We extend UC Davis as a first-in-class destination for researchers and industry to tackle big opportunities in health care.
The Ventures Office at UC Davis Health promotes a collaborative innovation and entrepreneurship culture by translating best-in-class research to commercial practice.
UC Davis Health is a national leader 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 the UC Davis Health Ventures Office 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, where he leads the Ventures Office. 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 UC Davis Health Ventures Office inaugural Assistant Clinical Ventures Officer.
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 in the UC Davis Health Ventures Office. 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.
Michael Espinoza is the Interim Director of Business Operations in the UC Davis Health Ventures Office. Mike assumes leadership responsibility for overseeing the business operations of the Health Ventures Office Transformation Engine programs including the UC Davis Health Clinical Test Bed, the UC Davis Health Venture Studio, and Investing in the Future of Medicine Fund. The Interim Director of Business Operations plays an integral role in fostering collaboration across various UC Davis Health units, including Strategy & Growth, Hospital operations leadership, patient experience, and other key stakeholders across main campus such as Venture Catalyst, Innovation Access, and Foundation and Corporate Engagement.
Before joining the UC Davis Health Ventures Office, Michael served as the executive leader of operational excellence for the clinical enterprise and has spent the last ten years improving patient outcomes, physician engagement, patient experience, and operating efficiency. He served in a similar role at Stanford Health Care prior to joining UC Davis.
Michael spent the first half of his career in R&D and manufacturing with responsibility for new product development, introduction, change management, quality improvement, and sustainment. Michael led global teams for several years translating new product designs to manufacturing groups in Japan, Taiwan, India, and the Americas. Michael earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UC Davis.