Many of us see a reason to lament when we hear that millions of Americans are unemployed while millions of US jobs go unfilled. Steve Poizner looks at the same facts and envisions a $100 billion market opportunity. But then, most of us are not serial tech entrepreneurs like Poizner, who sold the second company … Continue reading “Empowered and UCLA Bring Career Retraining to the iPad”
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.
Tantalizing Hints of Progress Against ALS for Cytokinetics, Others
Lou Gehrig’s disease is a rare but devastating illness with no satisfactory treatments and a typical survival period of only about five years after diagnosis. But precisely because it’s so dire, drug developers have been scrambling in recent years to test the possibilities of new treatments for the neurodegenerative disease, whose formal name is amyotrophic … Continue reading “Tantalizing Hints of Progress Against ALS for Cytokinetics, Others”
Rewarder Taps the Crowd of Amateur Detectives and Problem Solvers
The San Francisco startup Rewarder scored one of its first investors through a unique move: it found the venture firm director a replacement part for his vintage BMW motorcycle. It wasn’t just an oddball favor. The successful quest for the rare bike part was a demonstration of Rewarder’s core mission, says co-founder and CEO Kendall … Continue reading “Rewarder Taps the Crowd of Amateur Detectives and Problem Solvers”
With a Push from Calysta, Biofuels Economy Tilts Toward Natural Gas
Natural gas is best known to most people as a fuel burned to heat homes or generate electricity. Josh Silverman, chief scientific officer and co-founder of the Menlo Park startup Calysta Energy, sees it as an untapped raw material that, like crude oil, could be converted into high-value products from transportation fuels to plastics. “The … Continue reading “With a Push from Calysta, Biofuels Economy Tilts Toward Natural Gas”
Auxogyn Trains A Computer Eye on Embryos for IVF
When infertility doctors are about to help a couple conceive a baby through in vitro fertilization, they have to make some momentous bets. The possible consequences of those bets include a high-risk pregnancy with multiple infants, on one extreme, and no pregnancy at all on the other. In their quest for a healthy birth, doctors … Continue reading “Auxogyn Trains A Computer Eye on Embryos for IVF”
NuMedii Sifts Data to Teach Old Drugs New Tricks
Here’s a scenario that captivates medical researchers: A pharmaceutical company reluctantly shelves a drug candidate whose early promise didn’t pan out after extensive testing in a target disease. But new data in genomics and other fields later reveals that the failed compound could be a blockbuster drug in an entirely different illness. That vision has … Continue reading “NuMedii Sifts Data to Teach Old Drugs New Tricks”
Health Tech Hatch Widens Crowdfunding Choices for Health Startups
Dentistry student Alec Whitters had a new iPad and an iPhone, but the only “apps’’ available to help him study for his dental board exams were pricey stacks of paper flashcards, or hefty 500-page books costing more than $300. Seeing a need to fill, Whitters, 25, took a break from dental school to develop mobile, … Continue reading “Health Tech Hatch Widens Crowdfunding Choices for Health Startups”
LS9 Scales Up in Chemical Business As Biofuels Industry Re-Tools
The South San Francisco company LS9 recently produced five tons of industrial chemicals from plant sugars at a Florida demonstration facility, a step toward proving that its genetically engineered microbes can manufacture carbon compounds and fuels at a commercial scale. Chief executive officer Ed Dineen says the private company is eager to raise money to … Continue reading “LS9 Scales Up in Chemical Business As Biofuels Industry Re-Tools”
Startup Atreca Joins With Gates Foundation to Speed Vaccine Discovery
Two-year-old Atreca, a very small company with very big plans, recently got a very big boost when the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation made a $6 million equity investment in the biopharmaceutical firm. San Carlos, CA-based Atreca and the Seattle non-profit will work together to speed up progress toward the development of new vaccines and drugs. … Continue reading “Startup Atreca Joins With Gates Foundation to Speed Vaccine Discovery”
Installing an App on Your Genome: 23andMe Opens Up to Developers
Thousands of adventurous souls have signed up to have their DNA sequenced by companies like 23andMe, Navigenics, and Iceland’s deCODEme—businesses that appeal to the curiosity people have about their genetic make-up. For even more adventurous types, there’s the option of uploading that entire genome scan to other Web outfits like SNPedia, a wiki for the … Continue reading “Installing an App on Your Genome: 23andMe Opens Up to Developers”
Silicon Valley Debates the Do’s and Don’ts of Equity Crowdfunding
Your Facebook friends would love an “Attaboy” from you when they post about their new jobs, or an “Awwww” when they share a puppy picture. But what will you do when they offer you shares in their startup company? That expansion of social media is on its way, as soon as securities regulators finish the … Continue reading “Silicon Valley Debates the Do’s and Don’ts of Equity Crowdfunding”
Roche Deal With Tiny Sunnyvale Biotech Revives Old Family Ties
The eight-employee Sunnyvale, CA, company Galaxy Biotech has just scored a licensing deal with Swiss drug giant Roche, which will pay $8 million upfront for exclusive rights to a drug candidate that could complement Roche’s formidable lineup of antibody drugs against cancer. Galaxy’s five PhDs and their research assistants develop antibodies against molecules in the … Continue reading “Roche Deal With Tiny Sunnyvale Biotech Revives Old Family Ties”
Exelixis and Onyx Await Their Cancer-Drug Fates
Two kids who grow up in the same dodgy neighborhood can end up worlds apart—depending on the choices they make, and often, a big dash of luck. Two South San Francisco companies born in the risky environs of biotechnology in the early 1990s have both survived through two decades of twists and in turns on … Continue reading “Exelixis and Onyx Await Their Cancer-Drug Fates”