UCI, 2 Area Companies Awarded State Grants

UC Irvine and two Orange County companies were among 30 recipients of state grants totaling $6 million, aimed at developing new technology products and creating high-wage, high-skilled jobs.

The university received a $175,000 award to help develop a precision spray system with agricultural, automotive and health-care uses.

Gas Control Engineering Inc. in Anaheim won $110,000, which it will use to create technologies to extract natural gas from landfills. And SynZyme Technologies LLC, an Irvine biopharmaceutical firm, landed $140,000, which will go toward preclinical studies on strokes.

“Developing drugs costs hundreds of millions,” said Carleton Hsia, president and chief executive at SynZyme, a 7-year-old, eight-employee company that is developing drug treatments for strokes, children’s brain tumors and hemorrhagic shock and trauma, among other ailments. “You can never have enough money.”

The California Trade and Commerce Agency made the awards as part of the California Technology Investment Partnership, a 6-year-old program that provides businesses and universities up to $250,000 in state grants. The awards are conditional on winning matching federal funds.