Over 250 people filled every seat in the house for the first annual Get Biotech 2019. Keynote speaker David Deamer enthralled the audience with his journey which started with a Sunday drive, conceiving an idea, pulling over to the side of the road, sketching it out, and going on to become a cornerstone of the massive nanopore growth industry.

Modarri, a toy invented by Santa Cruz’s David Silverglade, combines two of the best toy ideas of all time—Hotwheels and Legos. Launched with a Kickstarter campaign in February of 2014, the toy has become a huge critical and financial success.

Almost 20 years after UC Santa Cruz researchers made history by assembling the first human genome sequence, the campus has formally established the UCSC Genomics Institute as an Organized Research Unit (ORU) providing support for interdisciplinary and collaborative research in genomics across multiple departments and divisions.

Kelli Dragovich brings over 20 years of experience to her role as the Chief People Officer at Looker where she leads the recruiting, operations, places and HR business partner teams. She joined Looker to help

Nominate a notable Santa Cruz brand for a free logo redesign by Studio Holladay.

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Santa Cruz entrepreneur Shiv Sikand has helped build what appears to be the most powerful Grand Touring car ever made; it is also quite possible that he and his San Jose-based company have reinvented the automobile.

Jacob Martinez is a social entrepreneur, tech educator, keynote speaker and cutting-edge community collaborator. Martinez believes technology has the potential to break down socioeconomic barriers and unlock economic growth for youth and their communities.

After 35 years in tech, where he served as CIO, VP for Apps and developer for various firms including Splunk, Doug Harr is now focused on business applications, business intelligence, cloud and big data. And—he as written a big, beautiful book about rock ’n’ roll, moved to Santa Cruz, and renovated the Westside’s weirdest landmark. 

SEASIDE, Calif., August 21, 2019 – California State University, Monterey Bay’s (CSUMB) Institute for Innovation and Economic Development (iiED) is set to host the 2019 Startup Investment & Community Expo on September, 27, 2019 at the Embassy Suites in Seaside.

A new chip-based platform developed by researchers at UC Santa Cruz integrates nanopores and optofluidic technology with a feedback-control circuit to enable an unprecedented level of control over individual molecules and particles on a chip for high-throughput analysis.

In 1994, two UC Santa Cruz professors, Dr. Bernie Tershey and Dr. Don Croll, founded tIsland Conservation, a global conservation NGO whose sole mission was to prevent extinctions by removing invasive species from islands. Over the past 25 years, the organization, headquartered on Santa Cruz’s Westside, has cleared 63 islands of invasive species, protecting 1,173 populations of threatened animals.

Two years after opening its doors, biotech incubator Startup Sandbox is demonstrating that it’s ready to play in the big leagues. Five of the 20 biotech companies that have spent time at the incubator have proven their product ideas and grown large enough to move into their own offices. Nearly all of those companies have chosen to stay and hire in Santa Cruz.

Tempur Sealy International, Inc. (TPX), the company synonymous with innovation in the mattress industry, and Fullpower® Technologies, Inc., the sleep technology company, today announced a strategic partnership.

In 2007 David Conway was working as a dive instructor and surfing in Indonesia and Australia. He was shocked when he realized there was as much plastic trash floating in the clear tropical waters as there were fish. “It really affected me. I grew up in the ocean in California...we spent a lot of time on the water surfing and fishing.

Machine learning (ML) is a practice in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) that provides systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed. Cheap and available computing power along with volumes of data has enabled this field to grow over the past decade.

Claret Bioscience co-founder Kelly Harkins Kincaid brings tools she developed while investigating ancient human DNA to help find traces of cancer in human blood.

“I love my town,” he began, and then told the story of the two episodes in his life when he took jobs that required him to commute to the valley. He described getting on the road before his son awoke and returning after his bedtime. “I think my wife felt like a single mom,” he said. “I want other people who live here to have the opportunity that I have. I love my town, I love my job, and I want them to have the opportunity to work where they live.”

Kate Roberts, who joined the Santa Cruz Works board of directors in July, seems to embody the organization’s powerful new direction. At her day job as president of the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership (MBEP), Roberts is working on some of the issues that lie at the core of SCW’s mission.

The world is experiencing a minor (or perhaps major) revolution in how people get around. It’s something tech watchers like to call the “mobility segment,” which formerly referred to things like electric wheelchairs and other devices for people who had sadly lost the ability to walk, bike or drive.

Highlights reel of the 2019 Monterey Bay Drone, Automation & Robotics Technology (DART) Symposium, held June 21 at the Monterey Hyatt Regency.