Edward F. Ruppel

Genentech, Inc. develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products for life-threatening medical conditions. It studies various areas including oncology, immunology, neuroscience, ophthalmic diseases, microbial pathogenesis, metabolic diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and opportunistic areas. The company was founded by Herb W. Boyer and Robert A. Swanson in 1976 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, CA.

Cygnus, Inc. develops and manufactures glucose-monitoring devices. The company develops devices that provide data to individuals and physicians to enable them to manage diabetes. It was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Lumisys, Inc. makes develops lighting solutions. The company makes products for integrated switching, retro-fit, demand response dimming, telephone override and many more. It was founded in 1985 and is located in Sunnyvale, CA.

HBM Partners AG (HBM-P) was established in 2001 as an independent provider of investment advisory services with headquarters in Zug, Switzerland. HBM-P's field of expertise comprises global human medicine, biotechnology, medical technology and related sectors. The firm primarily advises HBM BioVentures AG and HBM BioCapital via their Cayman Islands-based, wholly-owned subsidiary, HBM Partners (Cayman) Ltd., which acts as the investment manager for the HBM funds. They rely on the services of an external consultant to analyze investment opportunities in the US.

Trellis Bioscience, Inc. is discovers and develops novel human antibody therapeutics. It provides the discovery and development of therapeutic antibodies from human B cells. The firm develops the CellSpot antibody discovery platform, which enables the identification of antibodies directly from human blood. The company was founded by Lawrence Kauvar and Stote Ellsworth in 1998 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, CA.

Tensys Medical, Inc. develops blood pressure monitoring systems. The firm provides patient safety by designing, and manufacturing continuous, non-invasive hemodynamic monitoring systems. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in San Diego, CA.

Quantum Dot Corp. develops and markets novel solutions for biomolecular detection. Its products and services employ quantum dot particles, tiny semiconductor crystals that emit light brightly in a range of sharp colors. The company was founded by Bala Manian in 1998 and is located in Hayward, CA.

MiCardia Corp. designs, develops, and commercializes implantable medical devices. The firm offers implantable devices for the treatment of heart diseases, such as mitral valve regurgitation and congestive heart failure. It also provides enCor, an annuloplasty device that corrects residual mitral regurgitation on a beating heart. The company was founded in November 2004 by Michael R. Henson, Shawn Moaddeb and Samuel M. Shaolian and is headquartered in Irvine, CA.

Xceed Molecular Corporation is a molecular diagnostic company dedicated to commercializing a platform for automated gene expression analysis and developing proprietary clinical research assays and custom arrays. They develop tools and content aimed at accelerating the current market trend towards 'translational medicine', and bridging the gap from gene signature validation to clinical diagnostics. The Ziplex Automated Workstation is the first integrated and fully automated hybridization system for multiplex gene expression signatures. Their integrated solution - the Ziplex System - features this innovative instrument platform and focused-content TipChip arrays and reagents to perform highly multiplexed molecular assays with superior accuracy, reproducibility, speed and scalability. The Ziplex System is designed to provide the ease-of-use in assay automation and analytics that is required to successfully translate gene expression analysis from research use into routine practice. Xceed complements the Ziplex platform by offering Gene Expression Services and Assay Development Services.

Abmaxis Inc. develops pharmaceutical drugs. The company discovers and optimizes monoclonal antibody (mAb) products for human therapeutics and diagnostics. It has developed antibody engineering technology platform, Abmaxis in-silico Immunization (AISIM TM), which they are used for building an internal product pipeline and collaboration with global biotech and pharmaceutical partners. The company was founded in 2000 and is located in Santa Clara, CA.

Ellipse Technologies, Inc. develops and commercializes implants for spinal and orthopedic applications. It designs, develop and commercialize non-invasively adjustable, remote controlled implants for a broad spectrum of spinal and orthopedic applications. The company was founded by Samuel M. Shaolian and Shawn Moaddeb on June 30, 2005 and is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, CA.

Cardialen, Inc. develops medical devices. It offers pain-free cardio version therapy for atrial fibrillation (AF) using low-energy implantable atrial cardioverters. The firm develops and commercializes these as an independent specialist, to address major needs in atrial fibrillation management, achieve improved outcomes and reduce the risk of stroke, heart failure and high healthcare costs associated with atrial fibrillation. The company's products comprise implantable low-energy pain-free atrial cardioverters and cardiac leads and defibrillator equipment. Its products are used for the treatment of atrial and ventricular arrhythmias. Cardialen was founded in 2008 by D. Graeme Thomas, Randy H. Weiss and Igor R. Efimov and is headquartered in St. Louis, MO.

Accellix, Inc. develops in-vitro diagnostic systems. Its Accellix platform is an affordable tabletop diagnostic device with single-use assay cartridges that does not require extensive training nor involve complex operational processes. The firm’s product is an application for the rapid identification of sepsis, a condition associated with high morbidity and mortality with no existing rapid diagnostic test. The company was founded in 2009 by Julien Meissonnier and Harvey Kasdan and is headquartered in San Jose, CA.

Vascular Dynamics, Inc. provides blood pressure modulation devices. It develops and commercializes a passive, catheter-delivered implant for the treatment of hypertension. The company was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Mountain View, CA.

Bank Julius Bär & Co. AG (BJB) is the private banking subsidiary of Julius Bär Gruppe AG (SWX: BAER) in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zurich, BJB was founded in 1890 and provides personal wealth management advice to private clients and family offices.

Part of Boston Scientific Corp., Schneider (Europe) GmbH is a Swiss company that makes stents used to prop open arteries and other devices for angioplasty. The company is based in Bulach, Switzerland. Schneider (Europe was acquired by Boston Scientific Corp. from Pfizer Inc. on September 10, 1998 for $2,100 million.

Part of Synopsys, Inc., Mojave, Inc. develops integrated circuit manufacturability and verification technology. The company is based in Sunnyvale, CA. The company was founded in 2002 by Vivek Raghavan, Casey Jones, Murat Alaybeyi. Mojave was acquired by Magma Design Automation LLC on April 29, 2004 for $140 million.

SurroMed, Inc. provides pharmaceutical research. It focuses on discovering & applying biomarkers to improve the drug discovery and development process and enable the precise diagnosis and personalized treatment of disease. The company's research process yields biological markers and information that enable accelerated, cost-efficient discovery and development of new therapeutic products, as well as development of diagnostic tests for early disease detection, disease staging, patient stratification, guiding and monitoring therapy. SurroMed was founded in 1997 and is located in Menlo Park, CA.

DigitalOptics Corp. manufactures photonic chipTM optical. It components and optical subassemblies for use in a variety of industries, such as aerospace, consumer devices, data storage, medical devices, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, sensors and vision systems. The company was founded in 1980 by Bala Manian and Michael R. Feldman and is located in Charlotte, NC.

Abbott Diagnostics, Inc. develops, manufactures and sells medical diagnostic instrument, test and automation products. The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA.

REGiMMUNE Corp. develops solutions for treating immune disorders. Its focus is on the discovery, development, and commercialization of immune regulatory therapeutics to treat life-threatening and debilitating conditions, including allergies, autoimmune diseases and transplantation. The firm's platform technology, reVax, induces immune tolerance in an antigen-specific manner through pharmacological induction of regulatory T (Treg) cells. It also develops products for preventing inhibitor formation in enzyme replacement therapies (ERT) and for celiac disease with undisclosed partners. The company was founded by Yasuyuki Ishii on March 3, 2006 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

A-CUBE, Inc. develops novel antibodies. It utilizes silico algorithms and to discover novel druggable targets suitable for developing human therapeutic interventions, including next generation drugs for commercially proven targets. The company was founded by Nobuyuki Ota is headquartered in Belmont, CA.

ReaMetrix India Pvt Ltd. provides biotechnology research services. The company was founded on January 17, 2002 and is headquartered in Bangalore, India.

Part of HBM Partners AG, HBM Healthcare Investments (Cayman) Ltd. provides healthcare services. The company is based in George Town, Cayman Islands. Andreas Wicki has been the CEO of the company since 2001.

HBM Partners AG (Investment Management) (HBM-IM) is the asset management division of HBM Partners AG. The firm is headquartered in Zug and was founded in 2001. HBM-IM provides investment advisory services to private companies. They manage the fund HBM Healthcare Investments.

Arcturus Bioscience, Inc. develops laser capture micro dissection instruments and reagents for the analysis of microscopic tissue samples. The private company is based in Carlsbad, CA. The company was founded by Antonius P. Schuh.

ValCare Medical, Inc. engages in the designing, developing and commercializing devices and accessories for minimally invasive treatment of heart valve diseases. The firm develops a unique transcatheter device, which will provide the capability to implant the mitral annuloplasty device interventionally without surgery. The company was founded by Samuel M. Shaolian in 2012 and is headquartered in Herzlyia Pituach, Israel.