Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a method for creating annealed microgel scaffolds using polyethylene glycol-vinyl sulfone, offering improved efficiency and shelf life.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a method and composition that direct the growth of long, coronally oriented blood vessels in tissue grafts to improve vascularization and clinical transplant outcomes.

The central hurdle in the clinical translation of mRNA-based medicine is the inherent toxicity of the delivery vehicle. Standard Lipid Nanoparticles (LNPs) rely on cationic ionizable lipids that carry a positive charge at a pH of approximately 7.4, triggering aggressive pro-inflammatory responses and complement activation.  UC Berkeley researchers have developed a novel class of lipids engineered to resolve the "charge-toxicity" trade-off in nucleic acid delivery. Unlike conventional ionizable lipids that maintain a problematic positive charge density at physiological levels, these quaternized ionizable lipids are specifically tuned to remain neutral or negatively charged at a pH of approximately 7.4. They only transition to a positively charged state in acidic environments, such as the endosome, ensuring that the payload is released exactly where it is needed without alerting the immune system during systemic circulation. 

The core innovation is a dosimetry-driven approach that determines the activity concentration of a radioisotope based on the distance between the cement surface and the target tissue, enabling predictable, volume‑independent radiation dosing.

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A novel class of bioinspired photo-initiators enabling visible light-driven polymer gelation that improves cell-biomaterial compatibility across thicker tissues.

Chronic and complex wounds represent a substantial clinical and economic burden, affecting more than 6.5 million individuals in the United States and accounting for annual healthcare expenditures exceeding $25 billion. These wounds, including those arising from trauma such as blast and burn injuries, frequently involve multiple tissue types—e.g., skin, bone, and nerve—and are often associated with delayed or incomplete closure. In certain severe trauma populations, complications such as heterotopic ossification, characterized by abnormal bone formation within soft tissue, are observed at elevated incidence. More broadly, recalcitrant wounds are characterized by impaired healing dynamics, including persistent inflammation, fibrosis, and aberrant tissue regeneration. There are barriers to effective recovery because current standards of care have several critical limitations. Most therapies are “reactive” rather than “proactive” and they fail to adapt to the wound’s shifting physiological state, such as fluctuating pH or oxygen levels. Conventional devices use rigid or semi-rigid components, and this mismatch does not conform to contoured or mobile areas like the heel or joints. Moreover, semi-flexible electronics often lose contact during patient movement, and this inconsistent contact leading to sub-therapeutic dosing and persistent inflammation. Bridging this gap requires conformal, bio-integrated systems capable of sustained contact and autonomous, responsive therapeutic delivery to overcome the stagnant healing dynamics of recalcitrant wounds.

Chronic and complex wounds present a massive challenge for both patients and the healthcare system. In the United States alone, over 6.5 million people struggle with these injuries. Recent clinical data suggests that treatment costs now exceed $30 billion dollars annually. These wounds often include diabetic foot ulcers, bedsores, and severe trauma from accidents or combat. These wounds rarely heal on their own because they frequently suffer from poor blood flow and stalled healing processes. In extreme cases such as combat-related amputations, patients may even develop heterotopic ossification, which is a specific complication where bone mistakenly grows inside soft muscle tissue, making the recovery process even harder. Standard wound care is often reactive rather than proactive. Doctors usually check a wound every few days or weeks and apply treatments that do not change until the next visit. While tools like vacuum-assisted healing or lab-grown skin have helped to a certain degree, they have major drawbacks, including too bulky or complicated to administer and use at home. Moreover, these do not address the biggest flaw in today's wound care in that it is essentially "blind" between doctor visits, so while your body’s chemistry can change over hours and days, the current standard of care remains stubbornly static. Recent clinical data shows that this lack of precision is more than just an inconvenience; it is a primary reason why chronic wounds stall.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a peptide nucleic acid-based system enabling precise and customizable delivery of antigens, adjuvants, and targeting molecules for improved cancer immunotherapy.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed an innovative Cherenkov-based system for calibrating radiotherapy beams, enabling precise, real-time calibration of radiation dose delivery, including for high-intensity FLASH radiotherapy, improving treatment accuracy and reliability.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a technology that introduces vaccines that express macrophage-suppressing molecules to significantly enhance inflammatory T-cell functions for improved immune responses.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a technology that introduces a TCTS (Two-component Two-step) drug delivery system designed to enhance cancer treatment efficacy while minimizing toxicity.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed isolated peptides that selectively bind M1 and M2 macrophages to enable precise diagnosis and targeted treatment of macrophage-associated diseases, including cancer.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed an advancement in the field of healthcare technology, specifically in the development and application of silyl lipids for RNA vaccines.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a nanoparticle system combining photothermal therapy and chemotherapy for enhanced cancer treatment.

When a delivered plasmid lacks exclusion genes during bacterial conjugation is a phenomenon known as lethal zygosis. The effect of this lethal zygosis is a severe bottleneck for genetic engineering. UC researchers have developed materials and methods that improve bacterial conjugation.  This replication incompetent vectors that include a nucleic acid sequence that can encode an exclusion polypeptide in a donor bacterial cell can protect a recipient bacterial cell from lethal zygosis.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed non-invasive methods for intranasally delivering the drug allopregnanolone.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a technology that introduces an approach to creating semi-living, non-replicating cellular systems for advanced therapeutic applications.

Chronic wounds affect over 6.5 million people in the United States costing more than $25B annually. 23% of military blast and burn wounds do not close, affecting a military patient's bone, skin, nerves. Moreover, 64% of military trauma have abnormal bone growth into soft tissue. Slow healing of recalcitrant wounds is a known and persistent problem, with incomplete healing, scarring, and abnormal tissue regeneration. Precise control of wound healing depends on physician's evaluation, experience. Physicians generally provide conditions and time for body to either heal itself, or to accept and heal around direct transplantations, and their practice relies a lot on passive recovery. And while newer static approaches have demonstrated enhanced growth of non-regenerative tissue, they do not adapt to the changing state of wound, thus resulting in limited efficacy.

Genetic therapies often suffer from low delivery efficiency to cancer cells. To address this, UC Berkeley researchers designed a therapy delivery system that targets and kills cancer cells despite low delivery efficiencies. In this system, nucleic acid cargo encoding a secreted toxin and non-secreted anti-toxin are delivered to cancer cells. The small population of cells that receives and expresses the cargo survives due to the presence of the anti-toxin, while the majority of cancer cells that do not have the cargo die from the secreted toxin. The cargo-containing cells are subsequently eliminated using an encoded kill-switch. The invention also describes screening methods in organoids and methods of using compounds identified in screens. When used in vivo, this technology presents an attractive method for curing solid tumor cancers via gene therapy.

This technology represents a groundbreaking approach to generating and using biomolecule-loaded extracellular vesicles (EVs) for targeted cellular reprogramming.

This technology represents a groundbreaking approach to treating Primary Open Angle Glaucoma by directly targeting the trabecular meshwork pathology with lipid nanoparticle-mediated delivery of gene editing tools or anti-sense oligos.

Nucleic acid therapies hold vast therapeutic potential. FDA approved therapies include mRNA vaccines against SARS-COV2 and CRISPR/CAS9 treatment to treat sickle cell.  Both therapies use non-viral methods to deliver designer nucleic acid therapies to cells. However, a limitation of these approaches is the lack of organ and cell-specific delivery. Controlling gene delivery and expression in various cell subsets is challenging. UC Berkeley researchers have shown that the nanoscale topology of CpG oligodeoxynucleotide (CpG-ODN) motifs can be used to stimulate various immune cell subsets and alter gene expression from exogenously delivered mRNA in distinct immune cell subsets. CpG-ODNs of different classes are known to induce different inflammatory profiles in immune cells based on the structure and nanoscale topology of the short DNA strand. The researchers have found novel nanostructures which can be used to present or deliver CpGs to various cell subsets and regulate gene expression in these subsets.

This technology enables precise, selective manipulation of magnetically barcoded materials, distinguishing them from background magnetic materials

A novel method for selectively targeting and modulating brain border-associated myeloid cells for the treatment of neurological disorders.