Location, speed keep Prototron busy, competitive

Dan Sorenson Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 12:00 am

Parent company Prototron Circuits of Redmond, Wash., was doing work for big-name companies in the Seattle area including Boeing and Nintendo, even building boards for prototypes of Microsoft Xbox game consoles.

But when Prototron owner Dave Ryder bought Southwest Circuits of Tucson in late 1998, Southwest was closed, on the ropes.

“We didn’t open again for four or five months,” he said.

The Tucson branch had to start from scratch, recruiting customers and updating equipment in the building in an industrial park near the Union Pacific tracks between South Alvernon Way and South Palo Verde Road.

Now, Ryder says, the Tucson operation does about one-third of the company’s total work.

Posted: Saturday, March 27, 2010 12:00 am

Arizona Daily Star

Other rural areas might also be getting an Internet upgrade, as Qwest Communications recently filed an application for a $350 million federal grant to improve its broadband speeds in outlying regions.

Qwest would spend $55.5 million on 278 new broadband sites in Arizona.

“They are all places that don’t have the benefit of the upgraded services that we offer in major metropolitan areas like Phoenix and Tucson,” said Jim Campbell, state president for Qwest Arizona. “This would bring (rural areas) up to speed and on par with major metropolitan areas.”

Project work would most likely start in 2011, if Qwest wins the grant, Campbell said.

It is unclear how many jobs the company would add in order to accomplish the upgrade.

Tom Beal Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Friday, March 26, 2010 12:00 am

The independent, nonprofit Critical Path Institute was established in Tucson in 2005 by the University of Arizona and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to address the problem of lagging drug development.

A worldwide effort to find new TB drugs is being coordinated by the Tucson-based Critical Path Institute, a nonprofit agency formed five years ago to bring promising drugs and devices onto the market quickly without sacrificing safety.

The new initiative – Critical Path to TB Drug Regimens – was created by the Critical Path Institute, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development.

Tuberculosis, one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, is increasingly resistant to the nearly 50-year-old, four-drug regimen developed to treat it. Researchers hope to find a combination of drugs that will work faster and better.

Inside Tucson Business

The City of Tucson and the Tucson Unified School District have entered into an agreement earlier this month to expand the Wide Area Network to 10 high schools, three middle schools and two administrative hubs.

“The City’s fiber network already provides connectivity for Pima Community College and connection to the County’s network while also being used by more than 4,000 City employees,” said Ann Strine, Information Technology Director in a press release. “This agreement will get high-speed data communications into schools while helping TUSD keep its costs down.”

TUSD will be responsible for the equipment and security and the city will maintain the fiber cable plant and provide tech support.

Media inquiries: Jessa B. Turner – Media & Public Relations Coordinator – UA Science & Technology Park – (520) 382-2485 ? jbturner@uatechpark.org

Subject: Top Innovators Recognized and Honored at The University of Arizona

(Tucson, Arizona) The University of Arizona (UA) honored faculty and students as outstanding innovators at the seventh annual Innovation Day at UA on Tuesday, March 24.

UA at the Leading Edge identified cutting edge researchers and their work to make our world a better place. Four faculty members and a UA Center were recognized for their leadership in technology innovation at the session. UA Leading Edge researchers included:

-Roger Angel, Ph.D. is developing new ways to make telescopes and their mirrors, and of making solar power by concentrating sunlight

-Michael Gehm, Ph.D. invention, design and construction of new optical sensor systems with unprecedented performance.

By Laura Donovan – Arizona Daily Wildcat

Published: Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Updated: Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Valentina Martinelli/Arizona Daily Wildcat

RD Castillo, 29, a business development manager, attempts to grab as much fake money as he can in 20 seconds at the Wall Street Wise booth, while two of the creators of the booth watch, Orr Ben-Zvy, left, a finance senior, and Michael Harrison, an entrepreneurship and management senior.

Students, faculty and community members came together Tuesday to celebrate the seventh annual UA Innovation Day.

Inside Tucson Business
Published on Saturday, March 20, 2010

The Critical Path Institute is coordinating a new collaboration to accelerate the development of combination treatments for tuberculosis by pulling together research from pharmaceutical companies around the world.

Known as the Critical Path to TB Drug Regimens (CPTR), the initiative will test promising combinations of individual TB drug candidates from different companies early in the development pipeline — and identify the best new treatment regimens. Groups engaged in the project include scientists from U.S. Food and Drug Administration and pharmaceutical companies Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi-Aventis, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Bayer, Otsuka, Novartis, Sequella and Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc.

“By working together, CPTR partners can take years off the drug development timeline for safer new TB drug regimens,” said Raymond Woosley, president and CEO of the Critical Path Institute. “The commitments of FDA and regulators in Europe helping to develop new and improved testing methods, and of companies making their compounds and expertise available, show leadership and flexibility that could benefit millions of patients.”

New building will give TEP parent firm ‘chance to lead by example’

Tom Beal Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Friday, March 12, 2010 12:00 am

The notion of using solar panels on the walls and installing electrical vehicle charging stations in the garage of its new headquarters downtown wasn’t really optional for UniSource Energy Corp., said Paul Bonavia, the utility company’s president and CEO.

UniSource, the parent company of Tucson Electric Power, urges its customers to go green, Bonavia said. “We cajole them and persuade them every way we can. This is a chance for us to lead by example.”

Bonavia unveiled plans for his company’s new headquarters at a news conference Thursday in the corporation’s current offices in the UniSource Tower at 1 S. Church Ave.