Daniel Chao

It was an honor and pleasure to share the stage representing early stage biotech with this illustrious panel. Thanks for moderatingFranklin Rice, and to fellow panelists Lori Hu, Jonathan Norris and Elton Satusky. My takeaways from the event: It is clear that platforms are still viable, they just have to be proven by a lead asset that can make it into the clinic. Our panel agreed that platform supported assets have a strong value proposition in the current fundraising environment, since most stakeholders want to see a pathway to future asset development. That being said, much of the funding in Biotech right now is going to insider extensions and internally seeded mega rounds, leaving many of the most innovative companies with less cash to go around in a tight market. Now more than ever we need VCs to step up and support biotech innovation; as major pharma continue to cut R&D funding, these startups will be the dominant source of novel assets in the coming years. Unless we increase funding to support early stage biotech the pipeline issues seen across pharma will only continue to grow as more and more blockbuster assets reach the end of IP exclusivity. As always Michelle Nemits and Biocom California put on an amazing event. Can't wait for the next in the series!

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Check out the latest from Limbic - their breakthrough study in Nature Portfolio, shows how Limbic turns frontier language models into behavioral health specialists. In their pre-registered, double-blind randomized trial they showed that: 1️⃣ Adding the Limbic Layer improves AI-led therapy performance by 43% 2️⃣ Clinicians preferred Limbic over general-purpose LLMs 83% of the time 3️⃣ 74% of Limbic's AI sessions ranked among the top 10% of therapists 4️⃣ Patients rate the Limbic experience as comparable to clinician-led sessions Amazing stuff from Ross Harper and Sebastiaan de Vries - delighted to have them in the Entrepreneurs First portfolio.

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Tarek Mouhieddine M.D. and I are excited to announce that POM Health is coming out of stealth today and opening a limited beta to early customers. We were founded with a simple mission of catching as many cancers as possible as early as possible and upgrading a cancer screening paradigm that too often catches disease late.  In the U.S., screening catches just ~14% of cancer cases, and around half of diagnoses are made at Stage III+. Despite having world-class detection technologies, we routinely screen for just 5 out of 200+ cancer types, often at multi-year intervals between screens, and most people won’t interact with an oncologist until there’s already a high suspicion of cancer. The result: 625k+ deaths from cancer annually in the US, 70% of which are in cancers without guideline-recommended screening, and far too many people believe their annual physical is an effective warning system. Elite cancer centers around the world (like where Tarek practices) have made significant advances in cancer detection and interception that have not yet translated to our primary care and insurance-driven screening system. With AI, we can now bring these advances to millions. Through POM Health, we offer access to more comprehensive cancer screening. Screening is led by world class oncologists, powered by AI, and accessible via telehealth, with one-time and annual subscription offerings.   POM's cancer screens use multiple detection modalities (including sample-based biomarkers, MCED, imaging, and genetics) to provide broad coverage across 90%+ of cancers, with overlapping coverage for 80%+. When a cancer signal is detected, your POM oncologist drives the next step quickly. The lifetime risk of acquiring cancer stands at 39% in the US and early onset cancers have doubled since 1990. Cancer isn't a rare disease and we believe people should have an option to mitigate their cancer risk.  Now serving beta test users in: MA, NY, and FL (CA soon, and waitlist open for all other states) Learn more: https://lnkd.in/e9qcaru9 Questions: lucas@pomhealth.xyz or tarek@pomhealth.xyz (POM = Peace of Mind, which everyone deserves when it comes to cancer) Thanks also to our first investor Leo Korsunsky!

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Med Tech in Focus  Potential Cure for Pancreatic Cancer Using Antibodies Researchers at Northwestern University discovered how pancreatic cancer “hides” from the immune system and have discovered an antibody that blocks the disguise and recharges the immune system to attack those cancer cells. Pancreatic cancer is difficult to treat, has a five-year survival rate of only 13% and doesn’t respond well to immune-based or other therapies. The researchers discovered that pancreatic cancer cells hide behind a sugar-based surface coating that mimics healthy cells and thereby escape detection. After identifying the mechanism behind the false signal, they screened thousands of cells to find one that blocked this deception. In animal studies, the antibodies restored immune activity and slowed tumor growth. By using the novel antibodies along with existing chemotherapy and immunotherapies it’s hoped that patients could see full remission. Further, the scientists are researching whether the same sugar-coat disguises are seen in other hard-to-treat cancers such as glioblastoma and other diseases where the immune system may be “misled” by sugar coatings.   VC Investors are always adjusting their "Play Book" with a variety of options for investing. Mikal Ventures is one of those alternatives, offering curated solutions to real world problems. Reach out if you have questions on how we can be of assistance and bookmark https://mikalventures.com/ for additional insights and information.

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Synthesize Bio have launched with a $10M seed round led by Madrona, with support from Sahsen Ventures, LLC, Inner Loop Capital, Point Field Partners, and AI2 Incubator. The Seattle-based startup is building biological foundation models with generative AI to accelerate drug discovery. 🤖 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐢𝐦 𝐭𝐨: - Streamline the identification of high-confidence drug targets. - Simulate therapeutic responses. - Optimize clinical trial design. 🙌 Congratulations to Robert Bradley and the team and make sure you follow their journey with growth almost certain to follow. #AI #Bioinformatics #DrugDiscovery

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We launched Infinity Bio, Inc. with global ambition. After two years of brilliant execution by Joy M. Nassif, H. Benjamin Larman, and the whole Infinity Bio team, we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Illumina Ventures through our Series A financing. Infinity is just getting started in building the data infrastructure to help detect and build cures for autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. We are thrilled for this next chapter! PTX Capital, Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures (JHTV), Blackbird Laboratories, TCP Venture Capital, Malek Faham, Matt Tremblay, Ph.D., Caroline Popper M.D. MPH J.D., Herman Scholtz, Bill Campbell https://lnkd.in/eacfmp54

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Interesting developments lately around two companies in infinitas capital's and Korify Capital's portfolio, highlighting the renewed momentum in CNS and mental health therapeutics. Alto Neuroscience today announced a $120M private placement financing, providing significant capital to advance its precision psychiatry pipeline, which aims to match patients with treatments using biomarker-driven approaches. At the same time, Bloomberg (link in comments) reported that ATAI Life Sciences AG (ataiBeckley) is exploring strategic options for its lead psychedelic program BPL-003, including a potential partnership or sale that could value the asset at $2B+ as it moves into Phase 3 trials for treatment-resistant depression. Taken together, this reinforces two broader trends we are seeing in the market: 🧠 CNS is moving back to the top of pharma’s strategic agenda, particularly with a significant patent cliff approaching later this decade 💊 Psychedelic therapies are increasingly attracting interest from large pharmaceutical companies, as the clinical data continues to improve and regulatory pathways become clearer With enormous unmet need in mental health and multiple innovative approaches now reaching later clinical stages, neuroscience could become one of the most active biotech sectors in this cycle. #Biotech #Neuroscience #CNS #Psychedelics #BiotechInvesting

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Big news from Corey Dambacher, Imad Ajjawi, PhD, MBA , and the RyboDyn Inc. team: they’ve been selected to join Lilly Gateway Labs in San Diego. This gives them direct access to Lilly’s global R&D network as they push their dark proteome targets toward first-in-human studies. RyboDyn is uncovering a whole new layer of biology, identifying cancer-specific proteins hidden in overlooked RNA, and advancing them as the foundation for precision immunotherapies. Swell VC is a proud early backer, and this is a big step forward for a team turning breakthrough science into real therapeutic progress.

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HARPETH VENTURES ANNOUNCES INVESTMENT IN VENTEUR Harpeth Ventures Opportunity Fund (“Harpeth Ventures”) is pleased to announce its participation in Venteur’s recent $20 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Informed Ventures and American Family Ventures, with participation from Morgan Health, Ingeborg Investments, Catalyst by Wellstar, Plug and Play, Revelry Venture Partners, Houghton Street Ventures, and Techstars. San Francisco-based Venteur is the leading healthcare benefits technology company transforming how employers offer and manage health insurance through Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRAs). Venteur’s platform empowers employers to offer flexible, personalized health benefits by enabling employees to select individual plans that fit their unique needs. Through a combination of technology and concierge support, Venteur helps individuals navigate their healthcare options while driving improved outcomes and greater cost efficiency for employers. More information is available at Venteur.com. “We greatly appreciate Harpeth Ventures’ involvement from both a capital and relationship perspective,” said Stacy Edgar, Co-Founder and CEO of Venteur. “The Harpeth team has already been instrumental in several business development opportunities.” Added Chuck Byrge of Harpeth Ventures, “With our relationship-driven approach, we were fortunate to meet Stacy in early 2024 and have followed their growth closely. We couldn’t be more excited about their future and the tailwinds driving ICHRA adoption.”

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DCVC company Valar Labs is demonstrably increasing survival time and quality of life for cancer patients, including pancreatic cancer patients

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Love this Andrei Georgescu, Ph.D. “Success, to me, looks like Vivodyne becoming the modern infrastructure for drug programs that seek to eradicate the extremely burdensome diseases of today, like fibrosis, cancers, inflammatory disease, autoimmunity... I see Vivodyne as the fundamental infrastructure needed to drive successful new therapies for such complex diseases that human trial-and-error cannot solve quickly enough.”

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Biosphere raised millions from Founders Fund and Lowercarbon Capital to Unleash Industrial Biomanufacturing at scale. Biosphere's cofounder Arye Lipman joined our latest podcast to discuss: - what is biomanufacturing - how Biosphere's UV bioreactors are 10x better than traditional bioreactors - what America with 10x cheaper biomanufacturing looks like - can we grow a steak without a cow? - is biomanufacturing "woke climate" or American Dynamism? - how Biosphere is working with the DOD - MAGA's view on biomanufacturing - Consciousness, dolphins and the CIA Check it out!

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