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Past Issues
FEBRUARY 2014
A new initiative to support Berkeley research and innovation: New Faculty Outreach Earlier this month, IPIRA collaborated with five central campus offices under the Vice Chancellor for Research to present a New Faculty Outreach. The event offered interactive face time to faculty with each office to learn its services, ask questions, express concerns, and make personal connections with campus staff who advise faculty on external funding opportunities, funding initiatives, basic grant writing, coordinating large multidisciplinary and multiinstitutional projects, navigating compliance requirements, and intellectual property protection.
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IPIRA manages UC Berkeley's intellectual property portfolio, based upon inventions created by our stellar faculty and student scientists. We aim to provide valueadded services to Berkeley's research community through the out licensing of Berkeley's innovations, facilitation of industry research dollars, and patent drafting services, among educational programs and industry partnered events.
We utilized a speednetworking approach to familiarize faculty with "who does what" at Berkeley from pre award proposal development to grant close out. Participants were grouped and directed to one of seven stations, each headed by one participating office. In seven minute stints, each office provided a brief pitch about its offerings. Groups were then rotated to the next table, keeping participation fresh and engaging.
New Technologies Latest Patent Awards Rosa Hills Innovator Program Bakar Fellow Program Illumina Accelerator Program, NGS Incubator in Mission Bay Amyris Reported 2013 Financials, Record Sales Ekso Unveiled First Ever 3D Printed Skeleton Annual UC Technology Transfer Forum SBIR / STTR Office Hours
Participating Offices: Sponsored Projects Office Office for the Protection of Human Subjects Office for Animal Care and Use Berkeley Research Development Office Research Conflict of Interest Industry Alliances Office Office of Technology Licensing Due to positive feedback from our faculty and staff, we are happy to announce that we will be holding this event again in
Financial Model Office Hours View entire newsletter for more on Intellectual Property Announcements, Researcher Toolbox, Portfolio Startup News, and Recommended IPIRA and Community Events.
the fall. Stay tuned on our website for more information.
New Berkeley Technologies Released for Licensing
Engineering & Physical Sciences Mimic Heart System for Human Drug Screening 2014-005 Microfluidic 3D culture heart system capable of culturing hiPSCs, cardiac and other tissues. Applications in early prediction of toxicology studies and personalized medicine.
Highly Responsive PMUT 2014042 New class of piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers (pMUTs) with potential to replace pMUTs for high electromechanical coupling ultrasonic transducer arrays.
Piezoelectric Filter with Tunable Gain 2014057 Piezoelectric resonator with tunable transfer function. The invention enables on/off switching of piezoelectric resonators, obviates the need for separate low loss switches, and offers capability to control low power gain in a receiver frontend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To explore all Berkeley innovations and ways to collaborate with the University, visit http://techtransfer.universityofcalifornia.edu/default.aspx?campus=BK.
Patent Awards in February 2014
Transcription FactorBased Biosensors for Detecting Dicarboxylic Acids 8,652,804 Patent Number: 8,633,033. Inventors: Jeffrey Dietrich, Jay Keasling. Status: Licensed.
Researcher and Entrepreneur Toolkit
Rosa Hills Innovator Program, applications due March 23, 2014 The new research initiative launched in 2014 and intends to strengthen R&D at Berkeley by providing seed funding of $50,000/year for three years to projects with exceptionally high scientific promise. The Rose Hills Innovator Program is managed by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. [application]
Bakar Fellow Program applications due March 23, 2014 The program supports innovative research by early career UC Berkeley faculty with projects that hold commercial promise. It is also administered by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. Faculty selected as Bakar Fellows will receive discretionary research support of $50,000/year for five years. Only Assistant and Associate Professors are eligible. [application]
Illumina launches Accelerator Program – world's first genomics incubator – applications due August 1, 2014 The Illumina Accelerator Program's goal is to speed the time to market and lower the barriers to entry for entrepreneurs, startups and early stage companies working on nextgeneration sequencing (NGS) applications.
Through the accelerator's sixmonth program, Illumina will provide invited participants with technology and business guidance, and financial support, including $100,000 instrument access (MiSeq® System and NextSeq 500™ System), sequencing reagents, 20% research assistant time, $100,000 convertible notes, and an equity line of $20,000 or more, as well as access to fully operational lab space in close proximity to the company's planned R&D facilities in San Francisco's Mission Bay. Prominent technology investor Yuri Milner will invest in every startup joining the Accelerator with $100,000 in exchange for convertible notes. Silicon Valley Bank will provide banking services and credit to each company. [news] [application]
DOE offers $12 million to fund biobased carbon fiber research The U.S. DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) has opened a $12 million funding opportunity for renewable carbon fibers. The aim is to develop a costcompetitive pathway to produce high performance carbon fiber for vehicle lightweighting from renewable, nonfood biomass. Submit a concept paper by March 3 and full application by April 11. [application]
NIH seeks proposals for HIV cure research The RFA, entitled “Beyond HAART: Innovative Approaches to Cure HIV1,” will support investigators of three to four interrelated research projects. The RFA’s areas of interest include testofconcept studies carried out in animals or humans, nontraditional antiviral strategies, novel gene therapy approaches, and cellbased approaches. [news]
UC Berkeley hires Wikipedianinresidence to help publish student research Hired by the American Cultures program, Kevin Gorman is the first Wikipedianinresidence at a U.S. university. Gorman is working with Berkeley professors to facilitate student research projects that will culminate in new Wikipedia articles for a global audience. [news]
Use Pivot to access and keep track of global research funding and collaboration opportunities Pivot is available to the Berkeley campus community and combines the most comprehensive, editorially maintained database of funding opportunities worth an estimated $33 billion with a unique database of 3 million scholar profiles, and growing. [sign up]
Office and Portfolio Startup News
IFF and Amyris advance innovative collaboration to develop ingredients for the flavors and fragrances market Under the multiyear agreement, IFF have exclusive rights to the renewable fragrance ingredients developed for applications in flavors and fragrances, and Amyris will have exclusive rights in other sectors. [press release]
Amyris reports 2013 financial results with record product sales, continued lower operating costs and strong collaboration inflows In 2013, Amyris achieved a nearly 50% increase in renewable product revenues, significantly improved adjusted gross margin, and continued to validate the strength of its research and development pipeline with funding from collaboration partners. [news]
Ekso Bionics named one of "5 startups poised to change MedTech forever" Ekso Bionics was named one of five startups poised to change MedTech forever by Medical Device &
Diagnostic Industry Magazine. For more than 30 years, MD+DI has served the industry as the leading source of indepth news and information; many of their articles have become standards of reference for the medical device industry. [news] [AUTM 2014 video]
Ekso Bionics and 3D Systems unveiled first 3D printed exoskeleton Ekso Bionics debuted the first ever 3D printed hybrid exoskeleton robotic suit, in collaboration with 3D Systems. The Ekso robot was integrated with 3D printed components to create the first ever customized suit. [news]
Berkeley Affiliate News
Professor Jennifer Doudna awarded Lurie Prize in the Biomedical Sciences Jennifer Doudna is the 2014 recipient of the Lurie Prize in the Biomedical Sciences from the Foundation for NIH. Doudna discovered a geneediting technique called CRISPR, "an exciting area of science, and will be most fascinating to watch as additional research moves it closer to clinical applications”. [news]
Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, Caltech unite to recruit minority Ph.D. students in the sciences and engineering The schools will target STEM students advancing in postdoctoral studies as well as faculty members at research universities, with an initial $2.2 million grant from NSF. [news]
New director for CITRIS Berkeley Costas Spanos, Andrew S. Grove Professor and Chair of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, takes over CITRIS' director role. Spanos' research spans statistical analysis in the design and fabrication of integrated circuits, and the development and deployment of novel sensors and computer aided techniques in semiconductor manufacturing. [news]
UC Berkeley researchers devise nanoribbons for faster data transport Berkeley professors have built graphene nanoribbons that can transport data faster than silicon. Strips of carbon synthesized to be nearly 10,000 times thinner than the width of a human hair could accelerate the transportation of data at unprecedented speeds, with farreaching implications in the fields of technology and medicine. Felix Fischer, a campus assistant professor of chemistry, led the research. He was assisted by the research teams of professors Mike Crommie and Jeffrey Bokor. [news]
Events
Annual University of California Technology Transfer Forum May 8, 2014
The University of Technology Transfer Forum is organized by the University of California Office of the President and showcases technology innovations from across the UC system. The annual Forum brings together industry partners, investors and UC researchers to showcase commercially relevant UC research; discover potential investments; preview promising licensing opportunities; and explore new collaborations. This year's event will highlight the work of UC's 2013 ProofofConcept Commercialization gap grant
recipients. 2013 Berkeley projects include: LowCost Arsenic Remediation for California Groundwater, Ashok Gadgil Noise Reduction for Hearing Aids, Frederic Theunissen
Save the Date for NSF SBIR/STTR Grant Application Bootcamp May 2014
Presenter: Shauna FarrJones Location: UC Berkeley, Stanley Hall, Room 117 Schedule: Two 2.5hour classes
Mission Bay Biotechnology Vendor Showcase June 5, 2014
This event offers excellent opportunities for life science researchers to network with laboratory service and supply companies. Free admission to all researchers and associated staff, including graduate students. Free food and seminars are provided. Doors open between 10:00am to 2:30 pm.
Mentor Office Hours
SBIR / STTR Office Hours Errol Arkilic is the Founder and President of USRCA.org. Founded in June of 2013, this organization's mission is to support the translation of academicbased research into products and services that address significant market needs. Previously, he was the founding and lead program director for the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps program. He led the ICorps effort from its inception until July 2013. Prior to this, Errol was the lead software and services program director for the NSF SBIR program. Before NSF, Errol was founder and CEO at StrataGent Lifesciences and the Manager of Product Engineering at Redwood Microsystems. Errol received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from George Washington University and his Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Aero/Astro Engineering from MIT. Location: 2150 Shattuck Avenue, Suite 1000, Berkeley, CA Date: 1st Thursday each month Time: 4:00 pm 5:30 pm
Build Your Financial Model Office Hours Rob Schock is a finance specialist with over 30 years of senior management experience. His experience spans Fortune 100 companies to Silicon Valley startups. As Chief Financial Officer, Rob has installed management control systems, created business models, run accounting departments, designed compensation programs, and managed investor, bank and auditor relationships. Rob is currently a parttime Chief Financial Officer at Picture Marketing, a marketing
company on the list of Bay Area 100 fastest growing companies for two years, and a founding member of the Venture Consulting Group (“VCG”), a network of executives providing consulting and management services to early stage and emerging technology companies. Rob has served as a mentor for Keiretsu Entrepreneur Academy, and UC Berkeley Haas Business School’s and UC Davis Business School's Annual Business Plan Competitions. Location: 2150 Shattuck Avenue, Suite 1000, Berkeley, CA Date: 1st and 3rd Tuesday each month Time: 3:30 pm 5:00 pm
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