[
  {
    "id": 739,
    "name": "Notable Labs",
    "slug": "notable-labs",
    "former_names": [],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/c2bf47d120c3bdde2a9ad11d9f05f1c08a72ca0e.png",
    "website": "http://notablelabs.com",
    "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA; Foster City, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "Notable Labs is building a personalized drug discovery platform to identify treatment options for relapsed and refractory cancer patients — starting with blood cancer — to address the long tail of cancer treatment. We look at a person’s actual cancer cells, test combinations of FDA approved drugs, and see which combinations kill the cancer cells and leave the healthy cells alive. We focus on combinations because cancer is often difficult to target with just one drug and starting with a single drug can lead to resistant clones or relapse. We're building a highly automated lab in Foster City running on our custom software and are currently testing relapsed/refractory cancer patients as well as samples from a variety of pharma/biotech partnerships.\r\n\r\nhttps://www.notablelabs.com/careers",
    "one_liner": "Personalized drug discovery for blood cancer.",
    "team_size": 40,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Diagnostics",
    "launched_at": 1407578442,
    "tags": [
      "Biotech",
      "Drug discovery",
      "Oncology"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": true,
    "isHiring": true,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2015",
    "status": "Public",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Diagnostics"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada",
      "Remote",
      "Partly Remote"
    ],
    "stage": "Growth",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": true,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/notable-labs",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2015/notable-labs.json",
    "year_founded": 2014,
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "",
    "x_url": "https://twitter.com/notablelabs",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/notable-labs-2",
    "github_url": "https://github.com/NotableLabs",
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/c2bf47d120c3bdde2a9ad11d9f05f1c08a72ca0e.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/video_event/10/1427240098052-kikiobbw3fcx47vi-0fb11434a5aa7dfed43fbe66e4b7cb1c/657f6ab39a6ef44174d31a96ba482867.mp4?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAQC4NIECABPQ2AHNW%2F20261020%2Fus-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20261020T022629Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=1ec308578ecc7d87fd1dac00354b1e5c47a8c16627905c134810ce30ed926a49",
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 69577,
        "full_name": "Matthew De Silva",
        "title": "Founder/CEO",
        "founder_bio": "",
        "is_active": false,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewdesilva/",
        "x_url": "https://twitter.com/MDe_Silva",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/9f6eebea28438330b0e1b0a312affcdf60fa89eb.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 69576,
        "full_name": "Pete Quinzio",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "",
        "is_active": false,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-quinzio-26083a35",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/e95bef4a9fd59491bdf3fab81ee4a4fc89118bcf.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [
      {
        "id": 16239,
        "title": "Senior Software Engineer - Full Stack",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/notable-labs/jobs/Ey5oHo8pO-senior-software-engineer-full-stack",
        "location": "Foster city, CA",
        "type": "Full-time",
        "role": "Engineering",
        "role_type": "Full stack",
        "salary_range": "",
        "equity_range": "",
        "experience": "3+ years",
        "visa": "US citizen/visa only",
        "skills": [
          "Amazon Web Services (AWS)",
          "Django",
          "Git",
          "GraphQL",
          "JavaScript",
          "Python",
          "React",
          "Docker"
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": 37703,
        "title": "Product Development Scientist / Senior Assay Development Scientist",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/notable-labs/jobs/ti2HBnyyd-product-development-scientist-senior-assay-development-scientist",
        "location": "Foster City, CA",
        "type": "Full-time",
        "role": "Science",
        "role_type": "Laboratory",
        "salary_range": "",
        "equity_range": "",
        "experience": "6+ years",
        "visa": "US citizen/visa only",
        "skills": []
      },
      {
        "id": 37704,
        "title": "Principal Product Development Scientist",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/notable-labs/jobs/kF9VM8qjw-principal-product-development-scientist",
        "location": "Foster City, CA",
        "type": "Full-time",
        "role": "Science",
        "role_type": "Laboratory",
        "salary_range": "",
        "equity_range": "",
        "experience": "11+ years",
        "visa": "US citizen/visa only",
        "skills": []
      }
    ],
    "news": [
      {
        "title": "Personalized cancer treatment startup Notable Labs nabs $40M Series B - MedCity News",
        "url": "https://medcitynews.com/2019/07/personalized-cancer-treatment-startup-notable-labs-nabs-40-million-series-b/",
        "date": "Jul 16, 2019"
      },
      {
        "title": "Notable raises $40 million to personalize cancer drug regimens | VentureBeat",
        "url": "https://venturebeat.com/business/notable-raises-50-million-to-personalize-cancer-drug-regimens/",
        "date": "Jul 16, 2019"
      }
    ],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 756,
    "name": "Numerion Labs",
    "slug": "numerion-labs",
    "former_names": [
      "Atomwise"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/c3b218096497a702becc32895ca1b21c4cae78bd.png",
    "website": "https://www.numerionlabs.ai",
    "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "Numerion Labs is an AI-native company accelerating the discovery of life-saving medicines through the development and use of cutting-edge machine learning algorithms. The company unites computational chemistry, structural biology, and medicinal chemistry to pioneer the next generation of AI-driven drug discovery platforms.",
    "one_liner": "Artificial intelligence for drug discovery.",
    "team_size": 67,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery",
    "launched_at": 1416219336,
    "tags": [
      "AI-powered Drug Discovery",
      "Deep Learning",
      "Biotech",
      "Drug discovery",
      "Oncology"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2015",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Drug Discovery and Delivery"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada",
      "Remote",
      "Partly Remote"
    ],
    "stage": "Growth",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/numerion-labs",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2015/numerion-labs.json",
    "year_founded": null,
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/atomwise/",
    "x_url": "https://twitter.com/atomwiseinc",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/atomwise",
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/c3b218096497a702becc32895ca1b21c4cae78bd.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 7359,
        "full_name": "Abraham Heifets",
        "title": "Founder/CEO",
        "founder_bio": "Founder and CEO of A Company in Stealth Mode. Previously, cofounded Atomwise, the first company to deploy deep learning for structure-based drug design ($220+ million in funding; 100 hires; signed $5B in total partnership value with Sanofi, Bayer, Eli Lilly, etc; ran largest AI-driven drug discovery experiment w/ 600+ researchers in 30 countries).  Even more previous: PhD @ U of Toronto; inventor on 15 patents + applications; IBM Research; AI for Cornell’s world champion robotic soccer team.",
        "is_active": false,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/abrahamheifets/",
        "x_url": "https://twitter.com/AbeHeifets",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/571a64309f08a9ce37f2b403541f4d87c8410311.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 10392,
        "full_name": "Alex Levy",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Leveraging AI to revolutionize the physical sciences, Alex Levy is the CEO and co-founder of Atmo, the leading company integrating AI into global weather forecasting. Previously, he co-founded Atomwise (W15), a pioneering AI company in small molecule drug discovery, boasting over 800 active programs and $1 billion in pharmaceutical partnerships. An alumnus of the University of Toronto, he began his career by leading a computer vision research lab within the Computer Science Department.",
        "is_active": false,
        "linkedin_url": "ca.linkedin.com/in/levyalex",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/9d6b2d29f328539e24d2cb0bac16217cc3f8838b.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 10399,
        "full_name": "Izhar Wallach",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "-",
        "is_active": false,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/pub/izhar-wallach/11/38/a04",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/0dd953a0f7260cfc91ec2e0021a7c37e4238d45d.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 1251,
    "name": "Synvivia",
    "slug": "synvivia",
    "former_names": [],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/4447def03db194c618a13840346e31a2394d316e.png",
    "website": "https://www.synvivia.com",
    "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA; Berkeley, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "Synvivia applies chemical control over cell behavior. This allows us to optimize biomanufacturing of high-value biopharmaceutical products.",
    "one_liner": "Synvivia applies chemical control over cell behavior",
    "team_size": 4,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Industrial Bio",
    "launched_at": 1672775025,
    "tags": [
      "Synthetic Biology",
      "Biotech",
      "Manufacturing",
      "Drug discovery",
      "AI"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Summer 2016",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Industrial Bio"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/synvivia",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2016/synvivia.json",
    "year_founded": null,
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "",
    "x_url": "",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/4447def03db194c618a13840346e31a2394d316e.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 130656,
        "full_name": "Gabriel Lopez",
        "title": "Founder/CEO",
        "founder_bio": null,
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriel-lopez-17b94410b?trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile",
        "x_url": null,
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/1a43aeb91b950ff7d5bd688f68bd3d7471b10577.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 1665,
    "name": "Oncobox",
    "slug": "oncobox",
    "former_names": [
      "Oncobox",
      "OncoBox"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "/company/thumb/missing.png",
    "website": "http://oncobox.com",
    "all_locations": "Walnut, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "Oncobox believes that many late-stage cancer patients are dying prematurely because doctors lack a data-driven tool to help them decide which drugs currently on the market would most effectively fight individual patients’ specific cancers. That’s where Oncobox comes in. Oncobox is low-cost personalized genetic profiling to help doctors decide which drug to use. In a recent study conducted by leading cancer researchers in Europe and Asia on 900 patients with various late-stage cancers, Oncobox increased the effectiveness of targeted therapies from 25% to 64%.\r\n\r\nHow does Oncobox work? Over 150 targeted cancer drugs are currently on the market. But deciding which of these drugs to give to late-stage cancer patients is not a simple task. Cancer doctors are in a race against the clock. They don’t always know which medication will be most effective for their patients. Because these drugs are expensive and typically have significant side effects, they can’t just try them all. Because of these barriers, targeted cancer therapies are effective only 25% of the time, and 70% of patients with late-stage cancers die due to the toxic side effects of ineffective drugs.\r\n\r\nOncobox Dx analyses tumor DNA, RNA, and molecular pathways using algorithms to distinguish which molecular targets are the most crucial for individual cases. Doctors receive a clinically actionable report that shows them which drugs are likely to be most effective on the patient.\r\n\r\nWe actively seek partners from pharma, hospitals/clinicians, payers, and genomic centers. Feel free to contact us at hello@oncobox.com. \r\n\r\nOur team and the scientific advisory board consisting of leading scientists and researchers from UCLA, Stanford, Johns Hopkins University, Boston University, Tufts University, and Rutgers University.",
    "one_liner": "Finding the right cancer drug for each patient. ",
    "team_size": 11,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Diagnostics",
    "launched_at": 1493851252,
    "tags": [
      "Drug discovery",
      "Oncology"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Summer 2017",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Diagnostics"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/oncobox",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2017/oncobox.json",
    "year_founded": null,
    "city": "Walnut",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "",
    "x_url": "",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/oncobox",
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": null,
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 187287,
        "full_name": "Andrew Garazha",
        "title": "Founder/CEO",
        "founder_bio": null,
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/garazha/",
        "x_url": null,
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/b2fe9db2ae1be10198b1053682fb59ad55e404d0.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 189703,
        "full_name": "Anton Buzdin",
        "title": "Founder/CSO",
        "founder_bio": null,
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/anton-buzdin-8284972",
        "x_url": null,
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/645b94e854eaa634f8ab2e93480e9e5f87488952.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 11979,
    "name": "LEAH Labs",
    "slug": "leah-labs",
    "former_names": [
      "Lifengine Animal Health Laboratories",
      "Incorporated"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/6907f0370b96042be3d0036ddc25c34015a02b50.png",
    "website": "http://www.leahlabs.com",
    "all_locations": "Minneapolis, MN, USA",
    "long_description": "LEAH Labs is building living therapies for pets first, and their people next. We're first focused on CAR-T cell therapy for dogs with B cell lymphoma, the naturally occurring clinical analog of human non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. CAR-T cells are curative in humans, and our early results are showing the same - we're inducing remissions in pets with late stage lymphomas. Our virus-free gene editing platform allows us to engineer a dose of CAR-T cell therapy for ~$500, and brings the promise of a curative outcome. Given our safety and efficacy data to date, we believe this product could be used by general practice veterinarians, meaning we have thousands of customers all across the USA who typically treat with palliative care or refer cancer patients to specialty oncologists. Our CAR-T cell platform is regulated by the USDA, not the FDA, affording us a cost effective \"full stack\" to iterate and innovate on CAR-T cell therapy from a hypothesis through clinical validation. ",
    "one_liner": "Living therapies for pets first, and their people next",
    "team_size": 4,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics",
    "launched_at": 1541131379,
    "tags": [
      "CRISPR",
      "Cell Therapy",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2019",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Therapeutics"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/leah-labs",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2019/leah-labs.json",
    "year_founded": 2018,
    "city": "Minneapolis",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "http://www.twitter.com/leahlabsincwww.linkedin.com/leahlabsinc",
    "x_url": "http://www.twitter.com/leahlabsinc",
    "fb_url": "http://www.facebook.com/leahlabsinc",
    "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/leah-labs",
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/6907f0370b96042be3d0036ddc25c34015a02b50.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 262103,
        "full_name": "Wesley Wierson",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "I am a scientist and entrepreneur applying my expertise in gene editing towards solving consumer level problems in society, first focused on building curative cancer therapies for pets, and eventually their owners. \n\nThrough my time at LEAH Labs, I've also found a passion for biotech business model innovation through regulatory arbitrage - e.g. CAR-T in pets is regulated by USDA, not FDA, thus we can get to market 2-3x faster and for 500x less capital than human CAR-T",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesley-wierson",
        "x_url": "https://www.twitter.com/dna4cy",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/8f1452b8b0f4c51e048283655f5bf6dd88481a83.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 12579,
    "name": "Encepheal Therapeutics",
    "slug": "encepheal-therapeutics",
    "former_names": [],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/e2254c6db4aca1a94f4c379b3299c517203af457.png",
    "website": "http://www.encepheal.com",
    "all_locations": "Winston-Salem, NC, USA",
    "long_description": "EncepHeal is developing medications to treat substance abuse. Our first product is a small molecule therapeutic for stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine, of which there are no FDA approved treatments.\r\n\r\nOur small molecule technology are atypical inhibitors of the dopamine transporter. Cocaine itself is an inhibitor of the same transporter. Directly reducing craving or positive reinforcement is a successful treatment strategy for addiction. Methadone or buprenorphine (Suboxone) are key examples of this for opioid use disorder. However, these types of medications can be addictive themselves. This has been a major hurdle for medication development for cocaine addiction and has led to many leaders in the addiction space to abandon the dopamine transporter as a target. At EncepHeal, we believe that the dopamine transporter should not be abandoned and instead focusing on fixing the abuse liability problem. Therefore with our partners at the National Institutes of Health, we have shown that these new, allosteric modulators at the dopamine transporter do not display addictive tendencies in animal models. They are also effective at curbing cocaine addiction. \r\n\r\nOur management team has two co-founders, Omeed Rahimi and Aaron Lazarus, as well as an experienced addiction pharmacologist as their research officer. The team has an advisory board with entrepreneurial and addiction drug development experience as well as expert partners at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a subset of the NIH, and Wake Forest.\r\n\r\nOur team has had success in raising non-dilutive funding and has expertise with SBIR/STTR grants. We are looking for help in better connecting with the biotech/pharmaceutical industry.\r\n\r\n",
    "one_liner": "EncepHeal develops medications to treat substance abuse, starting…",
    "team_size": 3,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics",
    "launched_at": 1556165074,
    "tags": [
      "Therapeutics",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Summer 2019",
    "status": "Inactive",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Therapeutics"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/encepheal-therapeutics",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2019/encepheal-therapeutics.json",
    "year_founded": 2015,
    "city": "Winston-Salem",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/10788545/",
    "x_url": "https://twitter.com/encepheal",
    "fb_url": "https://www.facebook.com/EncepHeal/",
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/e2254c6db4aca1a94f4c379b3299c517203af457.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 273152,
        "full_name": "Aaron Lazarus",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "I am the former founder and CEO of EncepHeal Therapeutics, developing medications for substance abuse. Prior to EncepHeal, I graduated with my undergraduate and graduate degrees from Wake Forest University. I currently live in North Carolina, but I am originally from South Jersey.\n\nWhen I am not working, I try to go skiing, which is unfortunately hard to do living in North Carolina. I am the most accessible over email.",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-lazarus-b106b04a/",
        "x_url": "https://twitter.com/AaronLazarus5",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/4df8e0795f5598ff219bd5bce41dcd3c2ed9ed47.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 285193,
        "full_name": "Omeed Rahimi",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/omeed-rahimi-0a544914/",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/2012eb343c801411f8e0c34fc03e61ec486cca41.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 12614,
    "name": "GEn1E Lifesciences",
    "slug": "gen1e-lifesciences",
    "former_names": [
      "Gen1E Lifesciences",
      "Inc.",
      "Gen1E Lifesciences"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "/company/thumb/missing.png",
    "website": "https://www.gen1e.com",
    "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "GEn1E Lifesciences is a Clinical-stage, multi-target company with a unique AI platform. We develop novel, next-generation, immunomodulatory therapies for rare & inflammatory diseases with no effective treatments. Our team is supercharging the drug development cycle by applying AI to multiple-mechanism-of-action protein targets and their natural platform capabilities—creating novel therapeutics at an unprecedented pace. Our AI platform has enabled us to develop a purpose-built therapy for ARDS to reduce its $20 billion cost on society (just in the USA). \r\n \r\nGEn1E has built a rich pipeline of 21+ novel and selective immunomodulators and has plans to accelerate 2 additional devastating diseases (beyond their lead indication) to IND in the next 12 months. Our AI platform enables tremendous pace and capital efficiency as demonstrated by our progress in ~2 years with seed capital—a stark contrast to the typical spend of $100M+ and 7+ years exhibited in the pharmaceuticals / biotech industry.\r\n \r\nWith ~90% of rare diseases having no therapeutic treatment at all, GEn1E is taking a giant swing that will hopefully bring life-saving therapies to the lives of patients in need.\r\n \r\nThe team at GEn1E has decades of experience in drug development and machine learning. We graduated from YCombinator and Stanford-StartX in late 2019. We are based in Palo Alto, CA.",
    "one_liner": "AI platform accelerating therapies for rare & inflammatory diseases.",
    "team_size": null,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics",
    "launched_at": 1651188804,
    "tags": [
      "Biotech",
      "Healthcare",
      "Drug discovery",
      "AI"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Summer 2019",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Therapeutics"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada",
      "Remote",
      "Partly Remote"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/gen1e-lifesciences",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2019/gen1e-lifesciences.json",
    "year_founded": 2018,
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/gen1e-lifesciences/",
    "x_url": "https://twitter.com/GEn1ELifesci",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/gen1e-lifesciences",
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": null,
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": {
      "name": "Jared Friedman",
      "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/jared-friedman"
    },
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 279653,
        "full_name": "Ritu Lal",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritu-lal-ph-d-m-s-management-2077953/",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/836e1fb5bad3f1eeaab03d4770da1f94fd329128.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [
      {
        "title": "UMB, in partnership with alumni, wants to commercialize rare disease treatments - Technical.ly",
        "url": "https://technical.ly/startups/gen1e-lifesciences-umb-rare-disease-treatments/",
        "date": "Aug 03, 2022"
      },
      {
        "title": "Meet GEn1E, the biotech bringing p38alpha kinase drugs to inflammatory diseases | Fierce Biotech",
        "url": "https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/meet-gen1e-biotech-bringing-p38alpha-kinase-drugs-to-inflammatory-diseases",
        "date": "Apr 28, 2022"
      },
      {
        "title": "The genies in medicine that work to solve ARDS - Pronetwork",
        "url": "https://www.pronetwork.mx/magazine/the-genies-in-medicine-that-work-to-solve-ards-gen1e/",
        "date": "Apr 28, 2022"
      },
      {
        "title": "Inside the Silicon Valley 'brain trust' taking aim at COVID-19 - ABC News",
        "url": "https://abcnews.go.com/Health/inside-silicon-valley-brain-trust-taking-aim-covid/story?id=70214888",
        "date": "Apr 28, 2022"
      },
      {
        "title": "Stanford alumni founders tackle COVID-19 with StartX task force",
        "url": "https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2020/03/19/stanford-startx-covid-19-coronavirus-startups.html",
        "date": "Apr 28, 2022"
      }
    ],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 12663,
    "name": "Arpeggio Bio",
    "slug": "arpeggio-bio",
    "former_names": [
      "Arpeggio Biosciences"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/254b79d146cf6fc4b70498fed074d6743d577e13.png",
    "website": "http://www.arpeggiobio.com",
    "all_locations": "Boulder, CO, USA",
    "long_description": "Arpeggio Bio is a pioneering pharmaceutical company that develops drugs targeting transcription factors using AI and high-throughput RNA-sequencing. With $20M in venture funding, we've targeted \"undruggable\" proteins like NRF2, TEAD, and GPX4 where our lead program is rapidly progressing towards a DC for the treatment of IO-resistant melanoma. With partnerships with J&J and FORMA, we've validated our platform in rare disease and inflammation with a significant Phase I success. ",
    "one_liner": "Arpeggio Bio develops drugs targeting transcription factors using AI…",
    "team_size": 20,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery",
    "launched_at": 1556764311,
    "tags": [
      "Biotech",
      "Genomics",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Summer 2019",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Drug Discovery and Delivery"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/arpeggio-bio",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2019/arpeggio-bio.json",
    "year_founded": 2018,
    "city": "Boulder",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "",
    "x_url": "https://twitter.com/ArpeggioBio",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/254b79d146cf6fc4b70498fed074d6743d577e13.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 326124,
        "full_name": "Joey Azofeifa",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": null,
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/joey-azofeifa-060070130/",
        "x_url": null,
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/e54ca8af79831aff4f578dbb2be13abee5368e30.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 12941,
    "name": "Sequence Bio",
    "slug": "sequence-bio",
    "former_names": [],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/819f850ae7a7b60333fcb1b8a2c4ef4e8a3d2fd3.png",
    "website": "https://www.sequencebio.com/",
    "all_locations": "St. John's, NL, Canada",
    "long_description": "90% of drug candidates fail, delaying help for those in need. We’re on a mission to change that. Better drug target discovery powered by the Newfoundland founder effect.",
    "one_liner": "Discovering the true signals of disease to power life-changing drugs.",
    "team_size": 52,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery",
    "launched_at": 1560967440,
    "tags": [
      "Genomics",
      "Therapeutics",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Summer 2019",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Drug Discovery and Delivery"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "Canada",
      "America / Canada",
      "Remote",
      "Partly Remote"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/sequence-bio",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2019/sequence-bio.json",
    "year_founded": 2013,
    "city": "St. John's",
    "country": "CA",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/sequencebioinformatics",
    "x_url": "https://twitter.com/sequencebio",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/sequence-bio",
    "github_url": "https://github.com/SequenceBio",
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/819f850ae7a7b60333fcb1b8a2c4ef4e8a3d2fd3.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 327968,
        "full_name": "Jeremy Grushcow",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology (University of Chicago, 2000); J.D. with Honors (University of Chicago Law School, 2003).\n\nPreviously: CBO, Sequence Bio S19 (Raised >$10m; LOIs signed with Sema4, Helix and Biogen); EVP, Strategic Development, Antibe Therapeutics (International partnerships, public company financings and disclosures; preclinical through Phase 1 for a novel pain therapeutic)\n\nBest dog dad ever; 7 out of 10 human dad.",
        "is_active": false,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremygrushcow/",
        "x_url": "https://twitter.com/crossborderbio",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/ff044c20376dd75fc72517397eda346a50760291.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 323814,
        "full_name": "Chris Gardner",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": null,
        "is_active": false,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriscgardner/",
        "x_url": null,
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/1d75431e733272a4e4f7fa001c7dce0ed6443c81.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 13081,
    "name": "Abalone Bio",
    "slug": "abalone-bio",
    "former_names": [
      "Abalone Bio",
      "Inc"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/e9f1d41bc9bfabd8ecaa9963112dc25b23472f0a.png",
    "website": "https://www.abalonebio.com",
    "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "Abalone Bio is tackling challenging undrugged targets underlying diseases affecting millions, focusing first cell-specific antibody drugs to treat obesity and metabolic disease without the GI side effects that cause 25% of GLP-1 drug patients to quit after 1 year. \r\n\r\n+ High throughput experimental measurement uniquely leverages AI/ML:  We’ve engineered cells to measure antibodies for pharmacological activity, not just structure or binding like others, 100 million at a time, 100X+ the throughput of others. With our large, proprietary activity datasets, we uniquely leverage ML to both unlock the discovery of rare hits and generate optimized hits for challenging targets, starting with G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs)\r\n\r\n+ Proven success: We have developed antibody agonists (activators) for 2 out of the 8 G-protein coupled receptors ever drugged by biotech.\r\n\r\n+ Pharma traction: We’ve secured 3 partnerships with $3M in revenue and $125M in downstream value. \r\n\r\n+ Externally validated science: We’ve been awarded $7M in non-dilutive grant funding for platform and program development.",
    "one_liner": "We create activating antibodies to treat diseases others can’t.",
    "team_size": 14,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery",
    "launched_at": 1583908314,
    "tags": [
      "Machine Learning",
      "Synthetic Biology",
      "Therapeutics",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2020",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Drug Discovery and Delivery"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/abalone-bio",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2020/abalone-bio.json",
    "year_founded": 2018,
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/18295627",
    "x_url": "",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/abalone-bio-inc",
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/e9f1d41bc9bfabd8ecaa9963112dc25b23472f0a.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 283127,
        "full_name": "Richard Yu",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Rich has been in or around biotech startups since 2008, when co-founded GPB, an algae biofuel startup. He was also Scientific and Operations Director at MBC Biolabs, the leading biotech incubator in SF, and Principal at Mission Bay Capital, a life science VC fund. Prior, he was an investigator at The Molecular Sciences Institute studying how cells process information.\nPhD (2000) Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale\nBA (1993) Biophysics and Computer Science (AI and Graphics), UC Berkeley",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-c-yu/",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/bb31c7d480968645ca2596dcaf2b57f83d55c307.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 424209,
        "full_name": "Gustavo Pesce",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": null,
        "is_active": false,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/gustavopesce/",
        "x_url": null,
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/c08a9152e6f8c7e6840cb07f18780ff8945c1305.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 13216,
    "name": "General Proximity",
    "slug": "general-proximity",
    "former_names": [
      "Weatherwax Bio"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/b5e039898073137983f2b9b975353c2be69220f5.png",
    "website": "https://www.generalproximity.bio/",
    "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "",
    "one_liner": "The next generation of induced-proximity medicines.",
    "team_size": 15,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery",
    "launched_at": 1734564466,
    "tags": [
      "Biotech",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": true,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2020",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Drug Discovery and Delivery"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/general-proximity",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2020/general-proximity.json",
    "year_founded": null,
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/generalproximity/",
    "x_url": "https://x.com/proxbio",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/b5e039898073137983f2b9b975353c2be69220f5.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": {
      "name": "Jared Friedman",
      "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/jared-friedman"
    },
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 233257,
        "full_name": "Armand Cognetta",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Armand completed his PhD in Chemical Biology at the Scripps Research Institute under the supervision of Dr. Benjamin F. Cravatt. There he co-authored 19 scientific publications in prestigious journals such as Cell, Nature, and Science, as well as multiple patents, including a portion of the foundational IP for Abide Therapeutics (acq. Lundbeck) and Vividion Therapeutics (acq. Bayer). Prior to founding GP he was an early employee at the Flagship Pioneering start-up Inzen Tx (now Sonata).",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/armandcognetta/",
        "x_url": "https://twitter.com/armandcognetta",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/0362d411a5c6d976a0f2faa0d83049484125f5ae.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [
      {
        "title": "General Proximity raises $8M to target undruggable proteins",
        "url": "https://www.axios.com/pro/health-tech-deals/2024/12/18/general-proximity-8m-proximity-medicine-drug-discovery",
        "date": "Dec 18, 2024"
      }
    ],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 13217,
    "name": "Altay Therapeutics",
    "slug": "altay-therapeutics",
    "former_names": [
      "Altay Therapeutics Inc"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "/company/thumb/missing.png",
    "website": "http://www.altaytherapeutics.com",
    "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA; South San Francisco, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "Altay develops small molecule drugs to treat chronic liver diseases like liver fibrosis and liver cancer.  Our co-founder Dr. Osman Ozes, led the first drug development program for Esbriet (Pirfenidone), resulting in the first FDA approved therapy for lung fibrosis. Esbriet is now a $1 billion/year drug and has already made over $6 billion in revenue. \r\n\r\nWith a team that has over 70+ years of small molecule drug development experience, we intend to do the same with chronic liver diseases, which affects over 20 million Americans and represents a market size of over $30 billion. \r\n\r\nWe know we are well positioned for success because we have shown excellent pre-clinical mouse data in several liver fibrosis models using our novel small molecule. We demonstrate a reduction in fibrosis with our drug, but more significantly, we show a reversal in fibrotic tissue back to normal tissue. \r\n\r\nWith our current developmental strategy, we hope to have a clinic-ready compound by the end of 2021 and be in phase I clinical trials by mid of 2022. \r\n",
    "one_liner": "Altay develops disease-modifying therapies targeting transcription…",
    "team_size": 6,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics",
    "launched_at": 1583513059,
    "tags": [
      "AI-powered Drug Discovery",
      "Biotech",
      "Therapeutics",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2020",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Therapeutics"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/altay-therapeutics",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2020/altay-therapeutics.json",
    "year_founded": 2019,
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/69914567/admin/feed/posts/",
    "x_url": "",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": null,
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 290922,
        "full_name": "Ali Ozes",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": null,
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ali-ozes-9694621b/",
        "x_url": null,
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/1105af78f970befcd33feac20c237259355ec65d.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 407773,
        "full_name": "Osman Ozes",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": null,
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/osman-nidai-ozes-ph-d-aa365b45/",
        "x_url": null,
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/53505b379e81a9317bb391b5b16029909f0265a0.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 13705,
    "name": "Algen Biotechnologies",
    "slug": "algen-biotechnologies",
    "former_names": [
      "Algen Biotechnologies",
      "Inc."
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/41218b0dee65a988940509b3fe258626c5137590.png",
    "website": "https://www.algenbio.com/",
    "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "Algen is using CRISPR to uncover disease-driving RNA messages to find treatments for cancer, inflammation and diseases with high unmet needs. We are harnessing the power of CRISPR and machine learning to find first-in-class drugs that modulate RNA messages at single-cell resolution. Algen's founders are bioengineer from Jennifer Doudna Lab and biotech commercialization expert, teamed up with experienced pharmaceutical executives.",
    "one_liner": "Using CRISPR to find treatments for cancer and inflammation",
    "team_size": 15,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery",
    "launched_at": 1759774411,
    "tags": [
      "CRISPR",
      "Biotech",
      "Therapeutics",
      "Drug discovery",
      "AI"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2020",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Drug Discovery and Delivery"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/algen-biotechnologies",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2020/algen-biotechnologies.json",
    "year_founded": 2018,
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "",
    "x_url": "",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/41218b0dee65a988940509b3fe258626c5137590.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 311028,
        "full_name": "Chun-Hao Huang",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Co-Founder and CEO, Algen",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/chun-hao-huang/",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/d0ef66f43060b97a739f40d32f42eaa2132dd1e9.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 312056,
        "full_name": "Christine Du",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Co-Founder and CBO, Algen",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-d",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/5407658052108b50799c96ff71d6b6a6a3dc5ca1.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [
      {
        "title": "AstraZeneca, Algen Biotechnologies pen $555M AI pact",
        "url": "https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/astrazeneca-algen-biotechnolgies-pen-555m-ai-pact-immunology-targets",
        "date": "Oct 06, 2025"
      },
      {
        "title": "J.P. Morgan Life Sciences Private Capital, Blue Horizon Advisors and United AlSaqer Group Announce Finalists of the 2024 Life Sciences Innovation Summit in Abu Dhabi",
        "url": "https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jp-morgan-life-sciences-private-capital-blue-horizon-advisors-and-united-alsaqer-group-announce-finalists-of-the-2024-life-sciences-innovation-summit-in-abu-dhabi-302108427.html",
        "date": "Apr 04, 2024"
      }
    ],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 22617,
    "name": "Serna Bio",
    "slug": "serna-bio",
    "former_names": [
      "Ladder Therapeutics (LTX)"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/e5c345ecf4dc0bf6d96b3cb2f1e7485d78c1449d.png",
    "website": "http://serna.bio",
    "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "Serna Bio is developing small molecules to modulate RNA function, unlocking the potential to treat diseases driven by biology intractable by other modalities. \r\n",
    "one_liner": "Genetic Medicine with Small Molecules ",
    "team_size": 5,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics",
    "launched_at": 1659537090,
    "tags": [
      "Biotech",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2021",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Therapeutics"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada",
      "Remote",
      "Partly Remote"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/serna-bio",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2021/serna-bio.json",
    "year_founded": 2021,
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/sernabio/?viewAsMember=true",
    "x_url": "",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/e5c345ecf4dc0bf6d96b3cb2f1e7485d78c1449d.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": {
      "name": "Jared Friedman",
      "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/jared-friedman"
    },
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 313833,
        "full_name": "Rabia Khan",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Currently working on drugging RNA with small molecules. Previously built the ML team at Sensyne Health (UK PLC) // and worked at BenevolentAI. Love working at the intersection of biology / technology / business. Foodie at heart. ",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/rabiatkhan/",
        "x_url": "https://twitter.com/rabiatkhan",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/e5b9561ece5ce8febe280a58ac4945bd4e196c58.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 22764,
    "name": "Valink Therapeutics",
    "slug": "valink-therapeutics",
    "former_names": [
      "SpyCombinator",
      "LiliumX"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/4fdbac90b07fa4233736c11be944db20adb49e3b.png",
    "website": "https://www.valinktx.com/",
    "all_locations": "Boston, MA, USA",
    "long_description": "Valink Therapeutics develops next generation antibody-based therapeutics. We identify novel mechanism of action from known targets by incorporating multiple antibody modifications at once, rapidly and scalable generating complex drug candidates (bi-/multispecificity, multivalency and drug-conjugation in a single discovery process). Our research focus is on solid tumours poorly addressed by immunotherapy.",
    "one_liner": "Discovering bispecific antibody drug-conjugates (BsADC) against cancer",
    "team_size": 15,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics",
    "launched_at": 1614618602,
    "tags": [
      "Biotech",
      "Therapeutics",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2021",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Therapeutics"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada",
      "Remote",
      "Partly Remote"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/valink-therapeutics",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2021/valink-therapeutics.json",
    "year_founded": 2021,
    "city": "Boston",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/71180674/",
    "x_url": "",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/4fdbac90b07fa4233736c11be944db20adb49e3b.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 576521,
        "full_name": "Arne Scheu",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Rhodes Scholar & DPhil Biochemistry from the University of Oxford",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/arne-scheu-aa22b812b/",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/cd2948463aee1733546e986972b6bafab908a7e3.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 600880,
        "full_name": "Irsyad Khairil",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Pharma analyst with a background in protein engineering\nDPhil in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford ",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/irsyad-khairil-bb216b9b/",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/c86097f3a78056f28c34ba38a192b6157ddb125d.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 23511,
    "name": "Forcyte Biotechnologies",
    "slug": "forcyte-biotechnologies",
    "former_names": [],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/f7b684971715c34dcf43972f00b40675ec273846.png",
    "website": "https://forcytebio.com/",
    "all_locations": "Los Angeles, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "In a nutshell: many diseases are caused by how much your cells squeeze (asthma, fibrosis, others). We discover drugs that control how much cells squeeze, with ease, to treat disease.\r\n\r\nWe use patented bioMEMS technology to turn cell strength (cells' ability to pull/ squeeze) into a quantifiable metric in drug discovery, to help find better drugs for mechanical diseases. \r\n\r\nWe screen 100,000s of drugs against numerous contractile human cell types to comprehensively map human mechanobiology (the \"contractome\") and identify promising drug development starting points to deliver novel medicines to treat mechanically-driven diseases including asthma, hypertension, preterm labor, fibrosis, and others.\r\n\r\n",
    "one_liner": "Discover drugs that control how much cells \"squeeze\" to treat disease",
    "team_size": 5,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Diagnostics",
    "launched_at": 1614755480,
    "tags": [
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2021",
    "status": "Inactive",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Diagnostics"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/forcyte-biotechnologies",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2021/forcyte-biotechnologies.json",
    "year_founded": 2017,
    "city": "Los Angeles",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/forcyte-biotechnologies-inc",
    "x_url": "",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/f7b684971715c34dcf43972f00b40675ec273846.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 589224,
        "full_name": "Ivan Pushkarsky",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "CEO and Co-founder of Forcyte which is based on my PhD work at UCLA with co-founder and PhD Advisor, Prof. Dino Di Carlo. Worked on tech since 2013, lead-authored multiple publications including Nature BME, and lead commercialization by winning SBIR grants, securing tech transfer and building early team.",
        "is_active": false,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanpushkarsky/",
        "x_url": null,
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/54be667f96143a9b73b44a89f1064ea11262f5a6.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 601870,
        "full_name": "Dino Di Carlo",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Dino Di Carlo is a Professor, inventor, and entrepreneur with >50 issued patents. He is the Armond and Elena Hairapetian endowed chair in Engineering and Medicine at UCLA. His academic research has focused at the interface of micro & nanosystems, data science, and the ultimate limits of biology (single cells and molecules). Over the last 10 years, Dr. Di Carlo co-founded seven startup companies in life science research tools, diagnostics, medical device, and pharmaceutical industries. ",
        "is_active": false,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/dino-di-carlo/",
        "x_url": "https://twitter.com/dinodicarlo",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/9045d6c9a97af963cb749f531c62b7d9de5a5cb0.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [
      {
        "title": "Mechano-therapeutics Discovery Startup Forcyte Bio Secures New Funding From Y Combinator & Others, Bringing Total to >$5.7 Million, to Develop Drug Pipeline | Business Wire",
        "url": "https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220601006160/en/Mechano-therapeutics-Discovery-Startup-Forcyte-Bio-Secures-New-Funding-From-Y-Combinator-Others-Bringing-Total-to-5.7-Million-to-Develop-Drug-Pipeline",
        "date": "Jun 02, 2022"
      }
    ],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 23945,
    "name": "Talus Bio",
    "slug": "talus-bio",
    "former_names": [],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/6677b768e2a0c2a30de4f32fc3f4f2dce1baea6a.png",
    "website": "https://www.talus.bio",
    "all_locations": "Seattle, WA, USA",
    "long_description": "We have built a platform that enables drug discovery and development for previously undruggable genome regulators (\"the regulome\"). We accomplish this by moving drug discovery out of artificial systems where regulome proteins fail to function properly, and back into live human cells. Our technology combines innovations in automated cell processing, next-gen proteomics, and advanced data analytics to measure a drug's effect on the entire regulome in one experiment. ",
    "one_liner": "Discovering drugs that target the DNA regulome",
    "team_size": 16,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery",
    "launched_at": 1629819925,
    "tags": [
      "Biotech",
      "Genomics",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Summer 2021",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Drug Discovery and Delivery"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada",
      "Remote",
      "Partly Remote"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/talus-bio",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2021/talus-bio.json",
    "year_founded": 2020,
    "city": "Seattle",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/talus-bio/",
    "x_url": "https://twitter.com/talusbio",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": "https://github.com/TalusBio",
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/6677b768e2a0c2a30de4f32fc3f4f2dce1baea6a.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": {
      "name": "Jared Friedman",
      "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/jared-friedman"
    },
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 352457,
        "full_name": "Alex Federation",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "I'm the co-founder of Talus Bio. Prior to Talus, I trained with Jay Bradner at Harvard in medicinal chemistry, drug screening, and drug development for gene regulators. After that, I moved to Seattle to continue my training in epigenomics and proteomics, and these were all combined to develop the Talus gene regulator platform.",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/afederation/",
        "x_url": "https://twitter.com/afederation",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/5a8582d7e711e1ff2cc1556582a9b48e5e802997.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 722621,
        "full_name": "Lindsay Pino",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "I'm Talus Bio's CTO, where my focus is on developing techniques for quantitative proteomics and in particular the challenges associated with scaling-up quantitative proteomics experiments. I’ve trained at the Broad Institute, the University of Washington, and most recently the University of Pennsylvania.",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsaykpino/",
        "x_url": "https://twitter.com/lkpino",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/1fd3365fa08bc96503fa616f9d45bf1af4e48fe4.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [
      {
        "title": "Talus Bioscience lands $4.3M in grant funding for drug discovery platform – GeekWire",
        "url": "https://www.geekwire.com/2023/talus-bioscience-lands-4-3m-in-grant-funding-for-drug-discovery-platform/",
        "date": "Aug 18, 2023"
      },
      {
        "title": "Inspired by scientist CEOs, Seattle startup lands $9.75M to build up drug discovery platform – GeekWire",
        "url": "https://www.geekwire.com/2022/inspired-by-scientist-ceos-seattle-startup-lands-9-75m-to-build-drug-discovery-platform/",
        "date": "Jun 06, 2022"
      },
      {
        "title": "To turn off disease-causing genes, Talus Bio wants to knock proteins off of DNA | FierceBiotech",
        "url": "https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/to-tackle-disease-causing-genes-talus-bio-takes-aim-at-proteins-switch-them-off",
        "date": "Aug 25, 2021"
      }
    ],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 24467,
    "name": "Harmonic Discovery",
    "slug": "harmonic-discovery",
    "former_names": [],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/dbebdea5cbd5fee23eff97b4d514d27fb9652ed0.png",
    "website": "http://harmonicdiscovery.com",
    "all_locations": "New York City, NY, USA; New York, NY, USA; Remote",
    "long_description": "We are a drug discovery company developing a new generation of therapeutics that embrace the complexity of disease. Currently available approaches for creating drugs work on the principle of finding one drug-one protein 'magic bullets'. However, diseases such as cancer and autoimmunity are often the result of several dysregulated proteins across many distinct biological pathways. \r\n\r\nWe are building a computational-experimental platform to design therapeutics that can target several disease-causing proteins at once. By designing multi-specific drugs, we are able to create therapeutics that are more efficacious and safer than existing medicines. \r\n",
    "one_liner": "Multi-targeted therapeutics to treat complex diseases",
    "team_size": 8,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery",
    "launched_at": 1648254586,
    "tags": [
      "AI-powered Drug Discovery",
      "Biotech",
      "Healthcare",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Summer 2021",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Drug Discovery and Delivery"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada",
      "Remote",
      "Fully Remote"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/harmonic-discovery",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2021/harmonic-discovery.json",
    "year_founded": 2021,
    "city": "New York City",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/harmonicdiscovery",
    "x_url": "https://twitter.com/HarmonicDiscov",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/dbebdea5cbd5fee23eff97b4d514d27fb9652ed0.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": {
      "name": "Jared Friedman",
      "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/jared-friedman"
    },
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 249725,
        "full_name": "Rayees Rahman",
        "title": "Founder/CEO",
        "founder_bio": "Scientist and startup founder",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayees-rahman-61896117b/",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/1c5516d6cd877e43e22147c2b99a2f25a51e9483.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 739756,
        "full_name": "Marcel Patek",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "I am a chemist with training in Medicinal, Organic, Computational, and Peptide chemistry. In my 25+ years in the field, I carried out drug discovery projects involving small molecules and peptides. I worked in environments of startup and global large pharma companies where I led teams and departments in all aspects of early drug discovery. I currently focus on merging experience-based knowledge of molecular optimization with ML/AI systems.\n\n",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelpatek/",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/c13ebc81e2cd142818596e74e457bb50ac2e2f58.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [
      {
        "title": "Innovation Endeavors doles out first investment in the Joel Dudley era, with seed funding for a small molecule startup – Endpoints News",
        "url": "https://endpts.com/innovation-ventures-doles-out-first-investment-in-the-joel-dudley-era-8m-seed-funding-for-a-small-molecule-startup/",
        "date": "Sep 08, 2022"
      }
    ],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 25331,
    "name": "Engage Bio",
    "slug": "engage-bio",
    "former_names": [],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/e95b5dd7ee1a5f617dc0a83136e30199f883050a.png",
    "website": "http://engagebio.com",
    "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "Engage Bio has developed Tethosomes, a new class of non-viral DNA which finally unleashes potent, durable, redosable, and scalable genetic medicine.\r\n \r\nIn 2026 Engage was acquired by Eli Lilly.",
    "one_liner": "Potent, durable, and redosable non-viral genetic medicines",
    "team_size": 10,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics",
    "launched_at": 1647555290,
    "tags": [
      "Synthetic Biology",
      "Biotech",
      "Healthcare",
      "Therapeutics",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2022",
    "status": "Acquired",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Therapeutics"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/engage-bio",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2022/engage-bio.json",
    "year_founded": 2021,
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/engagebio/",
    "x_url": "",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/e95b5dd7ee1a5f617dc0a83136e30199f883050a.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": {
      "name": "Jared Friedman",
      "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/jared-friedman"
    },
    "founders": [],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 25334,
    "name": "FlowDeploy",
    "slug": "flowdeploy",
    "former_names": [
      "Toolchest"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/2d5821bc4ff8ad8ac82401a9ffd37cd8adb868bc.png",
    "website": "https://flowdeploy.com",
    "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA; Mountain View, CA, USA; Remote",
    "long_description": "FlowDeploy helps bioinformaticians manage their data analysis pipelines. We provide everything they need to try, run, develop, and share their pipelines. That includes integrations with AWS, Snakemake, Nextflow, GitHub, Slack, SSO, and more, as well as a clean API and web app for launching and monitoring pipelines and managing their data.\r\n\r\nFlowDeploy is built for bioinformaticians: it doesn't restrict how pipelines are built and managed, as long as a bioinformatics workflow manager like Nextflow or Snakemake is used. But it does eliminate several footguns like idle spend and accidental data egress, and it reduces the potential for users accidentally sharing credentials.\r\n\r\nFlowDeploy runs the pipelines in either our managed cloud or the customer's cloud – eliminating the need to transfer data externally.\r\n\r\nNon-computational biologists can use FlowDeploy, too: features like pipelines templates decrease the complexity to launch a new pipeline, which reduces user error and decreases the need for advanced cloud training for non-computational users.",
    "one_liner": "Bioinformatics pipelines in the cloud",
    "team_size": 3,
    "industry": "B2B",
    "subindustry": "B2B -> Infrastructure",
    "launched_at": 1643247528,
    "tags": [
      "Developer Tools",
      "Drug discovery",
      "Data Engineering"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2022",
    "status": "Inactive",
    "industries": [
      "B2B",
      "Infrastructure"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada",
      "Remote",
      "Fully Remote"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/flowdeploy",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2022/flowdeploy.json",
    "year_founded": 2021,
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/toolchest",
    "x_url": "https://twitter.com/trytoolchest",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": "https://github.com/trytoolchest",
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/2d5821bc4ff8ad8ac82401a9ffd37cd8adb868bc.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 418865,
        "full_name": "Noah Lebovic",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Noah Lebovic is the co-founder and CEO of FlowDeploy. Prior to FlowDeploy, he led software engineering at a bio startup that build an in-house platform for bioinformatics pipelines.",
        "is_active": false,
        "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/lebovic/",
        "x_url": null,
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/c9cae1d29bb5148a87e4a3e5c3e39005597dd733.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 820695,
        "full_name": "Bryce Cai",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Former CTO of FlowDeploy / Toolchest (YC W22). Now working on AI-bio evals and more broadly getting involved in the AI alignment space. More than happy to help others get more involved, feel free to reach out via email if you'd like to chat!",
        "is_active": false,
        "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/bryce-cai-b1278419a",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/bd3829398b25f5b0f9d0983ed8807c755e6c80fe.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 25449,
    "name": "Alixia",
    "slug": "alixia",
    "former_names": [
      "Guided Clarity"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/ff4093c59629c7638e73b36eb069911e0922c140.png",
    "website": "http://www.alixia.com",
    "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "Our compounds disrupt the metabolic and\r\ninflammatory triggers in both cancer and quasi-cancerous\r\ncells in the tumor microenvironment. By impacting multiple cell\r\ntypes, we are enabling effective, lasting cancer treatments.",
    "one_liner": "Targeting the Tumor Ecosystem to address cancer drug resistance.",
    "team_size": 2,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics",
    "launched_at": 1648247483,
    "tags": [
      "Biotech",
      "Therapeutics",
      "Drug discovery",
      "Oncology",
      "Biotechnology"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2022",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Therapeutics"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/alixia",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2022/alixia.json",
    "year_founded": 2022,
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/alixia-therapeutics/",
    "x_url": "",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/ff4093c59629c7638e73b36eb069911e0922c140.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 287726,
        "full_name": "Olof Mollstedt",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/olof-mollstedt-95b4a1/",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/56244742a9432a1e8ccb215b0bd26d98230bea8e.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 293836,
        "full_name": "Helen Chen",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Cancer & aging researcher | entrepreneur| mentor | ",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-y-chen-7951641/",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/dcfd0dfa105260c79bd854eac50dc82cda36da04.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 26122,
    "name": "Origami Therapeutics, Inc.",
    "slug": "origami-therapeutics-inc",
    "former_names": [],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/ec01151ea9fbf839d64b9d2a17dedc03fb322eeb.png",
    "website": "http://origamitherapeutics.com",
    "all_locations": "San Diego, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "Origami Therapeutics, Inc. is a biotech company developing novel protein degraders with potential to delay or halt disease progression by eliminating toxic proteins from the body. Our drug discovery platform leverages our proprietary human disease models developed to select the small molecules with the best chance of clinical success. Our first indication is Huntington’s disease, a debilitating, progressive and ultimately fatal disorder caused by a genetic mutation. We have already identified small molecules that reduce the toxic mutated protein, suppress mutant protein-induced toxicities in human disease neurons and get into the brain. We anticipate that this approach will be broadly applicable to traditionally “undruggable” targets in other neurological diseases.",
    "one_liner": "Oral drugs to halt neurodegeneration",
    "team_size": 4,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics",
    "launched_at": 1647386798,
    "tags": [
      "Biotech",
      "Therapeutics",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2022",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Therapeutics"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/origami-therapeutics-inc",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2022/origami-therapeutics-inc.json",
    "year_founded": 2015,
    "city": "San Diego",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/origami-therapeutics/?viewAsMember=true",
    "x_url": "https://twitter.com/origamitx",
    "fb_url": "https://www.facebook.com/origamitherapeutics/",
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/ec01151ea9fbf839d64b9d2a17dedc03fb322eeb.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 472912,
        "full_name": "Beth Hoffman",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "At Origami Therapeutics, Dr. Hoffman is creating a new approach to drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases. Prior to Origami, she was a Research & Development executive at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Amgen and Eli Lilly. She has made major contributions to >30 clinical programs in neurology, pain and psychiatry and to four marketed drugs for Cystic Fibrosis. Dr. Hoffman received her A.B. in Molecular Biology from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the Johns Hopkins University.",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "http://www.linkedin.com/in/bethhoffman",
        "x_url": "https://twitter.com/bethjhoffman",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/82206865aa982f08bafdfe15f5e34d1f0a68e02b.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 27168,
    "name": "Relevium Medical",
    "slug": "relevium-medical",
    "former_names": [
      "Relevium",
      "ReleviumBio"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/fe3f53ef710ec5758d984168f33594337d5df8ae.png",
    "website": "https://relevium-medical.com/",
    "all_locations": "Galway, County Galway, Ireland",
    "long_description": "Relevium Medical is developing an injectable gel for knee osteoarthritis. Approximately half the population will be diagnosed with this pain and progressive disease.\r\nRight now, patients have to undergo not only repeat injections to control their pain, but also have to take strong oral medications. Because the disease is progressive and only gets worse over time, many patients end up on highly addictive, high-dose opioids. \r\nTo date, we have secured $3.7 million in non dilutive funding and completed preclinical testing. We demonstrated that our drug is safe, selectively blocks nerves that transmit pain, and provides pain relief that lasts four times as long. \r\nInsurance currently pays $770 per six-monthly treatment for knee osteoarthritis. With 5 million patients in the US, this represents a $7.7 Bn market opportunity.\r\nThis platform biotherapeutic can also be used to treat other joints affects by osteoarthritis such as the hip and ankle, where the same problems exist in treatment care. ",
    "one_liner": "Platform injectable gel based therapeutic for osteoarthritis",
    "team_size": 5,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics",
    "launched_at": 1653661401,
    "tags": [
      "Medical Devices",
      "Healthcare",
      "Therapeutics",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Summer 2022",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Therapeutics"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "Ireland",
      "Europe"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/relevium-medical",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2022/relevium-medical.json",
    "year_founded": 2019,
    "city": "Galway",
    "country": "IE",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/releviummedical/",
    "x_url": "",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/fe3f53ef710ec5758d984168f33594337d5df8ae.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 896081,
        "full_name": "Alison Liddy",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Alison is CEO and Founder at Relevium Medical.  Alison holds qualifications in Chemistry and Biochemical Engineering (M.Sc. & Ph.D.). She has worked for major multinational companies including ROCHE, Cook Medical and Boston Scientific; and completed the BioInnovate Fellowship in the prestigious Stanford BioDesign-affiliated program at NUI Galway, Ireland. She is the named inventor on over 20 patent publications and the winner of the Science Foundation of Ireland’s €1 million innovation prize.",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-liddy-ph-d-402155138/?originalSubdomain=ie",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/5b2a3ec2cb7d9a78b37837da2196318376af434d.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [
      {
        "title": "Galway’s Relevium Medical gets €4.6m funding for knee osteoarthritis treatment | Business Post",
        "url": "https://www.businesspost.ie/news/galways-relevium-medical-gets-e4-6m-funding-for-knee-osteoarthritis-treatment/",
        "date": "Dec 11, 2024"
      }
    ],
    "launches": [
      {
        "id": 65532,
        "title": "🚀🚀 Relevium Medical",
        "tagline": "Advancing Long-Lasting Solutions for Chronic Pain",
        "body": "**The problem:** The chronic pain condition Knee osteoarthritis (OA) affects over 250 million people globally, creating significant social and healthcare challenges, with **untreated pain being the #1 patient complaint**.  In the absence of effective long-term injectable treatments, millions of patients rely on damaging oral medications. \n\nCapsaicin, offers long-lasting, selective pain relief for chronic pain via molecular ablation of pain-sensing nerves only. Despite FDA approval and proven safety and efficacy, its adoption is limited by **intense burning pain** post-administration, requiring over **1.5 hours of clinic management and making it intolerable for many patients**. This has restricted the use of an otherwise highly effective treatment for chronic pain.\n\n**Our solution:** RM-010 was specifically developed to address the burning pain associated with Capsaicin. Relevium Medical has engineered an innovative drug delivery system that gradually releases Capsaicin into the knee joint, carefully maintaining concentrations **below the threshold that triggers burning pain** while sustaining levels high enough to achieve full nerve ablation. This breakthrough offers patients a highly tolerable, effective, and safe treatment, delivering long-lasting pain relief with a significantly improved experience. RM-010 is designed for seamless integration into clinical workflows, allowing physicians to administer the therapy in **5 minutes**. It provides a practical, patient-friendly solution for effectively managing knee osteoarthritis pain, setting a new standard in treatment care.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=65532&key=user_uploads/896081/10efad73-299c-4cd5-9c87-0a4e0f19f1bb)\n\n**Who are are:**  Relevium Medical, headquartered in Galway, Ireland, is a pioneering pharmaceutical company driven by a passionate team of chemists, neuroscientists, pharmacists, and industry experts. United by a shared mission, the team is dedicated to developing novel solutions to improve the lives of people living with chronic pain.\n\n**Interested in hearing more**: Get in contact at [info@Relevium-Medical.com](mailto:info@Relevium-Medical.com)",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/H2y-relevium-medical",
        "votes": 18,
        "created_at": "2022-08-22T13:44:28.458Z"
      },
      {
        "id": 64408,
        "title": "ReleviumBio - Life changing Innovation",
        "tagline": "ReleviumBio is developing a platform peptide gel-based therapy for Osteoarthritis",
        "body": "![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=64408&key=user_uploads/854295/770094dd-9ea7-4b87-96db-dfa446ca3b6e)\n\n[www.ReleviumBio.com](http://www.ReleviumBio.com)\n\n**Problem** \\\nThere has been no disruptive treatment for knee osteoarthritis (KOA) in over 50 years, with 80% of patients reliant on damaging medications. The shortcomings of the current injectable treatments leave 2 million US patients reliant on opioids for adequate pain relief. The number one KOA patient complaint is pain, with regenerative therapies to date failing to demonstrate a measurable patient outcome.\n\n**Solution** \\\nUp to recently, it was believed KOA was a disease of wear and tear. The latest scientific evidence however shows it to be a complex whole-organ disease, affecting multiple tissues and with different disease patterns for different patients. This evidence highlights the need for a multimodal approach to effectively treat this complex disease. PeptiFlex is the first multimodal injectable therapeutic developed for KOA that gives not only pain relief but also lubricates and preserves the joint.\n\n**How it works** \\\nOur novel multimodal therapeutic is based on a peptide component (315y) covalently bound to a polymer gel base. This patent-protected biotherapeutic achieves its effects through three complementary and synergistic effects. The biotherapeutic is injected directly into the knee joint to give immediate long-acting relief.\n\n**Pain Relief Effect**: PeptiFlex reduces pain nerve signalling by the action of peptide 315y which safely and consistently reduces pain signalling by a sodium channel block effect on neurons in the knee nerve fibres. Preclinical test data out to 7 weeks in a dedicated KOA model has shown successful translation of efficacy and safety with statistically significant effects on key pain endpoints.\n\n**Lubrication Effect**: The polymer base of PeptiFlex has unique viscoelastic properties acting as a substitute for healthy joint fluid and providing lubrication, cushioning, shock absorption, and improving the physical function of the joint.\n\n**Protection Effect**: PeptiFlex has proven to be extremely safe and protects joint structure by cartilage protecting actions of peptide 315y. The peptide interacts with cartilage-producing cells (chondrocytes) to cause proliferation and increased cartilage production. Tests have shown KOA joints treated with PeptiFlex were evaluated using the gold standard OARSI cartilage scoring system and showed improvement in terms of aggression and extent of disease compared to control.\n\n**The ask** \\\nIf you know any strategics interested in osteoarthritis or clinical trial groups interested in partnering with early-stage companies, we would really appreciate an introduction",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Gkq-releviumbio-life-changing-innovation",
        "votes": 12,
        "created_at": "2022-07-07T14:00:52.112Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "id": 27201,
    "name": "Lavo Life Sciences",
    "slug": "lavo-life-sciences",
    "former_names": [],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/590ccfba5d4f0f97ed00fd962f2fdea307dbea2f.png",
    "website": "https://www.lavo.ai/",
    "all_locations": "",
    "long_description": "Lavo Life Sciences runs simulations of drug molecules on computers. Pharma companies use these simulations to guide their experiments and ultimately save time and money in the lab. This will de-risk and expedite clinical trials and FDA approval.",
    "one_liner": "AI for drug formulation",
    "team_size": 3,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery",
    "launched_at": 1674082073,
    "tags": [
      "AI-powered Drug Discovery",
      "Machine Learning",
      "Biotech",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2023",
    "status": "Inactive",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Drug Discovery and Delivery"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "Unspecified"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/lavo-life-sciences",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2023/lavo-life-sciences.json",
    "year_founded": 2022,
    "city": null,
    "country": null,
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/lavo-life-sciences/",
    "x_url": "",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/590ccfba5d4f0f97ed00fd962f2fdea307dbea2f.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 148651,
        "full_name": "Scott Swarthout",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Software Engineer @ DoorDash, former co-founder of Lavo Life Sciences",
        "is_active": false,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottswarthout",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/af903ba732a9393676eeef2136e55d10a933cf34.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 1053804,
        "full_name": "Zach Glick",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "",
        "is_active": false,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/zach-glick-800b75219/",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/54056b9978aecbffd03e4a215347e4766fa753b7.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 156580,
        "full_name": "Derek Metcalf",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "",
        "is_active": false,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekmetcalf",
        "x_url": "https://twitter.com/derek_metcalf",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/59b13bc66f7b72fb061c26d95cd51d227f632c4a.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": [
      {
        "id": 69547,
        "title": "⚛️ Lavo Life Sciences - Computer simulations of drug molecules",
        "tagline": "We use AI to de-risk drug development and save time in the lab",
        "body": "### **TL;DR**\n\nLavo Life Sciences runs simulations of drug molecules on computers. Pharma companies use our simulations to guide their experiments, saving hundreds of millions of dollars and years of time in the lab. This will de-risk clinical trials and expedite FDA approval.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=69547&key=user_uploads/148651/80bc9d1a-e8b4-41cc-8ca1-5deed312ecbc)\n\nThis is what a pill looks like at the molecular level. Drug molecules pack into repeating patterns–or “crystal structures”–which control the drug’s stability. This particular drug (Ritonavir) was recalled when the developers chose an unstable crystal structure. This recall could have been avoided with effective simulation.\n\n### **🤔 The Problem**\n\nLavo’s simulation software predicts the crystal structure of drug molecules. The crystal structure refers to the three-dimensional pattern in which individual molecules pack to form a solid. Choosing the best crystal structure before clinical trials maximizes the efficacy, shelf-stability, and safety of the drug. Failure to accurately determine the crystal structure can lead to problems in manufacturing, legal protection of the drug patent, and success in clinical trials.\n\nFrom conversations with pharma companies, we’ve learned that they want more of these predictions, but existing vendors are too slow and expensive–think hundreds of thousands of computer hours for a single molecule. This is a limitation of their methodology and is also our key differentiator.\n\nThis market is large and growing. 15,000 relevant drugs enter R&D each year, and pharma companies spend over $100M on crystal structure predictions annually. Also, we have learned that pharma companies need predictions on larger drugs than are currently possible with today's methods, so we have an opportunity to expand the market with more efficient products.\n\n### **🔨 Why now, why us?**\n\nWe are uniquely positioned to solve this problem – Zach and Derek have PhDs in computational chemistry and Scott is a former Google Cloud PM. We are prepared to tackle this scientific challenge at an industrial scale.\n\n### **💡 Our Solution**\n\nWe started working on this problem 4 months ago and our simulations are already 10x faster than current methods\n\nWe use AI and quantum chemistry algorithms to improve every step of the crystal structure prediction workflow:\n\n* We use custom algorithms to quickly get an understanding of the landscape of possible crystals.\n* We use AI to accurately rank crystal structures 100x faster than traditional techniques\n* We scale our software on the cloud to achieve rapid turnaround times.\n\n### **❤️ Our Asks**\n\nWe are interested in meeting people in the pharma industry. Please email [founders@lavo.ai](mailto:founders@lavo.ai) to connect with us!\n\nThanks,\n\nScott, Zach, and Derek",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/I5j-lavo-life-sciences-computer-simulations-of-drug-molecules",
        "votes": 30,
        "created_at": "2023-02-22T17:14:00.733Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "id": 28158,
    "name": "Adventris Pharmaceuticals",
    "slug": "adventris-pharmaceuticals",
    "former_names": [
      "Elimivax"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/5c8bb0a987c29df94410bb9cc6ab7db9eb0d6478.png",
    "website": "https://adventris.com",
    "all_locations": "Baltimore, MD, USA",
    "long_description": "Adventris makes cancer vaccines. Our platform solves the problem of targeting poorly immunogenic oncogenes. Our first \"off-the-shelf\" vaccine targets KRAS, the most common cancer oncogene. In the long run, we envision a world where every adult receives our pan-cancer vaccines annually – preventing the majority of cancer deaths.\r\n\r\nIf you are interested in learning more about our approach to treat and prevent cancer, please reach out to us at contact@adventris.com",
    "one_liner": "Adventris makes cancer vaccines",
    "team_size": 7,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery",
    "launched_at": 1675190671,
    "tags": [
      "Biotech",
      "Healthcare",
      "Therapeutics",
      "Drug discovery",
      "Oncology"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2023",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Drug Discovery and Delivery"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada",
      "Remote",
      "Partly Remote"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/adventris-pharmaceuticals",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2023/adventris-pharmaceuticals.json",
    "year_founded": 2022,
    "city": "Baltimore",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "",
    "x_url": "",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/5c8bb0a987c29df94410bb9cc6ab7db9eb0d6478.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": {
      "name": "Tom Blomfield",
      "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/tom-blomfield"
    },
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 1145057,
        "full_name": "Jen Herbach",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Jen Herbach is the CEO of Adventris Pharmaceuticals. She has more than a decade of biotech industry experience bringing novel oncology drugs to market, across companies including Onyx/Amgen, InterMune/Genentech, Exelixis, and Amunix. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Masters from the University of Cambridge.",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennylesser/",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/a4adf9402b75db976cbf8cf9bc9daa3538d621d2.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 1157162,
        "full_name": "William Collis",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "William Collis is a serial entrepreneur with multiple exits, most recently the data platform Genji. His research has been published in Harvard Business review and featured as a TED talk with over 1.5M views. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was named a Baker Scholar. He is lifelong friends with his co-founders Jen Herbach and Mark Yarchoan, since meeting as roommates at Amherst College.",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-collis-145a2511/",
        "x_url": "https://twitter.com/William_Collis",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/b5c77e81b24d9b47c77c2c401669aded99074923.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 1163176,
        "full_name": "Mark Yarchoan",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Mark Yarchoan, M.D, is an Associate Professor of Medical Oncology at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Yarchoan runs an NCI-funded laboratory focused on developing novel immunotherapies, with a focus on cancer vaccines. He has led multiple international clinical trials of immunotherapy agents including neoantigen-targeted cancer vaccines. Dr. Yarchoan has received multiple honors, including the ASCO Young Investigator Award and the ASCO Career Development Award.",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "",
        "x_url": "https://twitter.com/markyarchoan",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/57e4f209a83f48b812a625fa97dad9138e582500.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": [
      {
        "id": 68893,
        "title": "Adventris Pharmaceuticals - We make cancer vaccines!",
        "tagline": "By teaching our body’s immune system to recognize and kill the mutations that cause cancer we can eliminate the majority of all cancer deaths.",
        "body": "**ABOUT ADVENTRIS**\n\nAdventris makes cancer vaccines. By teaching our body’s immune system to recognize and kill the mutations that cause cancer, we can eliminate the majority of all cancer deaths.\n\n**OUR SCIENCE**\n\nA normal cell turns into cancer when it develops a mutation that makes it grow aggressively. Surprisingly, a small number of these mutations account for the vast majority of cancer deaths. The immune system usually doesn’t recognize these mutations, but our technology platform enables us to train the immune system to recognize and attack these cancers. Our first product is a vaccine for the treatment of lung cancer that targets the KRAS mutation, the most common mutation in cancer, accounting for about 25-30% of all cancer deaths. In the long run, we envision a world where every adult receives our vaccines annually – preventing the majority of cancer deaths.\n\n**OUR TEAM** \n\nOur team includes some of the leading cancer vaccine experts in the world including: our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Mark Yarchoan (principal investigator of multiple international cancer vaccine clinical trials) and our Scientific Co-Founder, Dr. Liz Jaffee. Our team is led by our Chief Executive Officer, Jen Herbach, who has more than a decade of biotech industry experience including with Amunix (the second largest oncology pre-clinical stage acquisition).\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=68893&key=user_uploads/1145057/259fde86-331d-4477-83f2-f7f6e5461adf)\n\n**INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE** \n\nIf you are interested in learning more about our approach to treat and prevent cancer, please reach out to us at [contact@adventrispharma.com](mailto:contact@adventrispharma.com)",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/HvB-adventris-pharmaceuticals-we-make-cancer-vaccines",
        "votes": 61,
        "created_at": "2023-01-31T19:18:22.720Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "id": 28159,
    "name": "Invitris",
    "slug": "invitris",
    "former_names": [],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/b31c6e14e61e0a7e292383c88d7094914a492565.png",
    "website": "https://invitris.com/",
    "all_locations": "Munich, BY, Germany",
    "long_description": "Invitris radically simplifies how we create novel biological drugs. Our patent-pending technology platform turns DNA into synthetic proteins and was recently featured in the Science magazine. It makes creating new drugs >10,000x more efficient at <100x lower costs of material.\r\n\r\nOur killer application is enabling the newest generation of synthetic bacteriophages to combat antibiotic-resistant infections, which are threatening to cause more deaths than all cancers combined. ",
    "one_liner": "Creating new protein-based drugs at scale",
    "team_size": 6,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery",
    "launched_at": 1678475135,
    "tags": [
      "Biotech",
      "Nanotechnology",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2023",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Drug Discovery and Delivery"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "Germany",
      "Europe",
      "Remote",
      "Partly Remote"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/invitris",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2023/invitris.json",
    "year_founded": 2022,
    "city": "Munich",
    "country": "DE",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/invitris/",
    "x_url": "",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/b31c6e14e61e0a7e292383c88d7094914a492565.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 1163538,
        "full_name": "Patrick Grossmann",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "My hearts are entrepreneurship & science, originally trained as bioinformatician at the Harvard Medical School and ETH Zurich amongst other schools. I earned a PhD and MBA, and highly enjoy opportunities to improve the world with science-based products. I co-founded Invitris to radically simplify drug development to stop antibiotic-resistance, which has the potential to become the dominating health-economic challenge in this century.",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickgrossmannbioinformatics/",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/7fd393675a42df3ca1abac5c1131e3248a325274.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 1195343,
        "full_name": "Kilian Vogele",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Kilian, the CTO and co-founder of Invitris, is responsible for driving innovation and development within the company. With a PhD in synthetic biology from TUM and a track record of 5 patents, his expertise has been instrumental in creating Invitris' groundbreaking technology.",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/kilian-vogele-21a321183/",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/4cb832abbb78ced414d19e28f010a711ebeb3ece.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [
      {
        "title": "Innovation and Start-up Center Biotechnology (IZB) welcomes Invitris - Innovations- und Gründerzentrum Biotechnologie IZB",
        "url": "https://www.izb-online.de/en/media-library/press-release/press-release-izb-martinsried/innovation-and-start-up-center-biotechnology-izb-welcomes-invitris/",
        "date": "Feb 28, 2023"
      },
      {
        "title": "    moma future: Viren gegen Bakterien - ZDFheute",
        "url": "https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/zdf-morgenmagazin/moma-future-viren-gegen-bakterien-100.html",
        "date": "Feb 06, 2023"
      },
      {
        "title": "Bacteriophages the Modern Way | Science | AAAS",
        "url": "https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/bacteriophages-modern-way",
        "date": "Aug 17, 2022"
      }
    ],
    "launches": [
      {
        "id": 70166,
        "title": "INVITRIS - Simplifying drug development & manufacturing",
        "tagline": "Our biotech platform creates the newest drugs in shortest time",
        "body": "### **Tl;dr**\n\nAt Invitris we're creating **protein-based drugs**, such as the next generation of antibiotics. To do this at scale, we created a platform called **Phactory**, that can turn DNA into synthetic proteins. Phactory makes the development of novel protein-based drugs 10,000x more efficient and cuts down the material costs by 100x.\\\n—\n\nHi everyone! This is [**Kilian** ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kilian-vogele-21a321183/)and [**Patrick**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickgrossmannbioinformatics/) from INVITRIS, a Munich-based life science company.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=70166&key=user_uploads/89898/df875741-b00f-4ba8-b56f-48cee390fbf1)\n\n# **Protein-based drugs are powerful but expensive**\n\nWhile only 2% of all treatments are based on protein-based drugs, these drugs generate 40% of the total drug revenue. One of the reasons why they are so expensive is that you need living cells, like bacteria, to produce them. **Handling living cells is error-prone** and **scales terribly** because you have to establish new processes for every new drug.\n\n# **One platform to synthesize them all**\n\nOur universal biotech platform, **Phactory**, takes DNA and uses it to synthesize proteins in a single step. It mimics the molecular machinery you find in living cells but can be stored in conventional vessels.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=70166&key=user_uploads/1163538/e720da18-e212-42d5-9a13-a5e53fbecc80)\n\nThis platform is based on Kilian’s groundbreaking research during his PhD, which was honored in the famous magazine [**Science** ](https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/bacteriophages-modern-way)and was also featured on [**German national TV**](https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/zdf-morgenmagazin/moma-future-viren-gegen-bakterien-100.html)!\n\nOur primary focus area is **bacteriophages** - natural viruses that cannot attack humans but bacteria, even when those have become resistant to antibiotics. We are therefore tackling a problem that is expected to cause 25% more deaths per year than all cancers combined in the next decades: [multidrug-resistant infections](https://www.stopamr.eu/blog/new-studies/no-more-wake-up-calls-amr-is-now-the-leading-cause-of-death-worldwide/).\n\n# **We believe in collaboration and partnering!**\n\nBuilding new protein-based products is hard. We can help each other.\n\n* We are constantly looking for **biopharmaceutical partners** seeking innovation!\n* Intros to companies developing antibacterial products in animal health or agriculture are also welcome!\n* If you **struggle with protein synthesis** in general - we can help!\n* Know anyone who is experienced in scaling cell-free expression under GMP? Reach out!\n\nAny outreach is highly appreciated:<https://invitris.com/contact/>\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=70166&key=user_uploads/1163538/d016e457-3a55-4651-a7f6-6308d85772cb)\n\n",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/IFi-invitris-simplifying-drug-development-manufacturing",
        "votes": 45,
        "created_at": "2023-03-10T22:48:50.259Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "id": 29406,
    "name": "ACX",
    "slug": "acx",
    "former_names": [
      "AcX Therapeutics",
      "AcX"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/9bb37e7a5bced1e654bfc08df7f21868e28bd64c.png",
    "website": "https://www.acxtherapeutics.com/",
    "all_locations": "New York City, NY, USA",
    "long_description": "ACX is developing a new standard for precision agriculture technologies by providing sustainable, eco-friendly alternatives to chemical pesticides. Our mission is to transform agriculture through sustainable biological crop protection that increases yields while safeguarding the environment, farmers, and consumers.\r\n",
    "one_liner": "Next-generation biocides for sustainable agriculture at scale",
    "team_size": 4,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Industrial Bio",
    "launched_at": 1721937425,
    "tags": [
      "Synthetic Biology",
      "Biotech",
      "Healthcare",
      "Agriculture",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Summer 2024",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Industrial Bio"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/acx",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2024/acx.json",
    "year_founded": 2024,
    "city": "New York City",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/acxtherapeutics/",
    "x_url": "",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/9bb37e7a5bced1e654bfc08df7f21868e28bd64c.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 1676544,
        "full_name": "Emmanouela Petsolari",
        "title": "Founder/CEO",
        "founder_bio": "Emmanouela is the Co-Founder & CEO of ACX and PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics from the University of Cambridge. Previously, she held several research positions working in immunology, cancer, malaria vaccine development and viral drug discovery (in institutes like Barts Cancer Institute CRUK, Cambridge University, King’s College London, Institute Curie France and Imperial College London). ",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/emmanouelapetsolari",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/fe0981d815a5985e4455e8444899976e07cac408.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 1676577,
        "full_name": "Melina Petsolari",
        "title": "Founder/CTO",
        "founder_bio": "Melina is the Co-founder & CTO of ACX and PhD in Computer Science from King's College London. Previously, she held several research positions spanning digital health, robotics, technology-enable interventions, HCAI and NLP (in institutes like Cambridge University, King’s College London,  National Health Service (NHS) in England and Francis Crick Institute).",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/melina-petsolari-a03915298",
        "x_url": null,
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/df48f52856a7187592c6c728a6e25be063a80e70.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": [
      {
        "id": 82452,
        "title": "🧬🦠 ACX  – Next-generation biocides for sustainable agriculture at scale",
        "tagline": "ACX is developing a new standard for precision agriculture technologies by providing sustainable, eco-friendly alternatives to chemical pesticides.",
        "body": "Hi everyone,\n\nWe are [**ACX**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/acxtherapeutics/)! We’re two PhD’s in Biochemistry/Biophysics and Computer Science from the University of Cambridge and King’s College London developing a new type of therapy with applications in animal farming and agriculture. We have discovered a new molecular weapon to first provide more efficacious pest control measures.\n\n### **Team:**\n\n👩🏼‍🔬[**Emmanouela Petsolari**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmanouelapetsolari/) – Molecular Geneticist and Biochemist with 8 years of research experience in drug discovery and development (from leukemia, ovarian, and breast cancer as well as viral and bacterial infections).\n\n👩🏼‍🔬 [**Melina Petsolari**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/melina-petsolari-a03915298/)  – Computer Scientist and Designer with extensive experience in HCI, AI, and healthcare developing hardware and software for applications in digital health, biotech, and privacy.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=82452&key=user_uploads/1676544/c167d705-6bb6-44bf-86be-5eec9824edc3)\n\n# **❌ Problem:**\n\nThere is more disease impacting our livestock and crops than ever before - and this comes at a time when the human population is also exploding.\n\n1. Manure from livestock and extensive use of limited therapeutics for growth promotion and disease prevention in animal breeding as well as overuse of pesticides in crops\n\n   ●  One billion kilos of chemicals are used annually to combat crop pests\n2. Spread of pathogenic agents that have adapted in previously used medications\n3. Failure of commonly used pesticides and insecticides has been documented in nearly 1000 distinct pest species worldwide\n\n   ●  This leads each year to the world’s food supply facing an up to 30% loss due to insect pests alone, and this number is continuously increasing\n\n# ✅ **Our Solution:**\n\nExisting therapeutics are either no longer effective or have never worked to the extent necessary for achieving positive outcomes. We have discovered a common biological pathway that can be targeted across pathogenic species.\n\n### ✅ ✅ **Specifics:**\n\n1. We have _in vitro_ validation data of our therapeutic showing high inhibition and specificity in the cell line\n2. We are initially focusing on animal health and crop production due to the experimental validation of our therapeutic's effectiveness on a shared pathogen\n3. We are developing drug delivery systems that minimize toxicity and immunogenicity while providing precise spatiotemporal control for targeted drug release\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=82452&key=user_uploads/1676544/1f3bc0eb-72b6-4c8b-80d3-d3172a311f1f)\n\nIllustration of our solution. Nanoparticles carrying the killer compound (orange) infiltrate the target cell like a Trojan horse and activate drug release upon targeting our newly discovered pathway.\n\n### 💡**Key facts about our solution:**\n\n➔   High killing efficacy\n\n➔   Designed to specifically target pathogenic cells while preserving the surrounding healthy cells and ensuring no toxicity or adverse side effects\n\n➔   Highly suitable to become a platform solution (i.e., therapeutic development pipeline expanded to multiple disease areas and organisms)\n\n➔   Scalable, stable, and easy to manufacture\n\n### \n\n# 👋**Our Asks:**\n\n* Share this post with your network and help spread the word!\n* If you’re as excited as we are about this novel approach, email us to learn more about it at [emmanouela@acxtherapeutics.com](mailto:emmanouela@acxtherapeutics.com)\n\n### ",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/LRs-acx-next-generation-biocides-for-sustainable-agriculture-at-scale",
        "votes": 33,
        "created_at": "2024-07-25T21:52:31.810Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "id": 29429,
    "name": "Velorum Therapeutics",
    "slug": "velorum-therapeutics",
    "former_names": [],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/f201fcf7f4408f2acdedabe7f9bef2baabec8369.png",
    "website": "https://www.velorumtx.com/",
    "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "Velorum Therapeutics is developing breakthrough medicines by unlocking the biology of heme.",
    "one_liner": "Breakthrough medicines unlocking the biology of heme",
    "team_size": 5,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics",
    "launched_at": 1706719304,
    "tags": [
      "Biotech",
      "Healthcare",
      "Therapeutics",
      "Drug discovery",
      "Oncology"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2024",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Therapeutics"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/velorum-therapeutics",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2024/velorum-therapeutics.json",
    "year_founded": 2023,
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/velorumtx/",
    "x_url": "https://twitter.com/velorumtx",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/f201fcf7f4408f2acdedabe7f9bef2baabec8369.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": {
      "name": "Jared Friedman",
      "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/jared-friedman"
    },
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 1650103,
        "full_name": "Pouya Modareszadeh",
        "title": "Founder/CEO",
        "founder_bio": "Co-Founder & CEO @ Velorum Therapeutics. Building new medicines.",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/pouya-modareszadeh",
        "x_url": "https://twitter.com/pouyamodares",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/58cc892e4fc1058532de364a1d07fab281272f8a.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 1647572,
        "full_name": "Parsa Modareszadeh",
        "title": "Founder/President",
        "founder_bio": "Co-Founder and President @ Velorum Therapeutics. Goldwater Scholar. Working to create breakthrough medicines for devastating diseases. ",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/parsa-modareszadeh",
        "x_url": "https://twitter.com/parsamodares",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/37709050b73a0ef7baf2d4d22bf250ec935ea51e.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": [
      {
        "id": 78069,
        "title": "Velorum Therapeutics: Powerful cancer drugs that starve tumors",
        "tagline": "We're developing a new class of cancer drugs that starve tumors by hijacking cancer metabolism.",
        "body": "### **ABOUT VELORUM**\n\n[**Velorum Therapeutics**](https://www.velorumtx.com/) **is developing a new class of cancer drugs that starve tumors by hijacking cancer metabolism. We have shown our drugs work in mice and plan to begin human clinical trials next year, starting with the #1 cancer killer – lung cancer.**\n\n### **OUR SCIENCE**\n\n**We’ve discovered that cancers are addicted to a molecule called ‘heme’.** Heme, which is well-known as the central component of ‘hemoglobin’, is used by the mitochondria to make energy. Cancers ‘steal’ free-floating heme from the blood to fuel their rapid growth. **Our patented drugs starve cancer by removing this heme that cancer cells need, but normal cells don’t.** We’ve shown in animals that our drugs are highly effective for multiple cancers, without affecting healthy cells, even at the highest doses. Also, by starving tumors, we make them weaker and more susceptible to existing cancer treatments, like radiation, chemo, and immunotherapies.\n\nThe body has a natural system to clean up this free-floating heme, but it gets overwhelmed by cancer. **Our drugs essentially amplify the body’s natural heme removal system.** We let nature do most of the work – our drugs are built from proteins that have evolved over millennia to be perfect at capturing heme. Importantly, heme is the exact same molecule across all mammals, meaning the results we see in animals have a higher chance of translating to humans.\n\nWe’re starting with lung cancer, with a lead drug advancing to first-in-human trials next year. **Because multiple types of cancers have this same vulnerability, our lead drug could potentially be used for lots of cancer types and become a standard-of-care treatment.**\n\n### **OUR TEAM**\n\n[Parsa](https://linkedin.com/in/parsa-modareszadeh) and [Pouya](https://linkedin.com/in/pouya-modareszadeh) are twin brothers and scientists who spent their entire adult lives studying how cancers make energy. They worked together on this breakthrough science over the past 5 years, helping develop this promising new class of cancer drugs. They founded Velorum to advance this breakthrough to patients, surrounding themselves with a team of world-class drug developers, scientists, and clinicians.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=78069&key=user_uploads/1647572/3e39d62c-27d4-4f86-8e4b-94e9bc70772e)\n\n### **CONTACT US**\n\nTo learn more about our science or support us on our mission, please reach out at [info@velorumtx.com](mailto:info@velorumtx.com)",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/KJB-velorum-therapeutics-powerful-cancer-drugs-that-starve-tumors",
        "votes": 30,
        "created_at": "2024-02-01T18:56:30.462Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "id": 29470,
    "name": "Eris Biotech",
    "slug": "eris-biotech",
    "former_names": [],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/b16bbab6bd8003573ebc3410a08531b90c3427fd.png",
    "website": "http://www.erisbio.com",
    "all_locations": "Salt Lake City, UT, USA",
    "long_description": "We are developing cancer therapeutics using small molecules that inhibit immune suppression. Our drugs engage the immune system to aggressively fight tumors. Our therapeutic portfolio addresses a range of solid tumors, starting with mesothelioma. ",
    "one_liner": "Our drugs engage the immune system to fight tumors",
    "team_size": 2,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics",
    "launched_at": 1706246904,
    "tags": [
      "Biotech",
      "Therapeutics",
      "Drug discovery",
      "Oncology"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2024",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Therapeutics"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/eris-biotech",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2024/eris-biotech.json",
    "year_founded": 2023,
    "city": "Salt Lake City",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/eris-biotech/about/",
    "x_url": "",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/b16bbab6bd8003573ebc3410a08531b90c3427fd.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [
      "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/attachments/ee9d713077a9b1c11574e3f90def5175741b1175.png"
    ],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 1579332,
        "full_name": "Evita Weagel",
        "title": "Founder/CEO",
        "founder_bio": "PhD in microbiology and molecular biology with an emphasis in cancer immunology, working on developing drugs that reawaken the immune system to fight cancer. First-generation immigrant from Peru. Mom of two boys. ",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/evita-weagel-ph-d-62b19737",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/34d1d8b3169bd0d47404851e7b84984278e9283b.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 1593818,
        "full_name": "Rachel Garlick",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "PhD in Immunology from Dartmouth College. Engineered many novel cancer immunotherapies. We build cancer drugs that reawaken the immune system to fight cancer for you. No tox, no side effects, and most importantly -- no cancer. ",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/rachel-brog-garlick",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/aef2fc87092832c891b54c739d321fcad28adcd0.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": [
      {
        "id": 78251,
        "title": "Eris Biotech - Developing drugs that reawaken the immune system to kill cancer",
        "tagline": "Tumors turn OFF the immune system. Our drugs turn the immune system ON to kill cancer.",
        "body": "**About us**\n\nHello 👋 We’re [Evita](https://www.linkedin.com/in/evita-weagel/) and [Rachel](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-brog-garlick/), co-founders of [Eris Biotech](https://www.linkedin.com/company/eris-biotech). We met working at the same lab at BYU when Evita was a Ph.D. student and Rachel was an undergrad. We collaborated on a peer-reviewed paper and conference presentations, and we’ve been friends since! Rachel went on to Dartmouth for her Ph.D. and later worked at a startup developing cell therapies. Evita went on for a postdoc and a career in drug development in big pharma. Rachel has developed multiple novel therapies for patients and Evita has brought numerous drugs to the clinic. We’re excited to bring our expertise together to build a first-in-class treatment that follows our mission to aggressively fights cancer, but also improve the patient experience.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=78251&key=user_uploads/1579332/86e96bb5-bf3c-4acc-9041-1efbe0d836a0)\n\n**Our Backstory**\n\nEvita, working in drug development, saw promising cancer drugs fail because they were simply too toxic. Rachel, in cell therapy, saw the same problem as treatments that worked in principle caused too much collateral damage. Both realized that the real issue was not just the drugs themselves but the way most cancer treatments rely on toxic approaches that also wipe out our best weapon against cancer, the immune system. Tumor immune evasion is one of cancer’s greatest strengths, yet few were tackling it head-on. We founded Eris Biotech to change that and to develop therapies that stop tumors from hiding and reawaken the immune system.\n\n**The Problem**\n\nOne of cancer’s greatest weapons is its ability to hide from the immune system. Tumors release billions of **tiny vesicles** that contain “don’t attack me signals” and  shut down the immune system, blinding it to their presence. This immune evasion lets cancer spread unchecked while most current treatments, such as chemotherapy, radiation, and even some immunotherapies, further weaken the body’s natural defenses.\n\n**Our Solution**\n\nEris Biotech develops small-molecule drugs that prevent tumors from forming and releasing immune-suppressing **tiny vesicles**. By stopping this process, we remove cancer’s disguise, restore immune surveillance, and give the body’s natural defenses the upper hand. Essentially, our drug doesn’t kill cancer directly like toxic chemotherapies – instead, our drug awakens the immune system to fight cancer for you. This approach targets one of cancer’s most powerful survival strategies while avoiding the high toxicity of traditional treatments. We’re starting by targeting mesothelioma, a cancer of the lung lining, with a 5-year survival rate under 13 percent.\n\n**Contact us**\n\nIf you want to learn more about our science and mission, you can reach us at [**founders@erisbio.com**](mailto:founders@erisbio.com)",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/KM7-eris-biotech-developing-drugs-that-reawaken-the-immune-system-to-kill-cancer",
        "votes": 186,
        "created_at": "2024-02-07T21:04:37.925Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "id": 29527,
    "name": "ParcelBio",
    "slug": "parcelbio",
    "former_names": [
      "Parcel Therapuetics",
      "Parcel Therapeutics"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/74f762bd0f8856c1dbe4d716afa6585e44f03870.png",
    "website": "https://parcelbio.com/",
    "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "ParcelBio is engineering a new class of mRNA medicines designed to deliver unprecedented potency and durability. Its proprietary APEXm™ platform uses novel RNA domains to enhance protein expression and extend activity, enabling therapies that reach the thresholds required for meaningful, and potentially curative, clinical outcomes. The company is advancing programs in autoimmune disease, oncology, and encoded protein therapeutics.",
    "one_liner": "Elevated mRNA for transformative medicines.",
    "team_size": 6,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics",
    "launched_at": 1707343020,
    "tags": [
      "Gene Therapy",
      "Synthetic Biology",
      "Biotech",
      "Therapeutics",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Winter 2024",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Therapeutics"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/parcelbio",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2024/parcelbio.json",
    "year_founded": 2023,
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/parcelbio",
    "x_url": "",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/74f762bd0f8856c1dbe4d716afa6585e44f03870.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 1677906,
        "full_name": "David Weinberg",
        "title": "Founder/CEO",
        "founder_bio": "David is the co-founder and CEO of ParcelBio. He was previously VP of RNA Platform at Orbital Therapeutics / Circ Bio, where he led the development of a circular RNA therapeutics platform. Before that, he was Sr. Director of Molecular Research at Freenome, where he built the multiomics diagnostics platform that enabled a blood test for the early detection of cancer​. David obtained his PhD from MIT, was a UCSF Faculty Fellow, and has been honored with Forbes ‘30 Under 30’ and an NIH DP5 Award.",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/david-e-weinberg",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/a22ff6d56783a39898b76e5628fcfd0a63b70433.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 1032558,
        "full_name": "Chris Carlson",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Chris is the co-founder and CSO of ParcelBio. He was previously a scientist at Orbital Therapeutics, where he was the primary contributor on multiple patents regarding stabilization of therapeutic RNAs. Chris obtained his PhD from UCSF where he studied RNA packaging and protection in viruses.",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/christopher-carlson-",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/f1a5fdc13e87dbfa7a513e72af5baaaf8491bd74.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 29532,
    "name": "Ångström AI",
    "slug": "angstrom-ai",
    "former_names": [
      "Angstrom AI"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/d66ae246dae1ca35e8275f53019cac07d3259c99.png",
    "website": "https://www.angstrom-ai.com",
    "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "Angstrom AI builds GenAI-based molecular simulations to substitute wet lab experiments in the pre-clinical drug development pipeline. We are a team of 2 PhD's and 2 Professors from the University of Cambridge who decided to start a company together after we realised how to combine breakthoughs in our research in quantum-accurate models of physics and generative AI models.\r\n\r\nOur Biotech/Pharma clients can verify the efficacy and safety of new drug candidates using our computer simulations, which match the accuracy of wet lab experiments, but are over 100x faster. We achieve this accuracy by constraining our genAI-based simulations to obey the laws of physics, avoiding the hallucinations seen in other GenAI technologies.\r\n\r\nSince joining YC, Angstrom AI has developed the first physically accurate gen-AI based simulation of multiple molecules interacting. We have published the first molecule water solubility results with accuracy within the error range of wet lab experiments. We have also kicked-off a 150K pilot project with a pharma company to apply our tech to estimating solubility in their drug development pipeline.",
    "one_liner": "Gen AI molecular simulations that reproduce wetlab results",
    "team_size": 5,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery",
    "launched_at": 1719350589,
    "tags": [
      "AI-powered Drug Discovery",
      "Biotech",
      "Drug discovery",
      "AI"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Summer 2024",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Drug Discovery and Delivery"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada",
      "Remote",
      "Partly Remote"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/angstrom-ai",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2024/angstrom-ai.json",
    "year_founded": 2024,
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/angstrom-ai/",
    "x_url": "https://x.com/Angstrom_ai",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": "https://github.com/Angstrom-AI",
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/d66ae246dae1ca35e8275f53019cac07d3259c99.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [
      "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/attachments/233f98e0b4c858fd18363ab1100b645bbdbec75a.png"
    ],
    "primary_partner": {
      "name": "Ankit Gupta",
      "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/ankit-gupta"
    },
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 1757871,
        "full_name": "Jose Miguel Hernandez Lobato",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Miguel is co-founder of Ångström AI and Professor of Machine Learning at the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, UK. He has nearly 20  years of research experience in Machine Learning and his work has been cited over 15,000 times. His research in Machine Learning for Molecules has led him to build strong relationships with partners in BioTech and Pharma. Before joining Cambridge as a faculty, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University.",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/jose-miguel-hernandez-lobato-7790512a5",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/84e9366cdd7032b2d7a84d9b9c9c393c38bb2c04.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 454695,
        "full_name": "Laurence Midgley",
        "title": "Founder/CTO",
        "founder_bio": "I'm the co-founder of Ångström AI which substitutes wet lab experiments with physically accurate GenAI molecular simulations for clients in Pharma and BioTech. Before founding Ångström AI, I was a research engineer at InstaDeep (acquired by BioNTech 2023), and pursued a PhD at the University of Cambridge in generative AI models for molecular systems. I love coding and surfing, reach out if you are in the Bay Area and want to catch some waves.",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/laurencemidgley",
        "x_url": "https://twitter.com/SilkyDogfish",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/acb4d76179a92480410f2827c5c18dc175371e3f.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": [
      {
        "id": 81767,
        "title": "Ångström AI: Gen AI molecular simulations",
        "tagline": "Replace wet lab experiments with gen AI molecular simulations",
        "body": "---\n\n**TLDR:** **We build fast and experimentally accurate generative AI-based simulations of molecular interactions for pharma and biotech companies.** These simulations can tell us whether a drug is going to bind to a protein or how quickly a drug will act once it is consumed by a patient.\n\n---\n\n# Our Team\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=81767&key=user_uploads/89898/2077fd93-2682-4e97-984e-99e64583d67b)\n\nWe are a team from the University of Cambridge with 30+ years of combined experience in AI and Molecular Modelling, including:\n\n* [Javier](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_b-Cs2cAAAAJ), who scaled probabilistic AI methods 1000x during his PhD, turned down a research scientist position in Big Tech to start Angstrom AI.\n* [Laurence](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vMd1gwMAAAAJ), who developed FAB, a method for training AIs from physical equations without training data, during his PhD and was a researcher at InstaDeep before its acquisition by BioNTech in 2023.\n* [Miguel](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BEBccCQAAAAJ), Javier and Laurence's PhD supervisor, author of foundational research on AI for drug discovery and generative modeling.\n* [Gabor](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=q39javYAAAAJ), who developed MACE, a state of the art quantum mechanically accurate force field.\n\nMiguel and Gabor's work has been cited over 40k times.\n\n# The Problem\n\nDuring drug discovery and development, pharmaceutical companies need to understand how drug molecules interact with other molecules in the human body to determine the drugs’ efficacy and safety.\n\nConventional methods to assess molecular interactions are unsatisfactory:\n\n* Wet lab experiments are accurate but slow and expensive.\n* Machine learning prediction methods, like AlphaFold, are fast but inaccurate. They are limited by the quality and quantity of training data, which must be generated by lab experiments.\n* Molecular Dynamics simulates interactions by rolling out the equations of physics, offering a balance between wet lab and machine learning predictions in accuracy and speed. These factors depend on the model of physics used. More accurate models are more expensive to run. This makes the method compute bottlenecked rather than data bottlenecked.\n\nHere is a video of a simulation of 64 water molecules. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18AuJEVnwWA>\n\n# Solution: Fast and Accurate Molecular Simulations\n\nWe run molecular simulations, keeping us in the compute constrained regime, but we combine **1) quantum mechanically accurate models of physics 2) generative AI that allows us to run these models quickly.**  \n\n1. We use the MACE (multi-atomic cluster expansion) physics model, which accurately reproduces quantum-mechanical interactions. It was developed by Gabor, our co-founder. In collaboration with our academic partners, we recently showed MACE simulations are the **first ever to provide accuracy comparable to lab experiments** when estimating the hydration-free energies (a quantity relevant to drug bioavailability). Below is a plot from the [resulting publication](https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.18171). However, MACE is computationally expensive, each of the results from the below plot required 1 week of compute on 8 A100 GPUs.\n\n   ![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=81767&key=user_uploads/649736/7ff4d768-80aa-4c10-b89a-1960aa64ce69)\n\n2. We use diffusion models to accelerate MACE simulations, making them computationally affordable. Our models generate states **consistent with physics, but the transitions between states are non-physical and significantly faster.** Here is a video of our AI simulating the same water box as above.\n\n<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK1MNLsQg2Y>\n\n# Demos!\n\nHere are a couple of examples to show off the type of stuff you can do with our generative models.\n\n### Speeding up Supercool Water\n\nSupercool water—liquid water below freezing, here at -40°C—is notoriously difficult to simulate with traditional methods because cold molecules move slower. The plot below shows the correlation between water molecule orientations across simulation steps. **Our AI introduces about 10,000 times more information per step compared to traditional simulations.**\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=81767&key=user_uploads/649736/3b1a48bc-da17-4627-ad23-4d491b5be6d0)\n\n### Hydrating Methane\n\nModeling interactions between molecules and water allows us to calculate how quickly the molecules will dissolve and their bioavailability as drugs. Here are videos of a traditional simulation of a methane molecule interacting with water and our AI simulation. **Our AI prioritizes the movement of the methane molecule and its surrounding water, which are the parts that matter for solubility and bioavailability calculations.**\n\n<https://youtu.be/EmTit8tC0TE>   \n\n<https://youtu.be/pq6Al2SATlg>\n\nThese are the first ever **genAI accelerated, physically accurate molecular dynamics simulations** incorporating the interaction of many molecules. We are scaling up - so stay tuned!\n\n# Our Ask\n\nReach out to [info@angstrom-ai.com](mailto:info@angstrom-ai.com) if\n\n* You are in pharma or biotech and interested in learning about the theory of diffusion models and quantum-mechanically accurate models of atomic interactions. We would be happy to give a talk on our research or have a more informal chat over Zoom. \n* You have friends who work in pharma or biotech and are interested in computational methods. We would love to meet them!",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/LGp-ngstr-m-ai-gen-ai-molecular-simulations",
        "votes": 35,
        "created_at": "2024-06-26T16:24:53.448Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "id": 29749,
    "name": "Biocartesian",
    "slug": "biocartesian",
    "former_names": [
      "coordna bio"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/91093b7c8dbe1ed84a73aa4907b878fc5b0f52bf.png",
    "website": "https://www.biocartesian.com",
    "all_locations": "Philadelphia, PA, USA",
    "long_description": "Finding new cures requires seeing what and where the abnormal molecules are in a diseased tissue, but current tools see less than 1% of those molecules. Biocartesian combines microscopy and new chemistries to see 50X more, offering unprecedented insights into disease biology and new therapies.",
    "one_liner": "Converting biology into digital molecular maps",
    "team_size": 2,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery",
    "launched_at": 1724915415,
    "tags": [
      "Hard Tech",
      "B2B",
      "Biotech",
      "Diagnostics",
      "Drug discovery"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Summer 2024",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Drug Discovery and Delivery"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/biocartesian",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2024/biocartesian.json",
    "year_founded": 2023,
    "city": "Philadelphia",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/biocartesian",
    "x_url": "",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/91093b7c8dbe1ed84a73aa4907b878fc5b0f52bf.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": null,
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 1116949,
        "full_name": "Ian Dardani",
        "title": "Founder/CEO",
        "founder_bio": "Co-founder of Biocartesian. Microscopy + molecular tools + engineering. Previously Bioscience Enterprise at Cambridge, Bioengineering PhD at UPenn.",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/ian-dardani",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/6c967a8fcb81f0bfbca52fb800b5ba1f7eea275a.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 1975436,
        "full_name": "Jess Li",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Co-founder of Biocartesian. Genetics + epigenetics, next-gen sequencing. Previously PhD at UPenn, BD at imvaria.",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessxli/",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/8e804f1e103e4d7f9e0e7173849d9d26dbf96a17.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": [
      {
        "id": 83575,
        "title": "Biocartesian - Converting biology into digital molecular maps",
        "tagline": "We use chemistry and microscopy to help scientists discover new drugs.",
        "body": "**Tl;dr**: Finding new cures requires knowing **what** and **where** the abnormal molecules are in a diseased tissue, but current tools see less than 1% of those molecules. [Biocartesian](https://www.biocartesian.com/) combines microscopy and new chemistries to see a comprehensive picture, offering unprecedented insights into disease biology and new therapeutic approaches.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=83575&key=user_uploads/89898/ee18ecba-242d-4cb0-bb1b-d9ab6de69ddd)\n\n# **👩‍🔬 Team**\n\nWe’re [**Ian**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-dardani) and [**Jess**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessxli/), two former UPenn PhDs on a mission to see every molecule in biological specimens. We’ve spent years advancing and troubleshooting the latest tools in biology, from DNA sequencing to microscopy, but even with these efforts, these tools revealed only a fraction of the underlying biology. We dreamed of a way for scientists to see everything (and fast) so they could reduce their guesswork and focus on the most promising therapeutic approaches.\n\n# ❌ **Problem**\n\nMost diseases remain a mystery because existing methods can see less than 1% of the molecules within a biological specimen. These methods can also take months for scientists to set up and often fail, wasting thousands of dollars per specimen and millions in failed drug programs.\n\n# 🔬 **Our approach**\n\nWe’re combining new chemistries and microscopy to see a full map of the molecules in biological specimens. Imagine if we could see into the \\~500 million existing tumor specimens to decode these cancers.\n\nTo use our technology, scientists simply ship their biological specimens to our laboratory, where we automate their conversion into digital molecular maps – saving them months of tedious data collection and troubleshooting.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=83575&key=user_uploads/1116949/7deca4d9-cf29-45b4-852d-1fc471672b75)\n\nOur solution:\n\n* Enables scientists in any disease area to 50X their data collection\n* Saves scientists months of time\n* Lowers the cost of biological measurements\n* Expands access to bespoke assays developed by any scientist by integrating with our platform\n* Meets the growing demand for biological data as AI-led analysis supersedes the bottleneck of human-led analysis\n* Turns biology from 99% invisible to an interpretable problem\n\n# **🙏 Asks**\n\nIf you’re excited about this and would like to learn more, email us at:\n\n[**interested@biocartesian.com**](mailto:interested@biocartesian.com)\n\nor reach us at <https://www.biocartesian.com>",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Ljz-biocartesian-converting-biology-into-digital-molecular-maps",
        "votes": 265,
        "created_at": "2024-08-29T15:17:26.070Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "id": 30925,
    "name": "Paceline Bio",
    "slug": "paceline-bio",
    "former_names": [
      "Play Health"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/52ae3355c425a5e6bfaad9876e3d186dff23a243.png",
    "website": "https://paceline.bio/",
    "all_locations": "Boulder, CO, USA",
    "long_description": "Paceline Bio runs the research and clinical ops layer behind biotech and pharma company who want to move fast, starting with biospecimen collection, logistics, and storage. We're built to get you from scope to signature in just one day so you can accelerate your programs.",
    "one_liner": "Biospecimen logistics & operations layer to accelerate drug dev",
    "team_size": 3,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare",
    "launched_at": 1760457684,
    "tags": [
      "AI-powered Drug Discovery",
      "Biotech",
      "Drug discovery",
      "Biotechnology"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Fall 2025",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada",
      "Remote",
      "Partly Remote"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/paceline-bio",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/fall-2025/paceline-bio.json",
    "year_founded": 2025,
    "city": "Boulder",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/paceline-bio/",
    "x_url": "https://x.com/playhealthco",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/52ae3355c425a5e6bfaad9876e3d186dff23a243.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": {
      "name": "Nicolas Dessaigne",
      "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/nicolas-dessaigne"
    },
    "founders": [],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": []
  },
  {
    "id": 30937,
    "name": "Anto Biosciences",
    "slug": "anto-biosciences",
    "former_names": [
      "Anto"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/83f56c369ac0fb5e70438516e774b8603717940a.png",
    "website": "https://www.anto.bio/",
    "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "Anto is building a foundation model for microbial communities, making the gut microbiome computable for the first time. We predict drug toxicity and efficacy across diverse populations and fix drugs so they work for everyone — solving the hidden root cause of most drug failures. \r\n\r\nFounded by Arvid (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Nature-published researcher who pioneered quality-aware, goal-directed sparsification) and David (Harvard Medical School Gastroenterology, J&J), second-time founders who published the breakthrough at leading machine learning AI conferences and Nature. ",
    "one_liner": "A Foundation Model for Microbial Communities.",
    "team_size": 4,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare",
    "launched_at": 1761948352,
    "tags": [
      "Generative AI",
      "Biotech",
      "Genomics",
      "Drug discovery",
      "AI"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Fall 2025",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/anto-biosciences",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/fall-2025/anto-biosciences.json",
    "year_founded": 2025,
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/anto-biosciences/",
    "x_url": "https://x.com/anto_f25",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/83f56c369ac0fb5e70438516e774b8603717940a.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": {
      "name": "Nicolas Dessaigne",
      "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/nicolas-dessaigne"
    },
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 1514534,
        "full_name": "Arvid E. Gollwitzer",
        "title": "Founder/CEO",
        "founder_bio": "Founder @ Anto Bio | Researcher @ Broad, Harvard, MIT | Lecturer @ ETH Zurich",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvid-gollwitzer/",
        "x_url": "https://x.com/arvidgollwitzer",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/c198f2ae79729c0ec59fbf566666e42e58082db3.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 1361118,
        "full_name": "David de Gruijl",
        "title": "Founder/CTO",
        "founder_bio": "Co-founder @ Anto. Formerly Janssen Pharmaceuticals, ETH Zurich and Gastroenterology Dept. of BWH, Harvard Medical School. ",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/daviddegruijl",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/b50bd83ae243af5006498387e9733112e4af827c.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": [
      {
        "id": 95292,
        "title": "Anto Biosciences: A Foundation Model for Microbial Communities",
        "tagline": "Making the microbiome computable. ",
        "body": "We’re [Arvid](https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvid-gollwitzer/) and [David](https://www.linkedin.com/in/daviddegruijl/), and we’re building [Anto Biosciences](https://www.linkedin.com/company/anto-biosciences).\n\n### tl;dr\n\nAnto is building a multimodal foundation model for microbial communities, making the gut microbiome computable for the first time. We predict drug toxicity and efficacy across diverse populations and optimize molecules for universal efficacy — addressing the microbiome-driven causes of drug response and failures.\n\n**Launch Video**: https://youtu.be/BDPp2wXiDbw\n\n### The Key Problem\n\n**We caught a cancer drug that worked in China but failed in U.S. trials. Same molecule, different microbiomes. $1B lost.**\n\nThis isn't an isolated story; more than a billion people are currently on medications where the microbiome dictates success or failure. The gut microbiome drives drug toxicity and efficacy, but pharma lacks the tools to understand and act on it \\[10,11,13\\]. Current methods to simulate the gut take months, cost millions, and rely on animal models that are too different from humans to be useful.\n\n### About Anto\n\n**We predict drug toxicity and efficacy across diverse populations and optimize molecules for broader efficacy—addressing the hidden, microbiome-driven causes of drug response and failures.**\n\nInput any drug molecule. We tell you how people will respond. We show where it works and where it fails—by geography, age, or diet.\n\nWe predict:\n\n* Population-specific efficacy (geographic, age-based, vegans vs. meat eaters, etc.)\n* Failure mechanisms (specific microbial metabolic pathways) \\[9,11\\]\n* Treatment response profiles across diverse populations \\[10,14\\]\n\nAnd we don't just flag risk; we identify failure mechanisms down to microbial metabolic pathways and generate treatment response profiles across populations. Then we optimize the molecule for broader efficacy. Turning 20% efficacy into 80% becomes an optimization problem we can actually solve.\n\n**Why we can do this:** We've pioneered quality-aware, goal-directed sparsification algorithms \\[5,9,15\\]. Microbiome data is 99% noise. We remove most of the noise and low-quality data through sparsification, leaving only the 1% that actually carries predictive power. That's how we make the microbiome computationally tractable. \\[6,7,8,14\\].\n\n### About Us\n\n[Arvid](https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvid-gollwitzer/) — Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, ETH Zurich. Nature-published researcher who pioneered microbiome sparsification. Built the methods that make noisy microbial data tractable.\n\n[David](https://www.linkedin.com/in/daviddegruijl/) — ex-ETH Zurich, J&J, BWH, Harvard Med, Gastroenterology. Struggled with current drug digestion models firsthand. Knows where current workflows break and how to fix them.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=95292&key=user_uploads/89898/3b2d64c2-dbc0-4bad-aad7-40b7995faeca)\n\nWe’re second-time founders who have lived this problem and published at leading AI conferences and Journals.\n\n### Traction\n\nWe're working with pharma R&D to simulate drug–microbiome interactions and de-risk cross-border deals with population-specific efficacy predictions and response profiles. Our open-source tools and research \\[1-9,14,15\\] are widely adopted and taught in engineering and computational biology programs \\[16\\].\n\n### What This Means for Digital / Computational Biology\n\n**The microbiome is the missing layer in drug development.** Most orally administered drugs are modified by gut bacteria before reaching their targets. We're making this layer computable for the first time \\[11-14\\].\n\nIf you're building in digital biology, precision medicine, or drug development, let's talk. The microbiome affects everything.\n\n### Our Asks\n\nIf you’re in drug development, cross-border deals, or translational medicine, we’d love to learn what microbiome requirements matter most to you. If you know teams in pharma and believe this product is cool, sharing / intros would mean a lot.\n\nIf you are in academia or microbiome research, try out our open-source tools \\[5-15\\]!\n\n**Get in touch**: [founders@anto.bio](mailto:founders@anto.bio) | [anto.bio](https://www.anto.bio/)\n\n### Our Research\n\nOur foundational work spans high-performance genomic analysis \\[1-4\\], metagenomic classification algorithms \\[5,9,14,15\\], in-storage computing for microbiome data \\[6-8\\], and the first large-scale datasets for causal modeling of microbial ecosystems \\[11,12\\]. We've pioneered techniques that make microbial communities computationally tractable, including quality-aware sparsification that reduces noise by 99% while preserving predictive power \\[5,9,15\\]. Our recent work on therapeutic resistance \\[10\\] and AI-controlled metagenomics for clinical applications \\[14\\] directly informs our drug optimization capabilities.\n\n**References:**\n\n\\[1\\] N. M. Ghiasi et al., \"GenStore: A high-performance in-storage processing system for genome sequence analysis,\" in _Proc. 27th ACM Int. Conf. Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems_, 2022, pp. 635-654.\n\n\\[2\\] N. M. Ghiasi et al., \"GenStore: In-storage filtering of genomic data for high-performance and energy-efficient genome analysis,\" in _2022 IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI (ISVLSI)_, 2022, pp. 283-287.\n\n\\[3\\] N. M. Ghiasi et al., \"GenStore: A high-performance and energy-efficient in-storage computing system for genome sequence analysis,\" _arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.10400_, 2022.\n\n\\[4\\] M.-D. Rumpf, M. Alser, A. E. Gollwitzer et al., \"SequenceLab: A comprehensive benchmark of computational methods for comparing genomic sequences,\" _arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.16908_, 2023.\n\n\\[5\\] A. E. Gollwitzer et al., \"MetaTrinity: Enabling fast metagenomic classification via seed counting and edit distance approximation,\" _arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.02029_, 2023.\n\n\\[6\\] N. M. Ghiasi et al., \"MetaStore: High-performance metagenomic analysis via in-storage computing,\" _arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.12527_, 2023.\n\n\\[7\\] N. M. Ghiasi et al., \"MetaStore: High-performance metagenomic analysis via in-storage computing,\" _arXiv e-prints_, pp. arXiv-2311, 2023.\n\n\\[8\\] N. M. Ghiasi et al., \"MegIS: High-performance, energy-efficient, and low-cost metagenomic analysis with in-storage processing,\" in _2024 ACM/IEEE 51st Annual Int. Symp. Computer Architecture (ISCA)_, 2024, pp. 660-677.\n\n\\[9\\] A. Gollwitzer et al., \"MetaFast: Enabling fast metagenomic classification via seed counting and edit distance approximation,\" _arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.02029_, 2023.\n\n\\[10\\] A. E. Gollwitzer, D. A. Subramanian, I. Tucker, and G. Traverso, \"Steering the evolutionary game: Hierarchical control of therapeutic resistance in cancer treatment,\" in _NeurIPS 2025 AI for Science Workshop_, 2025.\n\n\\[11\\] A. E. Gollwitzer, D. A. Subramanian, I. Tucker, and G. Traverso, \"MetaOmics-10T: The foundational dataset to unlock causal modeling of microbial ecosystems,\" in _NeurIPS 2025 AI for Science Workshop_, 2025.\n\n\\[12\\] N. M. Ghiasi et al., \"MegIS: High-performance, energy-efficient, and low-cost metagenomic analysis with in-storage processing,\" _arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.19113_, 2024.\n\n\\[13\\] H. J. Haiser and D. de Gruijl, \"Emerging tools and technologies for microbiome-aware drug development,\" _Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics_, 2025, doi:10.1002/cpt.70026.\n\n\\[14\\] A. Gollwitzer et al., \"AI-controlled metagenomics: High-throughput taxonomic profiling for clinical pathogen detection and early-stage cancer screening and type classification,\" _arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.02029_, 2025.\n\n\\[15\\] A. Gollwitzer et al., \"The Thinking Microscope: A reinforcement learning framework for the co-optimization of computational and generative data sparsification in metagenomics,\" _arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.02029_, 2025.\n\n\\[16\\] A. E. Gollwitzer, \"Decoding the human microbiome through AI-controlled metagenomics: Promises and ethical implications,\" presented at ETH Zurich ETHix Series, Dec. 2024. \\[Online\\]. Available [here](https://bioethics.ethz.ch/news-and-events/news-bioethics/2024/12/decoding-the-human-microbiome-through-ai-controlled-metagenomics-promises-and-ethical-implications.html).",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Omy-anto-biosciences-a-foundation-model-for-microbial-communities",
        "votes": 32,
        "created_at": "2025-11-07T20:30:08.883Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "id": 31532,
    "name": "Atlas Discovery",
    "slug": "atlas-discovery",
    "former_names": [
      "Rhizome Bio"
    ],
    "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/6e6c174c3a8e56844bf81efbc8b8532b4e509f73.png",
    "website": "https://atlasdiscovery.bio",
    "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
    "long_description": "",
    "one_liner": "AI-native pharma company",
    "team_size": 3,
    "industry": "Healthcare",
    "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery",
    "launched_at": 1782247231,
    "tags": [
      "AI-powered Drug Discovery",
      "Drug discovery",
      "Biotechnology"
    ],
    "tags_highlighted": [],
    "top_company": false,
    "isHiring": false,
    "nonprofit": false,
    "batch": "Summer 2026",
    "status": "Active",
    "industries": [
      "Healthcare",
      "Drug Discovery and Delivery"
    ],
    "regions": [
      "United States of America",
      "America / Canada"
    ],
    "stage": "Early",
    "app_video_public": false,
    "demo_day_video_public": false,
    "app_answers": null,
    "question_answers": null,
    "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/atlas-discovery",
    "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2026/atlas-discovery.json",
    "year_founded": 2026,
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "country": "US",
    "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/atlas-discovery",
    "x_url": "https://x.com/atlasdiscovery0",
    "fb_url": null,
    "cb_url": null,
    "github_url": null,
    "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/6e6c174c3a8e56844bf81efbc8b8532b4e509f73.png",
    "app_video_url": null,
    "dday_video_url": null,
    "company_photos": [],
    "primary_partner": {
      "name": "Ankit Gupta",
      "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/ankit-gupta"
    },
    "founders": [
      {
        "user_id": 774885,
        "full_name": "Shaamil Karim",
        "title": "Founder/CEO",
        "founder_bio": "Excited about AI for predictive biology",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaamil-karim/",
        "x_url": "https://x.com/shaamilkarim1",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/46de7a475d51ebe79a88352728e36af1849266d8.jpg"
      },
      {
        "user_id": 2088957,
        "full_name": "Christian Gensbigler",
        "title": "Founder",
        "founder_bio": "Previously MTS at Origin Bio (YC w26), theoretical biology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, math at Dartmouth ",
        "is_active": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-g-a2594029",
        "x_url": "",
        "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/09fc09f66416e77a682ab3ae047ba7f436df4d44.jpg"
      }
    ],
    "jobs": [],
    "news": [],
    "launches": [
      {
        "id": 107031,
        "title": "Atlas Discovery: AI-native pharma company",
        "tagline": "Autonomous research agents and models for drug development",
        "body": "TL;DR: We’ve built the foundations of a pharma in the age of superintelligence: data partnerships, biology models and autonomous research agents. We have SOTA results on finding overlooked drugs and predicting clinical trial success rates. \n\nHey everyone! We ([Sanjukta Bhattacharya](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanjukta-b-82b541198/), [Christian Gensbigler](https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-g-a2594029a/), and I) started Atlas Discovery to get treatments to patients who need them most.\n\n**The problem:** Today's pharma works for only \\~150 diseases. Below roughly $150M in expected revenue a program never gets funded, because the cost of developing a drug is fixed by the knowledge work it requires, not the size of the market. 10,000+ diseases remain without an approved treatment even where the biology is tractable. Meanwhile, there are 100,000+ existing drugs, and barely 1% of the drug-disease combinations have ever been tried. The bottleneck is no longer supply of compounds; it's the judgment needed to search that space and run the trials, and the removal of human coordination costs.\n\n**Our** **thesis** is that AI will drop the cost of drug development enough to push the viable threshold from \\~$150M toward \\~$15M, opening a \\~$500B market incumbents have structurally ignored. A company built for that world needs three things: proprietary data, models that predict clinical trial outcomes, and agent systems that replace knowledge work. We use agents to repurpose existing drugs for the long tail of diseases, then run the clinical trials faster and cheaper. \n\n**Progress**: In three months we've built the first version of all three layers. Data: an 8 figure LOI with an AI lab and 6 figures in contracted revenue. Models: state-of-the-art clinical trial prediction results published at three conferences,. Agents: three rare disease foundations are now testing drugs surfaced by our agents. \n\nOn drug repurposing using agents, we see nearly 5x improvement over current frontier LLMs. Read more about this benchmark [here](https://atlasdiscovery.bio/repurposingbench.html).\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=107031&key=user_uploads/774885/cf98d216-1d2c-45a0-99c9-ef87d2b7b296)\n\n\nWe've also shown that models trained on in vitro cell data (Latin for \"in glass\") and mouse data can translate to gains in predicting patient response to drugs in human clinical trials.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=107031&key=user_uploads/774885/6813bfeb-e5c9-47ec-9b9e-89362cf8eb15)\n\nWe’ve also shown SOTA results in being able to predict clinical trial success when trained on over 100,000 clinical trials data and evaluated on a held out set of 10,000 trials. Read more [here](https://atlasdiscovery.bio/clinical-trial-prediction-with-ai-agents.html)\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=107031&key=user_uploads/774885/23aff312-7161-4be9-b4af-3273d469bd5d)\n\nWe’ve presented our research in 3 top conferences (ICLR, CSHL, ICML) and shown that new AI architectures like discrete diffusion can learn these gene expression patterns and predict response to treatments with over 10x improvement in accuracy while training on 50x less data.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=107031&key=user_uploads/774885/fa2a6593-751d-448b-a67b-e232e3e07ffb)\n\nReach us at [founders@atlasdiscovery.bio](mailto:founders@atlasdiscovery.bio)\n\nBlog: <https://atlasdiscovery.bio/>blog",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/RqJ-atlas-discovery-ai-native-pharma-company",
        "votes": 7,
        "created_at": "2026-07-24T17:07:56.608Z"
      }
    ]
  }
]
