SBIR/STTR Recipient

ZestBio

Brief Description A biotechnology company harnessing synthetic biology to convert the low value, abundant fruit and vegetable byproducts like citrus peels and sugar beet pulp into useful products such as household cleaning ingredients, bio-based plastics, vitamins, and other specialty chemicals, thereby enabling customers to receive renewable, eco-friendly products at a reasonable cost. Inventors

John Dueber, Ryan Joseph Protzko

Company Founders

John Dueber, Luke Latimer (UC Berkeley, Ph.D., Doctor of Philosophy, 2017, Chemistry), Ryan Protzko (UC Berkeley, Ph.D.,...

YourChoice Therapeutics

Brief Description

YourChoice Therapeutics is revolutionizing birth control options for women and men by developing hormone-free contraceptives and bringing them to market. Our technology is the result of a decade of research at the University of California, Berkeley and has been published in numerous high-impact journals.

Inventors

Yuriy Kirichok, Polina Lishko, Nadja Mannowetz, Melissa Miller

Company Founders

Nadja Mannowetz, Akash Bakshi

Timeline 2018. Company founded

Xip Diagnostics

Brief Description

Xip Diagnostics develops analytical solutions that advance human and animal health at the point of need through in-house product development and industry-leading collaborations.

The company's disposable blood analyzers wirelessly upload lab-quality clinical measurements in minutes, providing blood testing with no hassles, no delays, and no instrument. These devices will be deployed in Emergency Departments (EDs), clinics, and eventually the home.

Xip Diagnostics Founder and CEO Dr. Octavian Florescu spun out the company to commercialize research discoveries...

Wireless Industrial Technologies, Inc.

Brief Description

The mission of Wireless Industrial Technologies, Inc. is to apply wireless technology to improve the productivity, energy efficiency, and environmental footprint of heavy industry. The company offers mesh networking, sensors, and model-based control software. Inventor and President of Wireless Industrial Technologies Dr. James Evans, was a UC Berkeley Faculty member for 35 years, serving as professor of metallurgy
and mineral engineering in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Inventors

James Evans, Michael Schneider, Daniel Steingart, Paul Wright,...

Xenometrix, Inc.

Brief Description Xenometrix, Inc. developed proprietary gene response profiling and genotoxicity technologies to enable high throughput screening for genotoxicity, helping the pharmaceutical industry improve the effectiveness of drug discovery and development through lead compound optimization. The company's goal was to accelerate the selection of promising drug and chemical leads for pharmaceutical, chemical, and biotechnology industries. The company's bioinformatics team assembled a database of gene profiles for public domain pharmaceuticals. Inventors Bruce Ames, Pauline Gee, Dorothy...

Ventria Biosciences (formerly known as Applied Phytologics Inc.)

Brief Description

Ventria Bioscience is a privately held biopharmaceutical company with a product pipeline enabled by ExpressTec. ExpressTec is a patented, plant-based recombinant protein manufacturing technology that delivers a ten-fold higher recombinant protein yield than other plant-based systems. Ventria Bioscience's platform technology delivers meaningful and sustainable economic advantages by enabling new product opportunities that were not previously available. It can be used to develop new biotherapeutics, novel vaccines, reagents for biomanufacturing, and industrial and biofuel...

Valitor Inc.

Brief Description

Valitor, Inc. has developed novel methods of modifying therapeutic proteins to achieve substantial control over their pharmacokinetics, target specificity, and bioactivity. The company's technology platform can be broadly applied to improve the pharmacological properties of many protein drugs that are currently approved or under development. The lead product will be used to improve the treatment of diseases in ophthalmology. The company also has development pipelines for oncology and orthopedics products.

The company was incubated at Berkeley Skydeck, UC Berkeley's...

Tularik Inc.

Brief Description

Tularik, Inc. engages in the discovery and development of orally available medicines that act through the regulation of gene expression. The company’s drugs include T67, T607, T131, T71, and T487. The T67 is an anti-cancer drug. The T607 would be used for treating gastric cancer and esophageal cancer. The T131 would be used for treating diabetes. The T71 would be used for treating obesity.

Tularik was co-founded in 1991 by UC Berkeley Professor Robert Tjian. Amgen acquired Tularik for $1.3 billion in 2004.

Inventors

Lucio Comai, Brian D. Dynlact, Timothy...

Travertine Technologies

Brief Description

Travertine partners with mining and fertilizer operations around the world to recharge critical element production with a circular, electrified process. Standard mining methods use megatons of sulfuric acid annually, and dispose of vast amounts of byproducts, such as phosphorus, lithium, and nickel. The Travertine process upcycles sulfate byproducts into carbon-negative sulfuric acid and green hydrogen, while simultaneously and permanently sequestering CO2 from the air into carbonate minerals.

Travertine Founder and CEO Laura Lammers obtained a...

Thuris Corporation

Brief Description

Thuris Corporation was a biopharmaceutical company focused on medical device solutions to aid in drug development and diagnosis of central nervous system (CNS) disorders including mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. Thuris was also developing pharmaceuticals for select CNS orphan and niche indications ranging from ischemia-related conditions, brain inflammation and Huntington's disease. Thuris received 510k FDA clearance for a non-invasive medical device, the NeuroGraph, for diagnosis of neurological and psychiatric disorders over a broad range of brain-...