syenex

The massive M&A activity in the cell and gene therapy space in the last two quarters have been promising. We saw Lilly’s announcement to acquire Orna Therapeutics just last week. But for the most part, the broad uptake of gene therapies has been limited by the long-standing challenge of delivery. If we had a platform that could modularly engineer cell-specific delivery vehicles for diverse genetic payloads, we could unlock therapies across vastly broader indications, from cancer to cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease. This is the future that Syenex works toward. A few weeks ago, I sat down with Jay Rosanelli in SF at JP Morgan Healthcare. We talked about: -- The economics of platform vs. Tx companies -- The technical bottlenecks in viral vector and non-viral delivery -- A brief history of biotech capital -- What’s next for neurotech and AI x bio. Perhaps one day, a singular injection will be enough to durably rewrite the genetic drivers of disease. Until then, one of the hardest problems in biology will remain in delivery, and I look forward to following how small biotechs rise to the occasion.

Prediction: Gene editing will be huge. This is just Internet stocks in 2000.

Every cell in the living world constantly sheds virus-size particles, and these “EVs” are useful for biotechnology. Here we address a key unmet need in EV bioengineering research: counting surface features (accurately) biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

when I was a postdoc w/ George Whitesides at Harvard, George harbored the belief that a hidden driver/requirement of great science was COST.

investors often prefer technical risk and not market risk, but underwriting the creation of new markets has resulted in many of the best investments of all time PCs in every home, cloud-based data storage, ride sharing "the market is too small" is often a failure of imagination

The potential of immune cell therapies will depend on continued investment in and improved access to the enabling elements of their complex technology stack science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Getting ready for Halloween! @DevinStranford

We’re thrilled to be selected by @abbvie for their 2022 AIM award! Great work team! @TheLeonardLab @jdrosanelli @DevinStranford @HaileyEdelstein

Non-replicating enveloped viral vector, virus like particle, non-viral vesicle, the lines are blurry. Is function/safety all that matters? quantamagazine.org/cells-talk-in-…

Hello, World! 🌍🧬 I'm incredibly excited to share this news and thank @janechuprin for leading this effort. Let's make radically free biotech education, beyond the most privileged hubs. nucleatehq.medium.com/the-future-of-…

Winners… will combine advances in DNA synthesis, high-throughput screening and ML/AI to query the entire search space of possible vector designs… be able to understand how each individual piece of the non-viral vector contributes to its function in vivo

It’s a good time to expand the vector toolbox and make them available to scientists making new genetic medicines. Let’s go! #bio #tech kdtventures.medium.com/expanding-the-…