UC Berkeley Awards $200K Venture Grant to HypO2Regen Therapeutics

The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center (LSEC) has announced that HypO2Regen Therapeutics is the recipient of its 2025 Venture Grant Program, which offers a minimum of $200,000 in funding, admittance into the center’s startup accelerator and global entrepreneurship hub (Berkeley SkyDeck), and access to certain other UC Berkeley resources (1).

HypO₂Regen’s mission is to develop and bring to market novel, disease-modifying therapeutics for chronic intractable inflammatory diseases, notably including what would be the first cell-free stem cell treatment that induces true regeneration of tissue damaged by chronic inflammation (1). The company’s current focus is on improving the lives of more than 300 million people in the United States and Europe with moderate to severe periodontitis, up to 70% of whom are either undertreated or untreated.

Funding breakdown

The Venture Grant program is in its third year, and its financial arrangement comprises a $100,000 academic translational grant from Berkeley LSEC and a $100,000 investment from the Berkeley SkyDeck Fund, which has the option to invest $100,000 more (1). Berkeley SkyDeck is one of the most competitive accelerators in the world (acceptance rate around 1%) according to the university, and HypO₂Regen will participate in its Batch 20 cohort, which began May 5, 2025.

“UC Berkeley has a rich tradition of supporting founders, with some of the world’s leading companies and most important research coming from our campus,” said Darren Cooke, interim chief innovation and entrepreneurship officer at UC Berkeley and executive director of Berkeley LSEC, in a press release on June 3, 2025 (1). “The LSEC Venture Grant program continues that legacy, and we’ve already seen impressive results from our inaugural recipients. We are excited to see what the HypO₂Regen team will accomplish, and look forward to supporting them at every step of their journey.”

Connections to UC Berkeley

To qualify for the Venture Grant program, an applicant must be ready to incorporate as a company with an innovation in the life sciences field that is based on intellectual property invented at UC Berkeley. In addition, the team must have at least two members and be connected to Berkeley in some way—whether the personnel are faculty, PhD students, postdocs, or graduate students in one of several disciplines (1).

In the case of HypO₂Regen, the company was founded by Bioengineering Department Chair Philip Messersmith and entrepreneur Isabelle Gorrillot.

“The LSEC Venture Grant program has been an exciting addition to Berkeley SkyDeck, and our Bio+Health Track has been instrumental in supporting grant recipients as they begin their startup journeys,” said Caroline Winnett, executive director of Berkeley SkyDeck, in the press release (1). “We are excited to welcome HypO₂Regen into our Batch 20 cohort. Their breakthrough—stem cell therapy without the stem cells—has truly exceptional therapeutic potential.”

Novel therapies attracting attention

The grant from UC Berkeley comes at a time when novel forms of drug delivery are being investigated and tested to assess their viability across large patient populations. This is the topic of Pharmaceutical Technology®’s May 2025 “Drug Solutions Podcast.” In that episode, Nicholas Giovannone, senior principal scientist at Regeneron, and Bernie Owusu-Yaw, research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, discuss challenges to be overcome in using adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors as delivery mechanisms in gene therapy (2).

That podcast installment can be heard in full on the Pharmaceutical Technology® website and numerous streaming media platforms, and all previous Drug Solutions Podcast episodes are also accessible at PharmTech.com.

References

1. UC Berkeley. UC Berkeley Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center Announces 2025 Venture Grant Recipient. Press Release. June 3, 2025.
2. Lavery, P. Drug Solutions Podcast: Novel Drug Delivery Approaches: Refining AAV Vector Deliveries. PharmTech.com, May 30, 2025.