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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.

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Depiction of atherosclerosis

Cyclarity Therapeutics Secures Approval for First-in-Human Clinical Trial

Cyclarity Therapeutics is pleased to announce regulatory approval to begin its first-in-human clinical trial. The trial will be conducted at CMAX, one of Australia’s leading clinical research centers, in partnership with Monash University. This effort will be led by Dr. Stephen Nicholls of the Victorian Heart Institute (VHI), a distinguished leader in cardiovascular medicine. In addition to a traditional SAD/MAD phase 1 trial, the authorization includes an allowance to enroll 12 patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) to assess the safety of UDP-003 in individuals with plaque buildup, as well as to explore anecdotal evidence of efficacy. This represents a critical first step in evaluating the potential impact of our therapy in a population with high unmet need. 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

Startup ResVita Bio Targets Rare, Deadly Skin Disease With a Bacterial Factory

Amin Zargar literally put skin in his scientific game. Now he hopes to add a deeper layer of funding to his East Bay startup to boost its work on a treatment for a rare and deadly skin disease. Zargar as a postdoctoral fellow was on an academic track and looking for a job as he stress-tested an idea kicked around with mentor Jay Keasling, a pioneer in synthetic biology at UC Berkeley. What if, they thought, they could genetically engineer a bacteria to convert sugars in skin lotions into therapeutic proteins continuously pumped onto the skin's surface? In essence, the bacteria would become a 24/7 factory for producing healing proteins. Read post
ariz logo

ARIZ and NATA Announce Collaboration to develop multiple targeted nucleic acid therapies for cancer treatment

ARIZ and NATA have announced an exciting new partnership aimed at advancing cancer treatment through the development of multiple targeted nucleic acid therapies. By combining ARIZ’s cutting-edge research and NATA’s expertise in molecular medicine, the collaboration seeks to pave the way for innovative therapies that could revolutionize the way cancer is treated. This strategic alliance marks a significant step forward in the fight against cancer, offering new hope for more personalized and effective treatments. Read post
brad niles

Tenant Spotlight on ARIZ: Rising to the Challenge to Make Cancer Treatments More Humane 

Cancer treatments are often as grueling as the disease itself—chemotherapy can bring unbearable side effects like debilitating fatigue, nausea, and hair loss, leaving patients vulnerable and stripped of their identity. But what if cancer care could be better? More precise? Less harmful? Enter ARIZ Precision Medicine. Their mission is to revolutionize cancer care by developing therapies that not only fight the disease but also preserve the quality of life for patients. Learn how they're doing this in our latest Tenant Spotlight. Read post
Dart hits the bullseye

ARIZ One of “Eight Nanotechnology Companies to Watch Out for”

The company’s product is composed of a nanoparticle, which is customized based on the kind of cancer it is attacking, and has small interfering RNA (siRNA) that kill proteins that drive cancer without harming the neighboring healthy cells, cancer cell targeting peptides, as well as the chemotherapy drug – which is encapsulated within the nanoparticle. The nanoparticle is PEGylated, a process by which the polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG) is added to protect the drug. Read post
The HOPO Therapeutics team in front of the Bakar Labs core facility

HOPO Therapeutics Awarded Up to $226 Million from BARDA for Advanced Development of its Oral Decorporation Agent for Heavy Metal Toxicity

The funds will be used to advance development of the drug candidate HOPO-101 through registrational studies as a medical countermeasure against radiological threats, including planned submission of a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The initial award of approximately $9.4 million will fund toxicology and pharmacology studies, manufacturing activities, and nonclinical research in other types of heavy metal poisoning, with approximately $216 million in additional funding available for later-stage development upon agreement between BARDA and HOPO. Read post
aikium

Tenant Spotlight on Aikium: A Trillion Shots at Targeting Tangled Proteins

Aikium has essentially invented a new protein family. Called “SeqR” proteins, they are sequence specific binders that can be applied to different therapeutic needs such as cancer, neuro-inflammation, and some autoimmune disorders. Aikium is going after chemokine receptors, a subset of G-protein coupled receptors, a large class of molecules that have long proven difficult to target. By virtue of being on immune cells, they are front and center in cancer and immune-mediated diseases. Read post
RVB cells delivering protein therapy continuously on skin

NIH Awards ResVita Bio a $2M Phase II SBIR Grant for Continuous Protein Therapy for Netherton Syndrome

ResVita Bio is pioneering continuous protein therapy, delivered through a genetically engineered probiotic platform that temporarily colonizes the skin and continuously releases therapeutic proteins, such as LEKTI, to inhibit protease activity. This continuous delivery method ensures high levels of the therapeutic agent at the site of damage, restoring the integrity of the skin barrier. This represents a significant shift from traditional therapies, which may not provide sustained treatment at the site of the disease. Read post
David Hochschild of the California Energy Commission

Launch of Bakar ClimatEnginuity Hub Unites UC Berkeley Climate Tech Community

"Berkeley's different from Las Vegas: what starts here does not end here," said Dan Kammen, a UC Berkeley professor of energy and founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, in his keynote address at the symposium to launch the Bakar ClimatEnginuity Hub (BCH), Berkeley's innovation center and incubator for climate technology. BCH will accelerate the commercialization of new technologies, sending them forth to be adopted by humanity across the world as we adapt to and combat climate change. Read post
Illustration of genetic sequence of zinc finger domains

ARIZ Precision Medicine Announces Grant of Key US Patent Covering Lead Cancer Drug

ARIZ has a proprietary ligand targeted nanoparticle drug delivery system designed to destroy cancer cells, without harming normal cells. ARIZ’s target a family of genes known as the PRDMs (Positive Regulatory Domain-containing Methyltransferases) that are genetic drivers that control cell growth, proliferation, survival and mobility. Studies show that alterations in the expression and activity of the PRDMs are among the first drivers in normal cells that lead to cancer cell formation. The PRDMs have been implicated in solid tumors such as breast, colon, gastric, liver, lung, melanoma, and prostate cancers, as well as in blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Read post