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Everything that a bio-entrepreneur needs, all in one location.
There has never been a shortage of entrepreneurs with great ideas designed to tackle the most pressing global challenges — from human health to environmental sustainability.
To grow those ideas into successful ventures, entrepreneurs need space, equipment, and multiple connections to a vibrant ecosystem. That’s why we created Bakar Bio Labs at UC Berkeley. Bakar Bio Labs is built to be the foundational hub for resources where startups thrive.
Genentech-adjacent Japanese drugmaker sets up Peninsula office, looks for deals
Even if you’ve never heard of Chugai Pharmaceutical, you may have heard of some of the drugs that started there: the inflammation and autoimmune disease-fighting drug Actemra and the hemophilia drug Hemlibra, for example. Or you may recall some of its partnerships, like a pact earlier this month with age-related disease company Gero or a partnership with Eli Lilly and Co. around oral GLP-1 weight-loss drug Foundayo. Now the Japanese drugmaker — related to Swiss drugmaker Roche and its Genentech Inc. unit — is prepping for more deals and more visibility. It is setting up a U.S. partnering beachhead in South San Francisco, a three-person office focused on connecting its antibody engineering and small-molecule expertise with life sciences innovators in academia and early-stage companies. Chugai recently became an industry affiliate of Bakar Bio Labs. Read post
Groundbreaking for the IGI – Bakar Labs Building Marks the Start of New Era of Genomic Innovation at UC Berkeley
Groundbreaking on IGI-Bakar Labs building heralds innovation and collaboration between two of UC Berkeley’s premier champions of research. Read post 
The New Billionaire Bet Isn’t AI — It’s Longevity Biotech
FORBES — As investment pours into longevity breakthroughs, HexemBio is taking a unique approach to the problem — tackling deterioration in the blood and immune system as the root causes of age-related deterioration. Read post
How a sickle cell patient is helping drug companies connect with others like him
A cutting-edge treatment for sickle cell disease transformed Jimi Olaghere’s life. Now he’s paying it forward, helping biotech companies understand the role patients can play in developing new therapies. Dubbed a patient-in-residence at Bakar Bio Labs, where he was embedded earlier this year with gene therapy startup NV Therapeutics, Olaghere is building support for a new kind of advocacy that relies more on patients in the drug-development process. Read post Azalea Therapeutics: Engineering precise, powerful cancer therapy in vivo
Cell therapies can save lives — but their complexity puts them out of reach for many patients. Azalea Therapeutics is developing a new approach designed to make these treatments faster, simpler, and more accessible. Read post Jeremy Alberga, Bakar Labs and QB3 COO, receives UC Berkeley’s Excellence in Management Award
During a period of rapid growth, Alberga leads with both vision and warmth Read post AI company Profluent strikes potential $2 billion deal with drugmaker Lilly
Ron Leuty at the San Francisco Business Times covers Profluent’s partnership with Lilly to develop AI-designed recombinases for genetic medicine. Read postOur affiliates
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.
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.
