SBIR/STTR Recipient

Spotlight Therapeutics

Brief Description

Developer of next-generation gene editing therapeutics in a preclinical pipeline. The company creates programmable nucleases that selectively target and edit specific cell populations directly in the body. These engineered nucleases will enable direct intervention in vivo like a true administered biologic. Spotlight Therapeutics co-founders include Dr. Patrick Hsu, a UC Berkeley Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and co-founder of the Arc Institute.

Timeline 2017. Company founded. Inventors

Colleen McGourty, Lorena de Onate, Ross...

Solidus Biosciences, Inc.

Brief Description

Solidus' mission for the pharmaceutical industry is to improve the process of new drug development by providing proprietary decision-enabling technology to enhance drug safety, efficiency, cost, and, thereby, productivity from investment in new drug research and development.

Formerly known as Solidus Networks. Inc.

Timeline 2005. Company founded. Inventors

Douglas Clark, Jonathan Dordick

Sonera Magnetics

Brief Description

Magnetometers are nearly ubiquitous in today’s world, fueling applications as diverse as medical diagnostics and self-driving cars. The most sensitive magnetometers, however, can only operate at extreme temperatures and in a shielded environment that isolates the sensor from ambient magnetic fields. Sonera Magnetics is developing a magnetometer that can operate at room temperature and in portable form factors with sensitivity comparable to the best magnetic sensors available today, dramatically increasing potential applications.

Co-founders Dominic Labanowski and...

SMART Pad LLC

Brief Description

SMART Pad is commercializing a completely redesigned Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) pad for the semiconductor industry. CMP processes have not changed much since their introduction by IBM in 1983, consisting of polyurethane polishing pads, polishing slurries with abrasive particles and pad conditioners for pad resurfacing.

SMART Pad co-founder Sunghoon Lee developed the company's foundational technology while earning his PhD in the lab of UC Berkeley Professor of Mechanical Engineering David Dornfeld.

Timeline 2018...

Caribou Biosciences Inc.

Brief Description

Caribou Biosciences is a clinical-stage CRISPR genome-editing biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing transformative therapies for patients with devastating diseases. The company’s genome-editing platform, including its Cas12a chRDNA technology, enables superior precision to develop cell therapies that are armored to potentially improve activity against diseases. Caribou is advancing a pipeline of off-the-shelf cell therapies from its CAR-T cell platform as readily available treatments for patients with hematologic malignancies and autoimmune diseases.

...

Scribe Therapeutics

Brief Description

Scribe is focused on the engineering, delivery, and development of next-generation CRISPR molecules to rewrite and repair the underlying cause of genetic disorders. The molecular engineering company was spun out of discoveries in the lab of UC Berkeley Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology and Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna. Doudna co-founded Scribe with company CEO Benjamin Oakes, who received a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from UC Berkeley in 2017, where he worked in the Doudna Lab and Savage Lab, UC Berkeley Associate Professor of...

Lucira Health

Brief Description Lucira Health is revolutionizing the way infectious diseases are prevented, diagnosed, and monitored by developing the tools necessary to empower people to become knowledgeable about their health. We produce inexpensive, disposable health diagnostic hardware that transforms any smartphone into a portable, real-time health-monitoring device for rapid, accessible, multiplexed analysis of bodily fluids anywhere in the world.

Formerly known as Diassess, Inc.

Lucira Health had an initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol of LHDX...

Cortera Neurotechnologies

Brief Description

Cortera Neurotechnologies, Inc. designs medical devices aimed at revolutionizing the treatment of incurable neurological conditions. The company's mission was to deliver innovative products that improve patient care, quality of life and advance neuroscientific research.

Rikky Muller (PhD ’13 EECS) invented the company's foundational technology, a micro-electrocorticography (ECoG) device, as a PhD student in electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley. The small implant — as thin as plastic wrap and as flexible as a soft contact lens — can record...

Iaterion

Brief Description

Iaterion is a biopharma company developing novel therapeutics for women's health and diseases. The company develops targeted selective nuclear receptor drugs addressing multiple indications encountered by women and focuses on novel drugs as an alternative to menopausal hormone therapy (MHT). The company was founded to commercialize a novel discovery made by UC Berkeley Adjunct Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences Dale Leitman, MD, PhD, for nuclear receptors reprogramming (NRRP) agents.

Iaterion's team brings decades of experience in the bio-...

GenEdit, Inc.

Brief Description

GenEdit develops innovative therapies through targeted delivery of genetic medicines. The GenEdit founders share the vision that recent scientific advancements in engineering CRISPR components and delivery vehicles offer a groundbreaking opportunity to develop safe and effective medicines for genetic diseases.

The company's proprietary Polymer nanoparticle can deliver CRISPR protein and gRNA. CRISPR in a protein form has many advantages, delivery has been a challenge limiting its application. To deliver CRISPR protein, encapsulation of CRISPR ribonucleoprotein (RNP...