Biotech

 

Approximately a third of Berkeley’s innovation companies are developing solutions to improve human health. Berkeley biotech firms range from early-stage startups in the Berkeley SkyDeck accelerator Bio + Health Track, companies scaling their operations with space and expertise from Bakar Bio Labs, to established multinational players with a 100+ year history in Berkeley, like Bayer Corporation. And companies like Caribou Bio, Conception Bio, Valitor, Radar Therapeutics, Kimia Therapeutics, Azalea Therapeutics, Upside Foods and more, are using bio-based solutions to improve human health, cure diseases, and provide alternatives to traditional meat and dairy.

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R&D Equipment

Berkeley healthcare and biotech companies have access to cutting edge R&D equipment and tools such as the many UC Berkeley core facilities open to public use, including the Biological Imaging Facility, Cell Culture Facility, and the IGI Center for CRISPR Target Discovery. 

Unique Berkeley Lab equipment and facilities also assist with research on genomics, cancer biology, imaging, and structural biology to build the foundation of knowledge for progress in treating diseases and improving quality of life. Berkeley Lab User Facilities include the Joint Genome Institute which provides advanced genomic capabilities, large-scale AI-ready data, and professional expertise to support studies of complex biological and environmental systems, and the Advanced Light Source can reveal atomic details of molecules and materials. For biofuels and bioproducts companies, the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) and Advanced Biofuels & Bioproducts Process Development Unit (ABPDU) in Berkeley’s neighboring city, Emeryville, enable further study, scale-up, and commercialization support for early stage advanced biofuels, biomaterials, and biochemicals product and process technologies.  Berkeley Lab also manages the Department of Energy’s Agile BioFoundry, whose mission is to develop biomanufacturing tools, processes, and partnerships that enable industrial production of fuels and chemicals for the nation.

Financing

Biotech companies can tap into local sources of financing, from seed stage investment from the LSEC Venture Grant Program (for UC Berkeley originated companies), Life Science Angels or Berkeley Angel Network to connections with specialized venture capital funds focused on life sciences, including the Berkeley Catalyst Fund, SkyDeck Fund (Bio+Health Track), BEVC, and more than two dozen other VC funds with partners or offices in Berkeley, CA.

Talent

Every year, UC Berkeley awards nearly 1,500 undergraduate degrees in life sciences majors, as well as 4,000 master’s degrees and close to 800 doctoral degrees in biotech industry-relevant tracks like Molecular & Cell Biology (MCB), Genetics & Plant Biology (GPB), and Molecular Environmental Biology (MEB).

Bakar Bio Labs (hosting startups that have raised more than $1B in its first four years of operation) and UC Berkeley’s Innovative Genomics Institute give Berkeley students and postdocs deep technical mastery in tools that underpin the modern biotech industry. Students affiliated with these institutions have had a chance to work on real-world translational projects and experience using industry-grade equipment, designing experiments aligned with product development, and practice with rigorous data generation and validation practices. And Berkeley SkyDeck, a top global accelerator, is home to 200+ startups a year, of which 15% are life science startups.

At the Berkeley Lab, scientists and engineers are enabling breakthroughs in commercialization for products built from biology, from food to plastics, as well as advancing techniques that lead to medical breakthroughs. They are developing technologies that allow the cost-effective manufacturing of new bio-based products ─ like fuels, medicine and materials ─ to advanced gene editing.