Call it social entrepreneurship, impact investing, or urban ventures—Clara Brenner and her friend Julie Lein were sold on the idea after they each did a summer stint with a community-based enterprise before earning their MBAs in 2012. “We were just really impressed by the ability of these startups to have a huge positive impact on … Continue reading “Tumml Accelerator Evolving Formula For Urban Venture Financing”
Author: Bernadette Tansey
Bernadette Tansey is a former editor of Xconomy San Francisco. She has covered information technology, biotechnology, business, law, environment, and government as a Bay area journalist. She has written about edtech, mobile apps, social media startups, and life sciences companies for Xconomy, and tracked the adoption of Web tools by small businesses for CNBC. She was a biotechnology reporter for the business section of the San Francisco Chronicle, where she also wrote about software developers and early commercial companies in nanotechnology and synthetic biology.
Edtech Companies Foresee Boost from New K-12 Standards
[Corrected 8/4/14, 10:24 am. See below.] As California teachers prepare for the start of classes this fall, many will face new uncertainties and demands. Starting in the 2014-2015 academic year, California school districts will begin implementing the Common Core, a new set of K-12 educational achievement standards that raise the bar for both students and … Continue reading “Edtech Companies Foresee Boost from New K-12 Standards”
Wake Forest Institute Advancing Bioprinter Tech for Wound Care
In the not too distant future, one of the most important pieces of equipment for treating injured soldiers at a combat hospital could be a printer. Doctors may someday wheel a portable “bioprinter” over to a soldier’s bed, line it up, and print new layers of skin directly onto a severe wound or burn. That’s … Continue reading “Wake Forest Institute Advancing Bioprinter Tech for Wound Care”
Udacity’s Nanodegrees: Edtech’s Challenge To College Credentials?
Sometime next year, an AT&T executive may be sitting at a desk, trying to decide whether to hire that computer science major from a good college—or a whip-smart high school graduate who just passed five or six courses on mobile iOS development from an online catalog. The value of the college grad’s four-year degree will … Continue reading “Udacity’s Nanodegrees: Edtech’s Challenge To College Credentials?”
Calysta’s Pivot: Another Green Energy Startup Demotes Fuel Projects
The pioneers of synthetic biology in the early 2000s held out an enticing vision of cutting-edge technology that would churn out renewable fuels made from plant sugars rather than petroleum. They bioengineered microbes such as yeast to eat the sugar and make the chemical building blocks of gasoline or other fuels. However, those early companies … Continue reading “Calysta’s Pivot: Another Green Energy Startup Demotes Fuel Projects”
With J&J Deals, Aduro’s Cancer Vaccines Have New Chance To Prove Worth
The idea behind Aduro BioTech’s experimental cancer treatment—turning a dangerous food-borne bacterium into a Trojan horse against tumors—may seem startlingly new. But the project arose a dozen years ago, and incubated slowly in three different companies, before emerging this summer into a long-awaited splash of sunlight. Just weeks ago, Berkeley, CA-based Aduro signed a licensing … Continue reading “With J&J Deals, Aduro’s Cancer Vaccines Have New Chance To Prove Worth”
Genia Sold: Roche To Incubate Another Novel DNA Sequencing System
Swiss drug giant Roche is reviving efforts to become a key player in the DNA sequencing business, two years after being frustrated in a bid for instant market dominance through a $6.7 billion buyout bid for San Diego, CA-based Illumina. A leader in molecular diagnostics, Roche announced recently it is buying Genia Technologies of Mountain … Continue reading “Genia Sold: Roche To Incubate Another Novel DNA Sequencing System”
University of California’s QB3 Takes On Medical Device Startups At New Incubator
Daniel Rosenman was remarkably fit and barely 50 last summer when he and his wife Christine Winoto began imagining what he’d do when he retired some day. As a veteran Bay area medical device engineer and consultant, Rosenman had already been donating time to help pediatricians develop new devices for sick children at UC San … Continue reading “University of California’s QB3 Takes On Medical Device Startups At New Incubator”
Science and Art: Why Choose? A Biotech Entrepreneur’s Dual Life
Science and the arts are often pictured as polar opposites: Scientists methodically pursue facts and truth, while artists soar over the landscape of everyday detail to imagine their own worlds. But there are actually great similarities. Scientists and artists both challenge the current maxims of their fields. And many young people have struggled to choose … Continue reading “Science and Art: Why Choose? A Biotech Entrepreneur’s Dual Life”
Clever Breaking Sign-on Barriers to Make Edtech Easier for Teachers
One of the chief imports of Northern California is former Harvard undergraduates and MBAs who flock to the Silicon Valley to change the world. The arrival of Facebook’s founders set the storyline for other alumni teams, including the three Harvard friends who reunited to form Clever, a fast-growing San Francisco educational technology startup with a … Continue reading “Clever Breaking Sign-on Barriers to Make Edtech Easier for Teachers”
The Experiment Begins: Y Combinator Admits First Biotech Startups
Mark your calendars: the high-profile tech incubator Y Combinator holds its Demo Day in August. Even though its alumni include runaway tech successes AirBnB and Dropbox, much of the scrutiny will land on the handful of biotechnology companies that, for the first time, Y Combinator is admitting to its program for the upcoming summer session. … Continue reading “The Experiment Begins: Y Combinator Admits First Biotech Startups”
Two San Francisco Startups Sharing In Third Rock’s Rich Third Fund
Third Rock Ventures, an investment firm known for founding life sciences companies from scratch, made a big splash last year by raising $516 million for its third fund while many of its fellow venture capital firms were struggling. Since then, it’s been putting that new money to work. Over the past three months, Third Rock’s … Continue reading “Two San Francisco Startups Sharing In Third Rock’s Rich Third Fund”
Myriad RBM Test Helping to Mine Secrets of Normal Immune System
Scientists have long known that an abnormal immune system can help cause diseases such as asthma and Type 1 diabetes. But to understand what makes an immune system abnormal, it’s important to know exactly what a normal immune system looks like. Oddly enough, few large-scale studies have been done to explore the immune systems of … Continue reading “Myriad RBM Test Helping to Mine Secrets of Normal Immune System”
Scripps Unveils New Drug Development Arm, Signs J&J as First Partner
Venture capital firms have long nurtured biotechnology startups that make use of discoveries from non-profit research centers—but the roster of such VC firms has been shrinking. To fill the gap in that financial ecosystem, both research institutions and pharmaceutical companies have been trying out new roles—and meeting each other in the middle. The Scripps Research … Continue reading “Scripps Unveils New Drug Development Arm, Signs J&J as First Partner”
Igenica Follows Genentech Into Antibody-Linked Cancer Drugs
Squint a little, and it’s easy to see the first five years of Burlingame, CA-based Igenica Biotherapeutics as a speeded-up version of the evolution of biotech pioneer Genentech. Igenica’s leadership ranks are studded with Genentech alumni, including its board chair David Goeddel, a pioneer in gene expression research who was the first scientist Genentech hired. … Continue reading “Igenica Follows Genentech Into Antibody-Linked Cancer Drugs”
AvidBiotics Taps Nature for Two Ways To Fight Lethal Microbes
The trillions of microbes that live inside the human gastrointestinal tract are suspected of playing a role in disorders as varied as obesity, asthma, and diabetes. Scores of scientists are studying such possibilities at biomedical research companies and in collaborations such as NIH’s Human Microbiome Project. But can these diseases be caused by a single … Continue reading “AvidBiotics Taps Nature for Two Ways To Fight Lethal Microbes”
ZappyLab Creates Social Apps for Biologists
As a young MIT post-doctoral student, Lenny Teytelman marveled at the things that can be done in the lab these days, like sequencing all the DNA in a single cell. “It’s mind-blowing,” Teytelman says. Yet despite all the parallel advances in the computer world, biological scientists don’t make use of digital devices when they log … Continue reading “ZappyLab Creates Social Apps for Biologists”
GenSpera’s Targeted “Death Carrot” Toxin in Trials for Two Cancers
Craig Dionne has a record of experience in drug development and a lot of friends in the pharmaceutical industry. But when his friends first heard about the experimental drug he started working on some years ago, he says their initial reaction was alarm—to put it mildly. “They told me I was a fool,” Dionne says … Continue reading “GenSpera’s Targeted “Death Carrot” Toxin in Trials for Two Cancers”
Gilead Following Multiple Paths Toward HIV “Functional Cure”
The first researchers who tried to stop the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s were faced with a terrifying virus that invaded key cells of the immune system, forced them to make many copies of itself, and burst the cells open in the process, leaving the human host defenseless against an onslaught of HIV and other … Continue reading “Gilead Following Multiple Paths Toward HIV “Functional Cure””
Calithera Targets Otherworldly Metabolism of Tumor Cells
The astronauts rejoiced after their safe landing on the planet they’d come to transform into Earth’s first space colony. But within a few weeks, their leader was struck with a disturbing malady. More and more, his cells were taking on strange traits seen in a one-celled fungus that people on Earth called “brewer’s yeast.” By … Continue reading “Calithera Targets Otherworldly Metabolism of Tumor Cells”
HIV Treatment Outlook Buoyed by Sangamo Gene Therapy
As the news emerged of Richmond, CA-based Sangamo Biosciences’s progress toward a gene therapy treatment for HIV infection, the media buzzed and investors boosted the company’s share price by 17 percent Thursday. For the first time, Sangamo (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SGMO]]) had tried its gene-editing platform on human subjects, and it found encouraging signs in small early … Continue reading “HIV Treatment Outlook Buoyed by Sangamo Gene Therapy”
Edison Shedding Light on Energy Production in Diseased Cells
Back in March 2013, Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma signed a deal worth $50 million or more to Mountain View, CA-based Edison Pharmaceuticals, a developer of drugs for disorders of energy metabolism. The big pharmaceutical company from Japan liked the results. Less than a year later, it came back for more. The two companies have now formed … Continue reading “Edison Shedding Light on Energy Production in Diseased Cells”
Tests for Tumor DNA in Blood May Yield New Ways to Hit Cancer
What do blood cancers, HIV infection, and cardiovascular disease have in common? Drug developers made rapid progress in those three disease categories once they had blood tests that could monitor changes in individual patients as they responded to medications, says Helmy Eltoukhy, CEO of Redwood City, CA-based diagnostics startup Guardant Health. But that progress hasn’t … Continue reading “Tests for Tumor DNA in Blood May Yield New Ways to Hit Cancer”
Tumor Cells’ Weird Appetites for Amino Acids Are Aeglea’s Targets
Researchers are always looking for the Achilles’ heel of cancer—some weakness in tumor cells that can be attacked by drugs while leaving normal cells unharmed. Austin, TX-based Aeglea BioTherapeutics is trying to exploit a vulnerability that might make it possible to starve certain cancers to death. In some tumors, the cells can no longer make … Continue reading “Tumor Cells’ Weird Appetites for Amino Acids Are Aeglea’s Targets”
Miscarriage Mysteries Create New Market for Natera
[Corrected 2/12/14, see below] Was it that airline flight? The vitamin supplements? The hair dye? Women who have miscarried may comb their memories for reasons, and the grieving process can last more than a decade, says Barbara Pettersen, clinical director for San Carlos, CA-based diagnostics company Natera. Most of the time, miscarriages are the result of … Continue reading “Miscarriage Mysteries Create New Market for Natera”
Relypsa Aims to Delay Need for Costly Dialysis in Kidney Patients
These days, drug developers are trying to do more than persuade the FDA that their products work well in patients. To increase the market appeal of their products, it also helps to compile evidence that they will save money for the health plans that approve expenditures on new drugs. As commercial insurance companies, employers, and … Continue reading “Relypsa Aims to Delay Need for Costly Dialysis in Kidney Patients”
Augmented Reality Meets Nursing in Evena’s Vein-Hunting Glasses
The first time I heard about Evena Medical’s new computer-powered glasses, I immediately thought of two obvious user groups for them. Nurses, and vampires. Good thing vampires aren’t real. If you’re looking for veins, Evena’s glasses can reveal them with a high-tech 3D light imaging system that maps the body’s vasculature. Nurses, unlike vampires, have … Continue reading “Augmented Reality Meets Nursing in Evena’s Vein-Hunting Glasses”
Walled Gardens Make Good Neighbors, Argues Nextdoor CEO
Nirav Tolia has a pretty audacious goal for his young social media company, and he wasn’t afraid to say it out loud when I interviewed him recently. “Our aspiration is to be approaching the same scale as Facebook,” says Tolia, who co-founded the San Francisco, CA-based neighborhood network Nextdoor in 2010. Nextdoor connects people who … Continue reading “Walled Gardens Make Good Neighbors, Argues Nextdoor CEO”
RenovoRx Catheter Pinpoints Destination for Injected Fluids
Ask most people what the pancreas does, and few may have a ready answer. But many people are aware that tumors of the pancreas are among the hardest to treat—a fact well known from news stories about the deaths of celebrities such as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. San Jose, CA-based startup RenovoRx is preparing to … Continue reading “RenovoRx Catheter Pinpoints Destination for Injected Fluids”
MedTech Inventor Tackles Surgical Scarring With ZipLine Closures
There’s a straight line from Amir Belson’s boyhood dreams to ZipLine, a startup exploring new ways for patients to heal after surgery. When Belson was six or seven, he started bringing his inventions to his father. At age nine, the Israeli youngster showed his dad a detailed drawing of an airplane that had turboprops on … Continue reading “MedTech Inventor Tackles Surgical Scarring With ZipLine Closures”
Propeller Health Takes Off With Digital Tracker for Asthma
The holiday season just past was a feast for the senses—decorations, scented candles, fresh-cut evergreens, and the happy faces of visitors. But all the household cleaning and holiday decorating can also set off an asthma attack, as some sufferers from the disease may have learned over the last month if they’ve been keeping careful daily … Continue reading “Propeller Health Takes Off With Digital Tracker for Asthma”
ApoCell Entering the Commercial Ring In Rare Tumor Cell Diagnostics
In less than a decade, the Houston-based research services company ApoCell has made a name for itself amid the developing life sciences industry in Texas. Based on its rapid revenue increases, ApoCell has been named to the Inc 5000 list of fastest-growing private US companies for the past three years. ApoCell has now set a … Continue reading “ApoCell Entering the Commercial Ring In Rare Tumor Cell Diagnostics”
Fresh from IPO, Five Prime Advances Arthritis and Cancer Drugs
Investors in healthcare’s big IPO class of 2013 have seen some wild swings in share values since the debuts of dozens of new public companies. Hot trading in the Cambridge, MA-based companies Foundation Medicine and Epizyme pushed their peak prices above $40 for a time, followed by declines that sent the stocks swooning below their … Continue reading “Fresh from IPO, Five Prime Advances Arthritis and Cancer Drugs”
Stem Cells, Inc. Expanding Trial in Age-Related Eye Affliction
In the seven years since companies including Genentech/Roche and Regeneron launched new drugs to slow vision loss from an eye disorder called “wet” age-related macular degeneration, the market for those drugs has risen to an estimated $4 billion. But that substantial market may some day be dwarfed by the revenues flowing to companies with new … Continue reading “Stem Cells, Inc. Expanding Trial in Age-Related Eye Affliction”
HealthPocket Offers a Partial Workaround for Healthcare.gov Mess
As thousands of Americans struggle to sign up for health insurance on the overloaded government exchange set up under the Affordable Care Act, two Bay area companies are offering their own free Web platforms as easier places to shop around. Both HealthPocket of Sunnyvale, CA, and HealthSherpa in San Francisco provide one-click access to a … Continue reading “HealthPocket Offers a Partial Workaround for Healthcare.gov Mess”
Thiel’s Breakout Labs Backs Cell-Based Platforms As It Turns Two
[Corrected 11/27/13, see below] Scientists have noticed for years that when they poke cells under a microscope, cancer cells are more easily deformed than healthy cells. But those odd observations have had little use so far as an aid to cancer diagnosis, because poking individual cells would be a hopelessly time-consuming and inaccurate test. Enter the South … Continue reading “Thiel’s Breakout Labs Backs Cell-Based Platforms As It Turns Two”
Houston’s Capital Royalty Evolving in Healthcare Growth Financing
[Updated Nov. 26, 2013] When Charles Tate moved home to Texas after a 35-year career as a New York finance executive, he started weighing opportunities for a new investment firm. Plenty of Texas investment firms were already focused on real estate and oil and gas. But Tate had seen first-hand the potential of biomedical innovation … Continue reading “Houston’s Capital Royalty Evolving in Healthcare Growth Financing”
Clot-Busting Inventor Breaks Barriers for Medtech Entrepreneurs
A typical entrepreneur accepted into the competitive startup incubator at the Fogarty Institute for Innovation in Mountain View, CA might be an engineer from the Stanford Biodesign Program, a formal academic program that trains students to invent medical devices. But Dr. Thomas J. Fogarty, who founded the Fogarty Institute in 2007, says he’d be equally … Continue reading “Clot-Busting Inventor Breaks Barriers for Medtech Entrepreneurs”
J&J Joins With Evotec to Hunt for Early Causes of Alzheimer’s Disease
Big pharmaceutical companies are taking lessons from the disappointing performance of experimental drugs aimed at one of the most obvious targets in Alzheimer’s disease—the deposits of a protein called beta-amyloid that appear in the brain when the disabling neurodegenerative disorder is clearly established. New Brunswick, NJ-based Johnson & Johnson and Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly both saw … Continue reading “J&J Joins With Evotec to Hunt for Early Causes of Alzheimer’s Disease”
Using Tech to De-Stress Child Support
Unhappy couples often think their problems will be over as soon as their divorce decree is final, says Sheri Atwood, a child of divorce and a divorced parent herself. But when kids are involved, the ex-spouses may still be locked in a testy, ongoing dialogue about money—the issue that may have driven them apart in … Continue reading “Using Tech to De-Stress Child Support”
As Tremor Sufferers Await Remedies, Lift Labs “Cures” Their Tools
The tremors that disable millions of people with conditions such as Parkinson’s disease might eventually be controlled through drugs and implantable brain stimulation devices. But while patients wait for a medical breakthrough, a young engineering PhD in the Bay Area is thinking, “Maybe what they need is a better spoon.” Anupam Pathak’s idea, first hatched … Continue reading “As Tremor Sufferers Await Remedies, Lift Labs “Cures” Their Tools”
Diagnostic Firm diaDexus Awaits Possible Boom from Glaxo Trials
Medical researchers often find tantalizing hints about the causes of disease when they spot biomolecules that seem to be closely associated with the onset of an illness—like the amyloid plaques seen in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease. Pharmaceutical companies often run with those hints, creating experimental drugs targeted at those suspect biomolecules. But … Continue reading “Diagnostic Firm diaDexus Awaits Possible Boom from Glaxo Trials”
An Insider’s Antidote for Dangerous Stem Cell Hype
UC Davis professor Paul Knoepfler’s new book about stem cells may never break into the New York Times best-seller ranks, but he still might make some publishing history. Knoepfler could be the only biology researcher ever to write a comprehensive consumer guide about the health care treatments being developed in his own field—complete with safety … Continue reading “An Insider’s Antidote for Dangerous Stem Cell Hype”
Genia Aims to Build the iPhone of Gene Sequencing
Stefan Roever, CEO of the bleeding-edge gene sequencing company Genia Technologies, first made his name as a software entrepreneur. When he talks about the future growth of Mountain View, CA-based Genia, he envisions a dynasty similar to the one founded by the tech giant Apple of Cupertino, CA. Roever’s ideal dynasty, like Apple’s, would be … Continue reading “Genia Aims to Build the iPhone of Gene Sequencing”
UC Berkeley Pioneers an Online Master’s Degree in Data Science
Applications are streaming into UC Berkeley’s School of Information from hopeful students across the globe who are yearning to get that coveted letter telling them they got in—so now they can stay home. Berkeley’s “I School” has created its second masters degree program, the Master of Information and Data Science. But unlike its older Master … Continue reading “UC Berkeley Pioneers an Online Master’s Degree in Data Science”
Merck, J&J Back Stanford Student Incubator as Farm Team
A veteran biotechnology reporter once complained privately that covering the industry was like watching grass grow—companies seemed to inch by slow degrees toward products and profits, sustained by a dwindling stream of funding. For an antidote to that dreary picture, consider the swift developments at StartX Med, a life sciences accelerator program founded by Stanford … Continue reading “Merck, J&J Back Stanford Student Incubator as Farm Team”
Sutro Aims to Deliver Anti-Tumor “Warheads” More Precisely
One of the big-tent biotechnology conferences opening this month focuses on a drug strategy that could be dubbed the targeted chemical warfare approach to cancer treatment. The much-watched developers of a new drug class called antibody-drug conjugates will convene at World ADC San Francisco 2013 on Oct. 14 to swap insights about the growing number … Continue reading “Sutro Aims to Deliver Anti-Tumor “Warheads” More Precisely”
Numerate Trains Its Drug Design Platform On Huntington’s Disease
The path toward a breakthrough drug often starts with a new insight about the molecular cause of an illness, but only a few of these discoveries lead to new treatments. Steven Finkbeiner at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco has uncovered a mechanism behind Huntington’s disease, and his lab is now working with the San … Continue reading “Numerate Trains Its Drug Design Platform On Huntington’s Disease”
Yerdle Opens Up Mobile Marketplace for Closet Treasures
Yerdle, a San Francisco startup that’s been helping people share their little-used stuff with their Facebook friends, is broadening the reach of its online swap meet. The company released a new mobile app for iOS devices last Friday that allows anyone to browse through the gadgets, banana-seat bikes, crockpots, outgrown Crocs, and other possible offerings … Continue reading “Yerdle Opens Up Mobile Marketplace for Closet Treasures”
Disappointments, New Prospects for Rigel Pharmaceuticals
When Rigel Pharmaceuticals of South San Francisco took the stage at the annual JP Morgan Healthcare conference in January, the 16-year-old biotechnology company hoped to soon introduce its first two approved drugs—both of them designed to treat major health problems. At the time, London-based AstraZeneca was funding late-stage trials on Rigel’s drug candidate for rheumatoid … Continue reading “Disappointments, New Prospects for Rigel Pharmaceuticals”