UC innovations make TIME’s Best Inventions of 2026: How a pancreatic cancer drug and smarter wheelchair are changing lives?

The US Food and Drug Administration approved daraxonrasib in August. It is the first medicine shown to substantially extend life for people with the most common form of pancreatic cancer. The disease kills about 50,000 people in America every year.

The drug came out of research at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). UCSF later hosted clinical trials of it, along with UCLA and UC San Diego. Earlier this year, when its developers presented proof that it works, a room full of cancer doctors gave them a standing ovation.

TIME magazine has now named daraxonrasib to its Best Inventions of 2026 list. It is one of several UC-linked entries. The university says it produces four new inventions every day.

The drug goes after a gene that drives pancreatic cancer

The target is KRAS, a gene that helps regulate how cells grow. When KRAS carries certain mutations, meaning changes in its instructions, it becomes one of the drivers of pancreatic cancer. The gene’s job is to make a protein called K-Ras.

UCSF professor Kevan Shokat found a pocket on that protein. Think of it as a small groove on the surface where another molecule can attach. His lab then built molecules that fit into the pocket and bind to K-Ras. That binding weakens the cancerous cells and kills them.

He remembers the moment he knew it might work. In an initial trial, the drug shrank pancreatic tumours. “This is the moment,” he recalls thinking. “It’s very early. It’s a very small number of patients, but this is it.”

His caution matters. A handful of patients can’t prove a drug works, and that first result was only the start. The later trials at UCSF, UCLA and UC San Diego were where the evidence had to hold up.

What the approval means for patients

An FDA approval means the regulator has reviewed the trial evidence and allowed the medicine to be sold in the United States. For a cancer this hard to treat, the key phrase is “substantially extend life.” Most pancreatic cancer drugs have not been able to claim that.

The standing ovation at the presentation, then, wasn’t about one lab result. Doctors were looking at evidence that a drug aimed at a specific mutation could change how long patients live.

The approval covers the most common form of the disease. That is the form behind most of the roughly 50,000 deaths a year.

A wheelchair that thinks ahead, like a self-driving car

Not every invention on the TIME list is a drug. Another UC-linked entry is the Strutt ev¹, a mobility device built to solve a very different problem.

It looks like a power wheelchair. It works more like an autonomous vehicle. Sensors cover 360 degrees around the chair to help it avoid collisions. The user can control navigation by voice. Active steering on the front wheels is meant to keep the ride stable both indoors and outdoors.

Each feature deals with a small, everyday problem. Indoors, a narrow doorway can stop a wheelchair user cold. Outdoors, a change in the pavement can make the ride unsteady. The sensors, voice control and steering are designed around those situations.

The founder is Tony Hong, who holds a physics Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. He describes the idea in terms of the decisions a wheelchair user makes constantly.

“Will the doorway be too narrow? Will the pavement change? Will the elevator be crowded? If the ev¹ can quietly carry some of that mental load, [mobility] can become less stressful and more joyful,” he says.