Participated · Series C · Nov 2025

Aspen Neuroscience is pioneering personalized regenerative medicine by converting a patient’s own skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells and then into dopaminergic neuronal precursor cells to treat neurodegenerative diseases. Its lead candidate, ANPD001, is the most advanced autologous cell therapy in the U.S. for moderate to advanced Parkinson’s disease and has received FDA Fast Track designation. The company’s proprietary manufacturing platform integrates machine-learning-based genomic testing for rigorous quality control and scalability, and it includes a precision MRI-guided delivery device for minimally invasive transplantation. Recent clinical progress includes initiation of Cohort 3 in a Phase 1/2a trial, with earlier cohorts showing favorable safety and clinician- and patient-reported improvements without the need for immunosuppression. Aspen plans to expand its pipeline to additional neurological indications while scaling manufacturing to meet future commercial demand. Headquartered in San Diego, the private company has raised more than $340 million to date, including an $8 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

Led · Seed · Nov 2025

Ladder Bio (formerly ThirdLaw Molecular) is a therapeutics company pioneering a proprietary Spiroligomer platform that engineers sequence-defined, structurally preorganized “ladder-shaped” peptide-like molecules. These molecules aim to drug historically undruggable targets by marrying biologics-like affinity and selectivity with small-molecule properties such as oral dosing and cell permeability. The company’s initial focus is on platform scale-up, lead program validation, and in-vitro screening to advance its first drug candidates. Proceeds from its recent seed financing will also fund key hires across chemistry, biology, and development. Ladder Bio plans to translate its platform into high-value medicines and expand its capabilities as it moves from platform validation toward product development. Industry veteran Eric Heil has been appointed CEO, and noted life-science investors David Scheer and Brian Halak have joined the board, strengthening operational and strategic oversight. Headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, the company positions itself to become a category-leading player in next-generation peptide therapeutics. To date, Ladder Bio has raised $5.5 million in seed capital, providing its current financial runway.

Participated · Series B · Dec 2024

Pleno is an early-stage San Diego clinical and multi-omics diagnostics company developing the RAPTOR™ multi-omic instrument platform to revolutionize biological target detection. Its Hypercoding™ technology is designed to simplify known-target detection and deliver improvements in performance, cost, and scale. The company says the platform enables a broad array of life-science and clinical applications, including oncology and infectious disease. Pleno is preparing to scale its commercial operations and begin commercialization as it moves into its next phase of growth. The company recently closed a $25 million Series B and appointed Dr. Vik Vaz, M.D. as CEO to lead commercial expansion and execution. Pleno develops a multi-omic instrument platform built on proprietary Hypercoding™ technology that leverages telecom-derived signal processing to deliver ultra-high plex targeted biological information including DNA, RNA, methylation, and proteomic content. Its flagship instrument platform, RAPTOR™, is designed to provide ultra-high target multiplexing, high dynamic range, very low limit of detection, and throughput of 8–384 samples per run with 1–3 hour runtimes depending on assay needs. The company plans early customer access to RAPTOR in 2023 and full availability in 2024, and says newly raised funds will accelerate platform development. Pleno is based in San Diego’s Sorrento Mesa innovation hub and currently employs 24 full-time employees, with plans to grow the team. Cited target applications include early cancer screening, NIPT, infectious diseases, pharmacogenomics, proteomics, and agrigenomics. The platform is positioned to reduce cost and broaden access to high-plex diagnostics for clinical and research use. Pleno has developed Hypercoding™, a signal‑processing–based platform that delivers ultra‑high plex targeted biological information across DNA, RNA, methylation, and proteomic content. Its instrument platform is designed to detect up to 10,000 targets per sample and process up to 10,000 samples per day via a simple, low‑cost workflow. The company says this represents ~1,000× PCR multiplexing and ~100× NGS sample throughput. Pleno plans to use the newly raised funds to advance development of the Hypercoding™ instrument and scale operations. Management highlights potential clinical applications such as liquid biopsies and aims to democratize clinical multi‑omics. The company is led by Founder and CEO Pieter van Rooyen and recently added Gregory T. Lucier as Chairman of the Board. Pleno is based in San Diego’s Sorrento Mesa and currently employs 14 full‑time employees.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2024

GC Therapeutics (GCTx) develops TFome™, an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) programming platform that integrates synthetic biology, gene editing, cell engineering and machine learning. TFome is presented as a plug-and-play collection of human transcription factors that enables a single-step, four-day stem cell differentiation process with >90% efficiency and the company says it can accelerate development up to 100× versus conventional methods. The platform uses genome-scale experimental testing and machine learning to identify optimized TF combinations to generate virtually any functional cell type without cell type–specific microenvironment optimization. GCTx aims to produce off-the-shelf, first-in-class and best-in-class “SuperCell” medicines and is initially focused on gastrointestinal, neurological and immunological diseases. The company originated in George Church’s lab; Harvard’s Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator supported translation and Harvard’s Office of Technology Development exclusively licensed the founding IP to GCTx. GCTx launched to scale its platform and has raised capital to advance multiple pipeline programs toward the clinic.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2024

Truvian Health offers an automated benchtop platform designed to perform comprehensive, routine blood tests with central-laboratory-equivalent accuracy at the point of care. The company has presented multiple independent clinical studies showing concordant results with central laboratories across a large panel of tests. Its integrated platform has been evaluated on more than 50,000 samples from roughly 5,000 donors and has achieved a platform run reliability rate above 98%. Truvian has scaled instrument and consumable manufacturing to initiate clinical trials and early partner access programs. The company is pursuing US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for its platform and is using recent capital to support that effort. Truvian positions its solution for deployment in clinics, doctors’ offices and pharmacies to increase access to routine testing and earlier medical intervention. Truvian Sciences is a healthcare company at the intersection of diagnostics and consumer technology, developing an automated benchtop system to produce lab-accurate results for a full suite of health tests from a small blood sample. The system is powered by patented technologies and intelligent integration to provide a convenient, affordable alternative to off-site labs and deliver immediate insights to inform healthcare decisions. The company plans to use the new capital to advance development of the device, prepare and submit it for U.S. FDA clearance, and scale its team for broad commercialization. Truvian closed a Series C of more than $105M, bringing total funding to over $150M to date. The financing was accompanied by a roster of executive and board appointments, including Jay Srinivasan as Chief Product Officer and new board members Glen Tullman, Greg Wasson, and Megh Gupta. Inventor Dean Kamen was named Senior Technology Advisor. Truvian develops an automated benchtop diagnostic system intended to deliver lab-accurate results for a full suite of health tests from a small blood sample in roughly 20 minutes. Its platform is powered by patented technologies and intelligent integration and delivers results electronically through a digital platform. The system uses dry reagent technology that allows consumables to be stored at room temperature, eliminating cold chain and refrigeration requirements. Truvian is working toward a CE Mark for the European Economic Area and plans a submission to the FDA for 510(k) clearance along with a CLIA waiver application to enable use in retail settings and doctors’ offices. The company added Katherine Atkinson as Chief Commercial Officer and appointed Paul Meister to its board; the board is chaired by co-founder Kim Kamdar, and co-founder Dena Marrinucci serves as SVP of Corporate Development and Business Operations. Truvian intends to use new funding to expand operations and advance development efforts.