But at a diabetes conference, Dr. Eng met people from Amylin Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology start-up developing another drug for diabetes.
In 2008, Brian Connolly, an engineer with years of experience writing software for medical devices, joined a start-up developing diagnostic technology to identify biohazards, First Light Biosciences.
A consortium of VCs recently invested over $90m in Skybox, a start-up developing the same kind of imaging microsatellites as Planetary Resources.
InVitae, a start-up developing a single test for all rare inherited diseases, filed a brief arguing against gene patents for this reason.
Nantero, a start-up developing memory chips using nanotechnology, and LSI Logic, a leading maker of specialty microchips, are expected to announce today that they have transferred Nantero's technology to a standard semiconductor production line.
Cityscape Farms, a San Francisco start-up developing urban rooftop greenhouses that combine aquaculture and hydroponics, was one of the companies selected to make a presentation at the Silicon Valley conference.
That is why David Hale, the president of CancerVax, a biotech start-up developing drugs to combat cancers, chose to set up his research centre some 30 miles north of downtown San Diego: Carlsbad, he says, is a town where his scientists can afford to find housing with the salaries he can afford to pay them.
Venture-capital firms are piling in to back start-ups developing robots.
(I am an adviser to some early stage start-ups developing technologies like these).
They packed a ballroom to hear entrepreneurs pitch start-ups developing everything from nontoxic pesticides and analytical tools for soil analysis to indoor urban farming systems.
