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Innovation and entrepreneurship are thriving amongst UC Davis students and alumni. Here, we check in with three Aggies who have an entrepreneurial spirit. 

Keith Yamada

Keith Yamada ’11 turned a challenging period of his life into a source of innovation. A researcher and entrepreneur based in Finland, Yamada was partly inspired by his chemotherapy treatments for colon cancer to start his company, Metacell, in 2025. 

His international team has helped resolve a 50-year bottleneck in manufacturing a key chemotherapy agent, doxorubicin, detailed in a study recently published in .

A process that Yamada describes as “a new bacterial cell factory” identifies the electrons powering the drug-producing enzyme and clears roadblocks to doxorubicin production. Yamada’s team discovered a DnrV protein that “is able to bind to the doxorubicin and prevent it from going back to clogging the system,” Yamada said, keeping the drug from shutting down the enzyme's own production machinery. “In this way we can push it forward, prevent it from clogging, keep the flow going in the right direction and get more of our product.” The newly discovered bacteria has led to a 180% increase in yield of doxorubicin production, with significantly higher purity than current standards or synthetically produced options, he said.

“If we can do the chemistry through biocatalysts, it’s a lot more environmentally friendly and the conversion and efficiency is better,” Yamada explained. “We feel that the trend is going in that direction to get away from the older, more polluting technologies.” 

As co-founder and chief operating officer of Metacell, Yamada aims to commercialize these technologies and help anti-cancer agents go to market at scale. 

“I felt so strongly about the potential of this work to benefit patients and society that it gave me a sense of purpose and the drive to push forward, even during the most difficult parts of my treatment.”

Yamada’s interest in biotechnology solutions began at age 13 when he was prescribed a biologic medication and learned that bacteria could create lifesaving results. During his last year studying genetics at UC Davis, he participated in Professor Deborah Kimbrell’s lab and study abroad program, “Genetics: the Global Learning Language of Biology.” They traveled to Stockholm and to Cambridge, where the DNA double-helix polymer structure was first discovered.

“Working with her really helped launch everything and inspired me to go to Finland, to study bioinformatics and biochemistry,” Yamada recalled, who earned his Ph.D. from the University of Turku, where he is now a postdoctoral researcher. 

His advice for undergraduate students is to not be challenged by initial academic hurdles. 

“During undergrad, the intro courses were the hardest. When I got to the more advanced levels, what I was really interested in, it actually became easier,” Yamada said. “If someone is struggling in the early years, they should stick it out and everything will start to fall into place.”

He also encouraged undergrads to be aware of their health as early as possible. 

“Colon cancer isn't just an ‘older person’s disease.’ I’m living proof of that,” Yamada said. “My hope is that my story encourages others in our community to listen to their bodies and not delay screenings.”

Ridhima Bellam

Third-year cognitive science major Ridhima Bellam is helping shape the direction of an innovative medical startup founded by a fellow Aggie. 

Originally from Bakersfield, Bellam discovered the Davis Women in Business group while they were tabling on campus and currently serves as the group’s career development director. Within the �������ý of Engineering’s Student Startup Center, Bellam is the student manager of PLASMA, a 12-week early-stage accelerator initiative for aspiring undergraduate entrepreneurs that hosts several hack nights to bring entrepreneurial students together. 

����’s that Bellam met Arushi Patel, the founder of  Medical. APERIS is an implantable device that acts as a “catheter for the lungs,” Bellam described, by draining excess fluid between the lungs and the chest wall, an issue called recurrent pleural effusion, which often becomes cancerous. 

Pleural effusions are “very harmful for people in their later stage of life. There needs to be a way to displace that fluid,” Bellam explained, who had a relative die from this very lung condition. 

Unlike external equipment solutions that require multiple procedures, APERIS would offer a single procedure to insert a small, internal implant, and require fewer hospital visits and lower infections. 

“I thought it was a great opportunity for me to help a founder that I admire, working toward a solution for something that I personally think is super important,” Bellam said, who currently leads the startup’s marketing and growth strategies. 

Last year, Bellam and Patel attended the FemaleFounded conference at Princeton University, where they  in the conference’s pitch competition and secured additional funding. They aim to bring APERIS to market as part of “a comprehensive implant kit” so that “hospitals and surgical centers can streamline procurement, ensure compatibility, and simplify the implantation procedure,” per APERIS’ website. 

Shrey Gupta

As a fourth-year computer science major, Shrey Gupta has already achieved significant business goals. Gupta is the co-founder of , an app designed to “fight brain rot and rage bait content,” according to Gupta, by writing personalized stories about topics of interest to its users. The startup was recently awarded a  grant, has an office in San Francisco and currently has a total investment value of $2.1 million. 

Gupta began building websites in the third grade and his first app by fourth grade, seemingly always existing on both traditional and self-defined education tracks.

He moved from Southern California to Davis, attracted to the university’s dedicated computer science program. As a first-year, , a new unit within ASUCD, designed to create apps and software in collaboration with ASUCD and increase STEM community representation and engagement through events like hack nights. 

“I wanted the university to have this mindset of ‘Hey, we have this problem, we have so many talented students who can go and build something with a lot more empathy toward the end user, because they are the users,’” Gupta said. 

Gupta was also influenced by Professor Sam King’s computer science class “iOS Fundamentals,” in which students are tasked with making an app and garnering 300 user registrations. 

“He’s been super supportive,” Gupta said. “I give him updates, and he's always giving me really good advice.”

In an AI-driven era, even Gupta no longer writes the majority of code for projects like Olive. 

“I used to love coding because I think coding made me think really deeply,” Gupta said, who is realizing the power of AI coding at scale. “Now I'm learning to think in a different way and starting to like ideation a lot more, where I can bring anything to life.”

For Olive’s next steps, Gupta’s focus is on building quality, user-friendly experiences. 

“We have an opportunity to creatively stimulate our brains in so many ways,” Gupta explained, “and this app is designed to do that.”