![\"Schaffer\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026Fall_TelegraphBiotech_2-819x1024.jpg\")
David Schaffer, the director of QB3, the UC institute that supports Bakar Labs. (Photo by Marcus Hanschen)<\/p>\nPhotosynthesis, the chemical process fundamental to life on Earth, has a flaw. So says Chris Eiben, Ph.D. \u201919, founder of the biotech startup GigaCrop. \u201cThere\u2019s a series of enzymes nature uses for this, but one of those enzymes is very slow.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The weak link is RuBisCO, the most plentiful protein on planet Earth and the enzyme that begins the process of turning carbon dioxide into plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. For nearly three billion years, RuBisCO has shaped our world. Eiben is not impressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at plants today, they\u2019re only productively using 20 percent of the photons they have access to at midday sun.\u201d<\/p>\n
To help plants meet their full potential, GigaCrop has designed brand-new enzymes that Eiben says could double crop yields.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the kind of bold idea that gets nurtured at Bakar Bio Labs, the largest university-run biotech incubator in the country. Opened in 2021 in the former Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive building on Bancroft Avenue, Bakar Bio Labs offers a rotating cast of tenants\u2014as many as 30 at a time\u2014access to mentorship, state-of-the-art wet labs, Berkeley facilities, and a\u00a0<\/p>\n
community of fellow dreamers to help launch their fledgling startups.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe incubator provides the protected environment for these vulnerable early-stage companies to do their essential proof-of-concept work,\u201d says Kaspar Mossman, Ph.D. \u201906, managing director of QB3, the University of California institute that supports Bakar Bio Labs. \u201cIt makes the process of innovation more efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Schaffer, the director of QB3, the UC institute that supports Bakar Labs. (Photo by Marcus Hanschen)<\/p>\n
Mossman and I stood on one of five cantilevered concrete slabs that spiral up and over the vast central atrium of the Bakar BioEnginuity Hub. Two decades ago, following damage from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the building\u2019s demolition seemed imminent. But a costly seismic retrofit gave new life to the architectural icon. Once graced by paintings and sculptures from around the world, the atrium is now carpeted and hosts tidy rows of cubicles. Floor-to-ceiling glass walls offer a new kind of display: lab-coated technicians doing things like pipetting samples into centrifuge tubes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As we navigated the strange layout of architect Mario Ciampi\u2019s brutalist masterpiece, through bunker-like hallways, up and down ramps, and through oddly shaped spaces, I felt lost. Mossman said, \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to say what floor you\u2019re on in this building.\u201d Still, it\u2019s a stunning space, monumental in scale and flooded with natural light.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably the most beautiful biotech incubator in the world,\u201d says Chad Miller, chief technical officer of ResVita Bio, a startup taking aim at Netherton syndrome, a rare skin disorder that can be excruciating and sometimes fatal. Sufferers lack a protein called LEKTI that slows the natural breakdown of skin cells. Miller, who trained under Nobel laureate David Baker, Ph.D. \u201989, genetically engineered a bacteria that manufactures the crucial protein. ResVita\u2019s product is a lotion that continually produces LEKTI directly on the skin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there are any companies here that are doing stuff like working on a peptide to make you more tan.\u201d<\/p>\n
The work is expensive. \u201cThe thing that startups don\u2019t have is a million dollars to buy a microscope,\u201d Miller says. \u201cIf they do have a million dollars at all, that has to go to pay scientists who are going to want access to things like million-dollar microscopes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those can be found across the street, on campus; Bakar Lab tenants can also utilize university lab facilities.<\/p>\n
Human resources have been just as crucial, Miller says. A Cal internship program, Break into Biotech, trains and compensates students who work with the tenant companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s networking.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At one point, Mossman led me past an open door. Inside, a dozen people mingled around folding tables, drinks in hand. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like speed dating for our energy materials companies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Miller met the cofounder of ResVita while his own company, Nosis Bio, was also at Bakar Labs. They were cubicle mates. After Nosis \u201cgraduated,\u201d the ResVita founder hired Miller (who remains a scientific advisor at Nosis, which has since partnered with Johnson & Johnson). ResVita recently submitted an Investigational New Drug application with the FDA, a big deal for a pharmaceutical startup.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a therapeutic, it typically takes between 10 and 15 years from the lab to when it\u2019s actually available in clinics to be sold to patients,\u201d Mossman says. The average cost of developing a new drug and bringing it to market is in the hundreds of millions. \u201cWe have our fifth anniversary this fall. Have we seen any FDA-approved drugs? No. Have we got a couple clinical trials happening? Yes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For early-stage biotech startups, investment can be hard to come by. Given the regulatory hurdles, the costs, and the experimental nature of the science, they make for inherently high-risk, high-reward investments. But that\u2019s just what investors were after during the biotech boom of the late 2010s. Then the COVID era sent biotech speculation into the stratosphere. Money poured in, and even young, unproven biotech companies reaped the rewards. Recently, however, investors have grown more cautious, parking their cash in safer bets.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there were companies getting 250 million bucks instead of 250 companies getting a million,\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mossman says. \u201cAnd then AI came in waving its shiny little banner.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Mossman\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026Fall_TelegraphBiotech_4-1024x683.jpg\")
Kaspar Mossman, managing director of QB3. (Photo by Marcus Hanschen)<\/p>\n
To ensure its startups have a fighting chance, Bakar Labs carefully vets aspiring tenants. Mossman rattles off a list of criteria: \u201cIs the science good? Does it meet an actual need? And has it got any likelihood of commercial success?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat size is the market? What\u2019s the FDA path? What has previously failed in this area? Why did it fail? Are these guys going to be any different than that? Who\u2019s on the team? Is it one undergrad? Is it three grad students? Is it out of a powerhouse lab? Is it two people who actually seem to know what they\u2019re doing?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
And perhaps the most important question: Is there potential social benefit?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there are any companies here that are doing stuff like working on a peptide to make you more tan,\u201d says Collin Blinder, the deputy director of communications at Bakar Labs and QB3.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe phrase is \u2018double bottom line,\u2019\u201d added Mossman. \u201cSomething that is good for society and profitable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Take GigaCrop. If Eiben\u2019s new enzymes succeed, it could mean cheaper biofuels and increased carbon fixation. But first they need to move from the test tube to plants, and that\u2019s a challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not getting the genes in,\u201d Eiben says, \u201cit\u2019s knowing that they\u2019re all going to connect and work the way that you want. That\u2019s the harder part.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the challenges, Bakar Lab tenants have raised over a billion dollars in investments since the incubator opened its doors. But funded or not, the odds are long. Mossman says one way Bakar Labs can help its tenants is by speeding up the innovation process. \u201cMaybe that means you fail faster\u2026. If you start a company and fail in the Bay Area, it just means that you started a company, and you\u2019re ready to start another company.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Mossman led me through the maze-like building, I admitted I was disoriented.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was designed for disorientation,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
One startup founder told me that it usually takes about three weeks for new tenants to figure out how to find their way around the building.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We went down another windowless hallway. Mossman opened an exit door. \u201cThis is West,\u201d he said. \u201cThe ocean is that way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coby McDonald, M.J. \u201917, is a writer and podcast producer.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photosynthesis, the chemical process fundamental to life on Earth, has a flaw. So says Chris Eiben, Ph.D. \u201919,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-466203","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\/466203","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=466203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}