#HeartofCAInnovation
TRI-VALLEY CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EXPERIENCE OF BEING HUMAN
Innovation Tri-Valley Leadership Group’s 2023 Human Health Innovation Index is a living document and we welcome your additions. Contact ITV to be included!
10X Genomics: 2022 marks 10X Genomics’ biggest year of Innovation in its 10-year history – launching more than NINE NEW PRODUCTS and 1,700 patent applications in just one year. 10X has now invested more than $1 billion in Research and Development and has launched more than 25 breakthrough products since its inception. After starting with just a few entrepreneurs working together in a garage in Pleasanton, the company is now building out a campus on a 14.6 acre site.
ALS | LLNL and Livermore Lab Foundation Join the Fight against Neurodegenerative Disease: The Laboratory’s cutting-edge capabilities and expertise offer new tools to study ALS disease mechanisms and fuel hope for a cure. Always fatal, and usually within two to five years, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an adult-onset, progressive neurodegenerative disease with no known cause or cure. In 2019, LLNL joined the fight alongside universities, research institutes, and healthcare partners to better characterize ALS through a strategic partnership with the Livermore Lab Foundation (LLF). This ALS Research Initiative is a growing portfolio of work that combines LLNL’s core competencies in computational modeling, biosciences, engineering, and data sciences with the expertise of external clinicians and researchers to advance understanding of disease pathogenesis. The goal is to help identify an ALS disease mechanism and potential prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers for ALS — major milestones on the road to a cure. One of the more recent projects involves evaluating the applicability of LLNL’s “brain-on-a-chip” technology to support an in vitro ALS model to assess different therapeutics and treatments. The ALS work will be featured in an upcoming issue of the Lab’s Science & Technology Review.
Amador Bioscience: Providing global-standard translational sciences and clinical pharmacology services to leading biopharmaceutical companies.
Apton Biosystems: A Pleasanton based developer of Super-Res™ sequencing and single-molecule detection systems for large-scale clinical applications such as early cancer detection and population sequencing.
BioVentrix: A privately held medical device company whose mission is to improve and expand the treatment available for congestive heart failure (CHF) caused by ischemic cardiomyopathy, through the development of less invasive, catheter-based approaches.
Bolb: Developed and patented breakthrough technologies to enable ‘never before possible’ disinfection systems for air, water, surfaces, and food to scale on a global basis to benefit human health.
BRIIA | The Intelligent Accelerator: The BRIIA Startup Accelerator Program is a game changer for entrepreneurs looking to understand how to build a startup. The mission is to support every founder no matter where they are in their journey.
Brainscanology: The company’s proprietary technology, ShapeGenie, is a tool that can enhance a radiologist’s diagnostic intuition by 1,000X while revolutionizing shape analysis at the cellular level.
Buzzkill Labs: Offers portable drug testing services that provide fast, accurate, and quantitative testing in the workplace.
Capsulazor: A laser technology company that creates tear-resistant capsulotomy during cataract surgery.
Calyxo: An innovation-driven medical device company focused on improving care for patients with kidney stones. Lead by President and CEO Joe Catanese, who previously co-founded NeoTract, Calyxo has an opportunity to alter the kidney stone treatment category and deliver a new generation of devices that can reliably improve care for millions of people afflicted by kidney stones.
CoolSculpting: The popular fat removal process known as CoolSculpting™ was developed in Pleasanton in 2007 by Zeltiq founder Mitch Levinson.
CooperCompanies: (“Cooper”) is a global medical device company Headquartered in San Ramon, with employees 14,000 with products sold in over 100 countries.
Culinary Angels: A non-profit organization that delivers organic, nutrient-rich meals to people going through a cancer challenge, as well as to their caregiver – serving Livermore, Dublin, Pleasanton, San Ramon and Danville.
Daybreak Labs: Provides life sciences and deep tech research and development facilities to help speed the time to market for our startups. Instead of investing in thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours building out facilities, our startups can go right to work and spend precious capital on other essential aspects of building the business.
FISH: Flourescence in situ hybridization (FISH) is a macromolecule recognition technology used in diagnosing genetic abnormalities that was discovered by LLNL’s Don Pinkel and Joe Gray in the mid 1980’s.
GenieMD: A global provider of a modular, scalable, and customizable virtual care platform, inclusive of telehealth, remote patient monitoring, remote therapeutic monitoring, and chronic care management.
Haraedx: Harae Dx Corp. is a medical diagnostics company which has developed the world’s smallest, portable, automated multi-early cancer detection system.
IrisVision: A leader in digital vision technologies, IrisVision Inspire, is an all-new, streamlined low-vision platform, a voice-controlled and internet-connected, wearable device to help users overcome low vision conditions including macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, retinitis pigmentosa and more.
John Muir Health:
Awake Spine Surgery: Doctors at John Muir Health are performing “Awake” spine surgery, a minimally invasive approach that uses spinal anesthesia with mild sedation. This enables patients to recover faster, minimizes use of narcotics and facilities earlier discharge home – in some cases on the same day.
Aortic Valve Repair: One of the only institutions offering Aortic Valve Repair procedures, and some cases are currently being proctored in a real-time in partnership with world-renowned Aortic Valve Repair expert, Prof Dr. Med. Hans-Joachim Schäfers.
San Ramon Regional Medical Center: Doubling down on their commitment to the region, in January of 2022, John Muir Health announced a definitive agreement with Tenet Healthcare to acquire sole ownership of San Ramon Regional Medical Center significantly expanding John Muir Health’s services and investment in the Tri-Valley.
Kaiser Permanente: In 2022, for the first time, Fast Company awarded a healthcare company their Innovation by Design: Design Company of the Year Award. By transforming its app and website, Kaiser Permanente redefined their digital consumer experience and online appointment bookings rose 80% over the prior year, and web site visits more than doubled. The new app was delivered in March 2021, which was crucial for COVID-19 vaccine distribution as critical information was delivered faster – and 10 million KP members were able to create online vaccine bookings in 2021 alone.
Kaya 17: Internal trials for allergy testing on its fully automated test platform.
Kensington Labs: Kensington is a leading supplier of wafer handling robots, precision motion control, linear stages, rotary stages and integrated stages designed to meet the most demanding requirements. The systems combine nanometer-scale-precision and fine-resolution capabilities with robust performance to meet customers’ needs for high reliability, long operational life and low cost-of-ownership.
LabSmith: Building laboratory tools that further the art of research experimentation.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory:
Human Genome Project: Biomedical research began at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in 1963, long before most people realize. Early advances at LLNL convinced the Department of Energy to launch an effort to determine the entire DNA sequence of the human genome, which ultimately evolved into the worldwide Human Genome Project. This well-known project delivered a complete sequence of the human genome in 2003 that has had immeasurable impact on life sciences research and human healthcare.
Chromosome Painting: In the 1980’s Bioscientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory developed a method to “paint” chromosomes containing abnormalities. “Chromosome Painting” was originally transferred to a startup, Vysis, which was ultimately acquired by Abbott. The Vysis FISH product line is used for diagnosing diseases such as cancer and pre-natal diseases and continues to make a mark in the healthcare industry.
Molecular Diagnostics: During the COVID pandemic, the public has become well-versed in the power and accuracy of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. LLNL researchers have a long history of not only using PCR but ushering in the next generation of PCR capability. In a feat, not uncommon at LLNL, a truly disruptive breakthrough occurred by bringing together a diverse group of scientists including biologists, engineers, physicists and computational scientists. In a third generation PCR technology, known as droplet digital PCR (ddPCR), single copies of DNA are able to be encapsulated and interrogated in a single instrument making fast, quantitative PCR possible. Quantalife, a Tri-Valley startup, secured a license and brought the technology to market. Acquisition of the company by BioRad continues to see the products influence the life science market and has a long, bright future in the precision medicine diagnostics space. This success is only augmented by the further Tri-Valley economic development created by former LLNL and Quantalife employees who have since created numerous startups that are developing products, which impact life sciences and public healthcare.
MIRA: Named one of Health Tech World’s Top 50 health tech innovators of 2022, Mira is the first FDA and CE listed comprehensive women’s health monitoring platform. Mira measures key fertility hormones with a palm-sized device which syncs with the Mira app to empower women with the information they need to know exactly when they are fertile and infertile.
Movano: The company’s first commercial product, Evie, is a smart ring designed for women to share live medical-grade health data about things like heart rate, ovulation tracking, steps taken, calories burned, and sleep.
Nellcor: In 1981, anesthesiologist William New and two colleagues formed Nellcor in Pleasanton and released their first pulse oximeter, called the Nellcor N-100.
NeoTract: Developed and commercialized the FDA-cleared UroLift System™, a novel, minimally invasive technology for treating lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH. NeoTract was successfully acquired by Teleflex in 2017 in a transaction valued at over $1 billion.
Outpatient APP: A digital health, medical task and care coordination tool for patients, their families, medical providers, health systems and military medical services.
R2 Technologies: World leader in CryoAesthetic™ medical devices, including the GLACIAL® platform for precision contact cooling of the skin, which has been shown to reduce inflammation and also brighten dark spots.
Radius XR: A portable vision diagnostic and patient engagement system that combines medical-grade diagnostics, business management, and patient education tools in a single wearable XR device. The total hardware and software system helps medical professionals diagnose patients accurately, grow their eyecare practices, enhance patient engagement, and reduce staff workload by enabling patients to perform self-guided vision exams with minimal supervision.
Raydiant Oximetry: Russ DeLonzor, part of the Nellcor team in the 1990’s, now serves as COO of San Ramon-based Raydiant Oximetry. With Founder and CEO Neil Ray, Raydiant Oximetry is improving outcomes during childbirth with their product, Lumerah™, a noninvasive technology that measures fetal oxygen levels. Their next generation innovation aims to profoundly reduce the rising mortality and morbidity rates among mothers and babies during childbirth.
Redica Systems: Transforms data, analytics and expertise into regulatory intelligence to help companies stay in compliance with global health agencies.
Roche Molecular Diagnostics: With its global headquarters in Pleasanton, the company is home to more than 200 scientists and associated research and development staff specializing in infectious disease, human genetics, and oncology programs. SF-based Genentech became a member of the Roche Group in 2009.
S2 Genomics: Founded in 2016, is a leading developer of laboratory automation solutions for processing solid tissues for single-cell applications.
Sandia National Laboratories:
Neutralizing Viruses: Researchers at Sandia have created a platform for discovering, designing and engineering novel antibody countermeasures for emerging viruses. This new process of screening for nanobodies that “neutralize” or disable the virus represents a faster, more effective approach to developing nanobody therapies that prevent or treat viral infection.
Pandemic Prediction Software: An approach using publicly available data from states to track and predict outbreaks of COVID-19 in large populations. Sandia has refined their model to track infection rates at the county level, where infection rates and case counts start small.
Shaklee Corporation: In 1956, Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee incorporated the Shaklee Corporation in Pleasanton and is credited with creating the first multivitamin in the United States.
Stanford Health Care Tri-Valley:
LONG COVID: The only Bay Area community hospital that is participating in a clinical trial on the long-term effects of COVID-19 – sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. According to the CDC, 1 in 13 adults in the U.S. have “long COVID” symptoms, which means they are still experiencing the negative impacts of COVID-19 more than 3 months after first contracting the virus.
TAVR: On October 2021, the first catheter-based replacement of an aortic heart valve called TAVR took place on Stanford’s Tri-Valley campus, led by cardiovascular surgeons and interventional cardiologists. TAVR is a minimally invasive alternative to open-heart valve replacement surgery.
BARRICAID: John Kleimeyer, MD, a spine surgeon, clinical assistant professor of orthopedic surgery was the first in the state to implant a Barricaid annular closure device in California following Food and Drug Administration approval of the device in 2019. The device consists of woven mesh attached to a titanium anchor. The device is implanted into the vertebral bone to prevent reherniations after a discectomy.
BYERS’ EYE INSTITUTE – Expansion into Livermore in the Spring of 2023 will bring a new ophthalmology service line to combat blindness and preserve sight, and deliver advanced ophthalmology and cornea disease treatments in a state-of-the-art, patient-centered facility.
Medtronic Ellipsys Post Market Surveillance Study: An observational study launched in Nov 2022 to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the Ellipsys Vascular Access System in the creation of a native AV fistula via percutaneous access in dialysis patients.
RECOVER: An NIH sponsored trial, RECOVER is an observational study to understand the long-term effects of COVID-19, launched here in Sept 2022.
TT MAZE: In 2020, James Longoria, MD performed the first TT Maze procedure at Stanford Health Care Tri-Valley. Longoria, a cardiothoracic surgeon and clinical associate professor now at Stanford School of Medicine invented and patented the TT Maze procedure, which is now used in hospitals across the nation to treat Atrial Fibrillation and other heart conditions.
Stanford Medicine Children’s Health | Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford:
Pediatric Heart Transplants: In 2021, the Children’s Heart Center celebrated their 500th pediatric heart transplant, speaking to longevity, volumes and expertise.
Genetic Disease Diagnostics: An ultra-rapid genome sequencing approach developed by Stanford University scientists was used to diagnose genetic disease in a baby in just eight hours after enrollment – setting a world record.
Scoliosis: Surgeons are correcting scoliosis with a novel procedure called spinal tethering, which includes implants to compress the outer side of the spinal curvature, allowing children’s natural growth to correct the curve as they age.
Level 1 Children’s Surgery Center: Verified as a Level 1 children’s surgery center by American College of Surgeons – the highest designation a hospital can receive.
US NEWS Ranking: Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, the center of Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, is ranked a top ten children’s hospital in the nation by U.S. News Best Children’s Hospital Survey.
Spectrum Dynamics Medical: A pioneering medical device company that has developed an innovative high definition functional imaging technology.
Sutter Health: Across the greater Bay Area, multiple Sutter Health affiliates partner with Operation Access to donate outpatient surgical and specialty care for the uninsured and underserved in our communities.
Unchained Labs: Developer of life science biologics tools designed to help researchers break free from tools that just don’t cut it. In January 2022, Unchained Labs launched their revolutionary new Leprechaun platform, a first-of-its-kind tool that brings to light more information than any other tool out there by using a combination of antibody capture, fluorescence, and interferometry to better measure viral vector and structure. The new Leprechaun tool is revolutionary in the way it simplifies the science researchers do every day in the fight to track down and wipe out cancer.
ZEISS: ZEISS is an international technology enterprise working in the fields of optics and optoelectronics. The ZEISS Group is engaged in Industrial Quality & Research, Medical Technology, Consumer Markets and Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology.
Innovation Tri-Valley Leadership Group’s 2023 Human Health Innovation Index is a living document and we welcome your additions. Contact [email protected] to be included.
