Brief Description
This life science research tools company was spun out of technology developed in the UC Berkeley bioengineering department. Zephyrus Biosciences developed medical research tools for single-cell analyses, enabling high resolution biology. The company's first product, called Milo, was a benchtop instrument that allowed researchers to search for specific proteins in about 1,000 single cells at once. This improved western blotting instrument made it possible to analyze individual cells for the first time. The high-throughput and high-selectivity protein fingerprinting gave scientists a way to understand variability within tumors, and delivering new insights into the biology of cancer, stem cells, neurology, and human disease and development.
Bionengineering PhD student Kelly Gardner developed the idea for Milo while working in UC Berkeley Professor Amy Herr’s lab. Gardner and Herr co-founded Zephyrus Biosciences to further develope the technology, which was named #1 Innovation of 2016 by The Scientist Magazine. The company was acquired by Bio-Techne in 2016.
Timeline
- 2013. Zephyrus Biosciences founded.
- 2016. Acquired by Bio-Techne Corporation.
Inventors
Amy Herr, Todd Duncombe, Alex Hughes, Chi Chih Kang, Robert Lin, Elly Sinkala, Julea Vlassakis, Zhuchen Xu, Kevin Yamauchi