The latest

News

Latest news50

Umaro bacon

Umaro Is on C&E News’ Radar

There’s nothing quite like a crispy piece of bacon. But the pork industry releases more greenhouse gases than the entire country of Germany each year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. While some companies make plant-based bacon, the start-up Umaro Foods says existing products lack the key characteristic that makes bacon delicious: crispiness. Read post
Coastline and ocean on the Gulf of Maine.

Umaro, HOPO Win Joint ARPA-E Funding to Extract Rare Earth Elements from Seaweed

Umaro Foods will leverage advancements in HOPO Therapeutics' chelator technology to efficiently extract rare earth elements and platinum group metals from seaweeds. They will be applying advanced metal chelator molecules to selectively extract metals in a non-destructive manner from process streams producing valuable food-grade seaweed proteins and commodities such as agar, alginate, and carrageenan. Read post
The ResVita Bio team (six scientists in the lab)

ResVita Bio Receives NIH Grant to Develop Breakthrough Treatment for Severe Atopic Dermatitis

"Within a year, we have been honored to receive two innovation grants from the NIH to develop therapies for both Netherton Syndrome, an orphan disease, and severe atopic dermatitis through our topical cell therapy approach," Dr. Zargar stated. "This is in addition to our Rare Pediatric Disease Designation for Netherton Syndrome from the FDA, setting the stage for the entry of our therapy into the clinic in 2025." 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
A large pile of empty yellow barrels with radioactivity warning labels.

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