UC Davis beefs up standing as research center for biomedical technology - Sacramento Business Journal:

Sacramento Business Journal - January 1, 2007
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A look ahead: Biotech
UC Davis beefs up standing as research center for biomedical technology
Sacramento Business Journal - December 29, 2006
by Celia Lamb
Staff Writer

The University of California Davis will remain the region's engine for biotechnology and medical-device advances.

The school raked in record annual research funding of $544 million for the year ended June 2006, including two grants of more than $1 million each for studies on wheat genetics and ultrasound imaging and drug delivery to tumors.

The money continues to roll in, paving the way for new research projects next year. In September, Chevron Corp. pledged up to $25 million over five years for biofuels research at the school. And the National Institutes of Health awarded a five-year grant in October to a UC Davis program for moving promising medical research into the clinic.

Stem cells will be a hot topic in 2007 as the state Institute for Regenerative Medicine fights a lawsuit blocking it from issuing $3 billion in bonds for research authorized by a 2005 ballot initiative.

The San Francisco life sciences venture capital company Burrill & Co. has forecast a shift in the pharmaceutical industry, from a continual hunt for the next blockbuster drug to a focus on personalized medicine.

Companies such as West Sacramento-based Lipomics Inc., which develops molecular diagnostic tests to target the best treatments and diets for individual patients, could be in a position to capitalize on the trend. But, Burrill warns, convincing physicians to adopt personalized medicine and insurers to pay for it could be challenging.

Several longtime biotech executives will likely make news this year in their new jobs. Glenn Nedwin, former president of the Davis Novozymes facility, left that company for Dyadic International Inc., which is headquartered in Florida and plans to establish a Sacramento-area research office.

Pam Marrone, founder of AgraQuest Inc., left the company to start another Davis biopesticide business: Marrone Organic Innovations Inc. Former Lipomics executive Tom Anderson founded a company called Pediatric Bioscience Inc. to develop diagnostics and treatments for people with autism.

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