Daily Business Report: Dec. 20, 2023
Startup developing noninvasive glucose
test attracts $4 million in seed funding
By Katherine Connor | UC San Diego
A startup spun off from technology developed at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering has secured $4 million in venture capital seed funding to commercialize their sweat-based diagnostic platform technology. Their initial product, a noninvasive glucose test, uses the omnipresent sweat on fingertips to measure glucose level, potentially removing the need for people with diabetes to use painful finger pricks.
Persperion, led by Jacobs School alumni Lu Yin and Alan Liu licensed technology developed in Professor Joseph Wang’s nanoengineering lab that can detect a variety of biomarkers through sweat. Researchers in the lab, including Yin, designed a sensor that uses the trace amounts of sweat always present on fingertips– the sweat that leaves fingerprint smudges behind, no exercise required– and a proprietary enzyme interaction to accurately detect biomarkers in the user’s blood, including alcohol, hormones, metabolites, drugs, and yes, glucose.
They’re first planning to use this technology to alleviate painful finger pricks for diabetics.
Photo: This wearable microgrid uses energy from human sweat and movement to power an LCD wristwatch and electrochromic device. (Photo by Lu Yin)
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How Big Oil wins in green California
By Ryan Sabalow and Jeremia Kimelman | CalMatters
Sen. Lena Gonzalez represents an industrial district that includes Long Beach, where poor neighborhoods suffer from pollution. She has a 100 percent rating from environmental groups that praise her for taking on the Big Oil lobby in Sacramento. It was surprising for her, though, when the state’s powerful building and construction trades unions allied this year with the oil lobby to kill three of her bills aimed in part at protecting the health of vulnerable communities.
“A lot of folks said to me, ‘Sorry, but I made my promise to the building trades that I wouldn’t vote for another environmental bill,’ ” Gonzalez said. “And so straight out of the horse’s mouth, that’s what I had gotten, which was really, really hard to hear.”
The dirty little secret about green California, a global leader on climate policies, is that Big Oil still wins a lot of its political fights.
Its trade association, the Western States Petroleum Association, and Chevron Corp. spent a combined $15.3 million on lobbying this year, more than any other lobby groups. The oil industry as a whole also donated more than $427,000 to legislators’ campaigns this year and more than $3.5 million to legislative candidates since 2019.
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Engineers make it easier to customize drones
for special purposes like fighting wildfires
By Susanne Clara Bard | SDSU
Engineers at SDSU and several other universities are making it easier to customize unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, for responding to wildfires, monitoring crops or conducting safety inspections in difficult-to-reach areas.
While commercial drones are readily available, they’re designed primarily for aerial photography or recreation, and are hard to modify for more specialized purposes; and building a UAV from scratch is a time-consuming process requiring a great deal of computing and engineering expertise that users may not have, according to Junfei Xie, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering .
nstead, Xie and her colleagues have created a UAV computing platform with built-in microprocessors, communication, networking and mobility control features upon which users can add modular components to tailor the UAV to their needs.
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North County casino resort to get a $24 million makeover
The very first hotel rooms that were built years ago at Harrah’s Resort Southern California are getting a $24 million top-to-bottom makeover that the resort hopes will invoke the feel of a Southern California beach retreat.
The renovation, which began in October and is expected to be completed by next summer, is the first upgrade since 2007 when the 203 rooms in what is known as the Dive Inn tower were last redone. All the rooms in the tower, a portion of which wraps around the Valley Center resort’s pool, will remain closed until the project is complete.
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‘Nanoparticle’ flu vaccine design shows promise in early tests
Existing flu vaccines provide only limited, “seasonal” protection because they target highly changeable proteins on the virus. Scripps Research scientists have now designed a vaccine that should work broadly against influenza A strains—one of the two types of flu virus that normally circulate in humans.
The new vaccine design, described in a paper in ACS Nano on Nov. 21, uses a relatively unchanging influenza A protein fragment, M2e, and presents it on self-assembling “nanoparticles” to better engage the immune system. The vaccine’s strong results in initial animal tests point to the possibility of a universal flu vaccine that provides long-term protection against serious illness from both ordinary and novel flu strains.
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Casa Familiar awarded $100,000 from Prebys Foundation
Casa Familiar has been awarded a $100,000 grant from Prebys Foundation to support Casa Verde, Casa Familiar’s Environmental Justice Youth Workforce Development Program. Casa Verde provides youth with a paid internship, extensive training, and mentoring to learn environmental justice principles, community organizing, climate change impacts, advocacy, and hands-on service-learning projects in the border community of San Ysidro.
$22 million grant to help fund climate-resilient projects
San Diego Foundation and Environmental Health Coalition have been awarded $22 million by the California Strategic Growth Council for their Transformative Climate Communities application to help fund climate-resilient projects that will preserve, protect and strengthen San Diego’s central historic barrios.
Alliance San Diego awarded $260,000 by Oakland law firm
Alliance San Diego announced it has received a “cy pres” award of $263,392.51 after being nominated by a preeminent social justice and workers rights law firm, Mallison & Martinez,
based in Oakland. The law firm had nominated Alliance San Diego to receive the remainder of unclaimed class action settlement funds from a landmark case in which they successfully recovered $140 million in unpaid overtime wages from ABM industries.
The Original 40 Brewing Company announces releases
The Original 40 Brewing Company as released Big Tings West Coast Double IPA and Baja Negra Mexican Dark Lager at its North Park brew pub. Both beers will be available on draft and in four packs of 16-oz cans. Big Tings has a 9.0 percent ABV (alcohol-by-volume), and it was brewed with Mosaic, Citra, and Centennial hops. Baja Negra has a 5.2 percebt ABV, and it was brewed with Mexican lager yeast and a touch of caramel malt.
Future USS John L. Canley to be commissioned
The future USS John L. Canley will join the active fleet Feb. 17, with a commissioning ceremony at Naval Base Coronado’s Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego. The first of its name, the ship honors Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. John L. Canley, Ret., who was awarded the Medal of Honor 50 years after his actions during the Battle of Hue City in Vietnam. He died May 11, 2022 in Bend, Ore.
San Diego Seniors Community Foundation
awards grants to 28 local senior centers
The San Diego Seniors Community Foundation awarded grants to 28 local senior centers, veteran halls and community spaces to brighten the holidays for socially isolated seniors throughout the region. The grants are tailored to help senior centers and nonprofit agencies create holiday-themed events and programming. The goal? To bring joy to socially isolated seniors through a variety of holiday activities, including parties, letters, food, gifts, and home deliveries.
Apply for San Diego County’s Civil Grand Jury
Residents interested in acting as a watchdog over local government agencies can now apply to serve on the San Diego County’s 2024-25 civil grand jury. Nineteen people are selected every year for a term that starts July 1 and runs through June 30. The civil grand jury isn’t the same as a criminal grand jury. It monitors county and city governments, special legislative districts and joint powers agencies. The civil grand jury may also investigate public complaints. Apply by Jan. 12.
$100 million impact seen for 2025 World Road Run Championships
San Diego will host the World Athletics Road Running Championships Sept. 26-28, 2025 — a foot race extravaganza patterned after the Carlsbad 5000 and Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon. And possibly a major windfall for the local economy — rivaling the $165 million brought in by Comic-Con. A mile race, 5K road race and half-marathon will be contested in and around Balboa Park, with “peoples” races for all age groups and abilities, say local organizers.
Scripps Research model could help clinicians
A new artificial intelligence (AI) model designed by Scripps Research scientists could help clinicians better screen patients for atrial fibrillation (or AFib)—an irregular, fast heartbeat that is associated with stroke and heart failure. The model picks up on tiny variations in a person’s normal heartbeat that signify AFib risk, which standard screening tests cannot detect. Read more
Brixton Capital acquires San Jose shopping center
Solana Beach-based Brixton Capital, a privately held real estate investment firm, has acquired Monterey Plaza, a 178,204-square-foot shopping center in San Jose from a Kimco Realty joint venture with Prudential Global Investment Management for an undisclosed amount. The firm plans to re-tenant a former Walmart storefront and a complete revitalization of the shopping center, including new exterior aesthetics and landscaping.
