Recent posts and comments

• Scientists from Sapphire Energy, UCSD, Scripps, and Protelica Show Genetically Modified Algae Can Make Important Drugs

  Scientists in San Diego and Hayward, CA, have demonstrated the feasibility of using algae to produce commercial levels of human therapeutic proteins that are currently being used to treat emphysema and... Read more »

• ImThera Medical Generating Buzz Over Neurostimulation for Sleep Apnea

  Some 800,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed each year with obstructive sleep apnea, in which the tongue relaxes during the onset of sleep to the point of physically blocking much... Read more »

• Adamis and La Jolla Pharma Kill Merger Deal

  Two San Diego biotechs, Adamis Pharmaceuticals and La Jolla Pharmaceutical, said today they have agreed to terminate their merger agreement, which was signed three months ago. The Nasdaq market also... Read more »

• Innovation Summit Highlights Drug Development, Cleantech, and Potential Impact of Drought

  The La Jolla Research & Innovation Summit held yesterday at the Salk Institute was a smaller and a much more modest affair than the inaugural summit that Connect CEO Duane Roth... Read more »

• Adventrx Pharmaceuticals Set Back by FDA, La Jolla Pharmaceutical Can’t Cure Shareholder Apathy, Regulus Signs Another Deal With Glaxo, & More San Diego Life Sciences News

  There was a flurry of San Diego life sciences news over the past week, but we’ve got it all sorted for you here.

  —Politicians sometimes complain about voter apathy, but consider... Read more »

• Qualcomm CEO Sees Company Driving Wave of Mobile Internet Innovation

  Some people in the audience began to gasp audibly as Qualcomm chairman and CEO Paul Jacobs neared the end of his presentation at the San Diego wireless company’s annual shareholders’ meeting... Read more »

• San Diego Biotechs Raise Cash for Novel Drugs to Treat Cancers, Broad Disease Spectrum

  A number of biotechs and medical device companies in the San Diego area have disclosed funding deals in recent weeks. As I noted last month, San Diego-based ProActa raised about $1.1... Read more »

• Tech Coast Angels’ Dollars Invested and Number of Deals Declined in 2009

  Investments by Southern California’s Tech Coast Angels dropped in 2009, as the network of individual investors helped raise a total of $61.7 million in direct investments by TCA members and affiliated... Read more »

• San Diego’s Printer Industry Veterans Offer Some Insights Into Memjet’s Technology

  One of the most surprising personnel moves announced in San Diego so far this year came in early January, when former Qualcomm COO Len Lauer was named to head Memjet,... Read more »

• Awarepoint Raises $10M to Accelerate Its Sensor Network for Hospitals

  JAFCO Ventures of Palo Alto, CA, has stepped in as lead investor in a $10 million round announced today by San Diego’s Awarepoint, which provides wireless sensor systems to help hospitals... Read more »

• Enrollment Begins at Founder Institute After Inaugural Class Completes Training

  School’s out for the Founder Institute’s inaugural class in San Diego, which started with 22 students in November and last week graduated 13 entrepreneurs who are moving forward to develop 12... Read more »

• Qualcomm Ventures Leads Funding for Visage Mobile, Venture Deal Terms Favor Investors (Still), Leap Wireless Forms Joint Venture, & More San Diego BizTech News

  It was a light week in San Diego for tech news, perhaps balancing the blizzard of life sciences news that blanketed our region. Good thing that’s the only kind of blizzard... Read more »

• FDA Refuses to Accept Adventrx Pharma’s New Drug Application

  Adventrx Pharmaceuticals (NYSE Amex: ANX), the San Diego biotech that sprang back to life in January with a new drug application, says in a statement today that it has received... Read more »

• AFraxis CEO Outlines Biotech’s Success With Ultra-Lean Pre-Clinical R&D in Russia

  AFraxis, a mostly stealthy San Diego biotech, is getting ready to come out with a big announcement in the next week or so, but CEO Jay Lichter previewed some key parts... Read more »

• The X Lists Debut: San Diego’s Online Reference Library for Innovators and Entrepreneurs

  If Xconomy had a storefront in downtown San Diego instead of a Web address, it might be easier for readers to see what we’ve got under construction, because people could peer... Read more »

• Synthetic Genomics Recruits Illumina Exec

  Synthetic Genomics, the San Diego biofuels developer, today named a top executive from San Diego-based Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN), the maker of genetic sequencing tools, as its chief operating officer. Joel... Read more »

• Leap Wireless Combines its Cricket Service With Pocket Communications in South Texas

  Call it an example of newfound pragmatism among the flat-rate wireless service providers, which are coming under growing pressure to consolidate.

  San Diego’s Leap Wireless (NASDAQ: LEAP) announced today that... Read more »

• ProActa Raises $1.1M

  ProActa, which is developing an anti-cancer drug transplanted from New Zealand, has raised $1.1 million in debt and securities, according to a recent regulatory filing. The biotech, which has... Read more »

• Qualcomm Ventures Leads New Investment Round in Revived Visage Mobile

  San Diego’s Qualcomm Ventures is showing its confidence in Visage Mobile’s back-from-the-dead strategy by leading a new investment round in the San Francisco-based company.

  Tim Weingarten, who stepped in as... Read more »

• NIH Chief Stresses Economic Impact of Federal Biomedical Funding

  Cancer and certain types of mental illness are diseases that appear ripe for research breakthroughs, according to Francis Collins, who just marked his sixth month as director of the National Institutes... Read more »