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Mejia Oneto", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "José M Mejía Oneto is a physician scientist with training in Organic Chemistry at Emory and Orthopedics at UC Davis. During his clinical training, Jose recognized the need for a better way to get drugs to the right location in the body. Joined the YC program in 2015 with Tambo and in 2018 its spinoff Shasqi, focussing on pioneering click chemistry in humans for better cancer drugs. Shasqi has raised a more than $60M in funding, with its lead asset in Phase 2 and a growing pipeline of drugs. 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Our vision is to improve the treatment of a wide range of gastrointestinal disorders that are currently underserved.", "one_liner": "Smart gels for local drug delivery to the gut", "team_size": 4, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics", "launched_at": 1541617440, "tags": [ "Drug Delivery", "Therapeutics" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Winter 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/intact-therapeutics", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2019/intact-therapeutics.json", "year_founded": 2015, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/intact-therapeutics", "x_url": "", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/intact-therapeutics", "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/3cd29a4a99693702d0e100b9a7d5fbcf89df7edc.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 270800, "full_name": "Ravi Pamnani", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "Passionate about intersection of health and technology.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpamnani/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/b11fefb446ab26da691ebbd5d48f90caa225653b.jpg" }, { "user_id": 292622, "full_name": "Sidhartha Sinha", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": null, "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/sidhartha-sinha-47277125/", "x_url": null, "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/9aa1a9e6d4a9b5e5b03463077d5455e541e5b3a1.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. 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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": 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. 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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. 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There are 2.2B overweight people and 500M people with type 2 diabetes worldwide, and these numbers increase drastically every year. Existing drugs are not effective enough to reverse the trend. Our drug can solve this problem, because it addresses the root cause of metabolic disorders – the imbalance between caloric intake and expenditure.\r\n\r\nOur drug will target mitochondria – the powerhouse of the cell – to generate heat. This approach has been proven to fully reverse obesity and type 2 diabetes in animals. However, therapeutic application for humans was impossible, because mitochondrial heat production could only be induced by highly artificial methods with side effects. This changed after our recent breakthrough discovery of the protein that mitochondria naturally use to generate heat. We have developed a unique high-throughput drug discovery platform to identify compounds that selectively activate this target protein, without side effects.\r\n\r\nFor decades people have wanted a drug that burns calories like exercise does. We are realizing this dream at Equator Therapeutics.", "one_liner": "We are developing a drug to burn calories and increase metabolism…", "team_size": 2, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics", "launched_at": 1584215124, "tags": [ "Biotech", "Therapeutics" ], "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/equator-therapeutics", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2020/equator-therapeutics.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/2c3115ee7654ff0be36a7d764f8dd7f98b178d2e.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 438223, "full_name": "Liliya Khasin", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": null, "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/liliya-gabelev-khasin-2b9b138a", "x_url": null, "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/c1c89f99230992764743515986185ed827938038.jpg" }, { "user_id": 431381, "full_name": "Yuriy Kirichok", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": null, "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuriy-kirichok-0409151a/", "x_url": null, "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/d496af2d8cc6c065dd2f834690bb7d74c1e25315.jpg" }, { "user_id": 39593, "full_name": "Jonah Sinick", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": null, "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonahsinick", "x_url": null, "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/06dc90aaba5241c3ad1fda478c6d7737e0fb3732.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. 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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": 22111, "name": "Pardes Biosciences", "slug": "pardes-bio", "former_names": [ "Pardes Biosciences" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/7a90b132bd3ef57761690e68c3355e7471e2abf7.png", "website": "http://www.pardesbio.com", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA; Remote", "long_description": "We make oral drugs to treat and prevent viral infections - like COVID-19. 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He helped ASMB raise > $300M to move 2 generations of novel HBV meds into Ph 1 and Ph 2 clinical studies. Uri has held roles at Schering Plough, Roche, and Gilead Science, and received medical training at UMDNJ, NYU and the NIH. Uri was a visiting partner at YC before he started Pardes to cure COVID-19", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/urilopatin", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/5778aaf0271d7d376bc1f3f639c7a6d72753d456.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [ { "title": "Pardes Biosciences nets $199 million in COVID-19 pill race - Los Angeles Times", "url": "https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-12-28/carlsbads-pardes-biosciences-nets-199m-in-spac-deal-to-keep-pace-in-the-covid-19-pill-race", "date": "Dec 28, 2021" } ], "launches": [] }, { "id": 22334, "name": "Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals", "slug": "gilgamesh-pharmaceuticals", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/22862a35e633350fc6345c3ab3f594a54629f1b2.png", "website": "https://www.gilgameshpharmaceutical.com", "all_locations": "New York City, NY, USA; New York, NY, USA; Remote", "long_description": "Gilgamesh is a pioneering, clinical stage mental health science-focused biotechnology company. 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We are an experienced team, with proven success in biotech exits and inventions.\t", "one_liner": "Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals, a Clinical stage biotechnology company…", "team_size": 15, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery", "launched_at": 1599762607, "tags": [ "Therapeutics", "Psychedelics", "Mental Health" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2020", "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/gilgamesh-pharmaceuticals", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2020/gilgamesh-pharmaceuticals.json", "year_founded": 2019, "city": "New York City", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/gilgamesh-pharmaceuticals/", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/GilgameshRX", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/22862a35e633350fc6345c3ab3f594a54629f1b2.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": 506844, "full_name": "JONATHAN SPORN", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Duke University BS, MD from University of Miami, former Chief of Psychiatry in Boston Area.\nAcademic work at Mass General Hospital and NIH (intramural), researcher at JNJ in psychiatry and neurology, and then at Pfizer Inc in NYC (Clinical Disease Area Expert in Neuroscience Area), Founder of start up, Perception Neuroscience (exited) and was CSO, and now Founder of Gilgamesh. Live in NYC and mountains of NC. Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Exp Therapeutics at Columbia University", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-sporn-4ba7802/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_feed%3BsZ0EMprfTbaqKu56p%2Bd6%2FA%3D%3D", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/822cfb041a71583aa98d62d5dfc04d0a47a3eac6.jpg" }, { "user_id": 506917, "full_name": "Andrew Kruegel", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "I am a medicinal chemist, pharmacologist, and entrepreneur with extensive experience in the design and preclinical development of psychoactive drugs for the future treatment of psychiatric illnesses. In the context of my entrepreneurial endeavors I have also built significant expertise in business, fundraising, operations, and intellectual property strategy.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-kruegel-39091a9b/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/94035f8ef182739dcf0e4ce6e1ad7a40b5f43183.jpg" }, { "user_id": 507285, "full_name": "Dalibor Sames", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University with expertise in synthetic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, molecular design, synaptic imaging, neuropharmacology, and experimental therapeutics. 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His research focuses on the evolution of lactation and the biological mechanisms by which milk supports the growth, development and performance of infants. He is a co-founder of companies into the therapeutic health space: Evolve Biosystems, BCD Bioscience, Digestiva Inc. and Matrubials.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-german-2632a28", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/5c061a93f13ee28b8429b093539edf838845db32.jpg" }, { "user_id": 704226, "full_name": "Carlito Lebrilla", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Dr. Carlito B. Lebrilla is a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Davis in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine in the School of Medicine. His research is in Analytical Chemistry focused on mass spectrometry with applications to clinical glycoproteomic and biofunctional food. He has co-founded startups in Food and Biotechnology including Evolve Biosystems, BCD Bio and InterVenn.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlito-lebrilla-9166429/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/b0b7a7e1eb1c76dd41a3f5a1c2a76f21e67f3604.jpg" }, { "user_id": 704254, "full_name": "David Mills", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "David A. Mills is a Professor in the Department of Food Science & Technology at the UC Davis. Dr. Mills studies the molecular biology and ecology of bacteria that play an active role in gut health or fermented foods. He is the Peter J. Shields Endowed Chair (2012), a Fellow in the American Academy of Microbiology (2015), and has been named a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics since 2018. He is also a co-founder of three start ups; Evolve Biosystems, BCD Bioscience, and Matrubials.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-a-mills-82256b4/", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/davidamills", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/d471f0c9932f74f5a8f80a2cfdc96060abf832e9.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [ { "title": "Matrubials Inc. awarded a competitive NIH SBIR grant", "url": "https://matrubials.com/grants/f/matrubials-inc-awarded-a-competitive-nih-sbir-grant", "date": "May 12, 2022" }, { "title": "Matrubials Inc. wins the Sacramento Business Journal's Innovation award", "url": "https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/inno/stories/awards/2021/11/19/innovation-awards-matrubials.html", "date": "Dec 05, 2021" } ], "launches": [] }, { "id": 24705, "name": "Sensible Biotechnologies", "slug": "sensible-biotechnologies", "former_names": [ "Genbiotics" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/45d14c57e3b4e2739c65c0bb84a511608548ffa2.png", "website": "https://sensible.bio", "all_locations": "Oxford, England, United Kingdom", "long_description": "The future of mRNA therapeutics is hampered by manufacturing challenges and unless solved, its exciting potential may never be realised. Sensible enables the next generation of mRNA medicines by turning living cells into factories producing abundant, highly stable and non-immunogenic mRNA in a scalable and cost-effective way.", "one_liner": "Unlocking the next generation of mRNA medicines", "team_size": 55, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics", "launched_at": 1680519323, "tags": [ "Synthetic Biology", "Biotech", "Manufacturing", "Therapeutics", "Biotechnology" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2021", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "Healthcare", "Therapeutics" ], "regions": [ "United Kingdom", "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/sensible-biotechnologies", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2021/sensible-biotechnologies.json", "year_founded": 2021, "city": "Oxford", "country": "GB", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/sensible-biotechnologies/", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/sensible_bio", "fb_url": "https://www.facebook.com/SensibleBiotechnologies", "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/sensible-biotechnologies", "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/45d14c57e3b4e2739c65c0bb84a511608548ffa2.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": 327676, "full_name": "Miroslav Gasparek", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "I am Miro, CEO and Co-Founder of Sensible Biotechnologies. We build a cell-based platform for cost-efficient and scalable production of high-quality mRNA to unlock next generation of mRNA medicines.\n\nMy background is in computational modeling of biological systems and bioengineering. I have worked on developing Slovak national biosecurity policies - I am passionate about building biotech ecosystem in Eastern Europe. I studied Bioengineering at Imperial College London and Engineering at Oxford.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/miroslavgasparek/", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/MiroGasparek", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/d25e01e0699856449f168b5f4aa9f2e1383bd123.jpg" }, { "user_id": 475409, "full_name": "Marian Kupculak", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "I am Marian, the Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Sensible Biotechnologies. We are building a new platform for cost-efficient and scalable manufacturing of high-quality mRNA.\n\nI have more than 9 year of experience in biochemistry and molecular biology, more specifically in cellular engineering and downstream processing. I am interesting in engineering cells to produce high-quality proteins and nucleic acids.\n\nI did my PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, UK. ", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/marian-kupculak-34468a85/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/e253a90c972be4ed5e591a638f3473284857f69c.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [ { "title": "Sensible Biotechnologies Partners with Ginkgo to Develop Novel mRNA Manufacturing Platform", "url": "https://www.genengnews.com/topics/bioprocessing/sensible-biotechnologies-partners-with-ginkgo-to-develop-novel-mrna-manufacturing-platform/", "date": "Apr 04, 2023" }, { "title": "Ginkgo partners up with Sensible Biotechnologies to forge mRNA manufacturing platform – Endpoints News", "url": "https://endpts.com/ginkgo-partners-up-with-sensible-biotechnologies-to-forge-mrna-manufacturing-platform/", "date": "Apr 03, 2023" }, { "title": "Sensible Biotechnologies And Ginkgo Bioworks Announce Partnership To Make In Vivo RNA To Unlock The Promise Of RNA Therapeutics", "url": "https://www.forbes.com/sites/johncumbers/2023/04/03/sensible-biotechnologies-and-ginkgo-bioworks-announce-partnership-to-make-in-vivo-rna-to-unlock-the-promise-of-rna-therapeutics/", "date": "Apr 03, 2023" }, { "title": "Developing a Novel mRNA Manufacturing Platform with Sensible Biotechnologies - Ginkgo Bioworks", "url": "https://www.ginkgobioworks.com/2023/04/03/developing-a-novel-mrna-manufacturing-platform-with-sensible-biotechnologies/", "date": "Apr 03, 2023" }, { "title": "Sensible Biotechnologies Announces Partnership with Ginkgo Bioworks to Develop Novel mRNA Manufacturing Platform", "url": "https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sensible-biotechnologies-announces-partnership-with-ginkgo-bioworks-to-develop-novel-mrna-manufacturing-platform-301787563.html", "date": "Apr 03, 2023" } ], "launches": [ { "id": 70713, "title": "Sensible Biotechnologies: Engineering cells to make better mRNA 🧬", "tagline": "mRNA. Made better.", "body": "At Sensible Bio, we are turning living cells into cost-efficient factories for manufacturing high-quality mRNA to unlock the full potential of mRNA therapeutics and vaccines.\n\n### **tl;dr**\n\nMessenger RNA (mRNA) is a promising biological platform for both vaccines and therapeutics. Today, all mRNA is synthesised via cell-free processes, which are expensive, cumbersome, and cannot produce mRNA with sufficient quality for many of its promising clinical applications. **We engineer cells to produce high-quality mRNA in a scalable and cost-efficient fashion to meet the growing demand for mRNA in novel vaccines and therapies.**\n\n### **The Problem: Cell-free mRNA manufacturing**\n\nCurrently, mRNA production completely relies on In Vitro Transcription (IVT), a cell-free process involving numerous proprietary and expensive enzymes and reagents. This method also requires multiple intricate steps, laborious purification procedures, and cannot be scaled to large reaction volumes.\n\nImportantly, IVT-based mRNA manufacturing generates highly immunogenic double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), which is posing risks in some of the most important applications of mRNA such as in gene editing and cancer. Moreover, it is difficult to produce and purify long mRNA sequences via IVT; this creates major obstacles for other promising mRNA modalities like self-amplifying mRNAs, which could significantly reduce the high amounts of mRNA needed for many of its therapeutic applications.\n\n**To truly unleash the power of mRNA more efficient, affordable, and effective mRNA manufacturing methods are needed.**\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=70713&key=user_uploads/89898/0eb9ee01-1c73-46bd-b15f-3bc3376e2176)\n\n## **The Solution: Cell-free mRNA manufacturing (not done)**\n\n**We are utilizing the processes in the living cells, which have been producing high-quality mRNA for millions of years.** By combining natural cellular processes with cell engineering, we build a scalable platform to produce high-quality mRNA cost-effectively.\n\nOur platform enables the production of **longer mRNA**, while addressing the problem of **immunogenic double-stranded RNA** inherent in IVT.\n\nBy removing the need for expensive and proprietary reagents, we enable **cost-effective mRNA manufacturing** and improve access to mRNA technology. Also, the **scalability** of cell-based mRNA production strengthens biosecurity and supply chain resilience.\n\nOur objective is to become a partner for all pharma and biotech companies striving to produce the next generation of mRNA therapies and vaccines.\n\n## **The Platform**\n\nOur platform combines the principles of **cell engineering**, **computational** **biology** and **precision** **fermentation**. We exploit and optimise the selective packaging of the mRNA of interest into specific protein complexes. This enables a specific encapsulation of mRNA, prevents mRNA contamination and simplifies its downstream processing.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=70713&key=user_uploads/89898/01d827a8-d966-4616-a155-5a029401da1d)\n\n## **Team**\n\nSensible Bio was founded in August 2021 by **Miroslav Gasparek** (CEO) and **Dr Marian Kupculak** (CSO).\n\n**Miro** holds a Bioengineering degree from Imperial College London and conducted research at Imperial College, Caltech and Stanford. He worked with several TechBio VCs and advised public and private institutions in Central Europe on life science R&D. Miro also advised the Slovak Ministry of Health and the Board Member of the World Health Organization on biosecurity and innovation.\n\n**Marian** has a PhD in Molecular Biology from Oxford, where he focused on genetic engineering and cancer. He has more than 9 years of full-time wet-lab experience with cellular engineering. He has worked at the leading European research centres, including the University of Oxford, the University of Gothenburg, and Vienna BioCenter.\n\nOur leadership includes the **global leaders in mRNA manufacturing**, as well as in **clinical development and strategy**. We also assembled a fantastic team of bioengineers and scientists from across the globe.\n\n## **Traction**\n\nUsing our proprietary technology we have demonstrated the **capability to produce the mRNA**. Additionally, we have secured a major [co-development partnership with Ginkgo Bioworks](https://www.ginkgobioworks.com/2023/04/03/developing-a-novel-mrna-manufacturing-platform-with-sensible-biotechnologies/). We also set up collaborations with leading research institutions across the globe. Sensible Biotechnologies has established lab operations in **Oxford, United Kingdom** and **Bratislava, Slovakia**. We have obtained **10 Letters of Intent** for our mRNA from the biotech companies and research groups that would like to test it.\n\nOur **scientific advisory board** includes world-leading synthetic biology, mRNA manufacturing, and clinical experts and our mentors include the top life science executives.\n\nOur investors include **specialist** **TechBio** **funds** and leading **biotech executives** investing as angels.\\\n\\\nWe're excited to be working on unlocking the full potential of mRNA technology. Are you interested? Get in touch at [**info@sensible.bio**](mailto:info@sensible.bio).\n\nDo you want to build the platform for making better mRNA with us? Drop us an email at [**careers@sensible.bio**](mailto:careers@sensible.bio) We are hiring **synthetic biologists**, **bioprocess** **engineers**, **mRNA Quality Control experts**, **RNA computational biologists**, and **machine learning engineers.**", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/IOX-sensible-biotechnologies-engineering-cells-to-make-better-mrna", "votes": 19, "created_at": "2023-04-03T16:24:05.337Z" } ] }, { "id": 25151, "name": "Keylika", "slug": "keylika", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/bd12fc4dc5d053441f31a9c528579e0d16f3449e.png", "website": "https://www.keylika.com", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA; Walnut Creek, CA, USA", "long_description": "Keylika is an early stage biopharma startup developing metal-based drugs using a platform synthesis technology to treat unmet medical needs. We then administer these drugs using proven delivery technologies to effect the best clinical outcomes. \r\n\r\nOur first product is a small molecule iron drug (new molecular entity) delivered by a wearable skin patch to treat Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA), with significantly higher safety, efficacy and tolerability over existing treatments. This is poised to be a best-in-class, potentially breakthrough therapy for treating iron deficiency without any GI side-effects (eg. nausea, constipation, diarrhea, etc.) typically associated with oral iron supplements, and without the risks, costs and side-effects associated with IV iron infusions. When approved, Keylika’s proprietary transdermal iron will be the world's first prescription iron patch. Iron deficiency is a hugely understated problem affecting about 1.6 billion people worldwide and more than 30 million in the US alone, translating to a $17B US market.", "one_liner": "Redefining the Standard of Care for Iron Deficiency Anemia", "team_size": 1, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics", "launched_at": 1658519436, "tags": [ "AI-powered Drug Discovery", "Medical Devices", "Drug Delivery", "Nanotechnology", "Therapeutics" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2022", "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": true, "app_answers": [ { "question": "Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.", "answer": "We develop metallodrugs for unmet medical needs." } ], "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/keylika", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2022/keylika.json", "year_founded": 2022, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/keylika/", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/keylika_inc", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/bd12fc4dc5d053441f31a9c528579e0d16f3449e.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/video_event/58/1662662980325-y62ohje1s2-e76deefbbfbb2fb38de30a62b84546d9/714326f49aba38f91fda71a9c6d47471.mp4?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAQC4NIECABPQ2AHNW%2F20261020%2Fus-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20261020T022701Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=658b0a7fb2ce8bd68597d0a5076c7260b1d48c3c6ffdde07533bb121cf26ce6b", "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": { "name": "Jared Friedman", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/jared-friedman" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 756768, "full_name": "Buddha Chaudhuri", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Buddha spearheaded the technology development of a microneedle-based biosensor from lab-to-fab for a Series B stage medtech startup. Having worked across 3 continents and 6 countries, he has been instrumental in developing novel healthcare technologies in leading global research institutes and biotech companies, for the last 15 years. \n\nBuddha earned his PhD from Imec / KU Leuven in Belgium, in Drug Delivery Microsystems. He also pursued a Postdoc at UC San Francisco (UCSF) / UC Berkeley. ", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/buddhadevpc", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/buddhachaudhuri", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/8e4a1a5185f5455f05b9967fc8793797c729bd4c.jpg" }, { "user_id": 776586, "full_name": "Frederik Ceyssens", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "With a deep passion for diverse technologies, I'm a true multi-domain expert. My interest go from tiny moving machines to nuclear space rockets, from electrical circuits to medical devices and beyond. Next to Keylika, I founded ReVision, a neurotech company aiming at restoring sight in blind people, developing widely useful high-res neurotech in the process.\n\nI have an EE PhD, a MSc. in IC design as well as a BSc. in Medicine. ", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "http://linkedin.com/in/frederik-ceyssens-43b6ab5", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/20288d3198cb324772987da4da9b7f8137d8a725.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [ { "title": "Keylika Develops World's First Buccal Patch for Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA) | Entrepreneur", "url": "https://www.entrepreneur.com/en-au/news-and-trends/keylika-develops-worlds-first-buccal-patch-for-iron/490791", "date": "Apr 29, 2025" }, { "title": "Keylika develops first Buccal Patch for Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA) - Arabian Business: Latest News on the Middle East, Real Estate, Finance, and More", "url": "https://www.arabianbusiness.com/industries/healthcare/keylika-develops-first-buccal-patch-for-iron-deficiency-anemia-ida", "date": "Apr 25, 2025" }, { "title": "Bootstrapped Indian Startup Innovating Treatment for Eczema, Itch & Beyond | Entrepreneur", "url": "https://www.entrepreneur.com/en-in/news-and-trends/bootstrapped-indian-startup-innovating-treatment-for/490293", "date": "Apr 20, 2025" }, { "title": "TACKLING IRON-DEFICIENCY ANAEMIA: A LEAP FORWARD WITH A REVOLUTIONARY BUCCAL PATCH - ONdrugDelivery", "url": "https://www.ondrugdelivery.com/tackling-iron-deficiency-anaemia-a-leap-forward-with-a-revolutionary-buccal-patch/", "date": "Jun 17, 2024" }, { "title": "Bootstrapping in Biotech: How Keylika’s Founding Story Highlights Key Entrepreneurship Lessons", "url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/special/contributor-content/2024/05/12/bootstrapping-in-biotech-how-keylikas-founding-story-highlights-key-entrepreneurship-lessons/73665473007/", "date": "May 12, 2024" } ], "launches": [ { "id": 64959, "title": "Keylika: Redefining the Standard of Care for Iron Deficiency", "tagline": "World's first prescription iron patch to treat Iron Deficiency Anemia", "body": "[Keylika](https://www.keylika.com) is combining its **metallodrug synthesis technology** with **optimized delivery methods** to obtain improved clinical outcomes. Our first product is a **novel iron drug** in a **wearable skin patch** with significantly improved safety, efficacy and tolerability to treat **Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA).** When approved, Keylika’s proprietary transdermal iron will be the **world's first** prescription iron patch.\n\n### **The Problem**\n\n**Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA) is a hugely understated, highly prevalent problem with subpar treatments.**\n\nIron deficiency (ID) affects **30 million** people in the US alone and about **1.6 billion** worldwide. Current treatments include oral iron supplements which are typically associated with low bioavailability and poor tolerability due to mild to severe gastrointestinal (GI) side-effects (constipation, nausea, stomach discomfort, diarrhea, etc.) often leading to patient non-compliance. Also, a significant number of patients just do not absorb iron taken orally.  The second line of treatment with intravenous (IV) iron infusions is more invasive, riskier, costlier and requires hospitalization due to the risk of anaphylactic shocks.\n\n### **Our Solution**\n\nOur first product is a **new small molecule (new molecular entity)**, an **iron-containing drug** designed for **transdermal** delivery by a wearable skin patch: **NistuFe**. It is a safe, highly bioavailable iron complex with higher efficacy. A therapeutically relevant dosage is administered through the skin directly into the systemic circulation, thereby circumventing the gastrointestinal tract and all associated adverse effects. Thus, we combine the benefits of both orals and IV iron, and without their respective downsides: a drug suitable for self-administration with no GI side effects and no required hospitalization that yields a superior treatment outcome from the convenience of a patient’s home. This is slated to be a potentially **best-in-class, breakthrough therapy**. Our preliminary proof-of-concept in vivo studies in rats have demonstrated excellent results.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=64959&key=user_uploads/756768/c93eab67-c28a-45c2-8a20-42843bbd0d16)\n\n### **Our Science**\n\nAt our core is a **platform synthesis technology** we have developed for synthesizing mixed ligand metal complexes. We are using this platform to generate a range of drug candidates for treating therapeutic conditions in the fields of hematology, pain and inflammation, metabolic disorders, infectious diseases and oncology. We then administer these drugs using proven delivery technologies, to effect the best clinical outcomes. Positioned at the **intersection of drug development and drug delivery**, we customize the molecular structure of the drug and its formulation to optimize the therapeutic delivery per clinical requirements.\n\n### **Target Population**\n\nOur first indication being menorrhagia, our primary target population is **women of child-bearing age** in the US who suffer from severe to moderate ID, which has an estimated prevalence of 6 million. A wide range of other patient groups adds up to a potential **30 million** users in the US alone.\n\n### **Our Ask**\n\n1\\.     If you know anyone in your social circle suffering from Iron Deficiency, we would love to talk to them!\n\n2\\.     If you are connected to biopharma companies with interests in the hematology space, could you please introduce us?\n\nPlease follow us on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/keylika/)!\n\nQuestions? Feel free to reach out: [founders@keylika.com](mailto:founders@keylika.com)", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Gtj-keylika-redefining-the-standard-of-care-for-iron-deficiency", "votes": 59, "created_at": "2022-07-28T02:09:46.908Z" } ] }, { "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": 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": 25865, "name": "Andson Biotech", "slug": "andson-biotech", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/8495f5832705b897265e143f4ea26b9403783542.png", "website": "http://www.andsonbiotech.com", "all_locations": "Atlanta, GA, USA", "long_description": "Andson Biotech helps pharmaceutical companies measure difficult to detect chemicals that they need to measure while developing and manufacturing drugs like cell-therapies or biologics. Drug companies want to use our technologies to get fast and accurate chemical measurements they do thousands of times per day for drug development and quality control. ", "one_liner": "Empowering Mass Spec for Biotech and Beyond", "team_size": 12, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare", "launched_at": 1644435477, "tags": [ "Gene Therapy", "Hard Tech", "Biotech", "Healthcare", "Therapeutics" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": true, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Winter 2022", "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/andson-biotech", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2022/andson-biotech.json", "year_founded": 2021, "city": "Atlanta", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/andson-biotech/", "x_url": "", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/8495f5832705b897265e143f4ea26b9403783542.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 837040, "full_name": "Mason Chilmonczyk", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Mason is the co-founder and CEO of Andson Biotech, an academic spinout based on Mason's research at the Georgia Institute of Technology. At Andson, Mason is driving the company's mission to develop novel methodologies for advanced biomanufacturing discovery and monitoring. Mason is formally trained as a mechanical engineer with a BS from the University of South Florida ('14) and an MS and PhD from Georgia Tech ('17, '20). ", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/mason-chil/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/8fbbc80bbb7f96827beb529b5a4bb77842cd6653.jpg" } ], "jobs": [ { "id": 111194, "title": "Embedded Systems Engineer", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/andson-biotech/jobs/FLURghm-embedded-systems-engineer", "location": "Atlanta, GA, US", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Engineering", "role_type": "Embedded systems", "salary_range": "$85K - $110K", "equity_range": "", "experience": "1+ years", "visa": "US citizen/visa only", "skills": [ "Firmware", "Microcontrollers", "PCB design" ] } ], "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": 26427, "name": "Eugit Therapeutics", "slug": "eugit-therapeutics", "former_names": [ "EUGIT Tx", "EUGIT Therapeutics", "Eugit", "Eugit Therapeutics Inc" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/a88b74cc086730f852f068c605f2dcaa54b40a16.png", "website": "http://www.eugittx.com", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA; South San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "Eugit Therapeutics targets the issue of non-specific drugs that cause toxicity and clinical trial failures, affecting millions with tissue-specific inflammatory diseases. TAGHOME delivers drugs with precision to diseased tissues using T cell receptors, enhancing safety and improving efficacy. Our initial focus is on the 3.1 million U.S. individuals with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, aiming to initiate clinical trials within two years.\r\n\r\nCofounded by George Church (Harvard) and funded by Y Combinator (S22).", "one_liner": "Enabling Tissue Targeting of Therapies", "team_size": 2, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics", "launched_at": 1656718658, "tags": [ "Cell Therapy", "Synthetic Biology", "Therapeutics", "Oncology", "Biotechnology" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 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/eugit-therapeutics", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2022/eugit-therapeutics.json", "year_founded": 2022, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/eugit", "x_url": "", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/a88b74cc086730f852f068c605f2dcaa54b40a16.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": 588526, "full_name": "Nizar Batada", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "Nizar is the co-founder and CEO at EUGIT, which he started with George Church in 2022. He is an expert in cancer research, genomics and bioinformatics and has published over 25 articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Nature and has obtained nationally competitive grants. Prior to EUGIT, he was a scientist at 23andMe and a tenure track lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, UK. Nizar grew up in Toronto and obtained his PhD in Biophysics from Stanford.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/nizar-batada", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/aa4ec5a091a22bc8ded999621c25385540ddb3cb.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 64275, "title": "EUGIT Therapeutics – Next generation T cell based cancer immunotherapy", "tagline": "Engineered gamma delta T-cells for off-the-shelf treatment of cancers", "body": "We are a therapeutics company that is developing immune cell based therapy for treatment of breast, ovarian and prostate cancers.\n\n**Problem**\n\nCancer remains an unsolved problem – it is expected that 1.8M new cancer cases and 0.6M cancer deaths will occur this year in the US (source CDC). Although development of immunotherapies such as checkpoint inhibitors and CAR-T cells have shown remarkable clinical success, they work for only a few cancer types. In particular, they do not work for some of the most common types of cancers in women (breast and ovarian) and men (prostate).\n\n**Solution**\n\nBuilding upon the discoveries of the founders, EUGIT Therapeutics is engineering cancer-fighting immune cells known as the gamma delta T cells which overcome the limitations of existing cancer immunotherapies.\n\n**How it works**\n\nWe take blood from healthy donors and isolate a specific type of immune cell called the gamma delta T cell and then endow them with cancer fighting activity via gene engineering. Our engineered T cells can be used off-the-shelf and ready for infusion into cancer patients.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=64275&key=user_uploads/588526/a5ffcb03-a060-4080-9d9b-df2e92e6e72f)\n\n**Founders**\n\n[George Church](https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-church-2b86301/) (Co-Founder and Scientific Advisor): George is a Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and leads Synthetic Biology at the Wyss Institute. His innovations have contributed to nearly all \"next generation\" DNA sequencing methods and companies (CGI-BGI, Life, Illumina, Nanopore). This plus his lab's work on chip-DNA-synthesis, gene editing and stem cell engineering resulted in founding additional application-based companies spanning fields of medical diagnostics ( Knome/PierianDx, Alacris, AbVitro/Juno, Genos, Veritas Genetics ) & synthetic biology / therapeutics ( Joule, Gen9, Editas, Egenesis, enEvolv, WarpDrive ). \n\n[Nizar Batada](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nizar-batada/) (Co-Founder and CEO): Nizar is a cancer biologist with over 20 years of experience working in genomics and cancer research. He did his PhD at Stanford and postdoc with George Church. Previously, he was a tenure track group leader at the University of Edinburgh where he directed a research lab that focused on cancer immunology. Before founding EUGIT therapeutics, he was a senior scientist at 23andMe’s Therapeutics division. The current work he is pursuing at EUGIT therapeutics is based on his discovery of a subtype of tumor infiltrating gamma delta T cells that are associated with good clinical outcomes in breast cancer. ", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Gih-eugit-therapeutics-next-generation-t-cell-based-cancer-immunotherapy", "votes": 20, "created_at": "2022-07-01T19:56:00.640Z" } ] }, { "id": 26554, "name": "Cisterna Biologics", "slug": "cisterna-biologics", "former_names": [ "Cisterna Biologics LLC", "Cisterna Biologic" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/fa3a5ab85434b41a7ce57fae09e3c4645bc55f02.png", "website": "http://www.cisternabx.com", "all_locations": "San Diego, CA, USA", "long_description": "Founded in 2022 and based in San Diego, California, Cisterna Biologics is a technology company. It aims to solve some of the challenges currently facing the biotech industry to develop mRNA-based therapeutics – quality, quantity, longevity and cost of mRNA. As mRNA technology matures, it becomes imperative that these issues are solved so we can fully explore mRNA's endless possibilities as a therapeutic.\r\n\r\nCisterna uses proprietary technologies to either remove a contaminant at its source or replace the source itself. For example, to remove double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), we use ribozymes - molecular scissors - to precisely cut the mRNA at its 3’ end. This assures not only 3’ homogeneity, but also eliminates dsRNA, which are primarily produced due to self-templated additions at the 3’ end. Utilizing a PCR-like system to amplify the DNA template in large quantities eliminates the requirement for plasmid enrichment in bacteria, the prime source of endotoxin contamination. These are just a few examples of Cisterna’s powerful technologies being used to achieve our goal of 10x higher quality mRNA for therapeutic application.", "one_liner": "High quality mRNA for therapeutic application", "team_size": 2, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare", "launched_at": 1656370216, "tags": [ "Synthetic Biology", "Biotech", "Therapeutics" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2022", "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/cisterna-biologics", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2022/cisterna-biologics.json", "year_founded": 2022, "city": "San Diego", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/cisterna-biologics/", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/CisternaBXhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/cisterna-biologics/", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/fa3a5ab85434b41a7ce57fae09e3c4645bc55f02.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 896844, "full_name": "Hari Bhaskaran", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Hari Bhaskaran's journey with RNAs started with ribozymes (catalytic RNAs) almost 20 years ago in the labs of Rick Russell at UT Austin. His PhD work was focused on mechanistic understanding of RNA folding, culminating in a seminal publication in Nature (see Bhaskaran and Russell, 2007). Since then, he has held positions of increasing responsibilities in both academia and industry. He is the author of several publications and industry patents.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/hari-bhaskaran-7697a795/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/c702b50cf2197208b8ba999e857c4d6c8ebea2d5.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 64126, "title": "Cisterna Biologics - High quality mRNA for therapeutic application 👩🏽‍🔬", "tagline": "Cisterna uses proprietary technologies to build the next generation of mRNA, free of impurities, at a fraction of the price.", "body": "Cisterna Biologics is a technology company. It aims to solve the main challenges currently facing the biotech industry to develop mRNA-based therapeutics – quality, quantity, longevity and cost of mRNA. As mRNA technology matures, it becomes imperative that these issues are solved so we can fully explore mRNA's endless possibilities as a therapeutic.\n\n### **Context:**\n\nMany of you likely had mRNA vaccines to protect against COVID-19 - but how many of you know that mRNAs are being developed into other cutting edge, life-saving therapeutics? It is very likely that a large portion of the future treatments that you and I take for a number of ailments will be in the form of mRNA-based therapeutics. The range of diseases that mRNA promises to treat include heart disease, liver dysfunction, solid tumors, blood cancers, and several genetic disorders.\n\n### **Problem:**\n\nFor therapeutic applications, the quality of the mRNA needs to be extremely high compared to mRNA used for vaccines. For example, one of the well-known contaminants, double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is present in trace amounts alongside mRNA but it does no harm at the fractional doses in mRNA vaccine (micrograms). However, higher and repeat dosage (milligrams) of the same, as applied to other mRNA applications and treatments, can potentially have devastating consequences if we do not remove the dsRNA first. Currently, Pharma companies spend millions of dollars to remove dsRNA by employing multiple chromatography purification systems. Unfortunately, these processes add to the cost of production of single chromatography purifications and lead to substantial wastage of mRNA, thereby resulting in poor yields - the latter adding even more to the costs of production.\n\n### **Solution:**\n\nCisterna uses proprietary technologies to either remove a contaminant at its source or replace the source itself. To remove dsRNA, we use ribozymes (molecular scissors) to precisely cut the mRNA at its 3’ end. This assures not only 3’ homogeneity, but also eliminates dsRNA, which are primarily produced due to self-templated additions at the 3’ ends. Utilizing a PCR-like system to amplify the DNA template in large quantities eliminates the requirement for plasmid enrichment in bacteria, the prime source of endotoxin contamination. Additionally, doing away with plasmids completely means a further reduction in extraneous dsRNA arising from cryptic promoter sequences in the undigested non-template strand. These are just a few examples of Cisterna’s powerful technologies being used to achieve our goal of 10x higher quality mRNA for therapeutic application.\n\n### **Founder:**\n\nHari Bhaskaran completed his Ph.D. at UT-Austin under the mentorship of Dr. Rick Russell; his thesis was published in the prestigious journal Nature. He has held positions of increasing responsibilities in both academia and industry. His roles have led him to produce innovative mRNA construct designs for therapeutics, create scale-up techniques for manufacturing and improve process development for purifications and analytics. He is the author of several publications and industry patents.\n\n### **Asks:**\n\nIf you’d like to more about Cisterna’s high-quality mRNA, please feel free to reach out to [founders@cisternabx.com](mailto:founders@cisternabx.com)", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/GgI-cisterna-biologics-high-quality-mrna-for-therapeutic-application", "votes": 23, "created_at": "2022-06-28T03:56:26.502Z" } ] }, { "id": 26734, "name": "Serinus Biosciences", "slug": "serinus-biosciences", "former_names": [ "Serinus" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/b6e7bac94ec8bfc7378ed11602bae7ea50215536.png", "website": "http://www.serinus.bio", "all_locations": "New York City, NY, USA; New York, NY, USA", "long_description": "Serinus Biosciences is tackling one of the toughest problems in cancer treatment: creating combination therapies to override treatment resistance. We leverage cutting edge technology to design a fully explainable AI platform primed with decades of system biology knowledge. Uniquely powered for biological inference, our AI engine uncovers how cancer cells evolve treatment resistance and identifies molecules to overcome resistance escape routes. We design combinations that are safer, more effective, and can get to patients quickly. Founded by MIT PhDs and supported by a scientific advisory board of top academics from the Broad Institute, Dana-Farber, and UCSD, Serinus is powered by Y Combinator and other top investors to revolutionize precision medicine.", "one_liner": "Combinations therapy by rational design", "team_size": 6, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics", "launched_at": 1656454958, "tags": [ "Biotech", "Therapeutics", "Oncology" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2022", "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/serinus-biosciences", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2022/serinus-biosciences.json", "year_founded": 2022, "city": "New York City", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/serinus-biosciences", "x_url": "", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/b6e7bac94ec8bfc7378ed11602bae7ea50215536.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 995566, "full_name": "Adam Yaari", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "Prior to founding Serinus, Adam gained over 10 years of entrepreneurship experience including a Microsoft R&D Fellowship and Flagship Pioneering Ideation Fellowship. Adam is passionate about developing advanced AI models for biological research that will bring medicine to scale.\nAdam received his PhD and MS in computer science from MIT, MSc in computer science and mathematics from the Weizmann Institute of Science, and dual major BSc in computer science and neuroscience from Bar-Ilan University.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-yaari-b0192ab4/", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/adamyaari", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/be559be7ab070663acd06da510435c67603327ef.jpg" }, { "user_id": 1018692, "full_name": "Maxwell Sherman", "title": "Founder/CTO", "founder_bio": "After five years as a paramedic, Max left clinical medicine to develop new treatments for the millions of patients without access to effective medications. He studied applied math and biology at Brown University, statistics at Cambridge University, and is completing his PhD in computational biology at MIT. His research has appeared in prestigious journals including Science, Nature Biotechnology, and Nature Neuroscience and has been recognized with national and international awards.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxwellsh/", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/m_a_sherman", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/55ef582cd6624db1323147e32a73d8b92ba0f26c.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 65562, "title": "Serinus Biosciences: Killing cancer with its own genetics 💪🏽", "tagline": "We develop drugs effective against multiple types of cancer... and we do it really fast! 🏃🏽", "body": "We're **Adam** and **Max**, the founders of **Serinus Biosciences** 💊💻🤓\n\nAt Serinus, we develop drugs that are effective against **multiple types of cancer**, and because cancer patients need solutions now, we do it in **months instead of years!**\n\n### **_Cancer: an insidious disease with insidious economics_** 💰💰💰\n\nCurrently, **more than 80% of cancer patients** are not eligible for targeted cancer therapies - the most efficient and least toxic cancer treatments. _Why?_ Because the proteins driving cancer in one patient are often different than those driving cancer in another patient.\n\nHere's where the economics comes in. The cost of bringing a new cancer drug to market is currently **>$2.5 BILLION**. Developing a drug against a protein that only causes cancer in a small number of patients each year is just not economically viable with traditional drug development.\n\n### **_The Serinus Strategy_** 💡\n\nWhile building AI tools to understand the causes of cancer during our PhDs at MIT, we had a realization: all the different cancer-causing proteins disrupt the same cellular systems. **We shut down these shared dysfunctional systems.**\n\n_How?_ We look for the support proteins that keep the system functioning. Think about a telephone system ☎️ If you want to bring it down, you should find the small number of relay stations that route messages across the network instead of hitting the individual phones. **We find the relay stations of cancer cells and bring them dow**n ☠️☠️☠️\n\nSince cancer systems are widely shared across patients, the relays that support those systems are widely shared across patients. Our current pipeline **could help more than 100K PATIENTS PER-YEAR!**\n\n### **_The knowledge (and stubbornness) to get it done_** 🤓 😎\n\nWe met on the very first day of our PhDs at MIT. It was a cancer-fighting match made in heaven. Adam comes from an AI/ML background, Max comes from a biology and statistics background, having given up his place in medical school so he could develop new treatments for patients in need by merging biology, mathematics, and computer science.\n\nOh, and did we mention that Adam is a former Navy SEALs commander and Max spent five years as a paramedic.\n\n**_How can you help?_**\n\nOur platform is churning out way more ways to kill cancer than we can pursue ourselves. If you or someone you know works at another therapeutics company that might be interested in co-developing a drug with us, give us a shout on [founders@serinus.bio](mailto:founders@serinus.bio)", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/H3S-serinus-biosciences-killing-cancer-with-its-own-genetics", "votes": 39, "created_at": "2022-08-23T01:28:16.522Z" } ] }, { "id": 27124, "name": "KemNet", "slug": "kemnet", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/87dbae0192e991623d9682eb424425647194b9d8.png", "website": "https://kemnet.ca/", "all_locations": "Victoria, BC, Canada; Edmonton, AB, Canada; Remote", "long_description": "KemNet supplies pharmacies with premium reformulations of popular drugs that are more useful for specific groups of patients. For example, more than 30 pharmacies rely on KemNet to supply reformulated products for erectile dysfunction that work up to 8 times faster than alternatives. In addition to sexual function, products reformulated for novel drug delivery and supplied on KemNet include medications for hair growth, pain, weight loss and women's health.\r\n", "one_liner": "KemNet supplies reformulated drugs for specific groups of patients.", "team_size": 2, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Healthcare IT", "launched_at": 1659998959, "tags": [ "Marketplace", "B2B", "Digital Health", "E-commerce", "Therapeutics" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2022", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "Healthcare", "Healthcare IT" ], "regions": [ "Canada", "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/kemnet", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2022/kemnet.json", "year_founded": 2022, "city": "Victoria", "country": "CA", "linkedin_url": "", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/KemNet_", "fb_url": "https://www.facebook.com/KemNet-100242769471175", "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/87dbae0192e991623d9682eb424425647194b9d8.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 349400, "full_name": "Morẹ́nikẹ́ Ọláòṣebìkan", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Morẹ́nikẹ́ Ẹniọlá Ọláòṣebìkan is a Licensed Clinical Pharmacist and Pharmacy Proprietor. She serves as a Clinical Academic Colleague at the Faculty of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Alberta. She is building a platform to supply pharmacies with premium reformulated medications for specific groups of patients.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/morenike", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/PharmMorenike", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/cdf786bfba815026feccdca81a00b34b43a1510c.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 65221, "title": "KemNet 🚀 Because Not All Pills Should Be Swallowed! 💊", "tagline": "We supply premium reformulated medications for specific groups of patients.", "body": "**Imagine**\n\nEver wondered if taking medications could be a pleasurable experience? 🤔\n\n🤓 or wondered how long it takes for Erectile Dysfunction medications to work when they are swallowed? … whilst wondering this, did you ever also randomly wonder \\[for no apparent reason\\], [how long they take to work after that fatty steak](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/erectile-dysfunction/in-depth/erectile-dysfunction/art-20047821) and red wine date night?\n\nDid you know that [50% of patients](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3068890/) do not take their medications as prescribed? … for many reasons … including complicated regimens and unpleasant medication use experiences. 👀\n\n**About Us**\n\nI am [Morẹ́nikẹ́ Ẹniọlá Ọláòṣebìkan](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/kemnet) and I am thrilled to share **KemNet** with you. 😇\n\nKemNet supplies pharmacies with premium reformulations of popular drugs that are more useful for specific groups of patients. For example, we supply reformulated products for erectile dysfunction that work up to 8 times faster than alternatives 🎉. In addition to sexual function, other reformulated products for novel drug delivery are supplied on KemNet including medications for beauty, hair growth, pain, weight loss and women’s health.\n\nWe are a Business to Business - “Amazon” for customized medications.\n\nAt KemNet we think that empathy is great for patient care so we source and supply customized medications accordingly. Patients adhere to medications that are formulated to work faster, and are enjoyable to use, with reduced side effects. It turns out that empathizing with patients by design is also really good business, because our pharmacy customers’ bottom-line grow as well. I stumbled into these insights around empathy by medication formulation design, as a multi-pharmacy owner.\n\n\n\n**Calling You … Yes… YOU!**\n\n**Patients**\n\n**_Interested in learning more about our personalized fast acting medication formulations for yourself?_**\n\n[REGISTER](https://forms.gle/pi6TAgjqQWhXMJWe7) by August 31st.\n\n_Tell a friend._ _Spread the_ ❤️ _Share this post!_\n\n_-_\n\n**Prescribers**\n\n**_Interested in learning more about our_ personalized fast acting medication formulations for your patients?**\n\n[SUBSCRIBE](https://forms.gle/ivNbgewqLRdC7gyQ9)\n\n_Tell a friend._ _Spread the_ ❤️ _Share this post!_\n\n_-_\n\n**YOU!**\n\n**_Tell Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, Pharmacists about KemNet_**\n\n_\\* quick blurb to copy & paste:_ A multiple award winning, serial entrepreneur and pharmacy owner is contributing to the future of medicine by supplying personalized patient centred medications. Check her out and contact [founders@kemnet.ca](mailto:founders@kemnet.ca) for more.\n\n_Tell a friend._ _Spread the_ ❤️ _Share this post!_", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Gxx-kemnet-because-not-all-pills-should-be-swallowed", "votes": 39, "created_at": "2022-08-09T04:44:05.947Z" } ] }, { "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": 27263, "name": "Guardian Bio", "slug": "guardian-bio", "former_names": [ "GuardianBio" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/686bc0e4b74ba3953559c1bb8515351010e84b61.png", "website": "http://www.guardian-bio.com", "all_locations": "Boston, MA, USA", "long_description": "Your immune system is your body’s best weapon and defense against cancer. It is only when it is overcome that cancer develops into full blown disease. Dendritic cells sit at the helm of the immune system, directing and dictating immune responses. Data has shown dendritic cells are often dysfunctional in cancer patients, and that this dysfunction is a bottleneck for other therapies. \r\n\r\nGuardian Bio’s approach is focused on creating a dendritic cell-based product which drives anti-tumor activity through activating the killers of the immune system AND training them against multiple cancer targets. We take stem cells from cancer patients, turn them into specific therapeutic dendritic cells specially trained against that patient’s tumor, and re-introduce them back into the body. \r\n\r\nOur therapeutic dendritic cells revitalize the killers of the immune system and give them the kickstart they need to fight - and win - against cancer.", "one_liner": "Dendritic cell-based platform for cancer therapy ", "team_size": 2, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics", "launched_at": 1657134176, "tags": [ "Biotech", "Healthcare", "Therapeutics", "Oncology" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 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/guardian-bio", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2022/guardian-bio.json", "year_founded": 2022, "city": "Boston", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/guardian-bio", "x_url": "", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/686bc0e4b74ba3953559c1bb8515351010e84b61.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 1010650, "full_name": "Ananya Zutshi", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Ananya is Co-Founder and CEO of Guardian Bio, a company which controls immunity using dendritic cell-based therapies. \n\nShe has a Bachelors in Science in Engineering from Duke and Masters in Engineering and MBA from Harvard. Her experiences span across the pharma/biotech industry in operations, engineering, project management, and early stage investing. She is passionate about delivering better therapies for patients and diversity, equity, and inclusion. ", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "http://linkedin.com/in/ananya-zutshi/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/5da6cf610555e8dcbaf0a7a21c5130928b164133.jpg" }, { "user_id": 1080360, "full_name": "Ricky Barrett", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Co-founder and CSO at Guardian Bio.\n\nRicky started his career as a marine biologist and research diver at FAU with a focus on marine natural products and drug discovery. \n\nHe pursued a PhD at UCF, focused on immunology followed by a postdoc in cancer immunology and tumor microenvironment at the University of Pennsylvania.\n\nRicky is a prolific science communicator creating educational science content for an audience of over a quarter million followers across various social media platforms.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickbarrett21/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/d88e6393dfe01aade28a018e01a7447dab3b88e4.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 65615, "title": "Guardian Bio - Control Immunity with Dendritic Cells", "tagline": "We make dendritic cells from a patients own stem cells and program them to cure diseases, starting with cancer.", "body": "# tl;dr\n\nYour immune system keeps you healthy. If it loses control, diseases like cancer, chronic infections, and autoimmunity can develop. We created a platform that enables us to produce a master regulator of the immune system (the dendritic cell) from patient stem cells. We program these cells so that they can make corrections to dysfunctional immune systems and bring disease back under control. We’re starting with cancer.\n\n# Team\n\nPrior to starting Guardian Bio, Ananya…\n\n* Was a Blavatnik Fellow at Harvard Business School, a fellowship fostering life science entrepreneurship \n* Worked across Operations, Engineering, and Project Management in the manufacturing and development side of the pharma/biotech industry\n* Received dual Masters in Engineering Sciences and MBA from Havard, where she was a Kaplan Fellow, and graduated with honors from Duke with a degree in Biomedical Engineering\n\nPrior to starting Guardian Bio, Ricky…\n\n* Was a Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Pennsylvania - tumor microenvironment, tumor immunity, and cell therapy\n* Co-Founded the Philadelphia chapter of Nucleate, a free and collaborative trainee-led organization that facilitates the formation of pioneering life sciences companies\n* Earned a PhD in Biomedical Sciences - Immunology at University of Central Florida\n* Worked as a marine biologist and scientific diver at Florida Atlantic University\n* And continues to create science communication content for social media platforms, reaching an audience of over a quarter million followers across TikTok and Instagram\n\n# The Problem\n\nThe overall problem is that the immune system unfortunately can’t always maintain control over disease. Cancer specifically actively suppresses the immune system. It has to. If the immune system maintains control, it will kill the cancer and disease will not develop. \n\nOne of the immune cell types often suppressed by cancer are dendritic cells, which sit at the helm of the immune system. Dendritic cells (DCs) direct and dictate immune responses. DCs are often deficient or dysfunctional in cancer patients, creating severe limitations in the body’s ability to fight off cancer, even when treatments like chemo and immunotherapy are applied.\n\n# The Solution\n\nWe take stem cells from cancer patients, turn them into dendritic cells, program them against that patient’s tumor, and re-introduce them back into the body. This stimulates a diverse yet targeted and robust immune response against the cancer. \n\n# The Platform\n\nOur dendritic cell-based platform can be adapted to a variety of diseases. When we train DCs against different targets, our therapy can reignite immune responses against chronic infectious diseases or suppress immune cells triggering autoimmunity.\n\nOur dendritic cell-based therapy is synergistic with many other immunotherapies including checkpoint inhibitors, peptide and mRNA-based cancer vaccines, oncolytic viruses, etc, potentially extending the reach of these therapies to patients who would not have responded before.\n\n![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Fog7y2f3-PsbDww_4qw_LbLzzzM_3yXUEMVPMps50vCfN5dnHauQFTn72dLW2hd1RjKghsjpl8HwpSrJ_zMOe-QneWuKm_BLkumbU-01HqsRlLddaJ8713teujTfrYSRd0y9lsxxqffoBgvUwzGsXg)\n\n", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/H4J-guardian-bio-control-immunity-with-dendritic-cells", "votes": 21, "created_at": "2022-08-25T13:47:55.461Z" } ] }, { "id": 28112, "name": "Persist AI", "slug": "persist-ai", "former_names": [ "Persist AI", "Persist AI Formulations Corp" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/eeb1e38a6ca6e6061c101deae73f22c28c142596.png", "website": "http://www.persist-ai.com", "all_locations": "Sacramento, CA, USA", "long_description": "It takes 5 years for pharma to develop long lasting drug injections for chronic diseases like cancer and diabetes. Persist uses AI-driven automation to reduce formulation development time down to 2 years, a ~50% reduction.", "one_liner": "Developing long-lasting drug formulations 50% faster", "team_size": 6, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery", "launched_at": 1671420729, "tags": [ "Machine Learning", "Robotics", "Microfluidics", "Nanotechnology", "Therapeutics" ], "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": "Growth", "app_video_public": true, "demo_day_video_public": true, "app_answers": [ { "question": "Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.\n", "answer": "Help pharma develop slow release drugs faster" }, { "question": "What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.\n", "answer": "For a pharma company to develop a sustained-release (slow release) drug formulation takes about 3-5 years and $10M or more. This is because there are a lot of variables and scientists' intuition (aka guesswork) needed to arrive at the final formulation solution.\r\n\r\nWe will provide a service to pharma companies to develop their formulations for them 50% faster and cheaper than current methods. To do this we will screen formulations in high throughput using automation and train ML which can make better predictions based on data (rather than guesses).\r\n\r\nThis will enable pharma companies to get drugs to market faster and earn revenue sooner." } ], "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/persist-ai", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2023/persist-ai.json", "year_founded": 2022, "city": "Sacramento", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/persist-ai/", "x_url": "", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/eeb1e38a6ca6e6061c101deae73f22c28c142596.png", "app_video_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/bf-public_profile/28167/app_video.mp4?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAQC4NIECAOMAGS7ZB%2F20261020%2Fus-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20261020T022712Z&X-Amz-Expires=60&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEHEaCXVzLXdlc3QtMiJHMEUCIG5%2FEuPdHreXKRdGLYlyC2AjaYHPccvwucNqtFtDJEpNAiEAs4s5lSDOcogMQrwGhSKvVJXgimMvlIc1KK%2Fa7hojYD4q5QMIOhAAGgwwMDYyMDE4MTEwNzIiDMPa%2BQzgV8CSsX3XwyrCA9yWuwhv7VPDGJqPM%2BDoevlHz47k5lLRdgsGITLyqtSgmLV07z1Y86XDlb4dZMfcWmY5u5FLutDaUy2PMJ92q6vIq41n2jI5tC6SNSed8Qx%2Frdr9Wotko6WcUJWENt0Rs1K4pKZ8ZHCjH22BoWJkWLaTQ8fDKsmgWu0C8NMhnc8i44rKtbZLOvQwKZIlI546tkfyyliSiXPWdZ4XhGxEegateXp4TnM4yWfebpv22hrRHRotmFYX8ANU3B8yiEQL9yrU1y10N8c42JlHR%2FXHZNxaFQqX6eENp2aa2yewya2kPgdiQ3efnk5d0LiuPYxk7ZBa6uOug4fCBPHurDSGZqOlYX9D4h6PAMyUN2kZw2IcUR9QWKM2BmEsGorqokH5Oe34gs0DmnOGrGbhANOh9LKlKDu%2B6Pc4U%2F8L3%2Bmxug0q%2B3JBUGE7Wf6ySj%2B%2BbW8eOteynPrtIEUsD0pcfnSFNzQepsmnoTP5xc7qG%2FEn4MNWO3TviPmcIdg9qyW7bwOWKSyly4BuerWbZWVxIVolnUdqKu2PxDrgnb41QrRtObgKLlbhdehgPlqhIVqZ1cWH9s2uGHoiWlN5FRY8vYYodKzLGjDn%2FdrWBjqlAdXY8WsF5AC2X79ObZ%2FmZD1gjSCNFddCxk1e7RhQVznesCZJDMryJDWqJGSqI7lLEk62aPqOUbquB9Ghba%2BJXI%2FUV%2BHgkJZAPy7wzbnv8vLB8WccujudilaH29xgpqopxweKHuQzlcRMMeq0SZHCo3PizMnbhtLrqB%2BiK9IdfwMp8c15fBnQEe2RAGCsOWYNCrhsPiR6yT5V9698E5KnRPYRfOeFQw%3D%3D&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=c66d7d91c1532ade147f60b6506c8084f0b87596e1d90190def0886579506001", "dday_video_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/video_event/60/1680881229067-tn5frveent9-fbed84ada9379d7720a00b6d13e1f184/ba402ea2758b4d68f29d058ba99cd408.mp4?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAQC4NIECABPQ2AHNW%2F20261020%2Fus-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20261020T022712Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=69e456b3a0e858aa28c02639034baef60514627411b140d9fa05f425a7d41c39", "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": { "name": "Jared Friedman", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/jared-friedman" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 1094851, "full_name": "Karthik Raman", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "When mom got brain cancer, I used to take her for her \"infusions\". \n\nFor 4 hours, we would sit there while drug was being infused into her veins and she had horrible nausea and hair loss.\n\nI built Persist to eradicate this horrible experience for future patients. \n\nWe package drugs so that patients take 1 injection per month or year, without an infusion. This lowers the overall dose the patient receives (reducing side-effects), improves compliance, and quality of life. ", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/karthik-raman-scientist/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/ecc2a524e445309696a536435506c40bc98010ac.jpg" }, { "user_id": 1114143, "full_name": "Christopher Shelner", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Career program manager, first time founder. Focus has been in electronics, automation, and manufacturing. Super excited to be part of the YC batch! ", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "http://www.linkedin.com/in/christophershelner/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/25ae4aac51df1a910d1efc90c169f83830fc6913.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [ { "title": "Beyond the $12M: Revolutionizing Drug Formulation Development at Persist AI", "url": "https://www.persist-ai.com/post/beyond-the-12m-revolutionizing-drug-formulation-development-at-persist-ai", "date": "May 19, 2025" }, { "title": "Persist AI Raises $4M in Seed Financing to Revolutionize Drug Formulation ", "url": "https://www.persist-ai.com/post/persist-ai-raises-4m-in-seed-financing-to-revolutionize-drug-formulation", "date": "Aug 04, 2023" } ], "launches": [ { "id": 69239, "title": "Persist - We build long-lasting drugs 50% faster 💊", "tagline": "Drug formulations made by robotics and designed by AI", "body": "### **TLDR**\n\nPersist helps pharma make drug injections that last up to 1 year. \n\nUsing robotics & AI, we reduce a 5-year drug formulation process to \\~2 years.\n\n**Contact Us (**[**founders@persist-ai.com**](mailto:founders@persist-ai.com)**) for a case-study formulation**\n\nTo make injections we encapsulate drugs inside injectable microspheres made with FDA-approved materials.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=69239&key=user_uploads/1094851/19542a20-d5f0-4ccd-9450-d6b8427a6b94)\n\n**_Left:_** _Image of a \\~37 um microsphere made by our robotics_\n\n**_Right:_** _A Schematic showing how encapsulated drugs are released over 1 year so patients don’t take as many injections._\n\n### 🤔**THE PROBLEM**\n\nFor chronic diseases, most patients prefer 1 injection/yr rather than multiple injections per week.\n\nHowever, making a long-lasting injection takes a lot of trial and error and the time between iterations is long.\n\nKey challenges include:\n\n* **Using manual work & intuition is slow**: Typical teams manually mix and match chemicals to optimize the amount of drug that’s loaded into the spheres and the rate of release of drug\n* **Trial and error is cumbersome:** Because changing one variable may have multiple effects \n* **Scale-up is unpredictable:** Even if something works at a small scale, batch-to-batch consistency during scale-up is uncertain because production is done in large reactors\n\n### 💡**OUR SOLUTION**\n\nWe utilize custom robotics and AI to solve the problems with building microspheres. \n\n* **We automatically mix & optimize formulations:** We use a closed-loop robotics + AI approach so there’s minimal manual work\n* **We reduce trial & error with AI predictions:** We generate 50x more data than most formulation teams and use that data to train AI. This unique data enables us to make better predictions than others.\n* **We build small batches, faster:** So we can QC batches more frequently and scale up predictably\n\n### ❤️**OUR ASKS**\n\nIntroduce us to friends who work in Pharma. Email [founders@persist-ai.com](mailto:founders@persist-ai.com) \n\n“Follow” us [on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/persist-ai/)", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/I0l-persist-we-build-long-lasting-drugs-50-faster", "votes": 36, "created_at": "2023-02-13T16:43:58.890Z" } ] }, { "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": 29051, "name": "Nanograb", "slug": "nanograb", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/9ae1f1866a70286591b56aa5fd2f81bdf18af255.png", "website": "https://nanograb.com", "all_locations": "London, England, United Kingdom", "long_description": "Nanograb is a computational drug discovery company that uses AI to create novel targeted non-viral gene therapy vectors. Our platform designs unique combinations of small peptide binders attached to nanoparticles to safely deliver genetic medicines to specific cells and tissues in the body at scale. ", "one_liner": "Deliver genes to any cell with AI", "team_size": 5, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Drug Discovery and Delivery", "launched_at": 1688618716, "tags": [ "AI-powered Drug Discovery", "Nanomedicine", "Biotech", "Drug Delivery", "Therapeutics" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2023", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "Healthcare", "Drug Discovery and Delivery" ], "regions": [ "United Kingdom", "Europe" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/nanograb", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2023/nanograb.json", "year_founded": 2023, "city": "London", "country": "GB", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/94221598", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/nanograb", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/9ae1f1866a70286591b56aa5fd2f81bdf18af255.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 983241, "full_name": "Debesh Mandal", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Co-founder and CEO of Nanograb. PhD in Computational Biophysics from Imperial College London. Experienced in molecular simulations and building software for scientists. First software hire at Fabricnano", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/debeshmandal", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/3ead4cccc4160ea682b2035a3c1680aa154e1808.jpg" }, { "user_id": 790668, "full_name": "Christopher Lau", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Co-founder of Nanograb. M.Eng Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering at Imperial College London. Biomedical engineering experience developing biosensors using aptamers, and a drug delivery device for hypertension management.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/christopher-lau-542798151", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/lauhoyeung", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/e715a57f758c8646639b497cdc0b29b013e14ec3.jpg" }, { "user_id": 986167, "full_name": "Shanil Panara", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Cofounder and in silico lead at Nanograb; Imperial College PhD (dropout); \n\nFascinated by all things compute and physics... all in the name of figuring out real life things!\n\nOtherwise, I love singing and music in general. Fun fact: I was in an a cappella group for 5 years :)", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/shanilpanara", "x_url": "https://www.twitter.com/shanilpanara", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/65049c750d88f435b953f0837b9dfe4cc622c836.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 115774, "title": "Nanograb: Deliver mRNA to any cell with AI", "tagline": "Announcing NGX1, a platform for designing multi-peptide targeted lipid nanoparticles (tLNPs)", "body": "**TLDR** Nanograb is announcing NGX1, a universal navigation system for mRNA drugs to deliver cures for any disease. Moderna proved that mRNA will transform skin cancer care, we expand this to all diseases.\n\n\n\nDelivery is one of the most important problems stopping life-changing mRNA drugs reaching millions. There are over 3,000 different cell types in the body, but mRNA drug developers can only hit 1% of them. The problem is so pressing that multiple public biopharma partners are paying for early access to NGX1.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=115774&key=user_uploads/983241/4aac129e-0ad7-45af-9e54-ea4997a5c9d4)\n\n**Works the first time, every time.** There are more peptide sequences than atoms in the universe. Most approaches to solve delivery rely on screening thousands of formulations. NGX1’s biophysics-informed models achieved >25% hit rates on the first try across different targets in mice (4x improvement in cancer cells, 15x for immune cells).\n\n**We hit any cell, any state.** All cells have receptors. Their combination makes up a unique fingerprint. Most people try and target individual receptors whereas we can target the fingerprint, enabled by multivalent physics. We’re creating new drugs that have never existed before. \n\n**NGX1 solves major scale-up issues upfront.** Scaling up targeted mRNA drugs to millions of people is hard because of complex biomanufacturing requirements. Nanograb circumvents these requirements by utilising short peptides instead of antibodies or other biologics.\n\n**15 years of physics research powers NGX1.** Our team includes the foundational researchers of the multivalent biophysics models powering our platform. Our founding team are scientists from Imperial, Oxford and Cambridge.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=115774&key=user_uploads/983241/1afa2be9-6b73-405a-9931-042318f53d19)\n\nModerna has already shown that mRNA drugs are the future. Eli Lilly showed that mRNA’s potential to be a one-time solution for high cholesterol could help the entire global population. NGX1 is the first step to realising a future where millions of people can access mRNA therapies.\n\nLearn more at [nanograb.com](http://nanograb.com) or reach out via [platform@nanograb.com](mailto:platform@nanograb.com).", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/U7K-nanograb-deliver-mrna-to-any-cell-with-ai", "votes": 10, "created_at": "2026-09-17T15:45:22.879Z" }, { "id": 73562, "title": "🧪 Nanograb - Multivalent nanoparticles for next-generation targeted drugs", "tagline": "We use AI to generate the best combination of binders to treat different diseases", "body": "## 💊 **70% of drugs fail in clinical trials because of poor targeting**\n\nThese drugs need lower dosages due to their side effects. Targeting would minimise these side effects and mean that a smaller, more effective dose could be given to a patient. But there are no existing platforms for creating drugs that will target exactly where they need to be in the body.\n\nFor example in cancer, when scientists try to create targeted drugs, they use molecules like antibodies that attach to the cancerous cell at a single site on a single receptor. Since these cancerous cells have the same receptors as healthy cells, both types are killed by toxic payloads!\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=73562&key=user_uploads/983241/0e15bd9d-4ee0-419f-a114-8311a2bc4fa1)\n\n## 🎯 **Our product allows drugs to be targeted to very specific areas of the body**\n\nWe generate the best combination of binders using AI and a multivalent physics engine. We will do what no other technology is able to do:\n\n* Actively minimise binding to the wrong targets\n* Target new parts of the body that have been previously inaccessible\n\nNanograb’s vision is to transform the therapeutic landscape across the entire healthcare spectrum. Nanograb will be creating new therapies on-demand with next-generation targeting whether it’s [infinitely mutating cancers](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05729-x), [incurable neurodegenerative diseases](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurodegenerative_disease) or [Disease X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease_X)\n\nOur scalable platform has proof of concept data _in vitro_ and _in vivo_ and our goal is to scale these methods to dozens of different applications.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=73562&key=user_uploads/983241/9bd664c7-6e5f-4bb5-8ccc-bc6a89f951f3)\n\n## **🧠 Our founding team are experts in the field**\n\n* [**Debesh Mandal**](https://linkedin.com/in/debeshmandal) (CEO) completed PhD in computational biophysics and was the first software hire at FabricNano.\n* [**Shanil Panara**](https://linkedin.com/in/shanilpanara) (_In Silico_ Lead) dropped out of PhD to be our in silico lead, pioneering the deployment of our computational pipeline.\n* [**Christopher Lau**](https://linkedin.com/in/christopher-lau-54279815) (Product Lead) has experience delivering projects in energy, finance and biotechnology and brings a wealth of learnings from many industries.\n* [**Dr. Stefano Angioletti-Uberti**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefano-angioletti-uberti-b8319860/) (CSO) is the world leader in our theory having published the foundational papers on multivalency.\n* [**Professor Molly Stevens**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-stevens-81742822/) (Advisor) won the Novo Nordisk Prize 2023 and her research group are recognised as pioneers in the biotechnology space.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=73562&key=user_uploads/983241/3faaa3cd-9ab7-47c1-8a7b-5fe4792cfa53)\n\n## **📢 Get in touch **[**here**](mailto:hello+launchbf@nanograb.com)** if you can help:**\n\n* We are building partnerships with **biopharma companies** and would love any introductions to **principal scientists** or **business leaders** who want to work with us.\n* If you are a **doctor** or **know any doctors** who would enjoy sitting on **our scientific advisory board,** we want to talk about these areas:\n * Cancer\n * Degenerative Diseases (e.g. for internal organs)\n * Infectious Diseases\n * Neurological Conditions", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/J8U-nanograb-multivalent-nanoparticles-for-next-generation-targeted-drugs", "votes": 159, "created_at": "2023-07-29T03:10:09.478Z" } ] }, { "id": 29305, "name": "SynsoryBio", "slug": "synsorybio", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/e2b7538a15335c79e864ff7431e761c3feca0797.png", "website": "https://www.synsorybio.com/", "all_locations": "Boston, MA, USA", "long_description": "SynsoryBio is creating next generation, protein therapeutics that sense where they are in the body and only activate at diseased tissue. This technology platform has the potential to expand the therapeutic window of highly potent drugs and apply to many diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disorders.", "one_liner": "\"If-then\" conditional logic for protein drugs", "team_size": 2, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics", "launched_at": 1707422039, "tags": [ "Synthetic Biology", "Biotech", "Therapeutics", "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/synsorybio", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2024/synsorybio.json", "year_founded": 2023, "city": "Boston", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/synsorybio/", "x_url": "", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/e2b7538a15335c79e864ff7431e761c3feca0797.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 1336498, "full_name": "Elliot Tague", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "I am a PhD and inventor in the fields of synthetic biology and protein engineering. I got my PhD from Boston University, spent time as a visiting graduate student in George Church's lab at Harvard, and worked in various biotech startups", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/elliot-tague", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/862fd5995470be60ee9592f62023e7535f5ba456.jpg" }, { "user_id": 1609260, "full_name": "Nathan Tague", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "I’m a co-founder of SynsoryBio, where we are creating therapeutics that sense-and-respond to disease. I have a background in synthetic biology and protein engineering with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/nathan-tague-533019198", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/64f7893e259c04691fa3d527943ce549ccc78d95.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 78311, "title": "SynsoryBio: Therapeutics that sense-and-respond to disease", "tagline": "Our immune system acts locally to combat disease, why don’t our medicines?", "body": "**TL;DR**\n\nAt SynsoryBio, we engineer \"_if-then_\" conditional logic into protein medicines, meaning only _if_ the protein drug senses a disease marker, _then_ it turns on. We are applying this technology to clinically tested, but highly toxic cancer immunotherapies to make them safer and more effective. \n\n**Who we are/Team:**\n\nSynsoryBio was founded by brother scientists, [Elliot](https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliot-tague/) and [Nathan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-tague-533019198/), who both hold PhDs in biomedical engineering. The founders gained expertise in synthetic biology at Boston University, Harvard Medical School, and industrial biotech, where they authored numerous high-impact journal publications and are inventors on several patent filings. SynsoryBio harnesses this expertise to create next-generation therapeutics that understand where they are in the body and only act at the site of disease. \n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=78311&key=user_uploads/1336498/724512c9-7cee-4c6b-ba4f-ea2550ef57d9)\n\n**The Problem:**\n\nThe most potent therapeutics suffer from safety issues and dose limitations, impeding their development and overall efficacy. This isn’t surprising because most therapeutics are delivered systemically and are active throughout the body even though the underlying disease is localized to a certain tissue. For example, immunotherapies to treat cancer show great promise but usually exhibit dose limitations, especially in combination, which prevents the development of potent immune stimulators and/or mitigates clinical efficacy.\n\n \n\n**The Synsory Solution:**\n\nWe are developing next-generation protein therapeutics that have synthetic sensing functions so that they know where they are in the body and only act at disease tissue. Our approach is highly flexible, allowing us to design protein therapeutics that conditionally activate upon sensing virtually any specified biomolecule.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=78311&key=user_uploads/1336498/66febfad-2442-4c03-be04-050f4149b862)\n\n**Our ask:**\n\n\\-If you know any immunologists or oncologists, we would love to connect with them!\n\n\\-Interested in partnering? Please reach out!\n\n Connect with us, info@synsorybio.com", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/KN5-synsorybio-therapeutics-that-sense-and-respond-to-disease", "votes": 31, "created_at": "2024-02-09T15:34:58.143Z" } ] }, { "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": 29475, "name": "Evolvere BioSciences", "slug": "evolvere-biosciences", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/dd3489b7e5a5f2d3f7cc49de65917a83134da0a3.png", "website": "https://www.evolverebiosciences.com/", "all_locations": "Oxford, England, United Kingdom", "long_description": "🦠🤖 We use our computational models to make next-generation antibiotics that outcompete bacterial evolution and precisely target pathogenic bacteria, without harming good microbes or human cells. \r\n\r\n☠️ Current antibiotics stop working because bacteria evolve resistance to them. This makes drug-resistant bacteria a looming global health crisis - already killing more people than malaria and AIDS and it is getting exponentially worse 📈. \r\n\r\n🧬 Our approach leverages co-evolutionary protein-protein interaction datasets combined with AI to forecast bacterial mutations and create ‘future-proof’ antibiotics, addressing antibiotic resistance before it develops. This changes the game for how frequently society will need to make new antibiotics and how long our new antibiotics will be able to treat patients 👩‍⚕️.\r\n\r\nWe are a team of biochemists and evolutionary biologists who met at the University of Oxford. ", "one_liner": "Making Next-Generation Antibiotics that Outpace Bacterial Evolution", "team_size": 3, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics", "launched_at": 1723833827, "tags": [ "AI-powered Drug Discovery", "Biotech", "Therapeutics", "AI", "Biotechnology" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2024", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "Healthcare", "Therapeutics" ], "regions": [ "United Kingdom", "Europe" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/evolvere-biosciences", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2024/evolvere-biosciences.json", "year_founded": 2021, "city": "Oxford", "country": "GB", "linkedin_url": "", "x_url": "", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/dd3489b7e5a5f2d3f7cc49de65917a83134da0a3.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 1571195, "full_name": "Adam Winnifrith", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "Evolvere (S24), CEO & Co-Founder, MBioChem Oxford, I work at the intersection of bioengineering, protein AI, and automation. E.S.B", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/adam-winnifrith-b438ab182", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/47621187f511483c88214b24dcbe246a6c35c1f5.jpg" }, { "user_id": 1653867, "full_name": "Piotr Jedryszek", "title": "Founder/CTO", "founder_bio": "S24, Evolvere Biosciences, CTO and Co-founder, background in Bio and CompBio", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/piotr-jedryszek-085991180", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/72e7c8ae1b67c791b656651e8d8c8af2fcf314a2.jpg" }, { "user_id": 1627026, "full_name": "Weronika Slesak", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "CSO at Evolvere (S24). Oxford biologist using evolution as an engineering tool.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/weronika-slesak", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/58fdd6f9b378d1a0e78b405fcdd0d2f7eb601783.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [] }, { "id": 29485, "name": "Granza Bio", "slug": "granza-bio", "former_names": [ "Zyme Therapeutics" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/e4fe5f43800f16c0ca16303f58b955037e3f2bc1.png", "website": "https://www.granzabio.com/", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "Granza Bio is developing programmable therapeutics for the immune system. Our platform is built on the foundational discovery of immune “superkiller” attack particles — the natural ammunition used by cytotoxic immune cells to deliver potent, localized killing. By re-arming exhausted immune cells with newly programmed ammunition, Granza restores and enhances immune function. This approach enables a new class of treatments with the potential to transform diseases ranging from cancer to autoimmunity. ", "one_liner": "Building programmable therapeutics for the immune system", "team_size": 8, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics", "launched_at": 1709082658, "tags": [ "Synthetic Biology", "Biotech", "Healthcare", "Therapeutics", "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/granza-bio", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2024/granza-bio.json", "year_founded": 2024, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/101140973/", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/GranzaBio", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/e4fe5f43800f16c0ca16303f58b955037e3f2bc1.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [ "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/attachments/951f3c1e19296f2e20fadafd3714fde2998a701f.png" ], "primary_partner": { "name": "Jared Friedman", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/jared-friedman" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 1718918, "full_name": "Ashwin Nandakumar", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "Ashwin completed his PhD (DPhil) in Oncology at the University of Oxford. After completing his PhD, he began working as a Cancer Research UK post-doctoral researcher at Oxford University and also at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London. He also brings experience setting up oncology clinical trials and working in oncology start-ups. ", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/ashwin-nandakumar-menon", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/Menon_Ashwin", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/abf1515406e6713ee0ab505431bf72dd815baad6.jpg" }, { "user_id": 1720525, "full_name": "Ashwin Jainarayanan", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Granza Bio, DPhil (PhD) in Interdisciplinary Bioscience - University of Oxford\n\n", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/jainarayananak", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/d8cf072b7b583aa501ae03f0113abf686b2e0b73.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [ { "title": "Granza Bio grabs $7M seed from Felicis and YC to advance delivery of cancer treatments | TechCrunch", "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/03/granza-bio-grabs-7m-seed-from-felicis-and-yc-to-advance-delivery-of-cancer-treatments/", "date": "Jul 03, 2024" } ], "launches": [ { "id": 78838, "title": "🎯🦠 Granza Bio – Cancer targeting attack particles derived from our body’s immune system", "tagline": "We engineer \"attack particles\" that selectively target and kill cancer cells, eliminating unwanted side effects and toxicity.", "body": "**Tl;dr:** We are [Granza Bio](https://www.linkedin.com/company/granza-bio-yc-w24/), two PhD graduates in Oncology and Immunology from the University of Oxford on a mission to develop personalised and targeted cancer treatments. We are working on a new weapon in our immune system’s arsenal – “[**attack particles**](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aay9207)”. We are turning this concept into a therapeutic product that can eliminate any cancer without harming the surrounding healthy cells, preventing adverse side effects.\n\nHey everyone, we are (Ashwin)²\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=78838&key=user_uploads/1718918/c608a07f-d480-40c7-bb19-16fc620b9666)\n\n# **Team**\n\n🧑🏾[Ashwin Jainarayanan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jainarayananak/) – Clarendon Scholar and Synthetic Immunologist with extensive research experience on attack particles derived from immune cells.\n\n 🧑🏾[Ashwin Nandakumar](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashwin-nandakumar-menon/) – Cancer biologist specializing in immuno-oncology, who has previously set up clinical trials and brings extensive Oncology start-up experience.\n\n👨🏻‍🔬 [Mike Dustin](https://www.kennedy.ox.ac.uk/team/michael-dustin) – Professor of Molecular Immunology at the University of Oxford. Widely recognised for his work on immunological synapses and discovered attack particles.\n\n# **❌ Problem:**\n\n\\~50% of cancer patients receive treatments that are (1) ineffective and (2) lead to unwanted and avoidable side effects.\n\n**(1) _High mortality rates:_** Ineffective treatments lead to cancer relapse and ultimately, increased likelihood of dying from cancer. Five-year survival rates are lower than 5% for patients with late-stage cancers including lung, pancreas, and brain cancer.\n\n**(2) _Toxicity and adverse side effects_**: While emerging treatments such as immunotherapy and CAR-T cell therapy are effective in some patients, they also impact their healthy tissues. This causes high toxicity and adverse side effects.\n\n# **✅ Solution: Granza Bio’s cancer-targeting attack particles**\n\nWe have identified **attack particles** ⚡: a powerful suite of weapons in our immune system’s arsenal. These attack particles carry proteins like **_granzymes_** and **_perforins_** that instantly kill cancer cells.\n\n[Watch how it works!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5IPz1YaAiE&ab_channel=AshwinMenon)\n\n# **📋 Factfile: Granza Bio’s attack particles**\n\n* **💀 High cancer-killing efficacy** in brain, ovarian, lung, and skin cancers.\n* ⚙ Engineered to target **only the cancer cells**, leaving the surrounding healthy cells untouched, meaning no toxicity or adverse side effects.\n* 🧠 Capable of targeting **brain cancers** by crossing the blood-brain barrier.\n* **🎯** Perfectly suited to a **platform approach** meaning we can use attack particles to target a great range of diseases including cancers, autoimmune diseases, and infections.\n* 🏭 **Highly stable** and easy to manufacture.\n\n**Lock & Key method – attack particle targeting cancer**\n\n# \n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=78838&key=user_uploads/1718918/0fcc26f3-2645-4d78-aee9-8287c2e707c2)\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 to eradicating cancer and would like to learn more about what we’re doing, email us at [founders@granzabio.com](mailto:founders@granzabio.com)", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/KVa-granza-bio-cancer-targeting-attack-particles-derived-from-our-body-s-immune-system", "votes": 762, "created_at": "2024-02-28T01:19:33.419Z" } ] }, { "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": 29714, "name": "Kopra Bio", "slug": "kopra-bio", "former_names": [ "GlioTx" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/acdb0c2a3124d9e5717a63d0231af9b6f7447919.png", "website": "https://kopra.bio", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "Kopra Bio makes genetically engineered viruses that teach your immune system to kill cancer using tech we developed at UCSF. We’re making the next Keytruda ($25B/yr cancer drug blockbuster) starting with the most aggressive form of brain cancer, glioblastoma. In the most challenging brain cancer model, we improve survival from 0% with the current FDA approved treatment to 90% with our treatment.", "one_liner": "Genetically engineered viruses that teach your immune system to kill…", "team_size": 2, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics", "launched_at": 1724130421, "tags": [ "Gene Therapy", "Synthetic Biology", "Biotech", "Therapeutics", "Oncology" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2024", "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/kopra-bio", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2024/kopra-bio.json", "year_founded": 2024, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/kopra-bio", "x_url": "", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/acdb0c2a3124d9e5717a63d0231af9b6f7447919.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": 2206641, "full_name": "Alexander Haddad", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": " Neurosurgery resident @ UCSF, scientific co-founder @ Kopra Bio. Published over 70 peer-reviewed publications as a neurosurgery resident at UCSF. Alex is particularly interested in the delivery of cell and gene therapies to the central nervous system and neuro-oncology. Kopra Bio is a serial biotech entrepreneur and a UCSF Neurosurgery resident on a mission to revolutionize cancer treatment. ", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-haddad-49b484305", "x_url": "https://x.com/AF_Haddad", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/93c5301fb0091307b0055844275d81efd5a9a3b4.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 83219, "title": "🔬🧠🧬 Kopra Bio - Making cancer cures using viral immunotherapy", "tagline": "Stealthy viruses that teach your immune system to kill cancer.", "body": "**Tl;dr**: We are [Kopra Bio](https://www.linkedin.com/company/kopra-bio), a serial biotech entrepreneur and a UCSF Neurosurgery resident on a mission to revolutionize cancer treatment. Kopra Bio is curing cancer using viral immunotherapy technology we developed at UCSF. We’re making the next Keytruda, a **$25B/yr cancer drug blockbuster**, starting with the most aggressive form of brain cancer, glioblastoma. In preclinical models, we improve survival rates from 0% with standard-of-care treatment to **greater than 90% survival with our treatment.**\n\n**—**\n\nHey - we are Andrew and Alex!\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=83219&key=user_uploads/214420/8312b484-2aee-4ae8-bd7b-bc708051b7d1)\n\n# **Team:**\n\n🤵 [**Andrew Bartynski, PhD**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewbartynski/) - Serial Biotech Entrepreneur and **repeat YC founder**. Developed the **contraceptive pill for men** as COO @ YourChoice Therapeutics (YC W19). Founded a **COVID-19 antiviral** company that went from founding to Phase II/III clinical trial in < 6 months and was acquired in < 1 year as COO @ ANA Therapeutics. Made **next-generation psychedelics** for mental health @ Alexander Shulgin Research Institute. Now curing cancer as CEO @ Kopra Bio.\n\n👨‍⚕️[**Alexander Haddad, MD**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-haddad-49b484305/) - Scientific Cofounder @ Kopra Bio, Neurosurgery Resident @ UCSF. Alex **published >** **70 peer-reviewed publications as a neurosurgery resident at UCSF**. He is particularly interested in **neuro-oncology** and the delivery of cell and **gene therapies** to the central nervous system. Alex helped spearhead the development of Kopra Bio’s viral technology in the labs of Dr. Manish Aghi and Dr. Noriyuki Kasahara. His clinical skills have also been recognized with the Krevans Award for clinical excellence at San Francisco General Hospital.\n\n👨‍⚕️ [**Manish Aghi, MD, PhD**](https://www.ucsfhealth.org/providers/dr-manish-aghi) - Neurosurgeon and Professor @ UCSF. Renowned expert with over **30 years of experience in Neurosurgery and tumor microenvironment** leading the Brain Tumor Research Center at UCSF with a focus on malignant brain tumors like glioblastoma.\n\n👨‍⚕️ [**Noriyuki Kasahara, MD, PhD**](https://braintumorcenter.ucsf.edu/people/noriyuki-kasahara) - CSO @ 4D Molecular Therapeutics, Professor of Neurological Surgery and Radiation Oncology @ UCSF. Dr. Kasahara has been a **world leader** in the field of **cancer research and gene therapy vector** **development** for over 30 years.\n\n**👩‍🔬** **Sara Collins, PhD** - Gene Therapy Specialist @ UCSF, Director @ 4D Molecular Therapeutics. World expert in the development of **vectors for cancer gene therapy**.\n\n# How do we get to a world without cancer?\n\n# **❌ Today’s approach** - death by a thousand cuts\n\nState-of-the-art cancer therapies target tumor mutations one by one. Despite more than 550 cancer drug approvals since the year 2000, there are still 10 million cancer deaths each year. This approach is expensive (**$1B per therapy**), slow (**10 years of development** per drug), and incremental (only **one mutation addressed** per therapy). Even the most successful cancer drugs of all time have **success rates of less than 10% in solid tumors**.\n\n# **✅ Kopra Bio’s Solution** - first principles approach that targets phenotypes seen across all cancers\n\nUsing **stealthy viruses🦠**, Kopra Bio infects cancer cells, spreads throughout tumors, and hijacks them to produce immune signals. The immune signals recruit T cells which then kill the cancer. This process teaches the patient’s immune system to kill their tumor - _in vivo_ - **curing the cancer and eliminating metastasis and recurrence.**\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=83219&key=user_uploads/214420/71da663f-8b6a-41da-81bf-179a4cddb385)\n\n# **🔬Kopra Bio at a glance**\n\n* **Demonstrated efficacy** in the most challenging brain cancer models increasing survival from 0% without treatment to **greater than 90% survival** with our treatment\n* **Cancer selective** by design - reduced toxicity and adverse events\n* **Platform** approach broadly applicable across cancer\n* Strong **safety** profile\n* Highly stable and **scalable** to manufacture\n\n# **🙏 Asks**\n\n* Share this post on your socials and help spread the word!\n* If you’re as excited as we are about eradicating cancer and would like to learn more about what we’re doing, **email us** at [founders@kopra.bio](mailto:founders@koprabio.com)", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/LeF-kopra-bio-making-cancer-cures-using-viral-immunotherapy", "votes": 201, "created_at": "2024-08-20T15:08:44.470Z" } ] }, { "id": 29986, "name": "Exin Therapeutics", "slug": "exin-therapeutics", "former_names": [ "EI Therapeutics" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/61d9c34b51f9b98cbfdb92bc0014e3569c29b36c.png", "website": "https://www.exintherapeutics.com/", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "We use AI and high-throughput mouse studies to discover therapeutics that modify neural activity in the brain. The initial focus is on epilepsies associated with autism and Parkinson’s disease with the potential to expand to any neurological disorder underlined by a dysfunction in neural activity. Our R&D is guided by AI models trained on high-density multimodal mouse data generated in-house.\r\n\r\nWe are 3 Oxford-trained neuroscientists supported by an experienced SAB from Harvard, Science Corp (ex-Neuralink), EPFL, Meta, and UCL.\r\n\r\nIn 1.5 months since landing in SF, we went from nothing to (1) opening and operating an animal lab in South SF, (2) obtaining a proof-of-concept in mice, (3) building a multimodal AI model that directs our screening approach and (4) submitting two provisional patents; all while utilizing less than 50% of our YC funding. \r\n", "one_liner": "AI drug discovery platform for neurotherapeutics", "team_size": 9, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics", "launched_at": 1736839155, "tags": [ "Neurotechnology", "Biotech", "Therapeutics" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Winter 2025", "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/exin-therapeutics", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2025/exin-therapeutics.json", "year_founded": 2024, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/exin-therapeutics", "x_url": "https://x.com/ExinTx", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/61d9c34b51f9b98cbfdb92bc0014e3569c29b36c.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [ "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/attachments/cd055cca84536bc9ad6e7a1e84a3823687aa371a.png" ], "primary_partner": { "name": "Jared Friedman", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/jared-friedman" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 1960104, "full_name": "Gabriel Ocana Santero", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "Neuroscientist with a background in biochemistry and research on gene therapy, pancreatic cancer, and muscle physiology at institutions in Boston, Vienna, and Stockholm. Earned MSc in Neuroscience and PhD in Pharmacology at Oxford Uni, focusing on neurodevelopment and the effects of SSRI anti-depressants on early patterns of neural activity. Used neuroAI models at the Gatsby Unit (UCL) to study serotonin’s role in cognition. Currently developing gene therapies for neurological conditions. ", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriel-ocana-santero-85b41819a", "x_url": "https://x.com/OcanaSantero", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/b483f6b8a4938fa65104b5d508ef58c0f2961242.jpg" }, { "user_id": 1960211, "full_name": "Marko Tvrdic", "title": "Founder/COO", "founder_bio": "Co-founder at Exin Therapeutics.\n", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/marko-tvrdic/", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/markotvrdic", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/e3d25553908165653f0f9a67c3c697b2db73ec48.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 86986, "title": "Exin Therapeutics: An AI discovery platform for neurotherapeutics", "tagline": "Precise modulation of neural activity across neurological disorders.", "body": "[Exin Therapeutics](https://www.exintherapeutics.com/) uses AI and high-throughput mouse studies to develop therapies for people suffering from neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. We are tackling conditions like epilepsy, debilitating symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and Parkinson’s disease by focusing on the neural circuitry of the brain.\n\n# **Why is this important?**\n\nMillions of people around the world suffer from neurological disorders. These disorders arise from imbalances in brain activity. Think of it like an orchestra where some instruments are playing too loud while others are too quiet. This “bad music” / neural imbalance—what we call excitatory/inhibitory (E/I) imbalance—is the root cause of many symptoms in these disorders. For example, in epilepsy, overactive circuits lead to seizures, while in ASD, it can cause sensory hypersensitivities - where individuals feel overwhelmed by normal sounds, lights, or touch that most people wouldn't even notice. These dysregulations in neural circuits impact how the brain processes information and responds to the world, leading to the debilitating symptoms we see in these disorders.\n\n# **Our solution**\n\nWe’re taking a circuit-level approach to treating brain disorders. Instead of trying to restore missing genes, we’re supplementing already existing genes that we know will be directly changing the neural activity in the brain - in the direction that we want and independently of the genetic background.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=86986&key=user_uploads/89898/4181e602-6279-4611-9af3-73b0ccfca768)\n\nWe are also working on a multimodal AI model to streamline our preclinical R&D. Why? Well, because developing drugs for the brain is really tough. Every candidate needs to be tested for its ability to modulate circuits, and doing that through a traditional drug development preclinical pathway is a slow process.\\\n\\\nBecause of that, we use ML to analyze high-density multimodal data sets and prioritize which drugs are worth testing further. We use neural activity, behavior, and transcriptomics to train multimodal AI models that identify the drivers of the disease not observable by conventional analytical methods.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=86986&key=user_uploads/89898/b1ad1c24-a513-4633-83f6-58378d1cb5d8)\n\nThen, we use these models to (1) predict the potential of our therapies to treat particular indications and (2) provide an efficacy readout during our internal experimental testing. This way, we spend our time (and funding) testing the most promising candidates.\n\n# **Our ask**\n\n1. Intros: If you have contacts in pharma, working on complementary tech, or have ideas for partnerships, we’d love to connect.\n2. We'd love to hear from people who have worked in therapeutics and people with IND-enabling programs or clinical trial design experience.\n\n# **Team**\n\nWe are a team of 3 Oxford-educated neuroscientists. [Gabriel](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriel-ocana-santero-85b41819a/?originalSubdomain=uk) is a biochemist with a wealth of research experience in neural development, gene therapy, and NeuroAI. He holds a PhD in Pharmacology from Oxford. [Ivan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilazarte/) is a physicist by training and has worked in molecular biology, circuit, and systems neuroscience. Ivan’s brother suffers from ASD and Ivan is on a mission to improve the quality of life for patients suffering from debilitating neurological conditions. He holds a PhD in neuroscience from Oxford. [Marko](https://www.linkedin.com/in/marko-tvrdic/?originalSubdomain=uk) has experience with iPSC models, retinal disorders, and circadian and developmental neuroscience. During his PhD, he worked in systems and behavioral neuroscience and holds an MSc from Oxford.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=86986&key=user_uploads/1960211/5487d1f0-6cbc-4728-af74-a8377516e2d3)\n\nWe are supported by a team of advisors from top industry and academic institutions - including Harvard & UCL.", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Md0-exin-therapeutics-an-ai-discovery-platform-for-neurotherapeutics", "votes": 41, "created_at": "2025-01-20T22:29:09.667Z" } ] }, { "id": 30915, "name": "FinalDose", "slug": "finaldose", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/5910d81ebbfb17b7489c9613332140c02f40b7f4.png", "website": "https://finaldose.ai/", "all_locations": "Oxford, England, United Kingdom", "long_description": "FinalDose is building the first programmable drug - a single smart drug molecule that you can insert any diseased genetic code and it can search and destroy cells upon DNA recognition. Unlocking 80% of undruggable targets today. Starting with all cancers.", "one_liner": "Programmable DNA drug destroying all cancers, unlocking 80% of targets", "team_size": 5, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Therapeutics", "launched_at": 1778543597, "tags": [ "Gene Therapy", "Therapeutics", "Genetic Engineering", "AI" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Spring 2026", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "Healthcare", "Therapeutics" ], "regions": [ "United Kingdom", "Europe" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/finaldose", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/spring-2026/finaldose.json", "year_founded": 2025, "city": "Oxford", "country": "GB", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/finaldose/", "x_url": "https://x.com/LaunchFD2026", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/5910d81ebbfb17b7489c9613332140c02f40b7f4.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": { "name": "Garry Tan", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/garry-tan" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 2957085, "full_name": "Jeff Liu", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "CEO @ FinalDose (YC P26). Oxford PhD in Oncology. Previous startup (Vivid Dx) solved a multi-decade bottleneck in sepsis diagnostics: low biomass isolation. By overcoming this hurdle, we built the world’s fastest diagnostic system - slashing wait times from 5 days to just 30 minutes. Raised $15M in venture backing. ", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-liu-dphil-194a1372/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/40b75cb23f98bd74b4723c275a4162aa93bf077d.jpg" }, { "user_id": 2973703, "full_name": "Li-Yao Huang", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Founder at FinalDose (YC P26). DPhil in Biochemistry from Oxford, where he spent 5 years as a postdoctoral researcher at the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine. Led CRISPR screening projects uncovering new druggable targets in cancer cells and built pipelines reducing hit validation time from months to 7 days. Research focuses on BRCA1-deficient cancers and PARP inhibitor resistance mechanisms.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/li-yao-huang-13676b1b2", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/77397887331ff0b88bb08c778e46e6c5287cab42.jpg" }, { "user_id": 2973562, "full_name": "Steven Lin", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Cofounder and CTO at FinalDose (YC P26). Oxford PhD in Computational Biology with Wellcome Trust full scholarship. Previously Data Lead at Gutsee Biotech. Developed novel machine learning method to use coevolution biology to identify genetic targets that convey drug resistance in viruses. During SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, led UK biobank analysis of human genetics susceptibility for infections", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-shang-kuan-lin-b8438196/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/0f8f7cf0566508443b0ddfb7d92523f989207b5c.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 101229, "title": "FinalDose: The first programmable drug to cure all cancers", "tagline": "FinalDose is building the first programmable drug platform - a single smart drug molecule that finds diseased cells by their DNA and destroys them. We’re starting with all cancers.", "body": "**TL;DR**\n\n**For 60 years, drug discovery has chased proteins. But \\~85% of disease drivers don't have a druggable protein, making them unreachable for modern medicine. The deeper issue: most disease doesn't start at the protein, it starts in the DNA that codes for it. We built a programmable drug that reads DNA inside the cell, decides if it's diseased, and destroys the cell if it is. One platform, reprogrammed to any disease distinguishable on a DNA level.**\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=101229&key=user_uploads/2957085/2cb08187-4767-47e6-845e-1adc642aec61)\n\n[Check us out](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=446etIvaYCM&t=2s)\n\n**❌ The Problem**\n\nDrug discovery hasn't really changed in sixty years. Pick a protein, throw millions of molecules at it, spaghetti at a wall, hoping something sticks. 10 years and $2.6B per drug.\n\nThe bigger issue is proteins aren't where most disease starts. Disease starts in the DNA. The protein is downstream - the symptom, not the cause. Which is why \\~85% of validated disease drivers have no druggable protein at all. Cancers driven by MYC, TP53, APC; Viral reservoir; clonal populations that drive systematic risk. All \"undruggable\" with the old protein playbook.\n\n**✨ Our Solution**\n\nWe went straight for the DNA.\n\nWe started with a DNA-sensing protein that undergoes a sharp structural change when it finds its target sequence. We hijacked that structure change and turned it into a kill switch:\n\n1\\. The molecule scans the genome for a hardcoded target sequence.\n\n2\\. When it finds the target sequence, our drug changes in structure\n\n3\\. The structural change triggers a kill switch\n\n4\\. The diseased cell containing the target DNA dies. Neighboring healthy cells are untouched.\n\nSame molecular  molecule, new guide → new drug. This means R&D cycle and cost collapses to near 0.\n\nThe compounding asset: we already have decades of human genetics telling us which sequences cause which disease. We're not searching for new biology - we're turning genetics that's already in the textbooks into drugs.\n\n**⚙️ Our Team**\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=101229&key=user_uploads/854295/ab013db6-2afe-4d60-a0b6-88a575695993)\n\n(Left) **Jeff Liu - CEO**. Oxford PhD in Oncology. Previous startup (Vivid Dx) solved a multi-decade bottleneck in sepsis diagnostics: low biomass isolation. By overcoming this hurdle, we built the world’s fastest diagnostic system - slashing wait times from 5 days to just 30 minutes. Track record of closing institutional rounds - $5M seed and a $10M Pre-Series A.\n\n(Middle) **Li-Yao Huang - CSO**. Oxford PhD in Biochemistry. Developed a comprehensive discovery-to-validation framework utilizing Cas9 and its derivatives to identify and verify novel therapeutic targets from high-throughput genetic-genetic and genetic-drug interaction data. Scientific lead in molecular biology, cellular assays, construct engineering.\n\n(Right) **Steven Lin - CTO**. Oxford PhD in Computational Biology. Previously Data Lead at Gutsee Biotech. Developed novel machine learning method to use coevolution biology to identify genetic targets that convey drug resistance in viruses. During SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, led UK biobank analysis of human genetics susceptibility for infections\n\nThis will be the most general curative modality for any genetic mutation driven disease ever. Love to chat!\n\nFind us at [founders@finaldose.ai](mailto:founders@finaldose.ai)", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/QKj-finaldose-the-first-programmable-drug-to-cure-all-cancers", "votes": 37, "created_at": "2026-05-12T15:47:16.378Z" } ] }, { "id": 32979, "name": "RonanRx Inc.", "slug": "ronanrx-inc", "former_names": [ "Ronan Rx Inc." ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/ce1dcec626f9c7fdc1ea66f4d7850c7a32015773.png", "website": "https://ronanrx.com/", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "RonanRX is a full-stack pharmaceutical company, starting with personalized peptides and GLP-1s.\r\n\r\nIn our first 10 weeks, we went from having no pharmacy to being licensed in 33 states. Since launch, we’ve grown 50% week over week.\r\n\r\nWe manufacture the medications ourselves, sell directly to patients, and eliminate the layers of middlemen that make prescription drugs more expensive.\r\n\r\nWhat makes this possible is AI.\r\n\r\nTraditional pharmaceutical companies are built to manufacture one drug for millions of people. RonanRX is purpose-built to personalize treatment for each patient: different biology, different response, different dose.\r\n\r\nPatients come directly to RonanRX or through doctors using our platform. Every patient completes our medical intake, meets with a licensed doctor through our telehealth platform, and receives a personalized prescription when appropriate. From there, we manufacture the medication ourselves and deliver it directly to the patient.\r\n\r\nLabs, wearables, medical history, treatment response, and other health data feed back into the platform so doctors can continuously refine treatment over time.\r\n\r\nBefore AI, doing this for every patient at scale was impossible.\r\n\r\nWe didn't invent the demand we are seeing. 80 Million people are on a GLP-1 and millions more are using Peptides. We're building a better way to manufacture, personalize, prescribe, and deliver them.\r\n\r\nOur founders have built and exited multiple companies, raised more than $100M, built a $50M U.S. medical manufacturing business, and spent years developing peptide therapeutics at companies including Eli Lilly and AbbVie.\r\n\r\nWe’re just getting started with peptides and GLP-1s. Next comes hormone therapy and the rest of personalized medicine.", "one_liner": "Full Stack Pharmaceutical Company for Personalized Peptides and GLP-1s", "team_size": 5, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare", "launched_at": 1784908687, "tags": [ "Health Tech", "Telehealth", "Therapeutics" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2026", "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/ronanrx-inc", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2026/ronanrx-inc.json", "year_founded": 2026, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/ronanrx/", "x_url": "https://x.com/Ronan_RX", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/ce1dcec626f9c7fdc1ea66f4d7850c7a32015773.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": { "name": "Tyler Bosmeny", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/tyler-bosmeny" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 26799, "full_name": "Lloyd Armbrust", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "2x YC founder. 3 Exits. 6 Kids. Built a $50M manufacturing business. Now building RonanRX.\n\nWe are the world's first full-stack pharmaceutical company for personalized peptides & GLP-1s. We manufacture and ship direct to patients, using AI to personalize treatment. This was impossible before AI. \n\nLicensed in 33 states; growing 50% WoW.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/lloydarmbrust/", "x_url": "https://x.com/larmbrust", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/b0cd6642a974754f16fc7079423c9310a14a4cc6.jpg" }, { "user_id": 3672671, "full_name": "Emily Colman", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Co-Founder & COO at RonanRx, I deliver personalized, doctor-reviewed peptide and GLP-1 care that starts with a text. \n\nI am go-to-market operator with over a decade in healthcare sales, most recently at Eli Lilly, I support weight management solutions for hundreds of physicians and millions of patients.\n\nI have 2 children: Quinn (4) and Leo (1) based Austin, TX.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/emcolman?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios", "x_url": "https://x.com/emilyrcolman?s=11&t=ctOmnMNv7bFv0OBgXfv_0g", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/59f45cc4f2e90d9789b60f843b64b980ca729f95.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 107336, "title": "RonanRX: We use AI to personalize peptides to your biology", "tagline": "RonanRX is a full-stack AI pharmacy specifically for peptides", "body": "**Peptides are like Claude Code for your body. Your biology is the prompt.**\n\n**TL;DR:** RonanRx personalizes GLP-1s like Ozempic and other peptides to _your_ biology, because you are not average. Connect your lab results, wearable data, and medical history once. Our HIPPA compliant Al turns them into a plan which a licensed doctor prescribes, adjusts every cycle, and ships to your door. Start with a text at [**RonanRx.com**](http://RonanRx.com).\n\n### **Big Pharma Makes 1 Drug for Millions.**\n\nPeptides are the most personalizable medicine we have, and everyone has different biology. GLP-1s like Ozempic help you lose weight. Others help you recover faster, sleep better, live longer. Telemedicine often prescribes them like a vending machine: fill out a quiz, a doctor you’ll never meet rubber-stamps it, and you get the same molecule at the same dose as everyone else. Nobody reads your data and adjusts when your body responds differently than the “average patient.” That’s not medicine, it’s a spreadsheet.\n\n### **How RonanRx works**\n\nConnect your health data once, and we run the complete feedback loop for personalized medicine:\n\n* **Your biology in one place.** We sync your labs, wearables, medical history, and treatment response into a single health profile.\n* **AI turns data into a plan.** It reads how _you_ are responding and proposes the next move: dose, formulation, what to add.\n* **A real doctor decides.** Every prescription is made and adjusted by doctor looking at the same data you are. The AI proposes, the doctor prescribes.\n* **Delivered to your door,** and every outcome improves your next protocol.\n\nInstead of treating the average patient, we personalize your treatment continuously as your body changes.\n\n### **Why us**\n\nBuilding a healthcare company isn’t for tourists. We’re native to the space, and passionate about fixing what’s wrong. Our founders have built and exited multiple companies, raised over $100M, and built a $50M U.S. medical manufacturing business. Lloyd Armbrust is a 2x YC founder, 3 exits, 6 kids, and the oldest founder in S26. Emily Colman spent a decade in healthcare sales, most recently at Eli Lilly, supporting weight-management for hundreds of physicians and millions of patients.\n\n### **Find out what peptides can do for you**\n\n**Start texting us at [RonanRx.com](http://RonanRx.com)** and become the maximum version of yourself.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=107336&key=user_uploads/26799/336818ca-7507-4c5a-aaaf-9909502fdeed)\n\n_Doctors and clinics: we white-label this entire stack so you can offer personalized peptide care under your own name. Reach us at \\[[**founders@ronanrx.com**](mailto:founders@ronanrx.com)\\]._\n\n— Lloyd Armbrust & Emily Colman", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/RvE-ronanrx-we-use-ai-to-personalize-peptides-to-your-biology", "votes": 65, "created_at": "2026-07-24T19:21:00.074Z" } ] } ]