Startup Bell Biosystems gives researchers a way to track, kill injected cells

CytomX's Dan Bell (far right) and team.

While researchers believe stem cell therapies can overcome diabetes, Alzheimer’s, spinal cord injuries and a host of other conditions, they’ve faced one big-time head scratcher: showing what those millions of cells actually do once they are in the body. Caleb Bell thinks his young company, Bell Biosystems, has a solution. The company, which recently moved from the Stanford University student-run incubator StartX to the Molecular Medicine Research Institute in Sunnyvale, is working on a way to magnetize cells so that they can be localized, tracked and, if necessary, killed when they go astray.

CytomX preps 'probodies' for an invasion, partnerships

CytomX CEO Sean McCarthy.

If antibody-drug conjugates lead the next war against disease-fighting therapies, CytomX Therapeutics Inc. is readying fresh recruits. Antibody-drug conjugates use antibodies, the Y-shaped proteins that direct the immune system toward a foreign invader, to carry a payload of toxic drugs. But CytomX is developing what it calls “probodies,” which it says are that much more highly targeted in delivering their tumor cell-killing packages.

Stealthy Didimi pushes cells back to the starting line

If twins know each other better than anyone else, leaders of Didimi Inc. are counting on the same holding true for our cells. One of the companies on the growing roster of the QB3 East Bay Innovation Center, Didimi is focusing on a way to regenerate insulin-producing islet cells — from a patient’s own or someone else’s cells — as a treatment for Type 1 diabetes. Call it a cellular do-over or a scientific version of “Groundhog Day” with some potentially stunning implications.

Healthiest Employers: Bayer fosters culture of fitness with fun events

When Angela Elliot isn’t teaching aerobics to her colleagues, she’s out jogging with them on her lunch break. If she doesn’t show up, she feels guilty about it later. Elliott, a senior manager for Bayer Healthcare’s process validation group, is just one of many employees who lives up to the company’s motto of using science for a better life. The company’s focus on well-being has created a culture of health and fitness that encourages employees to encourage each other.

Jazz Pharma to sell women's health business for $95M

Jazz Pharmaceuticals will sell its women's heath business to specialty pharmaceutical company Meda for $95 million in cash. Jazz, which has an office in Palo Alto (NASDAQ:JAZZ) said in the release that the sale involves six products: Elestrin, Gastrocrom, Natelle One, AVC, Gesticare DHA and Urelle.

Plant scientists keep switchgrass forever young to make fuel

They can't do it in people, but scientists think they can keep switchgrass "forever young" by inserting a new gene, thus making it more useful in creating biofuel. Geneticists from the University of California, Berkeley, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture did the work at the USDA's Plant Gene Expression Center in Albany. Sarah Hake, who runs the lab, and UC Berkeley's George Chuck inserted a new maize gene, called "Corngrass1" or Cg1, into Panicum virgatum, or switchgrass, thus keeping it in a "juvenile" state without flowers or seeds.

Thermo Fisher Scientific buys 22 acres, plans to build home for 400 employees

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the Waltham, Mass.-based scientific instrument maker, plans to build out a new home in Fremont for its roughly 400 employees. Thermo Fisher confirmed that it bought 22 of 147 acres from Union Pacific that surround the Tesla Motors Inc. manufacturing plant. The company currently leases three facilities in Fremont that are within two miles of the parcel.

KaloBios pulls in $10M debt financing with option to borrow $5M more

KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc. raised $10 million, with an option to borrow an additional $5 million, in a debt financing with MidCap Financial SBIC LP. South San Francisco-based KaloBios will use the money to advance clinical development of its monoclonal antibody drugs, including Phase II trials of its severe asthma drug and a treatment for cystic fibrosis patients, and for general corporate purposes.

Astex, U.K. groups form blood cancer research pact

Astex Pharmaceuticals Inc. inked a research collaboration with Cancer Research Technology Ltd. and the Institute of Cancer Research in London to discover and develop drug candidates for blood cancer caused by epigenetics. Dublin-based Astex (NASDAQ: ASTX) did not disclose the value of the deal or say how long the collaboration would last.

VistaGen restructures MoFo debt, investor buys notes

VistaGen Therapeutics Inc. restructured nearly $2.4 million of long-term debt with law firm Morrison & Foerster LLP as an investor bought a $750,000 note from the South San Francisco biotech company. VistaGen (OTCBB: VSTA), which is developing ways to incorporate human stem cells into research lab tests that can predict a drug's toxicity or help with drug discovery, said about $1.38 million of the debt to Morrison & Foerster is expected to be converted into restricted common stock at a price of $1 per share. It did not say how the remaining $1 million in debt would be restructured.

CIRM approves $20M award - with a catch - for StemCells Alzheimer's research

StemCells Inc. and three other research projects won a total of $63 million in funding Wednesday night from California's stem cell research funding agency. But the $20 million earmarked by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine for StemCells (NASDAQ: STEM) -- the Newark company's second award in two months -- comes with a catch. StemCells must satisfy CIRM staff of "the company's ability to access the capital needed to fund the project."

OptiMedica gets FDA market clearance for laser cataract system

OptiMedica Corp. has been granted U.S. Food and Drug Administration 510(k) market clearance for its "Catalys Precision Laser System" for single-plane and multi-plane cuts in the cornea during cataract surgery, according to a release.

Codexis lays off 133, hires new CFO

Codexis Inc., a company that makes environmentally friendly chemicals, fuels and pharmaceutical processes, said Tuesday it will lay off 133 people. The layoffs are necessary because the Redwood City-based company is ending an agreement it had with Royal Dutch Shell Plc and will lose ongoing funding, a statement from the company said.

One-on-One with Natera founder Jonathan Sheena

Jonathan Sheena of Natera.

The prenatal testing industry is shaping up as one of the most competitive in the medical diagnostics arena, and the Bay Area has become a center of innovation and new-company formation with the likes of Aria Diagnostics in San Jose, Verinata Health in Redwood City and Natera Inc. in San Carlos. What's more, as my colleague Diana Samuels wrote earlier this year, the fight has turned to the courtroom as Bay Area test makers challenge each other and Sequenom Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM), the San Diego-based company that was first to the market with a non-invasive test. The competition makes it all the more important for these companies to prove that their technology is best, and one of the more aggressive companies in that regard has been Natera. I spoke recently with Jonathan Sheena, Natera's founder and chief technology officer, about the company's non-invasive prenatal tests, its ongoing clinical trials, its hiring and its attempts to win insurance coverage for its tests.

StemCells finds early data from spinal cord injury trial promising

StemCells CEO Martin McGlynn.

Early data from an early-stage trial in spinal cord patients by StemCells Inc. indicated that two of three patients with the worst kind of spinal cord injuries started recovering feeling. The Newark company (NASDAQ: STEM), which is developing human neural stem cells, is the first to report data from a stem cells trial in spinal cord injuries, a spokeswoman said.