San Diego Tech News Weekly – October 8, 2021

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Neal: Welcome everyone to the weekly San Diego Tech News by Neal Bloom and Jonah Peake from Fresh Brewed Tech. Every Friday at 12:30pm Pacific on Clubhouse and now we record them for you to enjoy as well. Find these episodes on Freshbrewedtech.com and favorite podcast player for Tacos and Tech Podcast

I’m Neal Bloom, entrepreneur, investor, and community builder 

Jonah: Hey I’m Jonah, ops guy building marketplaces spent time at Lime, Handy, and Postmates and I enjoy helping startups throughout San Diego. Let’s dive into our five stories of the week

 

For Oct 8, 2021:

1. San Diego To Develop Regional Cyber Innovation Center To Prevent Attacks
   1. The city received Federal Funding to develop SDRCIC
      1. Support local agencies defend against attacks
   2. Providing the region with
      1. Coordinated awareness through access tools
      2. Intelligence
      3. Trained and capable workforce
   3. A simulated environment to simulate and defend against attacks
   4. Todd Gloria quote
      1. “With cybersecurity threats becoming more frequent and sophisticated, we must make sure we’re doing everything we can to stop these attacks in their tracks,”
   5. A few data points
      1. Cyber crime caused an estimated $6 trillion in damages in 2021
         1. According to Cybersecurity Ventures
      2. First 9 months 2020
         1. 36 billion records exposed 
         2. report by RiskBased Security
      3. IBM Security found the average cost of a data breach was $3.86 million as of 2020
      4. Notable attacks locally:
         1. Scripps Health, 
         2. the Port of San Diego, 
         3. San Marcos 
         4. UC San Diego Health
   6. SD has received 2 grants
      1. Nearly $1 million
      2. To develop the Cyber Innovation Center
         1. Focus on
            1. Collaborative sharing / alerts of malicious activity
            2. Repository of best practices for cyber security
            3. Training environment 
            4. Tips and resources
   7. Lisa Easterly, president and CEO of San Diego-based Cyber Center of Excellence
      1. “We stand a much better chance of minimizing those threats when we are united in our defense against them,”
2. The San Diego Crypto Ecosystem
   1. Shout out to Fred Grier!!
   2. Check out his blog titled: The San Diego Crypto Ecosystem
   3. He’s shining a light on the emerging crypto ecosystem in SD
      1. It’s been hiding in plain sight perhaps
   4. There are a few people to call out in the industry:
   5. It’s important to call out Chris Cantino
      1. @chriscantino
      2. With color capital, who moved here from portland and really settling into the SD scene
      3. He’s been posting some impressive threads about 
         1. NFTs
         2. How to buy
         3. How to secure (related to the above story)
   6. We’ve also gained another transplant Vinny Lingham
      1. @VinnyLingham
      2. Investor in Solana, Filecoin
   7. You’ve most likely heard of Bitcoin or Ethereum
      1. But maybe a bit newer to Solana? 
      2. Turns out this was founded by a FMR qualcomm employee
         1. Solana’s CEO Anatoly Yakovenko
      3. Named after Solana Beach
      4. They just closed $314m from A16Z & Polychain
      5. Then they left for SV : (
   8. We need to keep attracting investors and founders like Chirs and Vinny to SD and build a strong industry here
   9. Shout out Paul Puey!!
      There are some awesome meetups, one hosted by Paul Puey
      1. Founder of Edge wallet 
      2. Offices DT
   10. If you’re curious, a veteran or looking to meet up with others interested in crypto, def check out the meetup
3. https://www.scripps.edu/faculty/patapoutian/
   1. https://twitter.com/nobelprize/status/1445040509198680066?s=21
   2. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2021/summary/
      1. Congratulations Professor Ardem Patapoutian!!
      2. Who was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
         1. This is the category not us being confused 
         2. He’s a professor at Scripps Research
            1. La Jolla
            2. Hughes Medical Institute 
      3. This prize was shared with David Julius
      4. They both have ½ this year 
         1. These discoveries were Independently of one another, hence the 50/50 split!
   3. Awarded for discoveries in Receptors for Temp and Touch
      1. Ardem Patapoutian used pressure-sensitive cells to discover a novel class of sensors that respond to mechanical stimuli in the skin and internal organs.
   4. But more simply
      1. It was miss understood how temp or mechanical stimuli was converted to electrical impulses in the nervous system
      2. identified a cell line that gave off a measurable electric signal when poked
      3. Isolated 72 candidate genes
         1. Activated 1 by 1 until they identified the responsible for this response
      4. This discovery shows us how heat, cold and force send pulses and perceive and adapt to the world around us. 
4. For subscribers: First COVID, now HIV. Moderna and San Diego researchers race to make a vaccine
   1. Scripps Research working with Moderna
   2. Same RNA tech from covid vaccine
   3. HIVs is a much trickier virus
   4. First clinical trial starts in November
   5. San Diego researchers have played a big part in understanding HIV’s effect on the body
   6. Wealthier companies have access to antivirals, which are different than vaccines and are really expensive
   7. 700,000 people died of HIV last year alone, 38M are living with HIV
   8. A long history of failed drugs and trials, nearly 40 years
   9. HIV mutates as much higher rates than even Covid and has hidden spikes on its molecules, making it elusive for vaccines to date
   10. The hope with Moderna’s RNA is to teach the body to create anitbodies to attack it itself and now we shall see how the trial does
5. San Diego Foundation Awards $500,000 Grant to Central San Diego Black Chamber of Commerce
   1. The San Diego Foundation helped create the Black Community Investment Fund
   2. Invested $500k to the Central SD Black Chamber of Commerce to distribute to black-owned businesses
   3. Also created the Urban Business Resource Center

 

Fundings:

GretalAI – $50M

AmionX – $6M – Carlsbad safe li-ion batteries

Sommetrics – $11M Vista for sleep health