florence Clean up,” said Kristin Rollins, a Newspring Church member.

Julianna Battenfield, who also served with Newspring, said serving in the community is something her faith compels her to do.

“I wish we could do this every week,” Battenfield said. “This is just great because it helps you take your mind and your eyes off your own problems and helps you focus on giving. It makes you focus on your own problems less.”

For those who are interested in getting involved in the 2019 Great American Clean Up, call Bailey at 843-206-3205 or email her at michelle@keepflorencebeautiful.org. Keep Florence Beautiful will provide a vest, gloves and bags for volunteers. Projects must be completed by May 31.

To view the full article on SC Now, click here.

by Lauren Owens

Twelve couples jived, salsaed, and swung across the stage during the 2019 Dancing For Our Future Stars fundraiser Thursday evening at the SiMT building on the Florence-Darlington Technical College campus.

More than 800 people attended the sold-out fundraiser to benefit The School Foundation. This is the ninth year The School Foundation has hosted the Dancing For Our Future Stars fundraiser.

The foundation is a nonprofit organization that was created to provide resources and support to the administrators, teachers and students of Florence One Schools.

After all 12 couples performed their dances, five couples competed in a dance-off for receiving all 10s for their performances. Celebrity dancers J.B. Mathieu, Nathaniel Lockhart, Luke Wilcox, Robert LeMaster and Tyler Perry all competed in the dance-off.

Luke Wilcox and Alexis McDonald won the “Technical Skills Award” for their jive dance to the song “Trouble” by Travis Tritt.

“I cannot believe it,” McDonald said. “I did not expect it. I went in knowing that I’d won the year prior and it was for charity more than anything, and then they gave me a good partner. If I have a good partner, we can push to be the best that we can be.”

This is the third time Alexis McDonald has won the technical skills award in Dancing For Our Future Stars.

J.B. Mathieu and Erin Haynes won the most entertaining award for their Salsa dance to “Boogie Wonderland,” which was selected by the judges.

Robert LeMaster and Meggie Baker won the social stars award, which is an award for receiving the most online votes. Kevin Miller and Ethan Welsh won the people’s choice award for raising the most money for The School Foundation.

Celebrity dancer Dr. Veeral Oza, who is a gastroenterologist at McLeod Regional Medical Center, had family from Chicago, Ill., come to Florence to see his dance to “Shape of You.”

“It was a good experience,” Oza said. “I think it brought back a lot of memories from our childhood – especially my sister and I.”

Oza and his sister used to dance when they were children, performing a traditional Indian dance called the Garba. Oza danced with professional dancer Dr. Rachel Fenters, who is also a doctor at McLeod Regional Medical Center.

The School Foundation executive director Debbie Hyler said she loves to see the growth of the dancers from the beginning of practices to the final night.

“You don’t ever know how your dancers are going to be,” Hyler said. “It’s amazing to watch the growth. To see how much they’ve really been able to learn. A lot of them are not really dancers … Some of them are way out of the comfort zones so I just admire them so much because I don’t think I could do it.”

For all nine years that Dancing For Our Future Stars has taken place, Burnadene Kelley-Newman, owner and founder of Kelley’s Fine Arts, has allowed the couples to use her facilities and she has assisted with choreography for the competition.

“It’s amazing,” Kelley-Newman said. “I wouldn’t want it any other way. I do this of course for the children like anybody else who is out here.”

Kelly-Newman said she loves to see the celebrity dancers come out of the competition with a new appreciation and understanding for dance.

To date, The School Foundation has awarded more than $1.5 million in grants Florence One Schools. Past grants have helped provide STEM materials, support the early childhood program and other programs within Florence One.

To read the full article on SC Now, click here.

by Conor Hale

Thermo Fisher Scientific has moved to acquire viral vector developer and manufacturer Brammer Bio for $1.7 billion in cash, giving it a new foothold in the cell and gene therapy market.

Thermo Fisher plans to fold the CDMO—along with its nearly 600 employees, based primarily in Massachusetts and Florida—into its pharmaceutical services business as part of its laboratory products and services segment.

The lab equipment giant estimated that Brammer Bio will deliver $250 million in annual revenue by the end of 2019, and expects its growth to outpace the 25% rate projected for the larger gene and cell therapy market.

“Gene therapy is an area of increasing focus for our customers and is fast-evolving given its potential to treat a range of genetic disorders,” Thermo Fisher President and CEO Marc Casper said in a statement.

“The combination of Brammer Bio’s viral vector capabilities with our GMP production expertise and proprietary bioprocessing and cell culture technologies uniquely positions us to partner with our customers to drive the evolution of this incredibly fast-growing market,” Casper added. The companies expect the complete the transaction by the end of the second quarter of this year.

The FDA is expecting a new surge in cell and gene therapy applications in the coming years, including at least 200 investigational new drug submissions annually, starting in 2020. By 2025, the agency predicts it will be approving 10 to 20 products each year—driven largely by advances in delivery platforms, such as viral vectors.

More recently, Big Biotech’s has been showing renewed interest in acquiring smaller cell and gene therapy developers—with Pfizer acquiring a stake and future purchasing option in the rare disease-focused Vivet Therapeutics, while Biogen agreed to shell out $877 million for Nightstar Therapeutics and its pipeline of gene therapies.

Elsewhere, Thermo Fisher has been making investments in its own biologic and sterile liquid manufacturing operations, slating $150 million to increase capacity at three sites in its CDMO network.

Each site—including one in North Carolina and two in Italy—will get aseptic filling lines and isolator technology, with construction expected to be finished within the next two years.

To read the full story on Fierce Biotech, click here.