Regis Kelly

Regis B. Kelly is a Scottish-born neuroscientist who spent more than 50 years in the University of California system before becoming one of the most influential figures in Bay Area biotech commercialization. Raised in a working-class Edinburgh family, he earned a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Edinburgh (1961) and a Ph.D. in biophysics from the California Institute of Technology (1967). He did postdoctoral work at Stanford under Nobel laureate Arthur Kornberg (studying DNA replication) and at Harvard under Zach Hall, where he pivoted into neurobiology.

Kelly joined UCSF in 1971 as an assistant professor of biochemistry and biophysics, building a research career focused on synaptic transmission and the cell biology of the nervous system. He served as Director of the Cell Biology Graduate Program (1988–1995), Director of the Hormone Research Institute (1992–2000), and Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics (1995–2000). From 2000 to 2004 he was UCSF's Executive Vice Chancellor, where his signature responsibility was the development of the new Mission Bay campus — the physical anchor of what became San Francisco's biotech corridor.

In 2004 he was appointed Executive Director of QB3, one of the four Governor Gray Davis Institutes for Science and Innovation, a partnership spanning UC Berkeley, UCSF, and UC Santa Cruz. Over roughly 18 years he turned QB3 into an engine for academic-startup formation: he created the QB3 "Garage" — the first startup incubator in the UC system — with associate director Douglas Crawford, and grew it into a network of incubators (including QB3@953, now MBC Biolabs) hosting dozens of companies. He also launched Mission Bay Capital, the first venture fund in the UC system. He stepped down as Executive Director on June 30, 2022, succeeded by UC Berkeley professor and entrepreneur David Schaffer, and remains Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF.

Kelly's honors include the San Francisco Bay Area Business Hall of Fame (2011), appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to science, innovation, and global health, election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a role as a California Council on Science & Technology distinguished expert. He has also served as a scientific advisor to companies such as Nitrase Therapeutics.

• Invests at the seed / earliest stage in bioscience companies emerging from University of California labs and the broader SF Bay Area academic ecosystem, via Mission Bay Capital, an independent seed-stage venture firm he co-founded (August 2009) and co-manages with Douglas Crawford.
• Explicitly bridges the "valley of death" between academic discovery and commercialization — pairing cheap lab/incubator space (QB3 incubator network) with seed funding to get scientist-founders to their first value-inflection milestone.
• Backs scientist-entrepreneurs: Mission Bay Capital combines QB3's operational navigation with a pro bono investment advisory committee historically led by veteran VCs Brook Byers (Kleiner Perkins) and John Wadsworth — signaling a bias toward deep science validated by seasoned biotech investors.
• Philosophy emphasizes bold vision and ecosystem-building over pure financial engineering — connecting academia, established companies, new investors, and government into a "bioinnovation ecosystem." Kelly has described his own approach with characteristic humility ("I would never have guessed I had any talent at all in the area of administration") while colleagues note his gift for inspiring founders to "just get it done."
• Vehicles he built also include non-dilutive/translational support programs at QB3 such as Bridging-the-Gap Awards and the Startup-in-a-Box program.