Newsletter
Summer 2023
Catalyst Summer Interns Team-up with 2023 Kunal Patel Catalyst Awardees to Create TPPs
This summer, the Catalyst Program recruited over 80 interns from UCSF, San Francisco State University, UC Berkeley, the City College of San Francisco, and beyond to help the 2023 Kunal Patel Catalyst Award Project Teams create their Target Product Profiles (“TPP”) to help advance this year's Catalyst Award projects along the translational pathway to product development and patient benefit.

The interns have been busy working on the TPPs and have been regular attendees of the Catalyst Summer Internship Workshop Series. The next installments of the workshop series will be held Wednesday, July 12, and Wednesday, July 26, both at 4 pm PT.



The Kidney Project Wins KidneyX Phase II Competition
The Kidney Project is a nationwide research and development collaboration led by Catalyst Awardee Shuvo Roy was recently that aims to free kidney disease patients from dialysis machines and transplant waiting lists through the creation of an implantable bioartificial kidney. This latest KidneyX prize—the fourth one in four years—recognizes the Kidney Project’s work in advancing the bioreactor component of the implantable bioartificial kidney. 

Follow-on Funding for Current Kunal Patel Catalyst Awardee
2023 Kunal Patel Catalyst Awardee Claire Clelland and co-founder of Ciznor has been awarded $100 K via QB3's Mentoring Program to advance CRISPR therapy for neurodegenerative diseases including ALS and Dementia.
Eli Lilly Acquires DICE Therapeutics

In a move to enhance its autoimmune disease portfolio, Eli Lilly is acquiring South San Francisco-based biopharma DICE Therapeutics for more than $2 billion. Catalyst Advisor John Jacobsen serves as Chief Scientific Officer for DICE. The deal will give Lilly access to DICE’s proprietary drug discovery and development platform DELSCAPE, which optimizes the design of small molecule drugs to effectively disrupt protein-protein interactions.

Astellas Licenses 4DMT’s Vector Delivery Platform
Astellas Pharma has signed a license agreement with 4D Molecular Therapeutics, gaining access to the biotech’s proprietary viral vector for a rare genetic eye disease. Catalyst Advisor Roxanne Croze serves as Director of Vector and Product Development at 4DMT.
Upcoming Opportunities from QB3
Apply to the QB3 Early-Stage Mentorship Program for support from pre-incorporation and beyond! The experienced mentors in QB3's early-stage program can help you with their deep industry experience, including: technology-market fit, how best to secure your IP, and fundraising strategy. Additionally, QB3 will fund several companies in the 2023 program with $100 K. Learn more

Entrepreneurs looking for non-dilutive federal funding to fuel their companies are encouraged to take the QB3 SBIR/STTR workshop and submit by the January NIH deadline or Spring NSF window. Learn more
UC College of the Law San Francisco Opens Applications for its Startup Legal Garage Fall 2023 Cohort
UC College of the Law San Francisco's Startup Garage facilitates free legal services for early-stage startups with the help of volunteer attorneys from top firms and UC Law SF law students to help meet new companies’ legal needs from incorporation to privacy policies to option plans, licensing, trademark, and beyond.
Intro to Lean Startup: NSF I-Corps Method
Each month, NSF I-Corps Method offers an immersive one-week virtual training aimed at translating academic research into a startup. The next "Intro to Lean Startup: NSF I-Corps Method & I-Corps" offering will be held held on August 21, August 23, and August 28 from 5 pm to 8 pm PT. Several current Catalyst Awardee Teams took the course this year to further their projects along the translation path and highly recommend it to take your technology innovation to the next level.


Delve Bio Announces Series A Funding
Previous Catalyst and UC Center for Accelerated Innovation (UC CAI) Awardee Charles Chiu has co-founded Delve Bio which recently secured $35 M in Series A financing to commercialize the company’s metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) based infectious disease test and advance a pipeline of mNGS diagnostic tests.
UC DDC 2023-2024 Call for Proposals
The University of California Drug Discovery Consortium (UC DDC) aims to assist faculty researchers across the University of California advance the creation of drugs that address important unmet medical needs. In partnership with industrial sponsors, UC DDC provides seed funding that enables faculty members to advance promising drug discovery/ development projects, with the goal of generating data that will enable them to secure federal, philanthropic, or commercial support and thus further advance their projects. This current call for proposals is sponsored by Ono Pharmaceuticals. Use password "DDC2023" to access the application.
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