# Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center (BRCC)

> Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center (BRCC) is a VC fund backing Health Care. See 16 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details…

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Kalamazoo, United States
- Total investments: 16
- Last investment: May 2026
- Lead investor: 6%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/western-michigan-university
- X (Twitter): https://www.twitter.com/westernmichu
- Website: http://www.brcc.wmich.edu/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wmich

Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center (BRCC) is a VC fund in Kalamazoo focused on Health Care and Biotechnology. The BRCC, established in 2003 by the Michigan Legislature, is located at Western Michigan University and is perfectly positioned to access the wealth of scientific talent and pharmaceutical commercialization expertise that is part of Kalamazoo’s heritage. Long-time home to such industry giants as the Upjohn Co., Richard-Allan Scientific, StrykerCorp. and Pfizer Inc., Kalamazoo offers a forward-looking, entrepreneurial business climate and a growing reputation among venture capitalists seeking to invest in life sciences discoveries and promising business ventures. Their customers are entrepreneurs, scientists, University Technology Transfer offices and corporate clients.The BRCC provides startup and gap funding to promising Michigan-based life sciences and medical device ventures entering the commercialization phase of development.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center (BRCC). Shizune tracks 1 team members at Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center (BRCC). Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/biosciences-research-and-commercialization-center-brcc?utm_source=investor_profile

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $500k–$2.4M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Health Care | 8 | 50% |
| Biotechnology | 8 | 50% |
| Medical | 2 | 13% |
| Therapeutics | 2 | 13% |
| Medical Device | 2 | 13% |

16 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 8 | 50% |
| Funding Round | 2 | 13% |
| Series A | 1 | 6% |
| Series B | 1 | 6% |
| Series C | 1 | 6% |

6 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 9 | 56% |
| Israel | 1 | 6% |
| Russian Federation | 1 | 6% |

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Steve Haakenson | Executive Director | 4 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/steve-haakenson |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Culturewell | Cleanliness Analytics - helping healthcare systems prevent infections in their facilities | $750K |  | May 29, 2026 |  |
| PatenSee | PatenSee is a clinical-stage medical device company that has developed a contactless surveillance system designed to detect early developing asymptomatic vascular stenosis in hemodialysis patients.The company is seamlessly integrated with technology that employs cutting-edge, multi-modal imaging technologies and machine learning to detect earlyindications of vascular access stenosis and allow for preventative and economical intervention. This allows care teams to carry out interventions to safeguard the patient's hemodialysis lifeline, enhance quality of care, and extend life expectancy.PatenSee was established in 2019 in Or Yehuda, Central by Gal Goshen. | $2M | Seed | Feb 20, 2025 |  |
| Culturewell | Cleanliness Analytics - helping healthcare systems prevent infections in their facilities | $1.4M | Seed | Nov 03, 2023 |  |
| ONL Therapeutics | ONL Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to protecting vision through the protection of photoreceptors. The current market for retinal drugs is greater than $7 billion and rapidly growing. Existing therapies have significant limitations and none address the initial neural component of vision loss - the death of the photoreceptorcell. | $15M | Series C | Mar 08, 2023 |  |
| Asalyxa Bio | Asalyxa Bio is a drug development and platform technology company focused on novel therapeutics to treat major unmet medical needs caused by the dysregulation of immune signaling. With applications across a wide array of disease areas and conditions, Asalyxa Bio's platform technology enables delivery of existing and novel drugs directly intoover-reactive immune cells. | $2M | Seed | Feb 23, 2021 |  |
| ONL Therapeutics | ONL Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to protecting vision through the protection of photoreceptors. The current market for retinal drugs is greater than $7 billion and rapidly growing. Existing therapies have significant limitations and none address the initial neural component of vision loss - the death of the photoreceptorcell. | $46.9M | Series B | Dec 22, 2020 |  |
| Shoulder Innovations | Shoulder Innovations is a medical device company that has developed inset glenoid fixation technology, creating the most robust and stable glenoid platform in the industry. The company's Total Shoulder Replacement System addresses the most significant issue in shoulder arthroplasty: unreliable fixation of the glenoid implant. It also leveragesthis technology to create simple surgical instrumentation, which reduces operative time and cost.Shoulder Innovations designs and commercializes innovative products that demonstrate the potential for improved patient care and reduced overall cost to the healthcare system. Published results show Shoulder Innovations’ solution provides greater post-surgical implant stability, addressing the leading cause of revision surgery. | $21.6M |  | Nov 02, 2020 |  |
| Native Traits | Naitive Traits develops native genetic traits that makes corn higher-yielding, resistant to drought, and tolerant of temperature extremes.Native traits have many advantages compared to genetically-engineered (GMO) traits. EaSY is the flagship product of our proprietary NT RECOVERY technology. The Company is currently negotiating licensingagreements with prominent seed companies.It was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan. | $1.4M | Venture - Series Unknown | Apr 30, 2020 |  |
| Opus Genetics(formerly Ocuphire Pharma) | Ocuphire Pharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focuses on the development and commercialization of therapies to treat patients with a variety of ophthalmic disorders. It is currently focused on providing a novel once-daily eye drop treatment option, Nyxol, to treat multiple front-of-the-eye disorders, including night visiondisturbances, glaucoma, pharmacologically-induced mydriasis, and presbyopia. Nyxol eye drops are an investigational 505(b)(2) drug candidate in late-stage clinical development with over a decade of safety and efficacy data from Phase 1 and 2 trials. Part of their strategy is to explore opportunities to acquire additional ophthalmic assets for both the front and the back of the eyes and to seek strategic partners for global commercialization.The company was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Farmington Hills, Michigan. | $5M | Seed | Jul 22, 2019 |  |
| GreenMark Biomedical | GreenMark is a healthcare company providing health-based benefits using nanoparticles. The company develops technologies that involve biopolymer nanoparticles produced from natural starch as a raw material. | $670K | Seed | Mar 20, 2019 |  |

10 of 16 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Michigan Rise](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/michigan-rise) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Grand Angels](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/grand-angels) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Michigan Angel Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/michigan-angel-fund) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Ann Arbor SPARK](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ann-arbor-spark) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Blue Water Angels](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/blue-water-angels) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Capital Community Angel Investors](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/capital-community-angels-investors) — VC Fund, 3 deals together

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## FAQ

### What does Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center (BRCC) invest in?

Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center (BRCC) invests primarily in Health Care, Biotechnology and Medical startups, most often at Seed and Funding Round stage. Most of the 16 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center (BRCC)'s check size?

Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center (BRCC) typically joins rounds of $500k–$2.4M at Seed. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center (BRCC) participates in.

### How do I contact Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center (BRCC)?

Public channels for Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center (BRCC) include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### Who are the partners at Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center (BRCC)?

The team at Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center (BRCC) includes Steve Haakenson (Executive Director). The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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