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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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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
Four scientists from Replace Tx standing on a Bakar Labs balcony

With Funding in Hand, Tome Biosciences Buys Replace Therapeutics for $185M

Replace’s technology combines the site specificity of CRISPR/Cas9 technology with writing enzyme DNA ligase to manipulate small DNA sequences, a company press release stated, which complements Tome’s large DNA PGI technology. Per terms of the deal, Tome will acquire Replace for $65 million upfront and make other near-term milestone payments for a total deal value of up to $185 million through a mix of stock and cash. As a result, Replace will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tome. Read post
Tome Biosciences

Tome Biosciences Acquires Replace Therapeutics

Replace Therapeutics was founded by serial entrepreneur Shakked Halperin, PhD, whose previous company Rewrite Therapeutics was acquired by Intellia Therapeutics, and is backed by Civilization Ventures. The technology combines the site-specificity of CRISPR/Cas9 with the writing enzyme DNA ligase to precisely manipulate small DNA sequences. Read post
2024 East Bay Innovation Awards, Thursday March 28 5:00 pm, Oakland Scottish Rite Center

Bakar Labs a Finalist for East Bay Innovation Award in Life Sciences

Often referred to as the “Academy Awards of the East Bay,” the East Bay Innovation Awards is the premier program of its kind that celebrates and honors the extraordinary companies and organizations that contribute to the East Bay’s legacy of innovation. For over a decade, the annual awards ceremony has showcased outstanding companies and organizations from Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. Read post
The Minutia team, all business. Bottom row from left: Molly Klimak, Sean Meyer, Victor Mann, Katy Digovich, Janna Register, Sapna Puri, Debapriya Saha. Top from left: Helen Clark, Bill Hyun, Christian Schuetz, Johnny Ma, Jessica Chavez.

Hope on the Horizon: How Minutia Plans to Cure Diabetes with Cell Therapy

“I grew up in Silicon Valley, around this energy that a company is a great vehicle to build something of value,” said Katy. “I want to build things that need to exist in the world, and at Minutia, we’re doing this in two ways: cell therapy and the cell based sensors that can help ensure safety and improve efficacy of cell therapies.” Minutia’s cell therapy is a functional cure for type 1 diabetes that involves transplanting insulin producing cells just underneath the skin. Not only is this safer and less invasive compared to some existing cell therapies, which require surgically implanting cells into the liver, but Minutia’s cells are paired with nanosensors that bring the medical marvels of science fiction to real life. Read post
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
Jenny Hamilton, Jennifer Doudna, and Navneet Matharu.

Navneet Matharu & Jenny Hamilton Win $2 Million in Seed Funding

Matharu, an Assistant Professor at UC San Francisco, is studying genetic disorders that have high unmet needs, and developing non-editing forms of CRISPR-based therapeutics. Matharu cofounded Regel Therapeutics, a Bakar Labs tenant, in 2021. “This is an extremely meaningful award from the HS Chau Foundation,” says Matharu.” This funding will enable us to utilize our foundational technology to diversify and expand the therapeutic development pipelines at Regel.” 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
Yana Aznavour and Max Sorokin

Empowering Women, One Test at a Time: The Endometrics Approach to Endometriosis

Roughly 190 million women suffer from endometriosis worldwide. In endometriosis, the tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus, causing debilitating pelvic pain and infertility. The chronic pain can last for almost a lifetime - but despite the severity of the pain, many women don’t even realize they have a disease. And it can be difficult for doctors to tell, too. As the CEO and founder of Bakar Labs tenant Endometrics, Dr. Aznavour is dedicated to bridging the gap between patients and easy, painless diagnosis. Read post
An illustration of scientists at work at adjacent laboratories

BioSpace Features Bakar Labs Executive Mentoring and Internships

“One of the best pieces of advice we can give them is that no one person can do it all,” says Mimi Hancock, who directs the executive mentorship program at Bakar Labs. “You need a great team.” Incubators can support biotech startups in hiring and staffing through networking, tapping into readily available talent pools and helping them fill executive roles and boards of directors. Read post