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Yellow labrador wearing white lab coat carries test tube full of blue liquid

Innovating on Innovation: a New Trick to Accelerate Startups

Take a back seat, lab-automation robots. Canine couriers are here to deliver our tenants' scientific samples. Read post
A laboratory with yellow walls and one worker in a white lab coat

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
Denis Bronnikov, Lynne Krummen, Yvonne Li, Todd Renshaw

You Asked, We Answered: Bakar Bio Labs Launches Experts-In-Residence Program

Bakar Bio Labs is proud to introduce our new Experts-in-Residence (XIRs) program, bringing in four inaugural XIRs focused on finance, CMC operations, business development and regulatory affairs to support tenants in biotechnology product development. Although Bakar Bio Labs is an early-stage startup incubator, these experts have a particular focus on later-stage resources to help these companies, especially if they started in academia, succeed beyond their time here. Eda Altiok, who just joined us as director of partnerships, says that meetings with the XIRs are available at both set times, and on-demand. “What I kept hearing [from tenants] was that they needed access to industry, access to personnel, and people who’ve encountered similar challenges to what they’re going through, and how to overcome those challenges,” Eda says. “We want them to feel like we’re setting them up for success at Bakar Labs, so we’re excited to unveil this program.” Read post
Decorative image with Bakar Bio Labs logo and photo of skylight

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

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
Nam Pianapitham

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
The IGI-Bakar Labs building. Architect's rendering as seen from campus

CRISPR researchers and startup entrepreneurs will share new building in UC Berkeley’s Innovation Zone

The UC Regents approved the Innovative Genomics Institute-Bakar Labs building during a regularly scheduled board meeting in Los Angeles. The seven-story building, supported by private philanthropy, is expected to open during the 2028-29 academic year. It will allow the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI), founded 10 years ago by CRISPR co-inventor and UC Berkeley professor Jennifer Doudna, to expand in response to ever-growing applications of the revolutionary gene-editing tool. The IGI’s labs are currently located in a building on Berkeley Way, a block from the Innovation Zone. Read post
Marco Lobba and Sophia Lugo

Marco Lobba and Sophia Lugo Named to San Francisco Business Times 40 Under 40

Many people don’t end up in the jobs they wanted when they were four years old. But Catena Biosciences CEO Marco Lobba and Radar Therapeutics CEO Sophia Lugo aren’t most people — a fact that didn’t escape the San Francisco Business Times. For their innovative contributions to biotech and precision medicine — Lobba with CatenaBio’s Multi-Payload Conjugate™ antibody-drug combinations, Lugo with Radar’s targeted mRNA therapies — the SF Business Times named both Lobba and Lugo to their 2025 “40 Under 40” class of honorees, recognizing them as two of the most influential and industrious leaders in the Bay Area. The awards will be presented on Friday, April 25 at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco. Read post

Banksy Tags Bakar Bio Labs

Since the 60’s, Berkeley has been home of free expression, though never through graffiti. But Gino Segre, MD, was surprised to found a crowd had formed near the front entrance of Bakar BioEnginuity Hub Tuesday morning. Students, faculty, and other passersby numbering in the dozens were staring at unauthorized artwork painted on the front facade of the Brutalist landmark building. The installation provoked varied responses, many nodding vigorously that it was vibrant, bold, profane, and timely. An employee pressed through the crowd on her way into work, and muttered it looked like her recently contaminated cell culture. Read post
bakar bio labs

We Are Now Bakar Bio Labs

We have a new name! And logo. As the larger Bakar Labs organization expands into multiple locations and adds the climate tech vertical, our goal is to keep our branding as clear as possible. So we are now Bakar Bio Labs, as you probably noticed. Going forward, the general “Bakar Labs” title will be reserved for the parent organization we fall under. Beneath the Bakar Labs umbrella there are two units: Bakar Bio Labs and Bakar Climate Labs, for which our pilot program is now live (the facility, on the west side of the UC Berkeley campus, will open in 2028). Bakar Bio Labs will operate at two locations: the original, at 2630 Bancroft Way in Berkeley, and a new UCSF building in development in the Dogpatch neighborhood in San Francisco. Read post
Clockwise from top left: Shakked Halperin, Tim Craven, the Profluent team, the Radar team, members of HOPO Therapeutics

Looking Forward to 2025 from Our Top Five Stories of 2024

Happy new year! At Bakar Labs we’re looking forward to a great 2025, starting of course with the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in SF. Other highlights in the near future: the return of our JETRO entrepreneurs from Japan; the rollout of the Bakar Climate Labs pilot program (look for our web story on Futurebio, our first climate tech tenant); if you’re at the BIO International Convention in Boston, look for our team, we’ll be there. You can count on our September Showcase and our November anniversary party to be bangers. Community is our #1 asset. Thank you for being part of it! Read post

Bakar Labs Cooks Up BAKR Bar, A Taste of What’s Next in Engineered Entrepreneurial Superfood

Bakar Labs announces the launch today of its latest tenant amenity, the BAKR Bar, an ultra-advanced nutrition product specifically geared to support its entrepreneurial community. "Bakar Labs entrepreneurs are a breed apart, demanding unwavering focus and sustained mental acuity,” said managing director Gino Segre. "But our free snacks weren't really cutting it, and tenants knew it. It simply wasn't the right kind of nutrition startups need for high performance." Read post
The East Bay Innovation award with Bakar Labs skylight in background

Bakar Labs Wins East Bay Innovation Award

The Innovation Award recognizes the real contribution Bakar Labs makes to the regional economy by supporting entrepreneurs building new companies, hiring skilled workers, bringing in investment, expanding their operations, and forging partnerships as they develop cures and solutions for the most urgent challenges that face us in human health. Since the incubator’s launch in November 2021, the 38 companies that we’ve hosted have raised more than $380 million and created more than 300 jobs. Read post
UC Berkeley library and Campanile

In a First, UC Berkeley Showcasing Startups Around J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference

Two events in particular spotlight UC Berkeley's mindset: The on-campus Bakar Labs incubator and law firm Wilson Sonsini are sponsoring a reception Monday night at the foot of Market Street, and the university's Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center has organized a Tuesday event in a temporarily converted South of Market art gallery to showcase 24 biotech drug, medical device, diagnostics and research tools startups. The events represent a sea change led by Rich Lyons, the former dean of UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and now chief innovation and entrepreneurship officer, and Dave Schaffer, the director of the UC system's QB3 program, UC's Bakar Labs incubator and the labs' home, Bakar BioEnginuity Hub. Read post