Bakar Bio Labs

Honored to host Berkeley's mayor Adena Ishii and members of Berkeley City Council on a tour last Friday. Biotech/healthcare is the City of Berkeley's leading innovation sector thanks to companies like our alums Arcadia Science, Black Sheep Foods, Ray Therapeutics, Inc., Valitor & Profluent which have built out their own labs in the Berkeley/Emeryville area, creating high-value jobs and bringing in funding.

Proud to share that my Seed-stage small molecule therapeutics start-up Inapill has been selected for the California Life Sciences (CLS) FAST California advisory program Spring 2025 cohort! As a 1st-time founder from academia spinning out a company based on ideas from my postdoc research on #immunometabolism, I very much look forward to leveraging the vast industry knowledge and expertise of Inapill’s FAST advisors over the next few months. Their gracious mentorship will undoubtedly strengthen our company’s strategic direction as we push to meet our Seed fundraising goals. And if you want to learn more about our 1st-in-class approaches to targeting #immunometabolism for improved treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, mark your calendars for June 4th - Inapill will pitch at the CLS Innovation Showcase at Bakar Bio Labs (home game!) along with the rest of the stellar FAST Spring 2025 cohort. So grateful for the support General Inception Dalriada Drug Discovery Bakar Bio Labs QB3 Joshua Farahzad Kevin Tharp, Ph.D. Eric Noel, PhD, MSc California Life Sciences (CLS) Shikha Sharma

Pi Day is one of our favorite traditions at Bakar Bio Labs, and this year's celebration did not disappoint! Hunter Johnson from Axent Biosciences amazed us all with his incredible Pi memorization skills! A big shoutout to Rachel Gallagher and Thomas (Gus) Gustafson for taking home the win in the cornhole tournament. How did you all get so good at this?! Our winners walked away with the world-famous Bakar Labs tote bags and a DoorDash gift card. But let’s be honest—everyone was a winner thanks to the delicious pie. ??

March 14 is a special day at Bakar Bio Labs! Not only is it Pi Day and Albert Einstein's birthday, but it's also #MarianDiamondDay! ?? Today, we're honoring the groundbreaking contributions of Marian Diamond to neuroscience, including her pioneering work in discovering neuroplasticity. ??? She was one of the first to demonstrate that one's environment can make physical changes to the brain, and she also made history as the first female graduate student in the Department of Anatomy at UC Berkeley. To celebrate, we’ve transformed the Bakar Bio Labs studio into a movie theater for a special screening to reflect on her legacy. ?? A huge thank you to Jill Marchant for the brilliant idea! Fun fact: Jill had the privilege of working directly with Dr. Diamond. ??

Did you know that Silicon Valley Bank offers tailored support like Catalyst2045, a group that holds special events for women and minority-based initiatives? At Bakar Bio Labs, we know the importance of innovative banking for bio startups. Carlo Casuga and Tim L. from SVB shared their expertise with our tenants during office hours on Tuesday. Carlo focuses on portfolio management, helping startups build a solid banking foundation, secure their financial operations, and access key services like high-interest accounts and international transactions. Tim specializes in early-stage growth, helping companies connect with VCs and investors to scale effectively. His extensive background in genetics and medical devices comes in clutch as he provides biotech founders with strategic insights on commercialization. We're lucky to get to see Carlo and Tim every two months-- and as a bonus they bring us Boichik bagels!

ResVita Bio is #hiring! Bring your passion for synthetic biology to our diverse team at ResVita Bio! We are developing exciting new treatments for the hundreds of millions of people suffering with destructive skin diseases.

Happening now in our Studio space: Tenants connecting with providers of equipment, reagents, services. Vendor show organized byJulie Neeb of Bio-EV. Thanks for organizing! Joey Qiu of Admera Health Andrew Kaufman Genesee Scientific Amanda (Mandy) Haltom, PhD, PMP of GemPharmatech Tony Fong of Biotix Michael George of MG LAB SOLUTIONS INC. Brian Prazinko of TriLink BioTechnologies, part of Maravai LifeSciences Kirstin Ferraro of Life Sciences West Evan Cardani of BD Biosciences Yujiao ZHANG, PhD of KACTUS Matt DeGiovanni of Parse Biosciences Kristen Dietrich of Illumina Gabriel Correa of Cytiva Jerry Bernard of Beckman Coulter Life Sciences Bruno Suttles of New England Biolabs Victor Gonzales of Eppendorf

We're a fan of ALL the speakers at this event!

Nice news from one of our #agtech alums.

Here are three things you didn’t know about #biotech in the City of Berkeley! We spoke recently with Elizabeth Redman Cleveland, Chief Strategist in Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development: ??Biotech and healthcare have overtaken software as Berkeley's largest innovation sector – thanks to the investment into R&D at incubators like Bakar Bio Labs. Of the 400 startups in Berkeley, one-third are in the healthcare and life science industries. ??Research and development grants are completely exempt from local taxation –?in November, the city council expanded tax exemptions on R&D grants, regardless of your company's income. And, you can get streamlined permits through the city to open wet lab spaces in business districts on Telegraph Ave, University Ave, and downtown. ??Berkeley provides both the supply and demand for biotech companies – startups benefit from incubators like ours and the knowledge ecosystem of #UCBerkeley. As they continue to grow, changing permit regulations make it easier to move into mid-size office spaces, and West Berkeley is home to huge biotech campuses. Learn more at https://lnkd.in/gHcv7rYu For more stories like this, follow UC Berkeley Innovation & Entrepreneurship