Movin’ on up

Nano Precision Medical co-founder Adam Mendelsohn in the East Bay Innovation Center wet lab with employee Will Fischer.

Companies, like people, need room to grow.

That was the case with Nano Precision Medical, a biomedical startup incubated at the QB3 Garage@Berkeley. Led by co-founder Adam Mendelsohn, PhD, the small operation recently expanded to occupy two benches and two private offices at the QB3 East Bay Innovation Center (QB3-EBIC) in Berkeley.

“The need for us—as well as for many other small companies—is to have a space where we can operate as a legitimate business,” says Mendelsohn, who earned his PhD at UCSF.

The QB3-EBIC is a 9300-square-foot, state of the art space built by Wareham Development, which opened in July 2011. It provides laboratory equipment such as fume hoods, tissue culture facilities, bio-safety cabinets, and ultra-low temperature freezers.

But more importantly, companies at QB3-EBIC have access to conference rooms, break rooms, and private offices, says Mendelsohn. “All of those aspects that are important to have in a fully functioning company trying to raise money and establish partnerships,” he says.

While working at Stanley Hall was valuable for Nano Precision Medical when the company was starting out, Mendelsohn says he was often hampered by the lack of privacy. “My desk was literally one half of one of our wet lab benches and I couldn’t make any important phone calls,” he says. The move to QB3-EBIC has been useful in expanding the business development aspects of their company. He can now meet with potential investors in privacy and discuss sensitive intellectual property aspects of his products without the anxiety of being overheard.

Adding incentive, companies at the center remain within QB3’s network of experts, having access to guidance in business models, staffing, and other operational issues that a startup faces, says Douglas Crawford, PhD, associate director of QB3. The facility is located near the UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory campuses, granting companies access to these scientific resources.

“QB3-EBIC provides opportunities for growth while giving tenants all the benefits of being a member of the QB3 community,” says Crawford.

Nano Precision Medical has put the new facility to good use. The company is currently developing a subdermal implant—the size of a grain of rice—that releases medication at a constant rate over many months.

Such a device could be useful in treating diseases like hepatitis C, where patients receive weekly injections of a drug that causes extremely unpleasant flu-like side effects such as chills, fever, and nausea. Current research suggests that steady release would be a more suitable method of delivery without affecting the drug’s efficacy, says Mendelsohn.

Moving to QB3-EBIC has given Mendelsohn and his partners the extra space they need to get their product to its next stage.

“We’re very excited about what we’re developing and hope to improve the outcomes of patients that are suffering from chronic diseases,” he says.