Medical Therapeutics

Apertor creates novel molecular glues for therapeutic applications in multiple disease areas. The company applies a world-class synthetic biology platform using non-model organisms, a deep knowledge of complex natural products relevant to human health, and a computational pipeline enabled by structure-guided design. The result is a first-in-class approach to solving important pharmacological problems and delivering new, high-value treatment options for patients. The company was co-founded by UC Berkeley Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and of...

Totality Biosciences is producing plant-based human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), a high-value bioactive found in human breast milk. The breast milk substitute promises to improve nutrition in infant formula. The company also intends to supply complex HMOs for research and development of therapeutics.

Timeline

Collin Robert E. Barnum, Patrick M. Shih

HypO2Regen’s is developing novel, disease-modifying therapeutics for chronic intractable inflammatory diseases, including what would be the first cell-free stem cell treatment that induces true regeneration of tissue damaged by chronic inflammation. The company's first focus on improving the lives of more than 300 million people in the United States and Europe with moderate to severe periodontitis, up to 70% of whom are either undertreated or untreated.

Phillip Messersmith, Jing Cheng, Ellen Heber-Katz

With synthetic DNA fueling innovation in biological research, therapeutics, diagnostics, and biomanufacturing, there is an urgent need for faster and more accurate DNA synthesis. Currently, DNA is manufactured via a chemical method that has remained essentially unchanged for 35 years and has approached a plateau. Ansa Biotechnologies is developing a faster, more accurate, and cleaner enzyme-based DNA synthesis technology. The technique promises to dramatically accelerate innovation in biological research and engineering.

The approach is based on polymerase-...