Bay Area LifeTech Explores Berkeley Biolabs by Karen Ring, PhD

Bay Area LifeTech Explores Berkeley Biolabs (October 3, 2014)

By: Karen Ring, PhD

Where are the major innovation hotspots for Life Sciences in the Bay Area? While Stanford and SF/Mission Bay easily come to mind, you might not know that another thriving center is located nearby in Berkeley, called Berkeley Biolabs. The mission of Berkeley Biolabs is to foster innovative research by providing space and support to scientists and biotech entrepreneurs. Bay Area LifeTech (BALT) had the pleasure of touring Berkeley Biolabs last week and met with the founders and entrepreneurs who are bringing exciting scientific ideas and products to life.

The tour included an introduction to Berkeley Biolabs by Co-Founder Ryan Bethencourt and Community Manager Mary Ward and short presentations by companies including Valen Scientific (Converting waste to biofuels) and Algas Biotechnologies (rechargeable algae-based batteries). For a list of the companies currently in Berkeley Biolabs, check out their portfolio. The tour was followed by a networking happy hour held at ACME Bar. 

BALT will host another exciting networking event in October titled “Spotlight on Bay Area Entrepreneurs”, which will be held on Wednesday October 29^th.

Event Photos:

Mary Ward, Community Manager, introduces the concept of Berkeley Biolabs to the BALT crowd.

Jayaranjan Anthonypillai and Michael Strawn of Valen Scientific talk about converting organic waste into biofuels.

Ryan Bethencourt, Berkeley BioLabs Co-Founder, shows off a rechargeable, algae-based battery developed by Algas Biotechnologies.

Frank Kusiak (Technical Project Manager at Lawrence Hall of Science) Luke Lightning, PhD (BALT founder, Business Development at LAUNCH.co), and Karen Ring, PhD (Postdoc at the Buck Institute, Events Correspondent at Big3Bio) at the BALT happy hour held at ACME Bar.