Beaker List – Berkeley Edition
Top Entrepreneurial Life Science Professors @ UC Berkeley
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Alix Ventures: Supporting Early Stage Life Science Startups Engineering Biology to Drive Radical Advances in Human Health
Overview
Behind every transformative technology is a team of brilliant scientists and researchers. Academic research in particular is a driving force for technological innovation. Here, we have identified a ‘Midas List’ of researchers who have pioneered highly transformative technologies that have translated to the clinic. Using venture backed startups as a primary guide along with other impact metrics such as patents, citations, and thought leadership, the following professors have demonstrated patient impact, providing significant contributions to the startup ecosystem.
UC Berkeley has a strong reputation and detailed history of innovations and entrepreneurs creating groundbreaking products, leading to high-growth new companies and life-changing technologies. With CRISPR as its best known technology, Berkeley continues to play a key role in the life science innovation space and the California economy more broadly. Since 1988, over 250 startup companies have been founded to commercialize IP rights under license from UC Berkeley. The university holds the the largest CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing portfolio in the United States, with 41 US patents to date. As of July 2020, companies under the IP licenses from Berkeley have commercialized more than 730 products. The Berkeley Research Infrastructure Commons program enables early stage startups affiliated with UC Berkeley to temporarily conduct new product R&D in faculty labs, under rigorous oversight. A drug royalty, monetized for $93 million, helps fund biological research facilities, students, faculty recruitment and retention, and new initiatives. UC Berkeley is one of five universities that founded two-thirds of all biotechnology companies in California. To date, Berkeley holds 818 active US patents and 1,002 active foriegn patents. Among Berkeley-founded startups, biotech is a common theme, and prominent companies include 4D Molecular Therapeutics, Caribou Biosciences, & Mammoth Biosciences, amongst others.
Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, UC Berkeley is perfectly positioned to continue fostering innovation across the life sciences industry through its focus on entrepreneurship and science. Programs like Berkeley’s SkyDeck, Lean Launchpad, LAUNCH, and Sigma Eta Pi offer unique opportunities for students and faculty to take their research to the next level. Collaboration between programs and schools is also a driving factor of this successful entrepreneurial ecosystem. While not exhaustive, below is a list of the top entrepreneurial life science professors across the university.
We asked the ever incredible David Schaffer for comment on how Berkeley fosters an entrepreneurial environment & what entrepreneurship means to him:
“The Berkeley ecosystem has a broad range of programs that provide connections, space, and funding to new companies. This effort has especially grown in recent years, and it has been my honor and pleasure to serve as Director of QB3-Berkeley, which offers incubator space, access to cutting edge core facilities, and mentorship to entrepreneurs in Berkeley, the Bay Area, and the UC system as a whole.”
— David Schaffer