Berkeley Haas Case Series
The Berkeley Haas Case Series is a collection of business case studies created by UC Berkeley faculty
by Darren Cooke and Richard Lyons
Although Ross Wilson has spent much of his adult life in biology labs, first while earning his PhD and now as head of his own lab, his goal has always been to directly improve human health. “If I could help one patient, that would be a huge accomplishment,” he said. “That’s motivating.”
Indeed, when he founded Wilson Lab—part of the Innovative Genomics Institute founded by Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna—he set translating research into CRISPR-based therapies as its mission.
In the lab, CRISPR can address many diseases at the molecular level in a cell, but a gulf remains between the lab and the clinic. “My lab is dedicated to the technology that would close the gap, turning these theoretical cures into real-world therapies.”
Most universities can and do support innovation and entrepreneurship to varying degrees, and UC Berkeley and UC system administrators have recently examined what that support should look like. In 2018, the UC Berkeley Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost commissioned a report to assess technology licensing, the campus climate for entrepreneurship, and the state of student entrepreneurship.
[The report] compared UC Berkeley to a small group of other universities along multiple dimensions and offered recommendations for how UC Berkeley could better encourage entrepreneurship. Three of the recommendations stand out: creating an office dedicated to entrepreneurship, having that office appoint a leader for entrepreneurship at the level of Associate Vice Chancellor, and suggesting that entrepreneurship be considered in tenure and promotion decisions in the same way that textbook writing or society service is.
Action on the first two recommendations quickly followed. By 2020, UC Berkeley had added an Innovation & Entrepreneurship team to the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and hired as its leader Richard Lyons, former dean of Berkeley Haas. Lyons became UC Berkeley’s first Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer.
This case follows an academic startup, Editpep, as it encounters and overcomes hurdles in its early days. The case also follows the creation of the Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center (LSEC) at UC Berkeley and the new LSEC Venture Grant program. Resources from this program, and other places, help Editpep develop and refine its strategy, secure seed funding, and hire its first CEO. The case also explores how UC Berkeley supports academic startup formation, how other universities might emulate and improve upon Berkeley’s achievements, and potential obstacles universities could face along the way.
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The Berkeley-Haas Case Series is a collection of business case studies written by Haas faculty. Our culture and vision at the Haas School of Business naturally offer distinctive qualities to the Series, filling a gap in existing case offerings by drawing upon lessons from UC Berkeley's rich history and prime location in the San Francisco Bay Area. We seek to publish cases that challenge conventional assumptions about business, science, culture, and politics.
