This Biochemist Who Discovered EPO Has Had a Tremendous Impact on Thousand Oaks

Last Friday, Eugene Goldwasser died at his home in Chicago at the age of 88. While Eugene Goldwasser is not exactly well known by the general public, his greatest accomplishment changed the course of the biotech industry and the world in 1977 when he isolated the human protein erythropoietin "EPO."

EPO stimulates the production of red blood cells. It is a blockbuster product with over $5 billion in annual revenues for local Amgen because it has changed the lives of millions of dialysis patients and others suffering anemia due to the effects of other diseases. Without Eugene Goldwasser, Thousand Oaks and Ventura County most likely would be much different today, as Amgen employs roughly 10,000 people locally in 4 million square feet of office space! Amgen is the largest private employer in Ventura County today!

It took Goldwasser 20 years to isolate EPO, starting in 1957, when he discovered EPO in minute quantities of anemic rats (now that sounds like fun).

Then by 1971 his lab purified six millionths of an ounce of EPO from 125 gallons of plasma from anemic sheep.

In 1973 a Japanese anemia doctor collected 673 gallons of urine from his anemic patients. (I think someone should have told Mike Rowe, The Dirty Jobs guy, but he was only 11 years old at the time.) From that pee, Goldwasser's team isolated eight milligrams of EPO and perked up anemic rats like a charm!

Seeing the huge unmet need of EPO, the next step was to clone the gene and produce it in enough quantities to create a drug. Local Amgen scientist Fu-Kuen Lin and his lab figured this out in two years and the rest is history. Amgen figured out how to manufacture the drug by propagating the cells in a fermentation process (Kirin Brewery helped them on this!) and starting selling it under brand name Epogen in 1989.  It was Amgen's first drug and it was and still is a blockbuster.

Why Are There No Ventura County Cities on MONEY Magazine's America's 100 Best Small Cities List?

The August 2010 issue of MONEY Magazine published its annual list of "100 Best Places to Live in America." I have subscribed to MONEY for years and each year my wife reviews the list and tells me 3 other places she would like to consider moving to. To which I reply:

I LIKE IT WHERE WE LIVE!

Curious, I reviewed MONEY's 2010 list and there was not a single Ventura County city on it.

MONEY's methodology was to start out with the 746 U.S. cities with a population of 50,000 to 300,000*, remove median incomes greater than 200% or below 85% of the state median, retirement communities, large job losses and poor education scores, then rank the remaining cities based on housing affordability, education, arts/leisure, health care, safety and other factors. *This methodology eliminates fine cities like Agoura and Moorpark from consideration.

Then they whittle down the list based on economic factors and visit 30 of the cities to select the winner.

Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Camarillo and Oxnard, all cities between 50,000 and 300,000, are nowhere to be found on the list.

I looked back at MONEY's Top 100 lists going back to 2005 and only once, Simi Valley in 2006 (#35), has a Ventura County city been included on this list. Something ain't right here!

Well it should be noted that Newbury Park, albeit not officially a city (it is part of Thousand Oaks), made it to #71 on the 2005 list. But that was 5 years ago!

Why is it that cities like Piscataway, NJ, Centreville, VA, Roswell, GA and Stillwater, OK made the list but not a single city from Ventura County has made the list  going back to 2006!?

MONEY, are you reading this? Come visit Ventura County why doncha and check out what we have to offer! Yah, all right, it is still a bit pricey to live here, but we have hundreds of things to do and all sorts of local events year round,  kids' activities and plenty more!

No offense, but I'm not leaving the Conejo Valley for Owensboro, KY, Gilbert, AZ, O'Fallon, MO or Millcreek, PA any time soon. I'm staying put right here in America's #1 county, Ventura County! :>

For the record though, here are the top 10 cities on the 2010 list: Eden Prairie, MN, Columbia/Ellicott City, MD, Newton, MA, Bellevue, WA, McKinney, TX, Fort Collins, CO, Overland Park, KS, Fishers, IN, Ames, IA and Rogers, AZ.

Halloween is Near, Black Cat Has No Fear!

I came across these really neat photos via a friend in Facebook. Los Angeles based digital special effects designer David Ridlen was outside his home a few weeks ago and noticed his neighbor's cat Lucy was perched on top of their chimney. And the moon floated directly above the fearless feline. Amazed at what a great image that was, David scrambled and grabbed his HD video camera and snapped these still shots.  Though the resolution of the shots is not high, it certainly turned out some really cool shots for this home stretch into Halloween! I love these pics!!

 

 

For nearly 40 things to do through Halloween weekend, CLICK HERE!

Local Nature Photographer Says Winter Sunsets Are The Best

Ventura County is so close to the ocean, yet most of us don't usually get down to the beach often enough. Now, with winter bearing down on us, we surely won't make it down to the beach.  That's too bad, because winter sunsets are the best according to local photographer Greg Clure.

Why winter?  Ventura County beaches are mostly south facing, which means during the summer when we are more likely to be at the beach, the sun is difficult, if not impossible, to include in your sunset photos. The sun is too far north.

With the approaching Winter Solstice (December 21st) the sun's path across the sky travels a more southerly route. As each day goes by up to this date as it reaches its southern most path and then begins to move north each day thereafter.  As a result, you will be much more likely to capturing a beautiful sunset photo during the winter. Winter also means fewer people at the beach, so you'll likely have your favorite beach all to yourself.

Clure shares three of his local sunset images taken during winter below.  Greg adds, "When taking sunset images that include the sun, be sure to meter the bright sky near the sun but don't include the sun and you will generally get the best exposure for the entire scene."  If you would like to see larger versions of the images below or other fine art images of nature, visit Greg's website at www.gregclurephotography.com.

Tattoos - A Sure Sign of Youth

The economy has been in the doldrums for awhile now but one growth industry, as far as I can tell, is the tattoo business.

As someone just barely into the Baby Boomer (age 46 to 64) group, I've never quite understood why one would feel a need to permanently imprint something into their skin. Heck, I must be an old geezer, as 85% of my fellow geezers, according to a 2010 Pew Research Center study, "Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next," have never had a tattoo on their bodies.

On the other hand, in Pew's January 2010 phone survey of 2,020 adults, fully 38% of 18 to 29 year old "Millennials" have tattoos. Wow! And fully 50% of tattooed Millennials have 2 to 5 tattoos and 18% have 6 or more! We're talking a major growth industry here.

The Pew Report also indicated those Millennials not attending college were much more likely (47%) than Millennial college attendees (30%) to have tattoos. And Democratic/Independent leaning Millennials are more likely than Republican Millennials to have tattoos (44% vs 31%).

Gen Xers (ages 30 to 45) have a 32% tattoo rate, while only 6% of the age 65+ "Silents" group (not exactly sure where they get that name from) have tattoos.

Yes indeed, the tattoo industry has indeed been a growth industry over the years. According to the website vanishingtattoo.com, in 1936 Life Magazine indicated 6% of Americans had tattoos, whereas a 2003 Harris poll determined that grew to 16%. Heck, when us Baby Boomers hit the dust, that rate could grow to 35%, 40% or more!

So if you are an old dude like me and you'd like to feel young, consider getting a tattoo. As for me, I'm seeking ways to take advantage of this situation...I wonder just how many of those Millennials will regret some of those tattoos. Perhaps the tattoo REMOVAL industry will be the next big investment opportunity!