San Diego-based Pfēnex, a 2009 spinout from Dow Chemical, got a $3.1 million subcontract from SAIC, the Virginia-based government contractor, to help develop a scalable production process for a key Malaria antigen. Pfēnex has developed a technology platform that uses fluorescing bacteria to produce a variety of specialized protein-based products. In a statement today, the companies say Pfēnex is being hired to develop a process for large-scale production of the full-length Circumsporozoite protein from Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria in humans. The subcontract was funded through a $62.4 million prime contract that the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded to SAIC.
Author: Bruce V. Bigelow
In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here.
Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.
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