Berkeley Lab Startups in the News
December 16, 2016
The Department of Energy recently highlighted the lab-to-market success of Aeroseal, a startup based on a Berkekley Lab ductwork-sealing technology. The Ohio-based company has grown to operate in Europe, the Middle East, Canada, the Philippines, and Australia and has sealed ductwork in more than 100,000 houses and tens of millions of feet of commercial space. Aeroseal estimates it saves customers a total of $4.2 million annually in energy costs.
Berkeley Lab startup Lygos, which applies synthetic biology to create high value chemicals, raised $13 million in Series A funding. OS Fund, IA Ventures, First Round Capital, Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund, Fifty Years, Vast Ventures and various angel investors are among the participants.
Five 2016 R&D100 Awards for Berkeley Lab Technologies
November 8, 2016
Berkeley Lab technologies enabling energy-saving roofs, next generation Li-S batteries, faster development of disease-fighting therapeutics, safer drinking water, and risk assessment for proposed carbon capture technologies each received 2016 R&D 100 Awards last week at a recognition event in Washington, D.C. Since 1984, Berkeley Lab has won 85 R&D 100 Awards.
R&D Magazine‘s R&D 100 Awards, established 54 years ago, recognize 100 technologies and services introduced in the previous year deemed most significant by an independent panel of judges. Berkeley Lab News Center provided descriptions of the winning technologies in its Nov. 8 coverage. The full list of winners is here: http://www.rd100conference.com/awards/winners-finalists/year/2016/.
Bio-Based Innovation Award Goes To Lygos
October 11, 2016
Berkeley Lab startup Lygos won the Bio-Based Chemical Innovation of the Year award at the Bio-Based Live conference in San Francisco for its technology to produce malonic acid from sugars derived from non-food biomass. The Lygos process, demonstrated in 2015 at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Biofuels Demonstration Unit (ABPDU), offers a cleaner alternative to the current approach of deriving malonic acid from petroleum products. In March 2016, Lygos was awarded a DOE Small Business Voucher to continue scaling up its technology at the ABPDU.
IPO Talks Tech Transfer with Visiting Scientists
October 4, 2016
Dr. Ureshnie Govender (left) and Dr. Angeline Akelo Kasina (right) met with IPO staff to discuss lab-to-market approaches.
Technology Commercialization Associate Peter Bluford of Berkeley Lab’s Innovation and Partnerships Office discussed the lab-to-market process for science innovations with two scientists — Dr. Ureshnie Govender of of South Africa and Dr. Angeline Akelo Kasina of Kenya — who visited Berkeley Lab last month as part of the State Department’s TechWomen international exchange program. An article on the scientists’ visit to Berkeley Lab and the TechWomen program appeared Sept. 30 in the Berkeley Lab Computing Sciences News.
Licensee Launches Lab-Developed Beamline Tool
August 31, 2016
Simon Morton, left, and Diane Bryant, center right, with MiTeGen staff at the 2016 American Crystallographic Association meeting in Denver
MiTeGen LLC has launched the Sentinel™ Real-time Intensity Monitoring Beamstop System for X-ray beamlines based on a beamstop technology licensed from Berkeley Lab earlier this year. The device improves data collection from X-ray scattering experiments conducted by researchers seeking potential treatments for cancer, AIDS, Ebola, and other diseases.
Earlier this summer, the Compact Dynamic Beamstop developed by researchers at the Berkeley Center for Structural Biology and licensed by MiTeGen was named a finalist in the 2016 R&D 100 Awards along with six other Berkeley Lab technologies and one multi-lab collaborative effort.
Small Cleantech Businesses to Collaborate with Berkeley Lab
August 25, 2016
Eight cleantech businesses have been awarded small business vouchers ranging from $50,000 to $300,000 to access the unique expertise and facilities available at Berkeley Lab in Round 2 of DOE’s Small Business Voucher (SBV) pilot program. The program is designed to speed entry of next-generation clean energy technologies.
“Partnerships with entrepreneurs and small business are a key part of Berkeley Lab’s mission,” said Elsie Quaite-Randall, Berkeley Lab’s Chief Technology Transfer Officer. “Through collaborations such as the SBV pilot, Berkeley Lab can not only have economic impact in the clean energy sector, it will help small businesses succeed.”
Nationwide, $8M was distributed to a total of 43 small cleantech businesses in this round of funding. DOE will kick off Round 3 of the SBV program in October 2016.
