Meet the 2022 Fierce 15

VIEW THE FULL REPORT ON FIERCE BIOTECH

 

Agomab Therapeutics

CEO: Tim Knotnerus
Founded: 2017
Based: Ghent, Belgium
Clinical focus: Agomab Therapeutics' lead drug candidate is AGMB-129, a gastrointestinal tract restricted ALK-5 inhibitor in a phase 1 healthy volunteer trial. The asset is being set up as a possible treatment of fibrostenotic Crohn’s disease.

 

Amphista Therapeutics

CEO: Nicola Thompson, Ph.D.
Founded: 2017
Based: Cambridge, U.K.
Clinical focus: Amphista Therapeutics is developing a slate of bifunctional molecules designed to use targeted protein degradation to eliminate disease-causing proteins. 

 

Arbor Biotechnologies

CEO: Devyn Smith, Ph.D.
Founded: 2017
Based: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Clinical focus: Arbor Biotechnologies is concentrating on genomic editors for genetic-driven diseases in the liver and the central nervous system.

 

AviadoBio

CEO: Lisa Deschamps
Founded: 2019
Based: London
Clinical focus: AviadoBio focuses on debilitating neurodegenerative disorders such as frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) through gene therapy. 

 

Generate Biomedicines

CEO: Michael Nally
Founded: 2018
Based: Somerville, Massachusetts
Clinical focus: Generate Biomedicines' key areas of interest are oncology, immunology and infectious disease.

 

Lexeo Therapeutics

CEO: Nolan Townsend
Founded: 2021
Based: New York City
Clinical focus: Lexeo Therapeutics' pipeline has preclinical candidates for heart diseases and a central nervous system pipeline led by clinical-stage meds for Alzheimer’s and Batten diseases.

 

LifeMine Therapeutics

CEO: Gregory Verdine, Ph.D.
Founded: 2017
Based: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Clinical focus: LifeMine Therapeutics is aiming to drug the undruggable, with an artificial-intelligence-powered drug discovery platform that scours the sequenced genomes of fungi.

 

ReCode Therapeutics

CEO: Shehnaaz Suliman, M.D.
Founded: 2015
Based: Menlo Park, California
Clinical focus: ReCode Therapeutics is concentrating on primary ciliary dyskinesia, cystic fibrosis and other diseases of the lung, spleen, liver and central nervous system.

 

Scorpion Therapeutics

CEO: Axel Hoos, M.D., Ph.D.
Founded: 2020
Based: Boston
Clinical focus: Scorpion Therapeutics is concentrating on oncology.

 

Shape Therapeutics

CEO: Francois Vigneault
Founded: 2019
Based: Seattle
Clinical focus: Along with new partner Roche, Shape Therapeutics is working to solve Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cystic fibrosis, Rett syndrome and other rare diseases.

 

Storm Therapeutics

CEO: Jerry McMahon, Ph.D.
Founded: 2015
Based: Cambridge, U.K.
Clinical focus: Storm Therapeutics is working on developing RNA-modifying enzyme inhibitors for oncology and other diseases.

 

Strand Therapeutics

CEO: Jake Becraft, Ph.D.
Founded: 2017
Based: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Clinical focus: Strand Therapeutics' platform aims to create programmable, long-acting mRNA meds that could one day offer curative treatments in a single dose.

 

Synthekine

CEO: Debanjan Ray
Founded: 2019
Based: Menlo Park, California
Clinical focus: Synthekine is reengineering cells in the immune system to fight cancer and autoimmune diseases while cutting down on potential toxicities.

 

Verge Genomics

CEO: Alice Zhang
Founded: 2015 
Based: San Francisco
Clinical focus: Verge Genomics aims to jump from an AI-enabled drug discovery company to a full-fledged neuroscience biotech.

 

Volastra Therapeutics

CEO: Charles Hugh-Jones, M.D.
Founded: 2020
Based: New York City
Clinical focus: Volastra Therapeutics is looking to target a hallmark of most cancer cells called chromosomal instability.