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Workforce Development
From Bakar to Breakthrough: How a QWEST Internship Sparked an NSF Fellowship
In early 2024, Greg Timblin sought an intern who could bring dedication, curiosity, and a fresh perspective to his startup, Inapill. UC Berkeley undergrad Katie Sie was eager to expand her skills beyond the classroom and into the fast-moving world of therapeutic innovation. QB3’s QWEST program, which pairs students with Bakar Labs tenant companies for hands-on research, offered the perfect match – one that would lead Katie to a prestigious PhD fellowship. Read post
Company NewsBakar Bio Labs News
AI Development at UC Berkeley’s Top Biotech Incubator, Bakar Bio Labs
AI has taken the world by storm. On the scientific front, the ability to mine huge datasets and make informed, actionable predictions has accelerated the pace of innovation. So it makes sense that startups at UC Berkeley’s Bakar Bio Labs, the university’s leading biotech incubator, would embed AI into their work to discover new medicines, redesign how they are delivered, and even create entirely new biological tools. Bakar Bio Labs’ tenant companies are redefining the world of biotech, and they’re doing it with out-of-the-box solutions. For three of the tenants — Insamo, Aikium, and Profluent — AI is core to their technology and strategy. Read post
Company News
ResVita Bio Announces Positive FDA Pre-IND Meeting, Advancing RVB-003 Toward IND Filing for Netherton Syndrome in Early 2026
ResVita Bio, a biotechnology company pioneering continuous protein therapy for skin diseases, today announced the successful completion of a face-to-face Pre-Investigational New Drug (Pre-IND) meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for RVB-003, its lead investigational therapy for Netherton Syndrome, a chronic and life-threatening genetic skin disorder. Read post
Bakar Bio Labs News
Event Recap: Bakar Bio Labs Showcase 2025
“We recently passed several milestones,” said our director David Schaffer. “We welcomed our 50th tenant company; our tenants have raised more than $750 million since we opened in November 2021, and they’ve created more than 450 jobs in the Bay Area. This showcase brings investors together with our startup companies to fuel their growth, which is so important not just to us, but to our regional and state economy.” The showcase included a lightning pitch session. “We’re really excited about pushing the boundaries of in vivo cellular engineering,” said Jenny Hamilton, CEO and co-founder of Azalea Therapeutics. “We have an initial focus on in vivo car T generation, and what we have invented at Azalea is the ability to do both cell type specific delivery and site specific genomic modification. And so this makes in vivo cell car T therapies safer and more effective. I’d be happy to talk to anybody here. We’re at Table 13.” Read post
Tenant Spotlight
From 0 to 100: How Editpep’s CRISPR Technology and Business Took Off at Bakar Bio Labs
“Editpep is a great example of what can happen when UC Berkeley’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem comes together,” says Darren Cooke, Interim Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer at UC Berkeley. “Through LSEC’s Venture Grant Program, we were able to connect Editpep with funding, mentorship, and key resources like Berkeley SkyDeck, I-Corps and Bakar Bio Labs, paving a path from lab discovery to long-term societal benefit. Helping Ross Wilson and Dana Foss build a business around extraordinary technology has been very rewarding.” Read post
Bakar Bio Labs News
Former QWEST Intern Nam Pianapitham Takes Job at VC Fund
By working at Bakar Bio Labs, she saw firsthand that innovation happens at every level. “Everyone’s working hard towards a goal—even if that goal is five or 10 years down the line, in terms of FDA approval or commercializing technology,” says Nam. Her time as an intern also gave her the confidence to realize that students can make meaningful contributions to the biotech community. Now at Disrupt Health, Nam applies that same passion on a global scale, leveraging the knowledge she acquired during her time as an intern. The fund invests in transformative areas, including self-care, preventive health, age-well technologies, AI-enabled smart hospitals, and digital health platforms. Read post
Press Release
Nosis Bio Announces Development Candidate Nomination for Lead Fibrosis Program
Nosis Bio, an AI-native biotechnology company pioneering cell-targeted gene silencing, today announced the nomination of its first development candidate (DC) for fibrosis. The milestone marks the company’s transition into IND-enabling studies and the advancement of its proprietary targeted delivery and drug design platform into clinical-stage development. Fibrosis affects over 100 million people globally and remains a high-burden, underserved condition that causes progressive scarring of critical organs such as the lungs, kidneys, and heart. Despite its prevalence, the field has seen limited progress, with existing treatments offering only modest efficacy and being constrained by systemic toxicity and poor tolerability. Read post![Ribbon molecular model. Illustration of OpenCRISPR-1 [Profluent]](https://bio.bakarlabs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/opencrispr_cartoon.webp)
Company News
Profluent’s AI-Designed Gene Editor Glimpses into Generalizable Platform
Ali Madani, PhD, CEO of Profluent, says there’s an urgent need to move away from the time-consuming slog of random therapeutic discovery and into artificial intelligence (AI)-based bespoke design. “There are real people with lives at stake and patients waiting,” he emphasized in an interview with GEN. Madani’s Bay Area-based company is currently building foundation models to steer functional protein design for generalizable applications across agriculture, biotechnology, and human health. The team has recently taken one step toward this goal for CRISPR-based therapeutics. Read post
Company News
New data supports Cyclarity’s approach to atherosclerosis reversal
The central role of 7-ketocholesterol (7KC) in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis is well documented: as a toxic oxidized derivative of cholesterol, 7KC accumulates in arterial walls and contributes to the transformation of macrophages into dysfunctional, lipid-laden foam cells. These cells drive inflammation, destabilise plaque and ultimately fuel cardiovascular disease – the leading cause of mortality worldwide. Many therapeutic strategies have focused on lipid lowering or anti-inflammatory approaches; few have attempted to directly remove 7KC from cells, and fewer still have demonstrated the ability to reverse foam cell formation. Now, Cyclarity Therapeutics has published preclinical data suggesting its cyclodextrin-based compound UDP-003 can do just that – and with a favorable safety and pharmacokinetic profile that supports IND-readiness for first-in-human trials. Read postOur affiliates
Built for speed
Ready to run?
Startups need to focus on making milestones, not managing equipment.
Bakar Bio Labs maintains tissue culture facilities, a freezer farm, fume hoods, basic benchtop equipment and plenty of analytical instruments. Optional lab support services can also make for quick starts that help get results fast.
Built for breakthroughs
At UC Berkeley
Bakar Bio Labs is just steps from UC Berkeley’s world-renowned faculty and more than 40,000 students who train in top programs including science, engineering, law and business. Dotting the campus is a network of core facilities that feature a wide range of advanced equipment and services for use by startups. Recruiting student talent and scientific co-founders couldn’t be easier.
Today’s best startups blaze a trail all their own, but they don’t do it alone.
They build their support network to help them navigate the multiple challenges they face. At Bakar Bio Labs, tenants join a community of as many as 50 like-minded teams willing to share the scientific and business insights that help them advance. The incubator spans more than 40,000 square feet of lab and office spaces within the fully renovated Woo Hon Fai Hall, the iconic former home of the Berkeley Art Museum. With so much going on, investors, industry partners and new talent are already taking notice.
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Learn about QB3
Built for startups. For more than 20 years, QB3 has been the University of California’s center for innovation and entrepreneurship in life science. Through pitch summits, seminars, symposia, podcasts, office hours, internships, and workshops QB3 educates, connects, and elevates the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
