Networking in Las Vegas for the Week Ending April 12, 2014 (in DC)

I was in Washington DC with the Biotechnology Industry last week with Dr. Tim Porter, Dean of the UNLV College of Sciences. We had numerous meetings with the Nevada Congressional Delegation. 

We had two meetings with Senator Reid's staff, Robert Herbert, Chief of Staff and Kate Leone, Healthcare. We talked about how Reid's office can help with NIH RO1 grants. UNLV has researchers that have moved from other colleges and the grants are not renewed, same researcher, same science but different university. The office was not aware of the problem but will help. We also talked about their efforts to bring the Tesla Battery plant to Nevada, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones), Interstate 11 and the Test Site. The office is working closely with members of GOED on these projects. 

We also met with Ryan McBride, the healthcare specialist in Senator Heller's office. (The Senator was at a vote.) We talked about the importance of FDA and NIH funding to the biomedical industry. Ryan is also the expert on labor issues and had been busy with the extension of unemployment benefits which Senator Heller supported. He is the son of Dr Dan McBride and Linzel McBride.  (Linzel and I worked at Deloitte & Touche together.)

We met Congresswoman, Dina Titus and her healthcare specialist, Katherine Cassling.  We had met Katherine the previous year and updated her on the changes and issues. They are very supportive of UNLV. We also talked about UNLV's research on naturally occurring Asbestos that has been found around Boulder City and parts of Henderson. The office was very interested to know more about this issue.

We met with the Anna Leieritz, legislative counsel with Congressman Mark Amodei's office. We talked about the UNLV and UNR Med Schools. We also talked about UNLV's Geoscience department working with Noble Energy. Noble is drilling for oil and natural gas in Northeastern Nevada.

We met Congressman Joe Heck as he went off to a vote and talked with his healthcare specialist, Catie Fulton Spivey, about graduate medical education (residencies) and the issues around retaining doctors in Nevada. These are two big issues that his office is focused on.

We had reached out to Congressman Steven Horsford's office but our calls and emails were not returned.

I ran into Clark County Commissioner Larry Brown who was in Washington DC with the Regional Transportation Commission working on Interstate 11.

John Laub