Boston Globe Big Night Live Award Ceremony, November 29, 2023. Left to Right: Sean Loughran, BioProcure Purchasing Manager, Jeannette Franklin, BioProcure/Prendio Sr. Marketing Manager, Christina Hem, Prendio Jr. Business Analyst, Tyler Mizenko, BioProcure/Prendio VP of Relationships and Business Development, Laura Stack, BioProcure/Prendio Co-Founder and COO, Vincent Bologna, BioProcure/Prendio Co-Founder and CEO, Marie Lodi, BioProcure/Prendio VP of HR, Brianna O’Brien, BioProcure Procurement Supervisor, Claire Buckley, BioProcure Customer Support Manager, and Daniel Simons, BioProcure/Prendio Financial Analyst

From a small home office in the founders’ unfinished attic to #1 Best Place to Work— BioProcure/Prendio has certainly evolved, but some things remain the same.

2023 has been a pivotal year for BioProcure and Prendio. This past October the companies announced a strategic investment from Primus Capital to accelerate growth and innovation across all services and offerings. Now, just over a month later, we are sharing more exciting news: BioProcure/Prendio has been named the #1 Best Place to Work in Massachusetts by the Boston Globe. 

“When we heard that we’d been selected by the Globe as one of the Top Places to Work in Massachusetts, we were thrilled,” said Laura Stack, co-founder and COO of BioProcure and Prendio. “Winning #1 Best Place to Work in the mid-sized company category was a huge surprise!” 

“I’m still surprised that we are considered a mid-sized company,” added Vincent Bologna, co-founder and CEO of BioProcure and Prendio. “In my mind, we’re just a small family business.” 

It’s safe to say that many of BioProcure and Prendio’s team members would agree with Bologna on that point—and perhaps the tight-knit, family feel is one of the reasons for this win. Bologna and Stack—a husband and wife team who met on the job at Wang Laboratories and worked together professionally in various capacities in the following years—originally hired other immediate family members to help them as their business grew: daughters, sons-in-law, brothers, nieces and nephews.

“I remember how excited we were to hire our first non-family co-worker,” said Kara Rea, BioProcure and Prendio’s Marketing Manager and Bologna and Stack’s oldest daughter. “We had just moved into our first real office. It had three tiny little rooms, and we were like, wow! We’re an actual company now, this is all so official! Laura and I sat down to interview Johnna Worob, and the three of us were trying our best to come across as very professional. At one point Laura said, ‘I’m sorry, but I have to be honest with you… You need to know that you’ll be the only one in here who isn’t related to everyone else.’ And Johnna was just like, ‘Oh, great. You guys are nuts, aren’t you?’ By the end of the interview we were all in tears laughing. Johnna’s been with us for almost eleven years now.”

Work meeting at the expanded Woburn office, 2017. Left to Right: Laura Stack, BioProcure/Prendio Co-Founder and COO, Lindsay Gross, BioProcure Procurement Supervisor, AZ Office, Jim Bukartek, Prendio Sr. Director of Product Success, and Vincent Bologna, BioProcure/Prendio Co-Founder and CEO

Hiring continued as demand for the life science procurement and accounts payable support services offered by BioProcure increased. In 2014 Sean Loughran, BioProcure’s Purchasing Manager, joined the team as a Procurement Specialist. Shortly afterward Tyler Mizenko, BioProcure/Prendio’s VP of Relationships and Business Development was hired as a Customer Support Intern. Laurie Martin was the company’s first Accounts Payable Specialist hire in 2015. After multiple promotions, she is now the Senior Manager of HRIS Benefits and Compliance for BioProcure/Prendio.  

When the need for a specialized life science procurement tool became apparent in 2015, BioProcure had roughly 20 employees, all of whom were tapped to lend their experience in procurement and accounts payable for biotech companies in the effort to build a software to fit the specific needs of an expanding client base. Some of those employees ended up officially transitioning to the Prendio team—like sisters Christina and Amanda Hem, who started as Accounts Payable and Procurement Specialists, and have since been promoted to Prendio’s Junior Business Analyst and eCommerce Specialist, and Jim Bukartek, who was hired as a BioProcure Procurement Specialist in 2015 but quickly rose to Prendio leadership. This past month, Jim was promoted again to Senior Director of Product Success.

BioProcure and Prendio have a total of 186 employees as of this article’s release, working hybrid or in-person from the office headquarters in Woburn, MA, the Western office in Chandler, Arizona, and virtually from all over the United States. In 2024 another move is planned, to an even larger headquarters based in Burlington, MA. 

It’s a big step up from the first company headquarters in the unfinished attic space of the couple’s home in Lexington, MA, where Bologna, Stack, and Rea worked long hours together while Laura’s brother Tim Stack placed orders remotely from upstate New York. “I’m pretty sure my desk was actually an old door balanced across two filing cabinets,” Rea remembers with a laugh. “A lot has changed in the last sixteen years!”

Kara Rea, BioProcure/Prendio Marketing Manager, pictured with office cat Suzi in 2009 in the original BioProcure headquarters in the attic of Bologna and Stack’s home

And while that statement is certainly true, some things—like the “BioProcure Way” philosophy, now solidified into seven core company values—have stayed very much the same. “We want to help facilitate success,” Bologna clarifies. “It’s the whole reason behind everything we do. We want to help labs and scientists succeed in their research. We want to help venture firms plant and grow new startups, to do whatever we can to conserve their resources so they can make important discoveries that will help people. But it doesn’t end with the clients. Our mission extends to each other–we want to see each other succeed. That’s why we love promoting from within, and why we’ve done that from the beginning. We want to support families with a great work/life balance. We want to be the kind of place where people feel included, and secure, and happy, where they know that if they work hard, their efforts won’t be wasted. That’s always been the goal.”

Vincent Bologna, BioProcure/Prendio Co-Founder and CEO, pictured with Suzi the office cat in the original BioProcure attic headquarters, 2009

According to the results of the employee survey conducted by the Boston Globe in April of 2023, BioProcure and Prendio are hitting that goal. The results showed that team members most often described the company as ‘inclusive’, ‘connected’, ‘supportive’, ‘positive’, ‘friendly’, and ‘motivating’. Others mentioned that BioProcure and Prendio are ‘customer-focused’, ‘compassionate’, and ‘value teamwork’.  

There is another word that BioProcure/Prendio team members used repeatedly to describe their company in the survey results. You can probably guess by this point what the word is.

Family.

BioProcure and Prendio were presented with the Boston Globe award for #1 Best Place To Work in Massachusetts on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. Click here to read the featured article on the Globe website. 

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Watch our TandemViz demo here

To learn more or to set up a demo on your system contact John Geanacopoulos, Director of BD: john.geanacopoulos@tandemai.com

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Zurich, Switzerland – November 16, 2023

InSphero AG, the global leader in 3D cell culture technologies and organ-on-chip systems for drug discovery, and ATCC, the world’s premier biological materials management and standards organization, will work together to introduce new paradigms in the rapidly evolving field of 3D cell-based oncology research.

Unlock access to an expansive and diverse portfolio of 3D tumor models

A primary objective of this collaboration is to give the scientific and research communities unprecedented access to assay-ready 3D tumor microtissues. This is made possible by synergistically coupling ATCC’s authenticated cells with InSphero’s innovative, industry-leading 3D cell-based assay platforms. Moreover, the partnership will provide an expansive and diverse portfolio of tumor models, ensuring researchers have access to enriched data sets that underpin better decision-making in drug discovery and development.

Advancing cancer research through uniform, reproducible, and scalable 3D tissue models from high-quality cell lines

“Through this partnership with ATCC, we are fulfilling a long-standing ambition to open new avenues for advancing cancer research at a global scale,” said Dr. Jan Lichtenberg, CEO of InSphero. “By supplying assay-ready 3D tumor microtissues based on ATCC cells, we’re not only significantly accelerating research timelines but also setting a new gold standard for uniformity and reproducibility in the research community.”

In addition to offering innovative products, InSphero will provide educational webinars and workshops with ATCC’s support to promote awareness and training around this cutting-edge technology. These efforts aim to equip the research community with the essential tools they need for the efficient generation of high-quality data.

“The combination of InSphero’s technology with ATCC’s high-quality cell lines to generate 3D models in a convenient format will greatly benefit the oncology research community,” said Dr. Ruth Cheng, ATCC Senior Vice President and General Manager, Research & Industrial Solutions. “This partnership is an important advancement in oncology drug discovery and development toward the next generation of therapies.”

https://insphero.com/insphero-to-revolutionize-oncology-research-through-advanced-3d-cell-based-assays-with-atcc/

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Click here to listen to how we help our customers commercialize their products through multiple phases such as product design & development, manufacturing, supply chain management, and worldwide fulfillment.

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Our team is looking forward to the prospect of participating in the comprehensive program, featuring signature lectures, scientific workshops, and special interest sessions from December 9-12. Our team eagerly anticipates engaging with attendees, and sharing insights into the latest developments in malignant hematology at booth #3447.

We look forward to demonstrating the MARS® Platform in action and facilitating discussions with Liping Yu, Vice President of Applications at Applied Cells, who will provide valuable insights into how this technology can enhance individual research applications. The MARS® Platform offers unparalleled advantages in target cell enrichment, boasting high purity, reproducibility, and recovery, thereby optimizing cell separation protocols.

We look forward to the possibility of seeing you there!

Learn more: https://appliedcells.com/ash23/

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Life science companies come to Navigator when they find their ability to grow and/or adapt is being limited by their current business processes and systems. Navigator helps accelerate operational performance through digital transformation in life sciences software, so our clients can drive innovation, grow their business, become a leader in the industry, and increase market share.

Life sciences companies are at the center of today’s healthcare and medical global supply chain disruption. They are navigating a dramatic increase in demand, rapidly changing expectations from global partnerships, and increasing competition from start-ups looking to capture industry market share.

They manage a complex and globally-based supply chain on a daily basis. This requires companies in the life sciences to have real-time visibility; going beyond price and availability to include the necessary quality and regulatory aspects of materials.

Explore ERP for Life Sciences

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By Kara Rea

This fall the leaders of the eleven biotechs dubbed “2023’s most ambitious” by biotech, drug, pharma and health news network Endpoints met together in downtown Boston’s State Room for an awards gala and celebratory sit-down dinner.

“We are on the cusp of a revolution in genetic medicine that is as exciting as anything that has happened in the history of biotech,” said Drew Armstrong, Executive Editor for Endpoints News, at the pre-event fireside chat. “What the people in this room do has the power to change not just the course of one life, but how all of us see the world.”

Included among the Endpoints 11 are BioProcure and Prendio clients Aera Therapeutics, Chroma Medicine, Maze Therapeutics, Orbital Therapeutics, ReNAgade Therapeutics, and Seismic Therapeutic. Read on to learn more about the exciting science behind these six promising startups.

Aera Therapeutics

Aera Therapeutics emerged from stealth in early 2023 with $193 million in funding, thanks to the enormous potential latent in founder Feng Zhang’s innovative method for delivering genes into cells in areas of the human body that have been historically more difficult to reach with existing forms of gene therapy. Under the scientific leadership of Zhang (Broad Institute, Harvard) and Jason Shepherd (University of Utah), Aera is on a mission to harness enabling delivery technologies and precision payloads to develop transformative genetic medicines. Read more about the work being done to revolutionize the treatment of human disease by honing in on underlying causes with never before seen specificity by visiting www.aeratx.com 

Chroma Medicine

What if the next big thing in gene editing technology doesn’t actually alter the DNA sequence? That’s the question many are asking thanks to Chroma’s innovative approach to switching genes on or off. Epigenetic editing can change gene expression without cutting the DNA itself. Thanks to groundbreaking work by scientists like Jennifer Doudna, Jonathan Weissman, Luke Gilbert, David Liu, Keith Joung, Luigi Naldini and Angelo Lombardo, there is new hope for patients living with diseases like cystic fibrosis and hepatitis B.

Learn more about how Chroma is reimagining genome regulation by visiting www.chromamedicine.com

Maze Therapeutics

Competition is heating up among the few organizations making new treatment discoveries for chronic kidney disease, and startup Maze Therapeutics is emerging as a key player. Fueled by funding from Sanofi, Third Rock Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners, and a long list of other venture, capital, and investment firms, Maze is advancing a small molecule Apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1) inhibitor program that offers a potentially disease-modifying treatment option for people with APOL1-mediated chronic kidney disease. With trials ahead for later this year, this new therapy is poised to revolutionize treatment for those suffering from APOL1-driven chronic kidney disease. Learn more at www.mazetx.com 

Orbital Therapeutics

mRNA medicines have been all over the news since the breakthrough Covid-19 vaccines hit the market, but some scientists in the field are focusing in on a different type of RNA—circular RNA, as opposed to linear strands—and the potential these more stable molecules present for treating disease. Launched one year ago by ARCH Venture Partners Kristina Burow and Carol Suh, Giuseppe Ciaramella, the president of Beam Therapeutics, and John Maragnore, who led RNAi pioneer Alnylam for nearly 20 years, Orbital Therapeutics is looking forward to the future of RNA-based treatment approaches by building the most expansive toolboxes in RNA medicines. Ciaramella said that Orbital is testing circular RNA “in every program that we’re doing,” but that the company is “somewhat agnostic” to which form of RNA is used in its drug candidates. “We’re just letting the science dictate which one works,” he is quoted as saying in this article by Endpoints.

Read more about Orbital and the potential applications of circular RNA at www.orbitaltx.com

ReNAgade Therapeutics

Welcome to the era of RNA medicine, a field that experts agree holds almost limitless potential for rewriting the underlying basis of disease. According to the company website, “ReNAgade aims to overcome the limitations of RNA medicines by applying our comprehensive deliver, code, edit, insert technologies to precisely correct disease on an unprecedented scale.” Founded by Ansbert Gadicke and headed up by CEO Amit Munshi and CSO Peter Smith, ReNAgade Therapeutics is driven by many challenges, perhaps the biggest being figuring out a way to deliver next-gen RNA drugs to areas outside the liver. Success in this area would generate a veritable revolution for entire fields of medicine.

Read more at www.renagadetx.com

Seismic Therapeutic

What do you get when an expert on protein structures teams up with a leading computational biologist? When Harvard colleagues Tim Springer and Debbie Marks did just that, the result was the IMPACT platform, a remarkable feat of machine learning that has already resulted in the generation of two programs to create novel therapies for immune disorders–in just eighteen months. With early results like those, we can expect to see much more from Seismic in the future.

Visit www.seismictx.com to learn more about how machine learning is shaping the landscape of novel biologics.

Read about all 11 of the biotech startups identified by Endpoints as “making the biggest bets with the most exciting science in 2023” in this article.  

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Su joins our team with a wealth of experience in aligning product roadmaps with investment goals and executing data-driven strategies for growth and ROI. She has a proven track record in VC and PE-backed firms and a strong commitment to data-driven decision-making.

As VP of Product for Prendio, Su is responsible for leading the Product team in defining and achieving strategic initiatives and creating the product road map for Prendio. Su will rely on analytics, user feedback, and marketing insights to inform product choices, drive iterative improvements, and achieve sustained growth. All this information informs the technical vision for the Prendio Product and Su will lead the team in producing a holistic product strategy and ensuring it is executed throughout the development cycle.

Your feedback combined with Su’s expertise will help us align Prendio more closely with our clients’ needs and add more features to enhance the time and money savings of our procure-to-pay platform.

Before joining Prendio, Su served as Head of Advisory Services, where she drove strategy, development, and go-to-market plans for various SaaS startups and VC and PE-backed firms. Su acquired her education and degrees from the Kellogg School of Management, Boston University, and VTU India.

She is a founding member of Sidebar, a mentoring and networking platform for senior executives, and volunteers her time with Flare Education, where she helps high school students navigate the launch of their careers in STEM.

We’re very pleased to have Su on board and we look forward to her contributions to our product strategy and overall growth.

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