UC Davis STAIR and DIAL Grant Recipients Developing Breakthrough Technologies
This year’s Science Translation and Innovative Research (STAIR™) and Data, Informatics & Application Launch (DIAL™) grant programs have rewarded eight UC Davis Innovators with financial support to advance their research and technologies toward commercialization. Managed by UC Davis Venture Catalyst, the STAIR and DIAL grants are designed to provide funding to demonstrate translational proof-of-concept and commercial feasibility for cutting edge faculty research. Six of the eight award recipients are advancing innovative projects that are targeting unmet medical needs. The other two grant recipients are developing innovative technologies with potential impact in agriculture and food safety.
UC Davis Chancellor Selects Prasant Mohapatra as Vice Chancellor for Research
Prasant Mohapatra has been appointed UC Davis Vice Chancellor for Research. Mohapatra, who has been the dean of graduate studies and vice provost of graduate education since 2016, will oversee an annual research funding portfolio of close to $800 million (as of fiscal year 2016), and lead the university’s Office of Research. .... Read More
REMINDER: Sacramento Region Innovation Awards Nominations
Nominations are now being accepted for the third annual Sacramento Region Innovation Awards, presented by Stoel Rives LLP with support from Moss Adams LLP and the Sacramento Business Journal. The awards program will recognize business and technology innovations in eight categories. The nomination categories include advanced manufacturing, food & agribusiness, hardware & electronics, government & civic (new in 2018) medical & health (separate categories for medtech and biopharma), software, and sustainability. Self-nominations by innovators are preferred, but third-party nominations will also be accepted. Nominations are due Friday, July 20, 2018 and can be submitted online.... Read More
UC Davis Venture Catalyst SBIR/STTR Knowledge Exchange
Featuring:
  • David Spellmeyer, PhD - Principal, Interlaken Associates, LLC

This talk will offer a unique opportunity for participants to learn about Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant applications from the perspective of a reviewer. The SBIR/STTR program provides non-dilutive funding to small advanced technology firms to spur new technological discoveries and facilitate the commercialization of innovations. Of course, the program is extremely competitive. As a recurring NIH panel participant and Study Section Chair, David Spellmeyer has inside intel about how SBIR/STTR applications are evaluated. He will discuss what a winning application looks like, the essential elements to include and how to get the reviewers’ attention. He will also inform participants about the intricacies of the grant review process.

WHEN:
Wednesday, July 24, 2018, 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

WHERE:
Join us for Pizza @
UC Davis Office of Research
1850 Research Park Drive
Davis, CA 95618

Cummins Announces Acquisition of EDI - UC Davis Hybrid-Electric Drivetrain Technology Pioneering Spinoff
Cummins Inc. announced that it is acquiring Efficient Drivetrains, Inc. (EDI), a UC Davis spinoff, which designs and produces hybrid and fully-electric power solutions for commercial markets. Cummins is a global power leader with a products ranging from diesel and natural gas engines to hybrid and electric platforms, as well as related technologies. The company employs nearly 59,000 people and had revenues of over $20 billion in 2017. Adding EDI to the Cummins portfolio is the latest step forward in Cummins’ efforts to become a global electrified power leader.... Read More
UC Davis and Intel Sign Patent Licensing Arrangement 
UC Davis and Intel Corporation signed a subscription agreement covering certain UC Davis patents. Intel has an option to non-exclusively license patents covered by the agreement during a specified period of time and at a predetermined fee. UC Davis retains the right to license these patents to other parties - either non-exclusively in any field of use or exclusively outside the defined field of use.... Read More
Bifidobacteria Supplement Colonizes Gut of Breastfed Infants
Supplementing breastfed infants with activated Bifidobacterium infantis (B. infantis) bacteria had a positive impact on babies’ gut microbes for up to a year, according to a recent study by researchers at the UC Davis and Evolve BioSystems Inc, a UC Davis spinoff. The work was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in Boston by Bethany Henrick, director of immunology and diagnostics at Evolve BioSystems, on behalf of the study co-investigator, Jennifer Smilowitz, associate director of human studies research at UC Davis’ Foods for Health Institute.... Read More
UC Davis Wine, Food, and Entrepreneurship Institutes Announce New Directors
Joe DiNunzio, a senior executive with three decades of creative, technical and business leadership, joined the Mike and Renee Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship as interim executive director. He will lead the institute’s strategic direction, program development, fundraising, and relations with academic programs at UC Davis as well as external partners, donors and sponsors. Also professor Andrew Waterhouse, a faculty expert in wine chemistry, quality and analysis, has been named director of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science at UC Davis. Waterhouse brings extensive experience in teaching, research and community involvement to the institute, which connects faculty and students with a broad network of scientists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, consumers and industry professionals engaged in wine, brewing and food science.... Read More
UC Davis Aggie Square Planning Gets Funding From Governor Brown and State Legislature
California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr., assemblymember Kevin McCarty, and the California legislature approved a planning budget of $2.8 million for Aggie Square. Brown approved the funds as part of his signing of the state’s budget. The monies, which will cover 2018-19, will be used for community engagement and outreach, internal planning staff, external consultants and technical experts, and legal experts. Earlier in June 2018, UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May appointed Robert Segar to serve as planning director of Aggie Square and formed an advisory group with Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg to guide the vision for Aggie Square.... Read More
UC Davis to Lead National Cow Genomics Effort
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded UC Davis $2.5 million over four years for a national cow genomics project. The research effort aims to allow the cattle industry to use genetics more efficiently to predict the traits their herds possess. Despite cattle’s economic importance, scientists still have a long way to go to fully understand mechanisms that govern important genetic traits in the animals such as growth and disease resistance. The grant is one portion of a $6 million grant USDA awarded to create three functional genomics projects.... Read More
Psychedelic Drugs Change Structure of Neurons
A team of scientists at UC Davis is exploring how hallucinogenic drugs impact the structure and function of neurons — research that could lead to new treatments for depression, anxiety and related disorders. In a paper published in the journal Cell Reports, they report that a wide range of psychedelic drugs, including well-known compounds such as LSD and MDMA, increase the number of neuronal branches (dendrites), the density of small protrusions on these branches (dendritic spines), and the number of connections between neurons (synapses). These structural changes could suggest that psychedelics are capable of repairing the circuits that are malfunctioning in mood and anxiety disorders.... Read More
News from our Startups
TDK Showcases Extensive Portfolio of Sensors at Sensors Expo & Conference 2018
TDK participated in the expo to showcase Chirp Microsystems' MEMS ultrasonic ToF sensors for distance, presence and proximity sensing capabilities. Chirp sensors are offered as a single chip sonar in a tiny package enabling optimal industrial design. They feature ultralow power and high precision range measurement. This technology was also named a finalist for the Best of Sensors Expo awards.... Read More
Sage Therapeutics and Shionogi & Co., Ltd., Enter Strategic Collaboration to Develop and Commercialize SAGE-217 for MDD and Other Indications in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea
Sage Therapeutics and Shionogi & Co., Ltd., a research-driven pharmaceutical company focused on infectious diseases and pain/CNS disorders, announced they have entered into a strategic collaboration for the clinical development and commercialization of SAGE-217 for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) and other indications in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.... Read More
Sage Announces Pivotal Phase 3 Trial Status for SAGE-217 in Major Depressive Disorder and Postpartum Depression based on FDA Breakthrough Therapy Meeting
Sage Therapeutics announced that its expedited development plan for SAGE-217 following a Breakthrough Therapy meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This development plan is intended to support a potential filing for approval of SAGE-217 in the U.S. for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) and postpartum depression (PPD).... Read More
Efficient Drivetrains Announces Availability of its EDI PowerDrive 6000ev
Efficient Drivetrains announced the availability of its EDI PowerDrive™ 6000ev. The system has already been integrated into leading OEM platforms, and is an ideal fit for goods movement, logistics, port, and utility vehicle applications.... Read More
Novoheart Wins Coveted 2018 MedTech Breakthrough Award
Novoheart announced that its MyHeart™ platform has been selected as 2018’s “Best New Technology Solution – Drug Development” by MedTech Breakthrough, an independent organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global health and medical technology market.... Read More
Novoheart Announces Presentation at the International Society for Stem Cell Research Annual Meeting
Novoheart delivered a presentation entitled “Modeling Cardiac Dysfunction of Friedreich’s Ataxia Using Ventricular Sheets, Tissues and Chambers Engineered from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells,” at the Annual Meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in Melbourne, Australia.... Read More
Arcadia Biosciences Announces Closing of $14.0 Million Registered Direct Offering
Arcadia Biosciences announced the closing of its previously announced registered direct offering of 1,392,345 shares of its common stock. The offering was priced at-the-market at a purchase price of $9.93 per share, for gross proceeds of approximately $13.83 million. Additionally, in a concurrent private placement, Arcadia issued unregistered warrants to purchase up to 1,392,345 shares of common stock, representing 100% of the shares of common stock purchased in the registered direct offering.... Read More
Arcadia Biosciences and Farmer’s Business Network, Inc. Announce Partnership for Arcadia’s GoodWheat
Arcadia Biosciences and Farmer’s Business Network, an independent farmer-to-farmer network, announced a partnership to expand the grower base of Arcadia’s family of specialty wheat varieties, GoodWheat TM . This new collaboration enables the FBN DirectSM inputs platform to distribute Arcadia’s identity-preserved GoodWheat seeds to growers in its network, aiming to increase farmer profitability over commodity wheat.... Read More
Arcadia Biosciences and Bioceres Welcome Martin Mariani Ventura as General Manager for Verdeca Joint Venture
Arcadia Biosciences announced they have hired Martin Mariani Ventura as general manager of Verdeca, a joint venture to develop, deregulate and market soybean varieties with next generation agricultural technologies. Mariani Ventura is a seasoned agribusiness executive with nearly 20 years of experience in various roles, including business strategy, product licensing and commercialization, sales, marketing and research and development..... Read More
Johnson & Johnson Hits the Big Apple with Latest JLabs Site (Mass Device)
Sapience Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing peptide-based therapeutics that inhibit oncogenic and immune-modulatory protein:protein interactions, is among its 26 tenants in the new 30,000-square-foot JLabs incubator in New York City.... Read More
Pheronym Wins Grant for Eco-Friendly Pest Control for Interstellar Agriculture
Pheronym received the Florida-Israel Innovation Partnership Award for its nematode focused pest control solution.  The $300,000 award will help the company conduct field tests of its proprietary eco-friendly solution with a variety of produce to determine its efficacy for use by astronauts in the future colonization of the Moon and Mars, as well as for applications here on earth.... Read More
CNBC's Jim Cramer Interviews CEO of Sage Therapeutics
Jim Cramer sits down with Sage Therapeutics CEO Jeff Jonas to hear about the novel treatments his company is testing for depression. Watch the interview here .
Regional Innovation News
Where are Millennials going? Hint: Not San Francisco (San Francisco Business Journal)
According to SmartAsset, Sacramento ranks third among cities attractive to millennials. Based on the 2016 US Census data, Sacramento gained about 6,700 millennials during 2016 .... Read More
Why Marrone Bio is Sponsoring a Cannabis-Growing Competition ( Sacramento Business Journal)
Marrone Bio, a Davis-based biological pest management company is co-sponsoring Colorado-based cannabis growing competition, The Grow-Off. Marrone's Regalia biofungicide is approved for use on cannabis by the departments of agriculture in Colorado, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington. ... Read More
Thrive Agtech Program Grows with Plans for Salinas Business Park (Silicon Valley Business Journal)
Silicon Valley Global Partners announced plans to grow its Thrive agtech accelerator program within Salinas business park for warehousing and R&D space. This expansion has the potential to bring up to 1,000 jobs to Salinas .... Read More
Innovation Insight
Biotech Has an Age Problem: Too Many Startups, Too Little Experience (San Francisco Business Times)
The number of startups has been increasing consistently, while the average age of its founds and executive staff has been decreasing. Venture Capitalists tend to look for more mature, experienced executive teams when deciding to fund a company, something this trend is making more scarce .... Read More
Early Stage Startups Are Struggling, While VC Investment Dollars Are At All Time High (Forbes)
According to the first quarter data from PwC/CB Insights MoneyTree report, venture capital investments have reached record amounts. While overall good news, the first round investments into earlier stage startups has been on the decline. .... Read More
Seed Stage Founders Aren't Getting Enough Guidance from Their Investors (Entrepreneur)
Seed stage companies are often at the highest risk of making mistakes and require the most amount of guidance. Unfortunately, most of the Tier 1 venture firms have transitioned into the mega-fund model where they raise large sums of capital every couple of years. With funds this large, it has become more challenging for these firms to provide guidance to seed stage portfolio companies.... Read More
National Bioscience Industry Report Shows $2T Economic Impact, Accelerated Venture Capital Investment & Job Growth (Bio)
A study released at the BIO International Convention shows that the U.S. bioscience industry has reached $2 trillion in annual economic impact while maintaining accelerated venture capital investment and job growth numbers. Among U.S. technology sectors, the bioscience industry has held a leading position as an economic driver and job generator. The report, Investment, Innovation and Job Creation in a Growing U.S. Bioscience Industry 2018 , finds U.S. bioscience firms directly employ 1.74 million people, a figure that includes more than 273,000 high-paying jobs created since 2001.... Read More
Funding Opportunities
Giants of Science Grant Competition
Application Deadline: July 31, 2018.... Learn More
iMatSci Materials Science Innovation Showcase
Application Deadline: August 1, 2018.... Learn More
FDA Innovation Challenge: Devices to Prevent and Treat Opioid Use Disorder
Application Deadline: September 30, 2018.... Learn More
VentureWell E-Team Grant Program
Application Deadline: October 3, 2018.... Learn More
Y Combinator Winter Cycle
Application Deadline: October 23, 2018.... Learn More
Autodesk Entrepreneur Impact Program
Application Deadline: Ongoing... Learn More
UC Santa Cruz SVLink Accelerator
Application Deadline: Rolling Applications accepted on 15th of each month.... Learn More
Educational Opportunities
California Life Science Institute FAST Advisory Program Fall Program
Application Deadline: July 20, 2018.... Learn More
Food and Drug Law Institute Introduction to US Drug and Medical Device Law and Regulation
Date: July 24-25, 2018.... Learn More
UC Davis Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship Business Development and Keller Pathways Fellowship Program
Application Deadline: August 2, 2018.... Learn More
I-Corps@NCATS Regional Short Course at UC Davis
Application Deadline: August 3, 2018.... Learn More
Startup Legal Garage Fall 2018 Cohort
Application Deadline: August 3, 2018.... Learn More
UC Davis Graduate School of Management Pitching Creative Ideas
Date: August 14, 2018.... Learn More
UC Davis Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship UC Entrepreneurship Academy
Date: September 12-14, 2018.... Learn More
UC Davis Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Central Valley Entrepreneurship Academy
Date: October 2-4, 2018.... Learn More
Biomedical Engineering–Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship Alliance (Atlanta, GA)
Date: October 16-17, 2018.... Learn More
SBIR/STTR Fall Innovation Conference
Date: October 23-25, 2018.... Learn More
Big Bang! Business Competition Kickoff
Date: October 25, 2018.... Learn More
Innovations in Ag Irrigation Technology Demonstration and Showcase
Date: November 16, 2018.... Learn More
Valley Ventures Fall 2018 Cohort
Date: Ongoing.... Learn More
SBA Emerging Leaders Initiative
Date: Ongoing.... Learn More
Regional Events
Sacramento Biz & Tech Speaker Series For Women
Date: July 26, 2018.... Learn More
AgStart Office Hours
Date: August 7, 2018.... Learn More
Sacramento Business Journal Fastest Growing Companies
Date: August 9, 2018.... Learn More
Startup Grind Sacramento, Brian Wong, Kiip
Date: August 16, 2018.... Learn More
Elevate Women’s Summit
Date: August 25, 2018.... Learn More
Seeds of Our Future: Innovating Global AgTech
Date: August 27-30, 2018.... Learn More
Aging 2.0 Alive Inside: Brain Health and Technology
Date: August 28, 2018.... Learn More
Startup Grind Sacramento, Jeremy Perkins, Precision Medical Products
Date: September 28, 2018.... Learn More
Greater Sacramento Economic Council Annual Dinner
Date: December 6, 2018.... Learn More
Hacker Lab Hands-On Education
Date: Ongoing.... Learn More
Small Business Development Center Workshops
Date: Ongoing.... Learn More
Silicon Valley USPTO Workshops
Date: Ongoing.... Learn More
1 Million Cups
Date: Weekly (Wednesdays).... Learn More
Industry Events
Aging2.0 Brain Health Forum (Toronto, Canada)
Date: August 7, 2018.... Learn More
RESI Healthcare Week (Boston, MA)
Date: September 5-7, 2018.... Learn More
Ag Innovation Showcase (St Louis, MO)
Date: September 10-12, 2018.... Learn More
LA BioMed Innovation Showcase (Manhattan Beach, CA)
Date: September 13, 2018.... Learn More
The MedTech Conference
Date: September 24-26, 2018.... Learn More
About Venture Catalyst 
 
UC Davis Venture Catalyst facilitates the translation of University research and technology by enabling the development of new ventures. Venture Catalyst engages with the Davis and Sacramento business, governmental and economic development community to highlight the development of technologies and ventures coming out of UC Davis that will drive tomorrow’s regional job creation. Working closely with these partners, Venture Catalyst is invigorating the technology-based entrepreneurial ecosystem of the entire region. 
The Venture Catalyst START™ Suite of programs and services provides the ABCs to equip UC Davis entrepreneurs with the tools they need to form and grow robust startups. The program gives founders the START they need to create a well-structured company and ensure the company is prepared for success. 
 
Contact Venture Catalyst 
For more information or for editorial comments, please email us .