For more than four decades, the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco has been the epicenter of biotech and healthcare investment and innovation. This February, that stage extended across the Pacific.<\/p>\n
The third annual Healthcare Conference Taipei\u2014presented by UC Berkeley, J.P. Morgan, and the Regent Taipei\u2014continued to grow as a vital cross-continental bridge. What began as a visionary idea from UC Berkeley School of Public Health Dean Michael C. Lu has evolved into a powerful convening, bringing together more than 350 invite-only entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and high-powered academic and industry leaders from across the United States and Asia.<\/p>\n
The goal of the conference is to build partnerships in biotech and healthcare across the Pacific. \u201cWe want to bring the best of the world to Asia,\u201d said conference co-host Steven Pan, UC Berkeley trustee and Chairman of the Regent Hotels Group, \u201cAnd showcase the best of Asia to the rest of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The presence of UC Berkeley leadership was unprecedented, signaling the university\u2019s commitment to translating \u201cfundamental ideas\u201d into \u201clong-term societal benefit.\u201d Led by Chancellor Richard K. Lyons, the Berkeley delegation included eight distinguished deans and a Nobel Laureate: Omar Yaghi, UC Berkeley professor of chemistry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world\u2019s great research universities are among society\u2019s most valuable assets,\u201d Chancellor Lyons noted in his welcoming remarks. \u201cEconomic and societal prosperity has one source: New ideas put into practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dean Michael C. Lu framed the gathering as more than a conference on investment and innovation. It was, he told the audience, an opportunity to steward the future of healthcare. Stewardship, he argued, begins by \u201cchanging the conversation about the future of healthcare\u2014from walls to bridges, from later to earlier, from profit to purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
On global collaboration, Lu stressed that healthcare must transcend borders and politics. \u201cInstead of building walls, we must build bridges,\u201d he said. \u201cProgress accelerates \u2013 and scales \u2013 when we work together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lu also urged the industry to move upstream in the health continuum. \u201cAs long as we continue to overinvest in late-stage disease treatment and underinvest in the real drivers of health, we\u2019re not going to move the needle on population health,\u201d he said. Leveraging rapid advances in science and technology, Lu said, \u201cthe future of healthcare must move beyond treating disease to measuring, sustaining, repairing, and restoring health\u2014long before illness takes hold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, Lu reminded the audience that healthcare innovation must remain grounded in its human purpose. \u201cHealthcare is not just an industry or a market,\u201d he said. \u201cAt its core, it is about saving lives, reducing suffering, and improving health.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two-day event featured panels on healthcare investing, drug development partnerships, entrepreneurship, and artificial intelligence in healthcare, along with pitch presentations from 60 companies from the United States and markets across Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan.<\/p>\n
The closing panel showed how UC Berkeley\u2019s research is helping steward the future of healthcare.<\/p>\n
Richard Harland, dean of Biological Sciences, highlighted the transformative promise of gene editing. \u201cOne of the most exciting things that\u2019s going to be happening\u2014and has already happened\u2014is the development of personalized genetic treatments through CRISPR,\u201d he said, emphasizing the need to make such therapies \u201cfaster, better, and cheaper\u201d and ultimately accessible to patients around the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For more than four decades, the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco has been the epicenter of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-235857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}