UCSF

Name

UCSF

Legal name

University of California, San Francisco

Website

https://innovation.ucsf.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

1873

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Biomedical Research Commercialization

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Biological Products, (No Disgnostic Substances) (2836)

akta.pro primary industry

Public Research Universities with Academic Medical Centers (AMCs) (EDAHAAAC)

Keywords

• Biomedical research
• Technology commercialization
• Translational medicine
• Biotech licensing
• Health innovation

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices6 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

UCSF Innovation Ventures commercializes biomedical research from the University of California, San Francisco by licensing proprietary technologies, supporting startup formation through the Catalyst Accelerator, and forming strategic industry alliances. The office manages technology transfer, patent prosecution, and equity stakes in spinout companies spanning therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices, digital health, and computational health (AI). Its parent institution delivers clinical care through UCSF Health, operates medical education programs, and conducts federally funded research as one of the top NIH-funded public universities in the United States.

Product overview

UCSF Innovation Ventures supports the commercialization of research discoveries through technology licensing, startup formation, and strategic partnerships. The portfolio includes startups spanning Diagnostics (Delve Bio, Exai Bio, Mission Bio, Aclarion), Digital Health (Tidepool, Elemeno Health), Therapeutics (Vevo Therapeutics, Neurona Therapeutics, Shinobi Therapeutics, Erasca, Rezo, Chroma Medicine, Nested Therapeutics, Thymmune), Medical Devices (MindRhythm Harmony), and AI/Research Tools (GPT-Rosalind, Pillar-0, BeeKeeperAI). These ventures are supported through HealthTech Commercialization services, the Catalyst Accelerator program, Executive-in-Residence program, and strategic alliance partnerships. The ecosystem connects researchers and clinicians with industry partners, investors, and commercialization resources to translate breakthrough science into patient-benefiting products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• UCSF Health: The clinical enterprise of UCSF comprising UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals
• UCSF Innovation Ventures
• UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center

Products and services

• HealthTech Commercialization
• Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program
• Catalyst Accelerator Program
• Executive-in-Residence (XiR) Program
• Technology Licensing
• Strategic Alliances
• UCSF Health Clinical Services
• UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program
• Innovation Showcase

Quantifiable outcome

• UCSF researchers have founded pioneering companies including Genentech, Chiron, and numerous current biotech startups
• +2 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability13 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

14 partnerships are on record, tiered minor, core and flagship.

• Aethlon MedicalminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 26 June 2026Research collaboration with Aethlon Medical on the Hemopurifier device for Long COVID treatment. UCSF investigators conducted peer-reviewed research demonstrating GNA affinity resin effectiveness in capturing mannosylated extracellular vesicles.
• UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer CentercoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 June 2026Collaboration on ASPIRE (Asian American Cohort Study), one of the most significant U.S. public health initiatives on Asian American cancer disparities, funded by National Cancer Institute. UCSF is one of 20 academic institutions recruiting 20,000 participants aged 40-75.
• Filament Health (Red Light Holland subsidiary)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 4 June 2026Agreement for Filament Health to supply its PEX010 botanical psilocybin drug candidate to UCSF for a clinical trial investigating psychedelics in healthy older adults with low well-being and biomarkers for preclinical Alzheimer's disease.
• AclarionminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2026UCSF investigators utilized Aclarion's Nociscan MRI spectroscopy technology in a research study on back pain patients with Modic type 1 changes. The study received the 2026 ISSLS Best Paper Award.
• Donor Network WestcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 27 May 2026Five-year collaboration developing VITAL Core program, a scalable model connecting donated organs and tissues not used for transplant to researchers. Between 2021-2024, participating laboratories grew from 8 to 42, and researchers secured over $28.6 million in funding.
• Vanderbilt University Medical CentercoreTechnology or Integration · 26 May 2026Vanderbilt developed VAMOS (Vigilant AI Monitoring Operations System), an open-source platform for real-time AI performance monitoring in healthcare. UCSF is an early adopter health system in the open-source collaborative working with standards organizations including HL7 and the Trustworthy and Responsible AI Network.
• SciBase Holding ABminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 May 2026UCSF researchers conducted a study demonstrating SciBase's Nevisense platform using Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy can detect age-related changes in skin barrier, identifying 35 specific age-associated EIS features.
• OpenAIflagshipTechnology or Integration · 20 April 2026UCSF School of Pharmacy is deploying GPT-Rosalind, a purpose-built reasoning model for life sciences research, drug discovery, and translational medicine. The model supports multi-step reasoning across chemistry, genomics, and protein engineering and achieved leading performance on BixBench bioinformatics benchmark.
• Caris Life SciencescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 April 2026UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center joined the Caris Precision Oncology Alliance, a global network of leading cancer centers collaborating on precision oncology and biomarker-driven research. The alliance leverages Caris' AI-driven molecular profiling platform and one of the industry's largest multimodal databases containing matched molecular and clinical outcomes data from hundreds of thousands of cancer patients.
• Azalea TherapeuticscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 March 2026UCSF scientists developed dual-vector CAR T cell generation technology commercialized through Azalea Therapeutics. The company has demonstrated efficacy in non-human primates and targets first-in-human trials by end of 2027.
• Nektar TherapeuticsminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 4 March 2026Collaboration with UCSF on TNFR2 program for multiple sclerosis studies. Nektar is executing a large equity raise and pivoting toward immunology with positive Phase 2b results for lead candidate REZPEG.
• GE HealthCarecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 26 February 2026New 10-year collaboration focused on remote imaging and workforce education. The partnership includes GE HealthCare's innovation pipeline of over 100 FDA-approved AI-enabled devices and aims to advance imaging technology and training programs.
• SandboxAQcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 20 December 2025Collaboration between UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases and SandboxAQ demonstrating how large quantitative AI models can compress neurodegenerative disease research timelines from years to months using the AQBioSim platform.
• UC BerkeleycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 10 December 2025Joint development of Pillar-0, an open-source AI model for analyzing full 3D medical imaging volumes. The model outperformed leading models from Google, Microsoft, and Alibaba by over 10% across 366 diagnostic tasks.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Stanford Medicine / Stanford Office of Technology Licensing: Stanford's tech transfer office is the closest peer — a private research university with an AMC driving therapeutics, diagnostics, device and digital health spinouts (e.g., Genentech legacy). Directly comparable in commercialization model, biotech spinout volume and Bay Area positioning.
• MIT Technology Licensing Office: MIT's TLO commercializes biomedical and engineering IP from a top-tier research university, producing deep spinout pipelines in biotech, medical devices, and computational health. Highly analogous institutional tech transfer model with global licensing reach.
• Harvard Office of Technology Development: Harvard OTD manages IP commercialization across Harvard's biomedical enterprise, including partnerships with affiliated hospitals. Comparable scale of therapeutics, diagnostics and digital health disclosures and similar institutional tech transfer governance.
• Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures: JHTV commercializes IP from Johns Hopkins' schools of medicine and public health, with a comparable blend of therapeutics, diagnostics and digital health spinouts. Closely matched in research intensity, NIH funding scale and academic medical center affiliation.
• University of Pennsylvania Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship: Penn's tech transfer arm commercializes a leading CAR-T and gene therapy pipeline from an academic medical center, with analogous biotech spinout activity (e.g., Novartis-partnered cell therapies). Directly comparable in cell/gene therapy IP pipeline.
• Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard: Independent biomedical research institute affiliated with MIT/Harvard/Harvard-affiliated hospitals, focused on genomics, cell biology and chemical biology. Comparable in mission, scale of NIH funding, and spinout pipeline activity in therapeutics and computational biology.
• Memorial Sloan Kettering Technology Development: MSK's tech development office commercializes oncology IP from a top NCI-designated cancer center. Closely comparable in therapeutic-area focus, precision oncology pipeline and academic-industry partnership structure.
• Duke Office of Licensing & Ventures: Duke OLV manages IP commercialization across Duke's schools of medicine and engineering, with a comparable spinout pipeline in cell therapy, genomics and medical devices. Similar institutional tech transfer economics and academic-industry partnership model.
• Vanderbilt Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization: Vanderbilt CTTC manages biomedical IP from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, with comparable activity in diagnostics, digital health and AI tools for healthcare (e.g., VAMOS, which UCSF has adopted). Same academic medical center / TTO structure.
• Cleveland Clinic Innovations: Cleveland Clinic Innovations is the commercialization arm of a major academic medical center, with a comparable mix of therapeutics, devices, diagnostics and digital health spinouts. Similar scale of clinical-research-driven IP generation and partnership structure with industry.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@ucsfinnovationventures8503
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ucsf-innovation-ventures

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Subsidiaries3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about UCSF