Virginia Economic Review

Drake Goolsby is chief commercialization officer at Luna Labs, a Charlottesville-based company that helps develop advanced technologies in biotech, advanced materials, and engineered systems for government, military, and industrial clients.

Brett Vassey is president and CEO of the Virginia Manufacturers Association (VMA), a trade association that supports manufacturing operations across Virginia.

Imagine using a bow and arrow to hit a target the size of a DVD that’s 70 meters away — the wingspan of two Boeing 737 airplanes side by side. That’s the challenge faced by Olympic archers. Ben Summers and his family know it well.

A trilateral security partnership to share technology and military resources is poised to benefit the Hampton Roads economy and Virginia’s defense ecosystem. The United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom formalized the AUKUS partnership in 2021.

If every journey begins with the first step, in Roanoke that first step looks like 40,000 square feet of lab space.

When Jeremy Moyer was 6 years old, he started following his dad around their 1,000-acre dairy farm in Amelia County. By the time he was 12, he was getting paid to do chores around the farm. Now, at 42, he runs the farm with his father and brother.

Like his fellow Type 1 diabetics, Alec Smith took insulin every day to regulate his blood sugar.

Speed and efficiency are essential competitive edges for any manufacturing operation. Yet the growing adoption of advanced manufacturing techniques isn’t just boosting efficiency with how goods are produced — it’s changing the types of goods that can be made and where they are produced.

Medical Device Manufacturer Embody Sets Stage for International Growth For Norfolk-based Embody, Inc., the six-year process of product development, preclinical testing, and compliance hurdles to get its collagen-based tendon and ligament implant, Tapestry, into the U.S.

Partnership With JMU, BRCC Helps Merck Fill Need for HPV Vaccines In 2019, Melissa Lubin learned that pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., Inc., was competing for a billion-dollar expansion in Elkton, a town in the Shenandoah Valley.

The highly transmissible omicron variant of the novel coronavirus upended perceptions about proper mitigation. People who had been wearing fabric masks began switching over to N95 and KN95 respirators, leading to greater demand for respirators.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Virginia Tech's Rob Gourdie was busy investigating how to deliver medications more effectively.

Kimberly Kelly was a biomedical engineer at the University of Virginia (UVA), working on ways to diagnose pancreatic cancer, when she discovered a protein expressed by the cancer cells.

Universities, VA Bio+Tech Park Draw Investment to Richmond For communities seeking to recreate the success of well-known life sciences clusters in Boston, San Diego, and the San Francisco Bay Area, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News suggests there’s a straightforward formula to replicate.

Northern Virginia’s advantages in attracting talent are well known, from best-in-class public schools, to vibrant communities, to the attractions and sights of Washington, D.C.

When executives at Traditional Medicinals decided to build an East Coast manufacturing and processing operation, they cast a wide net.

Despite facing an unprecedented global pandemic, executives at GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSK) were able to recruit 150 new employees for the company’s research and development center in Richmond.

Like many medical device startups, Luminoah began with a bright idea brought about by a personal need. In 2019, founder Neal Piper’s young son, Noah, had a medical issue that necessitated the use of a feeding tube.