UC Davis bets on innovative university start-ups to disrupt the food system

12 Aug 2024 — The University of California (UC) Davis, US, has created an environment where research and industry join forces to develop innovations in the food system, driven by the university’s Innovation Institute for Food and Health (IIFH). University start-ups are vital in creating “challengers to legacy companies” and disrupting the food system, says Justin Siegel, IIFH’s faculty director and a professor in Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, the Genome Center and entrepreneurship. 

When Siegel joined UC Davis, the university generated almost no start-ups, even though universities have a long history of start-ups, which he says are crucial for innovation. “Innovation is fundamentally defined in the sense of new technologies, creating new marketplaces or disrupting marketplaces,” he tells Nutrition Insight.