Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.
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For the week of December 9, 2022, here’s what we’re reading:
How AI fuels life sciences breakthroughs in San Diego
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI-ML) technology and life sciences companies are accelerating the pace of innovation in biopharmaceuticals, surgical, medical, and wearable devices, and advanced manufacturing. In a new report, underwriter Booz Allen Hamilton and EDC explore how AI-ML is contributing to a new era of life-saving precision medicine.
Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.
Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday.→ Sign up
For the week of December 2, 2022, here’s what we’re reading:
Case Study: Element Biosciences expands with EDC permitting, tax credit, branding support
As Element Biosciences grew, the local biotech startup needed assistance working through numerous permitting challenges, finding economic incentives to support its growth, and establishing its employer brand with top STEM talent. Learn how EDC’s services helped them create 280 jobs in San Diego.
Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.
Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday.→ Sign up
For the week of November 18, 2022, here’s what we’re reading:
Every quarter, EDC analyzes key economic indicators that are important to understanding the regional economy through trends in employment, housing, and investment. In Q3 2022, San Diego recovered pandemic-related job losses overall, while VC funding cooled down.
Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.
Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday.→ Sign up
For the week of November 11, 2022, here’s what we’re reading:
With and through nearly 200 investors, EDC works to maximize San Diego’s prosperity. From moving into our new home at UC San Diego Park & Market to releasing our fourth study on AI with underwriter Booz Allen Hamilton, here’s what EDC accomplished in October.
As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, I am struck by just how fast the past year has gone by. While the last few years have made it easy (and more than justified) to lament so much of what we have all been through—and what so many people are still going through—I want to use the inspiration of the month to give thanks.
The EDC team just recently moved into our new offices on the fourth floor of UC San Diego Park & Market in Downtown San Diego. And when you go through a big office move after being in the same place for more than a decade, you find a few reminders of what has made the work so important and special over the years. Through thank you notes from past colleagues, to small gifts and tokens from trade missions and visiting delegations, to photographs of different generations of team members, investors, and partners, the memories come rushing back.
Work, I have always found, can be as important to who we are and who we become as family, friends, education, environment, and the many other factors that help shape our lives. As colleagues, co-workers, supervisors, leaders, and partners, we not only have an opportunity to contribute to organizations, missions, and/or visions that matter to us, we have the opportunity to contribute to the lives of those we cross paths with every day.
As I looked through the thank you, farewell, and congratulations notes I have received (and saved) over the years, I started to recognize a pretty obvious trend: In my 30 years in the workforce, what has mattered the most to others hasn’t been the successes, failures, promotions, achievements, innovations, or inspirations that can often be associated with management and leadership positions and organizational successes. It has been the way we treat each other during the simplest or most challenging of times that matters the most. Almost more than words can express.
To everyone who has played a role in making my days better over the last 10 years at EDC and the last 20 years in San Diego, I am so thankful for your presence in my work and in my life. In the days we have left in 2022, let’s try to take some time to reach out to those who matter most to us and tell them why. Just an e-mail, a voicemail, or a few kind spoken or written words can become such an important treasure to someone around you, that they just might still have them sitting nearby in their (new) office decades later.
Below are some of the ways you can engage with the EDC team and our work in the coming weeks. We’re thankful as always for your investment, partnership, and support that makes it all possible…
Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.
Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday.→ Sign up
For the week of November 4, 2022, here’s what we’re reading:
Preferred Provider Meet & Greet: Cybersecurity & IT
On November 9, join EDC at UC Park & Market to connect with the faculty members who are preparing San Diego’s entry-level workforce, learn more about top local education programs’ curriculum and approach, and strengthen your IT and cybersecurity talent pipeline.
Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.
Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday.→ Sign up
For the week of October 28, 2022, here’s what we’re reading:
Case study: Rady Children’s Hospital hires six FTEs following ASD internship
As part of EDC’s Advancing San Diego (ASD) program, Rady Children’s Hospital hosted six paid medical assistant interns from industry-designated Preferred Providers of talent. Given their local training and expertise, the hospital later hired all six on full-time, opening a door of social mobility for underrepresented talent in essential roles.
Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.
Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday.→ Sign up
For the week of October 21, 2022, here’s what we’re reading:
Join World Trade Center San Diego’s International Expo to network with partners at the United States Commercial Service, International Trade Offices, and various Foreign Consulates to learn how to expand your international reach and grow your exports.
EDC study quantifies the impact of AI in region’s Life Sciences cluster
Today alongside underwriter Booz Allen Hamilton, San Diego Regional EDC released the fourth study in a series on the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI-ML) within San Diego County’s key economic clusters. “Diagnosing the Future: AI and San Diego’s Life Sciences Cluster” quantifies the economic impact of the region’s Life Sciences cluster and explores the proliferation of AI and ML technologies being used to diagnose disease and develop drugs, among other lifesaving products and solutions.
While the pandemic devastated many sectors of our economy, the Life Sciences cluster experienced a striking 11.2 percent job growth (51 percent over the last decade). The cluster boasts a $27 billion annual economic impact, with 1,800 Life Sciences firms employing more than 61,000 San Diegans—nearly three times as many Life Sciences jobs as the national average. Taking advantage of the region’s innovation ecosystem, San Diego’s Life Sciences cluster has increasingly integrated software and technology to maximize its impact, save time, and reduce costs.
Underwritten by Booz Allen Hamilton, the web-based study—lifesciences.sandiegoAI.org—includes company case studies on local use of AI-ML, San Diego’s standing relative to peer metros in AI-ML integration, a timeline on the history of Life Sciences in San Diego, and the business case for economic inclusion within the cluster, among other assessment.
“This series serves to spotlight the importance of AI-ML application within the region’s key industries, helping drive productivity, job growth, and scientific innovation here and around the globe. With so many Life Sciences companies yet to fully tap into AI-ML, the impact we are already seeing in San Diego is just beginning,” said Mark Cafferty, president and CEO, EDC. “As always, EDC is committed to helping these firms thrive, creating more quality jobs for San Diegans.”
KEY FINDINGS
San Diego is a top Life Sciences growth market among AI-ML peer metros. The region has nearly three times as many Life Sciences jobs as the national average and commanded more than 13 percent of domestic venture funding into the industry in 2021.
San Diego’s Life Sciences companies are in the early stages of AI-ML adoption, paving way for exponential impact. While several San Diego Life Sciences subindustries have leveraged AI-ML technology in significant ways, just 18 percent of local firms are engaging with AI-ML.
San Diego Life Sciences companies have an outsized appetite for AI-ML talent but lag peer metros in accessibility and compensation. Local Life Sciences employers’ hiring for AI-ML talent largely demand post-secondary education but offer relatively low advertised compensation as compared to peer metros, which hinders the ability to compete for talent.
San Diego’s AI-ML talent pool is active and growing. The region already has a strong and growing supply of more than 15,000 AI-ML professionals across all industries. Rising degree completions in interdisciplinary fields, alongside new programs dedicated to producing AI-ML talent promise to deepen the talent pool.
“Whether for venture capital investment, jobs, talent, or innovation, San Diego is an undeniable leader in Life Sciences—changing the way patients around the world experience healthcare,” said Jennie Brooks, Senior Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton—board chair and underwriter of the EDC study series—and leader of the firm’s 1,200+ person San Diego office. “For less time and money, the integration of AI-ML can help firms further accelerate scientific discovery, but we need the talent to make it happen. While the Life Sciences proved resilient amid the pandemic, talent gaps are pervasive—with pay and access as the primary threats to our economic competitiveness.”
Life Sciences is an integral and rapidly growing piece of the San Diego regional economy. In 2021 alone, San Diego Life Sciences companies pulled in 13.1 percent of the $38.6 billion invested into Life Sciences nationwide. Supporting this growth, San Diego ranks fourth (4,300 in 2020) in Life Sciences degree completions among peer metros. Future and ongoing investment in Life Sciences companies and talent—most especially around compensation and accessibility—will ensure the longevity of this high impact industry and support its ability to compete.
“Our Informatics and Predictive Sciences team in San Diego is deploying AI-ML to accelerate the drug discovery process. These approaches benefit virtually every aspect of drug discovery from accelerating the rate at which our chemistry teams can optimize compounds, to allowing us to better predict which patient populations are most likely to benefit from a novel medicine. The objective is to enable BMS to bring successful and safe medications to patients faster by leveraging AI-ML,” said Neil Bence, Ph.D., Vice President of Oncology Discovery and San Diego Site Head, Bristol Myers Squibb
The study series is underwritten by Booz Allen Hamilton and produced by San Diego Regional EDC. Learn more about EDC’s research here.
Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.
Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday.→ Sign up
For the week of October 14, 2022, here’s what we’re reading:
Reflections on our trade mission by WTCSD’s director
Together with San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, WTCSD led a trade mission to the Netherlands to discuss opportunities for innovation and collaboration in transportation and urban development. Together with nearly 30 of the region’s leaders, the trip included dozens of meetings and events across Amsterdam, Veldhoven, The Hague, and more—driving economic impact and connection here at home. The trip was supported by the Consulate of the Netherlands, with sponsorship by ASML, Lufthansa, and Qualcomm Technologies.
The EDC team just 
