Led · Equity · Aug 2024

Alpenglow Biosciences builds a non-destructive 3D microscopy and AI platform (Aurora™) to move pathology from single slides to whole-tissue, 3D analysis. Its core products include research-use-only 3D Derm Score™ and 3D Immuno-Oncology (I‑O) Score™, which are available for clinical trials to support biopharma drug development. The company is advancing clinical product development with programs for intraoperative precision tumor removal and prostate cancer diagnostics. Recent awards and investment are being used to support FDA regulatory strategy and reimbursement planning through ARPA‑H’s PATIO program. Alpenglow partners with academic labs and clinical centers (including the Liu Biophotonics Lab at UW, Mahmood AI Lab at Harvard & Mass General Brigham, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and CorePlus) to validate and deploy its assays. Founded in 2018 and based in Seattle, the company says its platform offers superior predictive power versus slide-based digital pathology when combined with its AI algorithms. Lightspeed Microscopy develops an end-to-end 3D pathology platform combining novel chemistry, a patented open-top light-sheet microscope, and cloud-based AI for non-destructive imaging of large tissues at sub-cellular resolution. The solution encompasses tissue labeling, tissue clearing, high-throughput imaging, cloud processing, and 3D digital analysis. The company intends to use recent financing to commercialize and scale its microscopy platform. Lightspeed was spun out of the University of Washington and is led by CEO Nicholas Reder, MD, MPH. The platform targets pathology workflows that require volumetric, high-resolution tissue imaging.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2023

CellFE develops a microfluidics-based cell engineering platform focused on advancing development and manufacturing of advanced cell therapies. The platform emphasizes high cell health and payload delivery, streamlined scalability, and automated workflows. Reported benefits include increased cell yield and reduced expansion times, which the company says translate to shorter vein-to-vein times and lower manufacturing costs for advanced cell therapies. The company is led by CEO Alla Zamarayeva and is positioned to support both development and manufacturing workflows. CellFE intends to use recent financing to advance its technology platform and support market launch and growth initiatives. The company is based in Alameda, California. CellFE develops a microfluidics-based device that delivers gene-editing molecules into human cells using rapid cell compressions to drive uptake from the surrounding fluid. Led by CEO Alla Zamarayeva, the company focuses on applying microfluidics to enable engineering of next-generation cell therapies. The company is based in San Carlos, CA. It completed a $4.8M seed financing to accelerate development of its delivery solution. The round was co-led by Dynamk Capital and Cota Capital, with participation from Embark Ventures, Elm Ventures and McEwan Lane Family Trust. Investor representatives Dr. Gustavo Mahler (Dynamk Capital) and Bobby Yazdani (Cota Capital) will join the board of directors.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2023

Lucid Scientific manufactures Resipher, a platform that converts standard cell culture plates into smart readers to detect and report metabolic changes in real time. Resipher provides researchers and drug discovery teams with actionable insights into cellular metabolism for therapeutic applications and drug safety. The company plans to use the new financing to expand production, sales and marketing, and to broaden new product advancements, including an upcoming launch of new Resipher hardware and consumable products this fall. Lucid is headquartered in Atlanta, GA and operates within the life‑science instruments market. Total funding to date is approximately $13 million following the Series A. IAG Venture Partner Dr. Ehsan Jabbarzadeh will join Lucid’s board as part of the financing. Lucid Scientific develops the patented RESIPHER system, which monitors cellular metabolism via non-invasive optical sensors and streams real-time data to researchers through a collaborative web platform. The RESIPHER system was originally developed at MIT and is intended to accelerate drug discovery and basic biological research. The company is led by president and CEO Dr. Walker Inman and is based in Atlanta, GA. Lucid plans to use new funding to expand production, sales and marketing, and to broaden product development. Financially, the company has raised a $3M seed round and has total funding to date of approximately $4.5M.

Participated · Equity · Jun 2023

Vernal Biosciences is a fully integrated contract development and manufacturing organization focused on manufacturing and formulating mRNA and LNP-mRNA. It offers end-to-end services including cell banking, plasmid DNA production, mRNA synthesis, and formulation into a variety of lipid chemistries, leveraging platform process and analytical technologies. The company is completing its first state-of-the-art GMP manufacturing facility, scheduled to be online July 2023, and is wrapping up cGMP manufacturing readiness for that site. Vernal plans to accelerate a second site next year to support larger-scale cGMP manufacturing for commercial mRNA drug products. Financially, Vernal announced a $20MM funding round led by Ampersand Capital Partners and Charles River Labs and previously completed a $21MM round in May 2022 that included Alloy Therapeutics. The company has scaled to 65 employees, added dozens of new customers, and increased scale by a factor of 20x. Vernal Biosciences is a Colchester, VT-based company that manufactures mRNA and formulates LNP-mRNA. It offers a complete range of mRNA-related services and products, including sequence design and screening support, scaled-down and scaled-up manufacturing of high-purity mRNA and LNP-mRNA, and platform process development technologies. The company plans to expand to full GMP manufacturing capabilities to support drug discovery through clinical development. Use cases cited include gene editing and regulation, cellular programming, vaccines, mRNA replacement, oncology, autoimmune conditions, and protein degradation. Led by CEO and founder Christian Cobaugh, Vernal recently closed a $21 million financing to support growth and its planned GMP buildout. The company’s board will include existing member Errik Anderson (Alloy Therapeutics) and new board members David Anderson (Ampersand) and Gustavo Mahler (Dynamk). Vernal Biosciences develops and provides high‑purity mRNA manufacturing services for research, preclinical, and planned clinical programs. The company offers manufacturing‑research‑use mRNA today while scaling a universal, Quality‑by‑Design platform to simplify regulatory interactions and accelerate client projects. Vernal is fine‑tuning processes to enable clients to move more quickly from discovery to clinical manufacturing without starting from scratch. The team is led by founder and CEO Christian Cobaugh, an mRNA veteran with prior process and manufacturing leadership at Omega Therapeutics, Translate Bio, Arcturus Therapeutics, and Alexion. Vernal is already engaging clients on research and preclinical projects and is scaling operations to add GMP clinical manufacturing capability. The company was founded in 2021 and is located in Colchester/Burlington, Vermont.

Led · Seed · Apr 2022

Bionter provides sub-visible particle testing solutions for the biotech drug product sector. Its first product is a fully automated, non-destructive particle counter supported by single-use consumables as well as maintenance and training. The solution is based on a new combination of light obscuration technology and smart automation and is designed to be compliant with current USP/EP/JP regulations. The company has completed development of its patented technology and planned a product launch at the end of May 2022. Bionter intends to use the funds to expand its team, launch its first solution in 2022, and accelerate development of its pipeline. The company is led by CEO Dr. Tobias Werk and is based in Riehen, Switzerland.