Participated · Series B · Aug 2023

Kyverna Therapeutics is a clinical-stage cell therapy company focused on engineering a new class of therapies for autoimmune diseases. Its lead programs, KYV-101 and KYV-201, are anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapies that target CD19 on B cells. The company is advancing clinical studies in the U.S. and Europe and intends to use recent financing to accelerate those trials. Kyverna specifically highlights applications in autoimmune conditions including lupus nephritis. The company has attracted investment from biopharma and life-science investors backing its clinical-stage programs. Kyverna Therapeutics engineers a new class of cell therapies for serious autoimmune and inflammatory diseases using advanced T-cell engineering and synthetic biology. Its platform includes next-generation CAR T therapies in autologous and allogeneic settings and synReg T cells, a synthetic version of regulatory T cells. The company holds exclusive worldwide licenses from the NIH to use a novel anti-CD19 construct across autologous and allogeneic CAR T therapies. Kyverna intends to advance KYV-101, an autologous anti-CD19 CAR T candidate, into clinical development for B cell-driven autoimmune diseases in the first half of 2022. It is also developing KYV-201 in collaboration with Intellia, combining its CD19 CAR construct with Intellia’s ex vivo CRISPR/Cas9-based allogeneic platform. Kyverna has a strategic collaboration and license agreement with Gilead to develop engineered T-cell therapies based on its synReg platform and Kite’s synNotch technology and is led by CEO Dominic Borie in Emeryville, California. Kyverna Therapeutics is a Berkeley, Calif.-based cell therapy company engineering a new class of therapies for serious autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. It raised $25 million in a Series A equity financing from Vida Ventures and Westlake Village BioPartners. The company’s platform combines advanced T cell engineering and synthetic biology technologies, including a synthetic Treg platform and synNotch™ technology from Kite (a Gilead company), to target autoreactive immune cells at the root cause of disease. Kyverna intends to use the proceeds to advance its therapeutic strategy and to conduct research activities and initial clinical studies through proof-of-concept for programs covered by its collaboration. Kyverna entered a strategic collaboration and license agreement with Gilead under which Gilead paid an upfront $17.5 million and Kyverna may earn up to $570 million in development and commercialization milestones; Gilead has an option to assume further clinical development and commercialization upon exercise. Leadership and board changes accompanied the financing: Fred Cohen of Vida Ventures will serve as chairman; Dominic Borie, M.D., Ph.D., was appointed CEO and will serve on the board; Jeffrey Greve, Ph.D., remains CSO; and investor representatives from Westlake Village BioPartners and Vida Ventures were named to the board. Kyverna will also continue to advance proprietary programs beyond the Gilead collaboration.

Participated · Equity · May 2014

Assurex Health offers GeneSight, a treatment-decision-support test powered by CPGx™, its proprietary combinatorial pharmacogenomics technology, which measures multiple genomic variants and weights them together to provide genetically-driven medication information for each patient. The company recently enhanced the GeneSight Psychotropic test to give providers an expanded range of options for treating depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, schizophrenia and other behavioral health conditions. To date more than 14,000 healthcare providers have used GeneSight to help make treatment decisions for over 230,000 patients across the country. Led by President and CEO Virginia C. Drosos, Assurex will use additional funding to continue to increase adoption of GeneSight. The company also serves chronic pain conditions through its treatment decision support offerings. Assurex Health provides healthcare providers with GeneSight, a treatment decision‑support platform that analyzes how a patient’s genetics affect responses to medications for behavioral health and chronic pain. GeneSight evaluates a patient’s cheek swab against over 785,000 genetic–medication permutations and reports on 38 FDA‑approved medications across depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other mental health conditions. Results are delivered in an actionable color‑coded report available 36 hours after Assurex receives a patient sample. The company also offers financial assistance programs for eligible patients. Led by President and CEO Virginia C. Drosos, Assurex is using proceeds from a $30M equity financing to support increased clinical adoption and further development of its GeneSight products. Assurex Health is a Mason, OH–based personalized medicine company that provides clinically-relevant individualized genetic information to help physicians select medications for depression, anxiety, chronic pain, ADHD and other neuropsychiatric disorders. Its core product is the GeneSight® suite, built on proprietary pharmacogenomics technology combined with evidence-based medicine and clinical pharmacology. The company has licensed patented technology from Mayo Clinic and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Led by CEO James S. Burns, Assurex intends to use the proceeds from its financing to support increasing clinical adoption of its GeneSight products. The company secured a $32M financing comprising a $25M term and revolving credit facility and a $7M equity financing from existing investors.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2012

OpGen develops molecular tests and bioinformatics, including its Acuitas MDRO Gene tests, focused on multi-drug resistant organisms and rapid diagnostics. The company announced a $6 million financing from the Merck Global Health Innovation Fund to further its molecular information business and rapid diagnostics to guide antibiotic therapy. OpGen also acquired AdvanDx, gaining a family of FDA-approved and CE-marked rapid molecular tests that complement its Acuitas tests and bioinformatics. The company is described as early commercial-stage and aims to expand its revenue, customer base and global reach using the new tools and funding. OpGen is a portfolio company of Harris & Harris Group. OpGen, based in Gaithersburg, Md., is a commercial-stage company that provides rapid whole-genome analysis systems and services. Its products include the Argus® Whole Genome Mapping System, the Genome-Builder™ tool suite, and MapIt® services for sequence assembly, strain typing, and comparative genomics. The company says its technology improves data quality and time-to-results by providing sequence information from single DNA molecules more rapidly and less expensively than previously possible. OpGen serves genomic research centers, biodefense organizations, academic institutions, CROs, and biotech companies, with customers including the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, The Genome Institute at Washington University, Beijing Genomics Institute, and the University of Maryland Institute for Genome Sciences. OpGen plans to accelerate commercialization of Argus and Genome-Builder and intends to introduce a new whole human chromosome mapping application that, when combined with next-generation sequencing, can improve human genome sequencing accuracy and enable discovery of structural variations. Financially, the company has reached agreement to raise up to $17 million in a growth capital financing to support these commercial and product-development efforts. OpGen is a commercial‑phase genomics company based in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Its core product is the Argus™ Optical Mapping System, commercially launched in June 2010 to investigate microbial structure, function, diversity and genetics. The company completed a $17M Series B equity financing to support marketing of the Argus system. Proceeds will also accelerate initiatives to expand into new markets and to develop new applications that complement sequencing technologies. OpGen intends the funding to help facilitate completion of large genome mapping and finishing technologies currently under development. In conjunction with the financing, jVen Capital’s Evan Jones will lead OpGen’s board as executive chairman; he was previously a board member and served as interim CEO.