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Renasant Bio Named to BioSpace’s NextGen: Class of 2026
Renasant’s post on LinkedIn: “We’re honored to be recognized by BioSpace’s NextGen: Class of 2026 — a list celebrating the most promising early-stage life sciences companies driving innovation and growth in a challenging market. Being included among this outstanding group reflects the hard work and dedication of our entire team as we advance next-generation disease-modifying therapies for patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). Thank you to BioSpace for this honor — and to our investors, partners, and supporters who share our mission to make a meaningful impact in lives of patients living with ADPKD.” Read post
UC Berkeley spinout raises $100 million for gene-therapy approach that ‘unlocks a world of possibility’
A spinout from the labs of University of California, Berkeley, professor Kathleen Collins and the campus’ Bakar Bio Labs incubator, Addition is working on a different way to package and deliver long-lasting, life-changing “genomic medicines.” Addition’s team, now numbering 50, “spent four years with our heads down on the science, and we’re feeling good,” Park said. “It’s a good base to talk to people externally, unstuffing.” The technology is one thing, but there’s another thing that’s got Park excited about Addition: the big picture. Addition’s approach opens the possibility of delivering one-shot-and-done therapies or redosing therapies for less. Read post
Addition Tx does the math and emerges from stealth with $100M, biotech vets on exec team
It’s early days for the startup, but its core tech is centered on its all-RNA, nonviral, lipid nanoparticle-based PRINT (Precise RNA Mediated Insertion of Transgenes) platform. The idea is to create “safer, durable, one-time therapies, overcoming limitations of current genetic medicine modalities,” the biotech said in a Dec. 17 statement. Details on disease targets are thin on the ground, but Addition says it is seeking to “redefine how chronic and rare diseases are treated.” Initial preclinical work is slated to begin next year. One area of work Addition has already spotlighted is HIV. Using a Gates Foundation grant, Addition will use one of its so-called PRINTed programs that aim, with a single dose, to allow endogenous production of antibodies to “provide lifetime protection against HIV.” Read post Small Molecules to Correct a Rare Kidney Disease: Emily Conley on the Long Run
The big idea at Renasant is to develop oral small molecule drugs to treat patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, known as ADPKD. Patients with this disease develop cysts on their kidneys that sometimes cause the kidney to balloon in size and grow into 30-pound dysfunctional, painful and swollen organs. Scientists think there’s a way to stop it. Renasant is developing small molecule correctors and potentiators that target the polycystin protein abnormalities that drive the disease. If the drugs work as conceived, they would enable people to avoid the grim fate of kidney dialysis or transplant. An estimated 300,000 patients in the US and Europe have the disease, which technically makes it rare, but not that rare. Read post
The Biotech Founder’s Guide to Finding Affordable Lab Space That Supports Growth
Bakar Bio Labs at the University of California Berkeley and Venture Catalyst at the University of California Davis are two examples that offer these types of opportunities. For instance, UC Berkeley is one of the leading public universities in the country, particularly in STEM fields, explained Gino Segrè, PhD, managing director of Bakar Bio Labs, a life science–focused incubator for startups. “So you’re getting all of that when you lease space at Bakar Labs—access to the campus, shared resources, advanced equipment, paid-for student interns, and perhaps faculty advisors—all set in the backdrop of a very vibrant urban environment.” Read post
Profluent Bio Announces Strategic Collaboration with Ensoma to Develop AI-Designed Base Editors for In Vivo Hematopoietic Stem Cell Therapies
Profluent, a leader in frontier AI for protein design, today announced that it has entered into a strategic collaboration with Ensoma, an in vivo cellular engineering company with a mission to advance the future of medicine through one-time therapies. Under the agreement, the companies will leverage Profluent’s AI-designed deaminases in connection with Ensoma’s gene editing scaffolds and helper-dependent adenovirus (HDAd) delivery systems to design, develop, and evaluate AI-designed base editors for in vivo hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) therapies, which will inform future translational decisions. Read post
Azulene turbocharges chemistry simulations with “better data, better models”
Using physics and machine learning, the startup is accelerating computational chemical engineering. Read post With clinical trials in sight, ResVita Bio reaches out to Netherton syndrome community
In preparation for future tests of their flagship therapy, the company is offering updates to those afflicted with the disease. Read post
Davis biotech ARIZ Precision Medicine seeks $10M to advance cancer-killing technology
ARIZ Precision Medicine, a Davis-based company developing technology to kill cancer cells while not damaging healthy cells, is seeking to raise $10 million from investors to advance its work and get to clinical trials. Read postOur affiliates
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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.
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.
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.
