We extend UC Davis as a first-in-class destination for researchers and industry to tackle big opportunities in health care.
UC Davis Health Ventures, part of the Innovation and Economic Development Office, promotes a collaborative innovation and entrepreneurship culture by translating best-in-class human health research into commercial practice.
UC Davis and UC Davis Health are national leaders in the following areas. We are always looking for partners to expand our research and help make our innovative clinical and scientific research come to life.
Life-saving therapies and cures for patients with a vast range of conditions.
Expansive brain and nervous system function knowledge, coupled with cutting-edge technology.
Advancing research quickly moves new drugs and biotechnologies to the clinic to benefit patients.
Campus-wide collaboration on the interconnection of nutrition, metabolism, and endocrine systems.
The success of UC Davis Health Ventures is possible through these tremendous UC Davis partnerships and the guidance of our executive committee.
Donald P. Taylor is the inaugural Chief Ventures Officer of UC Davis Health Ventures. The office partners with the innovation, entrepreneurship, and industry engagement teams at UC Davis to develop and commercialize intellectual property and advance research translation.
Before joining UC Davis Health, Dr. Taylor served as The Ohio State University’s executive director of licensing and the University of Pittsburgh’s assistant vice chancellor for commercial translation in the health sciences. At Pitt, Dr. Taylor also served as an associate professor of Biomedical Informatics in the School of Medicine.
A five-time life sciences entrepreneur, Dr. Taylor headed corporate development for Cellumen, Inc., a bio-tools drug discovery company, and for its spinoff, Cernostics, Inc., a cancer molecular diagnostics company. Prior to these positions, he led the global pharmaceutical and biotechnology marketing segments for Thermo Fisher Scientific.
In 2023, Dr. Taylor was conferred as a distinguished alumnus of the University of Pittsburgh for his pioneering work in biomedical entrepreneurship and research translation. He earned his B.S. degree in information systems from Carnegie Mellon University, his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, and an M.B.A. at Pitt’s Katz Graduate School of Business. He conducted postdoctoral research in pathology at Pitt’s School of Medicine.
Larissa May is a professor of emergency medicine and director of Emergency Department Innovation and External Partnerships at the UC Davis School of Medicine.
Dr. May serves as the inaugural Assistant Clinical Ventures Officer for UC Davis Health Ventures.
Dr. May’s research centers on the application of rapid diagnostic assays, behavioral economics, and digital health to improve healthcare quality and outcomes in the ED, hospital, and outpatient settings, particularly for infectious diseases. She has served as an investigator on multiple studies and has published over 110 peer-reviewed articles.
She earned her medical degree with distinction from The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. At GW, she also earned a dual Master of Science plus a Master of Business Administration from The University of Colorado Denver Business School.
Chris Loryman is the Director of Faculty Engagement and Education for UC Davis Health Ventures. The office partners with the innovation, entrepreneurship, and industry engagement teams at UC Davis to develop and commercialize intellectual property and advance research translation.
Before joining UC Davis Health, Chris served as Associate Director for Life Sciences at UC San Diego, leading a team with oversight for more than a billion dollars in annual research activity.
Chris has worked in the medical device and biotechnology industries, and has had roles in the development of cell-based therapies, medical devices, biopharmaceutical and gene therapy technologies. Chris has helped initiate more than thirty new companies, that have collectively gone on to raise more than a billion dollars in venture financing. Chris is co-founder of a London-based biotech company, and co-founder of the San Diego Innovation Council. Chris has an honors degree in applied biochemistry from Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom.
Contact UC Davis Health Ventures at hs-ventures@ucdavis.edu