Agriculture

Berkeley Yeast

Brief Description

Berkeley Yeast is a startup founded by UC Berkeley scientists, with grant funding from NSF, NIH, and USDA, as well as from venture capital. Berkeley Yeast bioengineers yeast strains that improve fermentation for brewers, winemakers, and beyond. The company uses synthetic biology to develop yeast strains with a variety of benefits, ranging from unprecedented control over flavors, to protection against the increasing vulnerability of crops, to greater product shelf stability and increased production efficiency. CEO Charles Denby co-founded the company based on the...

Varada Agriculture

Brief Description

Varada Agriculture is transforming pest management to reduce crop loss with proprietary RNA interference (RNAi) technology. The company's biodegradable products are safer for workers and consumers, while also minimizing residue impact on the environment. The company's RNAi technology uses inhibitory RNA molecules uniquely designed to work on a target organism without impacting beneficial organisms in nature. This method follows the Integrated Pest Management Plan principles, which recommend highly targeted pest control.

Founder and CEO Jyoti Taneja was a postdoc...

Perlumi

Brief Description

Manufacturer of bio-derived hydrogen peroxide using synthetic biology intended to make photosynthesis better. The company engineers enzymes that are used instead of traditional chemical catalysts to remove organic solvents during the production of hydrogen peroxide, allowing the process to occur in any environment while reducing carbon emissions.

Perlumi Founder and CEO Dr. Christopher Eiben earned his PhD in bioengineering at UC Berkeley, focusing on synthetic metabolism and protein engineering in the lab of UC Berkeley Professor Dr. Jay Keasling, a pioneer in...

CyberPac

Brief Description

CyberPac was founded to commercialize an antioxidant nutritional supplement.

Timeline 1999. Company founded Inventors

Lester Packer, Sashwati Roy, Chandan Sen, Oren Tirosh

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. Timeline 2017. Company founded. Inventors John Dueber, Ryan Joseph Protzko

Water Harvesting, Inc

Brief Description Water Harvesting Inc. was formed in 2018 to commercialize atmospheric water harvesting systems based on metal organic frameworks (MOFs) and address the global challenge of water scarcity. MOFs work for atmospheric water harvesting even under very arid conditions. Timeline 2018. Company founded. Inventors Farhad Fathieh, Nikita Hanikel, Markus Kalmutzki, Ievgen Kapustin, Hao Lyu, Mathieu Steven Prevot, Omar Yaghi, JingJing Yang, Bing Zhang

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.

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Prolific Machines

Brief Description

Prolific Machines specializes in cell production with a unique manufacturing approach that combats climate change, enables space-food, and makes cell therapy accessible to everyone. The company's photomolecular biology platform leverages safe and effective tools — light, bioengineering, hardware, and AI — for dynamic control over virtually any cell function in any cell type. With the technology, partners can more efficiently biomanufacture nutritional proteins, antibodies to treat diseases, cultivated meat, and more.

Timeline 2020. Company founded...

Peregrine Biotechnology

Brief Description

Production of foie gras without force feeding.

Timeline 2017. Company founded Inventors

Jacob Corn, Benjamin Gregor Gowen

Mendel Biological Solutions

Brief Description

Mendel Biological Solutions creates new technologies to satisfy the evolving needs of the agricultural industry. The biological research and development team is focused on biological crop solutions that increase crop yield through naturally-derived products. Mendel Biological Solutions is committed to providing the innovations that will help sustain crops around the world.

Mendel Biological Solutions was acquired by Koch Agronomic Services in 2014.

Timeline 1997. Company founded 2014. Company acquired by Koch Agronimic Services...