Kirkland Rotary Meeting Minutes:   Feb. 4, 2013      Submitted by:  Pat Dye

 

The meeting was called to order at 6:40 pm by President Patti Smith.  The pledge was led by Tim Kehrli and an inspirational moment was provided by D.V. Hurst.  Bob Cohen and John Woodbery served as greeters, with Pat Dye scribing.

 

Introductions:

·         Eric Olson introduced his daughter Jessica, whom he described as Brandon’s babysitter.

·         Nancy Bennett Evans was visiting from the Seattle International Club.  She works with Mulvaney G2.

·         Briana Balke, our visiting Student of the Month, from LWHS was introduced by Mike Hunter.

·         Gary Redfern introduced Elizabeth Kemmish-Redfern, former Kirkland Rotarian, as his guest

·         John Enger, DGN, and Ezra Teshome, DG Elect, were both introduced by Scott Rethke.

Bob Webb led us in a Birthday song in honor of Feb. birthdays.  Happy Birthday Gary Bruner!

Scott Becker collected Happy Dollars from Happy Rotarians.

 

President Patti asked everyone to sign the card that was being passed around for Ernie Norhead, whose wife recently passed.

Our speaker, Ken North, was introduced by Scott Rethke.  Ken is a V.P. of capital acquisitions at Kineta, where he works on financing for drug development.  Kineta is a small company with 25 employees located on the south end of Lake Union.  They focus on autoimmune diseases such as MS and viral diseases such as influenza, especially those that are contagious, potentially epidemic and drug resistant.  Ken shared with us 4 of the projects currently underway at Kineta.  He also mentioned that the company was recently featured in the latest edition of National Geographic in an article titled “Healing Power of Venom”.

1.  An autoimmune drug derived from the sea anemone.  The idea of it began when a woman with MS stepped on a scorpion and the venom from that sting relieved her MS symptoms for 3 months.  The drug they are working on can be synthecized, and Kineta has been the first to complete human clinical trials.

2.  OAS (name unknown) – partnering with Walter Reed Medical Center on the development of a drug that can immunize against influenza, HCV, RSV, West Nile, Dengue, and RNA viruses.  The military is especially interested in this drug as it would affect military personnel in many areas around the world.

3. RIG-I – has similar targets as OAS

4.  Conotoxin – pain drug developed from the venom of the cone snail.  Works on periphery nerves rather than the central nervous system and is not addictive.

Everyone was invited to submit questions that would later be answered via email.

Ken made a contribution to our Club with “Kiwanis” dollars and was presented with a book to sign that will be given to John Muir Elementary School.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 7:40 pm.