News

Nine people posing for a group photo

Patient-Centered Endpoints for Biotech Startups: Choosing Outcomes That Matter in the Real World

CURE. – By making endpoints patient-centered from the outset, founders ensure the focus remains on how patients feel, function, and survive, said Amin Zargar, PhD, CEO of ResVita Bio, a company using synthetic biology and metabolic engineering to develop therapies for skin diseases such as Netherton Syndrome. These endpoints reflect the aspects of treatment and disease management that matter most to patients themselves. When defining them, Zargar said, founders should prioritize factors like symptom burden, quality of life, functional status, and treatment tolerability.

Latest news135

Four scientists standing in front of a glassed-off laboratory

This Pill Could Protect Us From Radiation After a Nuclear Meltdown

Clinical trials have begun on a promising drug designed to remove radioactive particles from the body. Here’s how it works. The drug, HOPO 14-1, a heavy metal chelator, is being commercialized by Bakar Labs tenant HOPO Therapeutics. Read post
Schematic DNA strand

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Funds Nosis Bio to Design Gene Therapy Carriers

Gene therapy is usually delivered aboard a harmless virus that can be taken up by cells. However, the immune system may see the introduced gene or the viral carrier as foreign or unfamiliar and react to protect the body, causing an unwanted immune response. To make delivery safer, Nosis is using AI and deep learning — an AI technique that teaches computers to process data in a way similar to the human brain — to design new molecular carriers to get gene therapy directly into specific lung cells. Read post
Glyphic Biotechnologies, whose Co-founder Josh Yang is pictured, is moving forward with plans to expand into 31,000 square feet at Foundry31. Photo by Stan Olszewski

Glyphic Biotechnologies Launches Berkeley Expansion

The startup said in its business license application that the move to 3100 San Pablo would enhance Berkeley’s reputation as “a center for scientific innovation,” something the city has been working to cement over the last year or so. Berkeley City Councilmembers last fall signaled their unanimous interest in the Keep Innovation in Berkeley initiative, which outlined strategies to grow Berkeley’s biotech industry. Read post
Closeup of iris and pupil in eyeball

Ray Therapeutics Licenses Delivery Technology for Optogenetics Therapy

"Visual optogenetics is a disruptive technology which affords the opportunity to restore life-transforming levels of vision to blind and visually impaired patients with conditions such as retinitis pigmentosa,” said Paul Bresge, chief executive officer of Ray Therapeutics. “We have developed a next generation bioengineered optogenetic payload which we believe is optimized for human vision." Read post
BrightEdge's Farnaz Bakshi (center) presents Golden Ticket to Brad Niles, CEO of ARIZ (third from left) along with the BrightEdge and Bakar Labs teams

ARIZ and Catena Awarded Golden Tickets to Bakar Labs, Sponsored by ACS BrightEdge Fund

With the Golden Tickets, ARIZ and Catena each win one year of free office and lab space at Bakar Labs and access to BrightEdge’s robust network of resources to develop their cancer therapies. They will be able to access Berkeley campus resources, connect with Bakar Labs' business affiliates, and network with more than 30 fellow tenant companies. The combination of support from Bakar Labs and BrightEdge will, most importantly, allow ARIZ and Catena to bring their technology to patients sooner. Read post
Ben R. Taft

Via Nova’s Ben Taft on Challenges and Opportunities in Structure-Activity-Relationship Studies

Ben has been working as a medicinal chemist since 2011. After completing his postdoc, he joined Novartis, where he conducted discovery-phase research for oncology indications. While at Novartis, he transitioned to infectious disease drug discovery. He then joined Via Nova Therapeutics, a Novartis antiviral spinout founded by Don Ganem and Kelly Wong, when Novartis exited the infectious disease space. Read post
Four scientists standing in front of a glassed-off laboratory

First Drug Trial in US for Pill To Guard Against Nuclear Accidents

HOPO 14-1 is an investigative drug that is hoped can protect and treat victims of nuclear fallout, by binding (or chelating) contaminated heavy metals and removing them from the body. It is thought to be effective against Uranium and other materials used in nuclear weapons, such as dirty bombs or ballistic missiles. Read post
Katy Digovich

“Can I Cure My Diabetes With Stem Cells?” Katy Digovich Delivers TED Talk

CEO Katy Digovich recently gave a passionate TED Talk about her motivation for launching and leading Minutia. A former Princeton basketball player, Katy lives with diabetes. Working with the Clinton Global initiative in Africa, she learned that people with diabetes in the Third World face an early death sentence due to the cost of insulin monitoring and delivery. Minutia is developing cell therapy in the form of cells engineered with nanosensors to measure insulin levels and deliver dosage. Read post
Ray Therapeutics homepage with close-up of human face and eye

Ray Therapeutics: Anatomy Of A Biopharma VC Deal

Until 2010, leading a biotech wasn’t on Paul Bresge's radar. He’d built a long and successful career as a leader in unrelated industries -- industrial tools and a courier service, for example. Then, his 15-year-old daughter was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic disease that causes degradation of retinal cells over time. She was going blind. Ophthalmologists told him there was nothing that could be done to save his daughter’s vision. Read post
View into the back of an ambulance responding to a call

Coagulant Therapeutics Announces Publication in Blood Advances Describing Novel Nanobody Library to Activated Protein C and Initial Leads for Treatment of Trauma and Hemophilia

By using assays specific for coagulation, inflammation and cell survival functions of APC, the investigators were able to identify an array of human APC specific antibodies able to retain or eliminate these functions. This represents a tool chest for APC targeted therapies that has already identified a lead candidate for the treatment of trauma and hemophilia. Read post
A large group of people on the steps of a building

Profluent Announces Launch With $9 Million Seed Round

Profluent is using deep generative models to ‘learn the language of biology’ in order to design new, functional proteins. The goal of protein design is to create novel or enhanced proteins with specific uses. These could include lasting cures for diseases that are free from patent restrictions or new enzymes that can break down unrecyclable plastics. Read post