Aug. 9, 2004 — The company formerly known as Semzyme Inc. has secured a new name, funding and a chief executive. The Cambridge, Mass.-based startup now known as Cambrios Technologies Corp. has received $1.8 million in Series A financing from ARCH Ventures, Alloy Ventures and Oxford Biosciences. The funding boosts Cambrios’ efforts to make protein toolkits to direct the growth of semiconductors and other inorganic materials.

Cambrios also has hired Michael Knapp as its first CEO. Knapp was chief executive, chief technology officer and co-founder of what’s now known as Caliper Life Sciences Inc., which he left last year in a company shakeup.

Cambrios was co-founded by Angela Belcher, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Evelyn Hu, a professor at University of California, Santa Barbara as well as co-director of the California NanoSystems Institute.