San Diego Life Sciences Roundup: Optimer, Volcano, Avelas Bio, & More

entirely from San Diego’s Avalon Ventures. Proceeds of the funding would be used to advance development the use of fluorescing tags that change color in the presence of cancer cells. The technology originated in the UC San Diego lab of Roger Tsien, who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work.

—Biomatrica, a San Diego startup developing anhydrobiosis technology for preserving and storing biological samples at room temperature, said it has raised $5 million in private financing. In a statement from the company, Biomatrica CEO Judy Muller-Cohn said the proceeds would enable Biomatrica to accelerate the launch of new technologies and products that will stabilize diagnostic assays at ambient temperature. Biomatrica said it also is getting funding from the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) to help research some of the hardest problems in keeping biological samples stable.

—Sialix, a Cambridge, MA-based startup developing products to treat and prevent cancer and chronic inflammation, said its laboratory has moved into San Diego-based Janssen Labs, the no-strings-attached accelerator for life sciences startups. Sialix said it also has established a scientific advisory board to help guide the company’s research and development around diseases associated with ingesting non-human sialic acid, found in red meat and other dietary sources. Sialix also formed a business advisory board to guide the company’s strategy for both oncology and nutritional supplements.

—San Diego-based Qualcomm (Nasdaq: [[ticker:QCOM]]) said its Qualcomm Life subsidiary signed an agreement with Tri-City Medical Center and Valued Relationships to use the company’s proprietary 2net Platform and Hub to help reduce hospital readmissions. Under the agreement, Qualcomm Life will provide its 2net wireless health monitoring technology to patients in their homes within 48 hours of discharge from the Oceanside, CA-based hospital.

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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.