Developing first-in-class oral therapeutics for barrier dysfunction diseases.

Barrier dysfunction in the intestine is a major driver in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a chronic gastrointestinal disorder characterized by inflammation and a leaky gut. Current IBD therapies only suppress inflammation with limited efficacy, and none directly address barrier dysfunction.

At Artus Therapeutics, a pre-clinical stage company, we strongly believe that restoring barrier function is essential to improving outcomes in patients with IBD and several other barrier dysfunction diseases. We are currently developing first-in-class oral small molecule therapeutics to address this highly unmet need.

Improving clinical outcomes following internal surgeries through degradable biomaterials.

BioDevek improves clinical outcomes following internal surgeries by leveraging materials science, biology, and medicine to develop the next generation of biomaterial-based surgical solutions. Our degradable biomaterials can be injected or sprayed onto biological tissues to protect and improve the healing of traditionally sutured or stapled wounds. By engineering the material to degrade at predetermined rates, drugs can be delivered locally over time, improving patient outcomes while eliminating the side effects associated with systemic drug delivery.

Reversing dental caries through early detection and continuous monitoring at home. 

Many oral diseases, such as cavities and gum disease, can be reversed if diagnosed early. Unfortunately, current diagnostics don’t provide enough information to catch these early stages. CaviSense technology enables early diagnosis of cavities and monitoring at home. Our continuous monitoring platform provides continuous data and communication between patients and dentists, helping dentists make informed and timely decisions between office visits. Ultimately, CaviSense empowers patients to take control of and improve their oral health right at home.

Rebuilding microbial communities in, on, and around us to heal our bodies and our planet. 

Products that rebuild microbial communities do not yet exist because no one can map the vast, inter-species interaction networks responsible for community behavior. To meet this need, Concerto Biosciences’ cofounders invented kChip, the only ultra-high-throughput platform that can measure millions of microbial interactions. Using kChip data, we can map interaction networks that reveal “ensembles”—groups of microbes that shepherd damaged microbial communities to health. To date, we have measured >6 million interactions and discovered an ensemble that corrects the microbial deficiency underlying atopic dermatitis. Concerto will become the premier inventor of ensembles in medicine and agriculture, reinventing humanity’s relationship with microbes.

Developing therapeutics for unmet medical needs through fusion proteins and gene therapy.

General Biologics, Inc. is a synthetic biology and protein engineering company that develops therapeutics for unmet medical needs. We use rational biological design to create therapies with multiple functional elements whose activities are balanced to minimize side effects, enhance pharmacokinetics, and attack disease on multiple fronts. General Biologics’ lead fusion protein and gene therapy products are based on a platform technology that allows proteins to reversibly and safely bind to red blood cells. This dramatically extends the plasma half-life of these proteins and allows for infrequent injections. General Biologics is currently supported by contracts with the Department of Defense.

Developing a flexible device for atraumatic treatment of common cardiac defects. 

Holistick Medical is an early-stage medical device company developing an innovative device aimed at treating common cardiac defects, such as Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO). PFO is a common septal defect causing blood flow between left and right atria – usually without any impact on the individual’s health. However, PFO has been linked to strokes in young people. Several recent clinical studies have shown that PFO closure significantly reduces stroke recurrence. Unlike current metallic devices, Holistick uses flexible materials, allowing an atraumatic, small footprint PFO closure while leaving the septum intact. This has the potential to improve long-term patient outcomes and provides options for future therapies.

Leveraging enzymes and cutting-edge software to store digital data in DNA at scale. 

The exponential growth of digital data outpaces our ability to store that data with existing technologies. Given its superior density, stability, longevity, and energy efficiency, DNA is an attractive data storage medium. However, current DNA data storage costs are prohibitively high ($3500 per megabyte). Kern Systems is leveraging the power of enzymes and cutting-edge software to store digital data in DNA cheaper, faster, and at scale.

Harnessing the phageome to deliver any therapeutic gene to any target cell.

M13 Therapeutics is harnessing the phageome to engineer a diverse set of immune-privileged gene delivery nanoparticles, called phage-derived particles (PDPs), for targeted human cell transduction. The bacteriophage-based platform is a highly modular system with engineerable protein capsids and designer minimal phage DNA (mpDNA) cargos. PDPs offer durable therapeutic efficacy via repeat administration, enable tissue-specific targeting, support massively scalable manufacturing, and can package >99% of human cDNA as a therapeutic (>20 kb). M13Tx’s mission is to deliver any therapeutic gene to any target cell.

Enabling massive, parallel measurement of drugs to unlock entire categories of treatments.

The pace of drug discovery is limited by the complexity of biology. Experimental systems that yield the most relevant data—bespoke assays and animal models—only support testing one drug candidate at a time. Manifold Bio aims to upgrade drug discovery with massively parallel measurement at every step. We are building a platform that combines DNA technologies and a novel protein barcoding capability, allowing measurement of protein therapeutic candidates, in mixture, across in vitro and in vivo assays. Our platform unlocks entire categories of treatments, leading to a deep pipeline of drugs to serve patients in need.

Engineering multiple clinically essential properties into next-generation antibodies.

Nabla Bio is a next-generation antibody design company spun out of George Church’s lab at Harvard. Nabla’s platform combines state-of-the-art protein language modeling – a branch of AI-driven protein modeling Nabla cofounders helped pioneer – with a novel high-throughput multiplex antibody assay technology. The integration of Nabla’s AI with proprietary wet-lab experimentation enables engineering of multiple clinically essential properties into next-generation antibodies, making them safer, more effective, and easier to manufacture. Nabla has raised an $11M seed financing round co-led by Khosla Ventures and Zetta Venture Partners, with participation from Fifty Years, Cantos Ventures, and others.

Focusing on local and controlled modulation of the immune system to restore homeostasis.  

Promakhos Therapeutics is developing new drugs for inflammatory disorders. Current therapies for inflammatory disorders are immunosuppressive, do not work well, often require injection, and can cause significant side effects. Instead of immunosuppression, Promakhos Therapeutics focuses on local and controlled modulation of specific elements of the immune system to restore homeostasis. Our expertise in immunology, cell biology, bacteriology, and drug discovery has enabled us to develop oral immunomodulatory small molecules with limited side effects.

Developing controllable CAR-T cells to improve cancer treatment.

Raqia Therapeutics is developing controllable CAR-T cells to improve the safety, efficacy, and durability of CAR-T cell therapies for cancer treatment. Our platform technology uncouples tumor targeting from CAR-T cell killing. Unlike traditional CAR-Ts, Raqia’s CAR-Ts are activated by a small molecule-conjugated antibody targeting a specific tumor antigen. By adjusting the dose of this antibody conjugate, a physician can dynamically control tumor cell killing and minimize the risk of any off-target side effects. Our therapy can employ multiple different tumor-targeting antibodies to maximize the recognition and killing of tumors, minimizing the risk of relapse. Raqia Therapeutics CAR-Ts are also armed with a dynamic phenotypic switch technology that optimizes the phenotype of CAR-T cells before and after dosing.

Designing AI-based living therapeutic medicines and recombinant proteins to treat disease.

Rhogen Biotech is a preclinical-stage biotech company redefining the potential of the human recombinant fusion enzyme protein for the treatment of sepsis and sepsis-associated organ dysfunctions. Despite advances in understanding the pathology of sepsis, therapy management has not changed for decades, and mortality rates remain up to 60% in more severe cases. Because of this, Rhogen is developing a novel therapeutic target for sepsis. Rhogen research also focuses on new approaches in microbial engineering to design AI-based living therapeutics medicines and develop recombinant/synthetic proteins to treat infectious and inflammatory diseases.

Transforming treatment planning in oncology with quantitative tissue oxygen monitoring.  

Stratagen Bio is transforming treatment planning to ensure that each patient has personalized and optimized care. Our first product is the OxyTrack platform – a proprietary suite of tissue oxygen sensors and treatment planning software that enables clinicians to incorporate quantitative and absolute measurements of tissue oxygen in their treatment planning process. Our OxyTrack sensor is made completely of silicone, measured non-invasively using MRI, and remains in the tissue indefinitely to enable long-term monitoring of tissue oxygen before, during, and after treatment. Our OxyTrack platform can be used to personalize care and improve outcomes for patients with diseases and injuries including cancer, trauma, ischemic injuries, and vascular disorders.

Developing extracellular vesicles to deliver gene therapies in vivo.

STRM.BIO is a pre-clinical, VC-backed biotechnology company that is developing extracellular vesicles (EV) to deliver gene therapies in vivo. STRM.BIO’s EV platform has a natural tropism to hematopoietic stem cells, has a large carrying capacity that supports protein and nucleic acid delivery, and allows for repeat dosing. The company’s lead therapeutic programs are targeting rare blood diseases in bone marrow. This work will open the door to the future of medicine for patients worldwide by establishing a new class of therapeutics, and bringing new, effective treatments and cures to market.

Developing a new platform to mass-manufacture highly-efficient, inexpensive solar panels.

Motivated to address the pervasive threat posed by climate change, Terascale is developing a new platform to mass-manufacture highly-efficient, inexpensive solar panels. Solar energy is an abundant, equitable resource that must drive our collective effort to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. To meet this goal, the world will need to quadruple the total solar energy capacity installed over the last thirty years each year beginning around 2040. Terascale’s innovation in manufacturing and materials is primed to address this challenge by enabling the mass-production of inexpensive and highly-efficient solar panels. Terascale is a home for creative, collaborative people on a mission to make the world a better, more sustainable place.

Transforming chronic disease treatment through a new approach to biologic medicines.

Biologics are revolutionary medicines that have advanced the treatment of diseases ranging from Crohn’s Disease to cancer. However, these large, complex molecules are not readily absorbed in the human gut and must be injected or infused. Transcera is solving this problem with a novel lipid-based platform that enables large molecules to cross biological barriers in the body. Transcera hopes to apply this approach to many chronic diseases, starting with oral peptide treatments for type II diabetes and obesity. The team is actively exploring adjacent applications of the technology, including the potential to improve delivery of biologics to hard-to-reach tissues such as the brain. Transcera won the 2021 Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge and raised a $1 million pre-seed financing round led by Pear VC in June 2021.