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UC Berkeley professor Dan Nomura

Vicinitas Therapeutics Launches With $65 Million for Protein Stabilization

“I think our DUBTAC and targeted protein stabilization approaches really for the first time allow us to stabilize these aberrantly degraded proteins to treat disease,” says Daniel Nomura, Vicinitas’s founder and a chemical biologist at UC Berkeley. Read post
A plate of Umaro's bacon made from seaweed

Vegan Bacon Brand from Shark Tank Hits Restaurants

Umaro dives into a new type of technology to create vegan alternatives. Co-founders Beth Zotter and Amanda Stiles picture the future of protein from seaweed farms, a sustainable solution in vegan meat production. The vegan company is the first to develop and use red seaweed protein as an umami-enhancing ingredient in their bacon. Read post
Vicinitas logo on a wavy background

Vicinitas Therapeutics Launches With $65 Million in Series A Financing to Advance Precision Medicines to Stabilize Key Proteins to Treat Disease

“The concept of chemically induced proximity – using multispecific molecules to bring two targets physically together – has yielded notable successes in the field of protein degradation,” said Jorge Conde, General Partner at a16z. “Vicinitas is leveraging its proprietary DUBTAC platform to pioneer the emerging space of targeted protein stabilization. This approach has the potential to access highly valued yet currently undruggable proteins and create differentiated therapies that will impact patient lives.” Read post
Derek Sims, Cornell Mallari, and Terry Hermiston of Coagulant in the lab

Coagulant Therapeutics Announces Publication of In Vivo Data Demonstrating Safety and Efficacy of CT-001 for the Management of Acute Bleeding

Uncontrolled bleeding is the single largest cause of death among individuals ages 1 to 44 years. In fact, 40% of all trauma deaths are a result of blood loss. And yet, on the other side of the spectrum, blood clots can lead to another set of serious health problems. That’s why Coagulant is developing CT-001, a recombinant coagulation factor that circulates in the blood for only 3 minutes. Read post
Beth Zotter holding some kelp

Is Seaweed the Next Big Alternative to Meat?

Smithsonian Magazine covers the emerging sector of foodtech companies, including Bakar Labs tenant Umaro Foods, making delicious products from one of the world's great underused resources: kelp. Umaro CEO Beth Zotter says “[Bacon is] a product notorious for being hard to give up for vegetarians. It’s sort of like the gateway drug that makes people revert back to full-on carnivory." Read post
Little girl touching little boy's face

ResVita Bio receives Rare Pediatric Disease Designation for RVB-001 as a Treatment for Netherton Syndrome

"The physical and emotional challenges of chronic skin diseases are devastating to patients, particularly children" said Amin Zargar, Chief Executive Officer of ResVita Bio. "Newborns with Netherton Syndrome face a severe lifelong disease with few treatment options that offer limited efficacy. We are motivated by the prospect to deliver meaningful improvement in the lives of these patients, and this is a significant step towards the development RVB-001 as a treatment for Netherton Syndrome." Read post
Josh Yang of Glyphic Bio in their lab at Bakar Labs

How Berkeley Is Leaning in to the Biotech Boom

"Nowadays, they meet in person at the Bakar BioEnginuity Hub, the recently completed lab and office space that is emblematic of UC Berkeley’s efforts to support bioscience startups. It’s part of a web of startup activity on campus that’s so vast, the university created a website to help people navigate it." Read post