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Icon Genetics is a Princeton, NJ-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.
Sana Biotechnology is focused on utilizing engineered cells as medicines for patients. The ability to modify genes and use cells as medicines will be one of the most important advances in healthcare over the next several decades. Sana is building differentiated capabilities across the spectrum of cell and gene therapy. Three aspirations drive Sana as we look to discover treatments for patients with poor outcomes or currently untreatable diseases. The first is the ability to repair and control the genes in any cell in the body. We are advancing novel delivery technologies with the goal of being able to deliver any payload to any cell in a specific, predictable, and repeatable manner, paving the way for next-generation in vivo gene therapy. Next is the ability to differentiate pluripotent stem cells ex vivo into immune-cloaked functional cells with the aspiration of being able to replace any missing or damaged cells in the body. Last is a belief we can enable broader access to our therapies through focusing on scalable manufacturing solutions, the cost of manufacturing, and aligning with key stakeholders. Sana launched in early 2019 and has approximately two hundred employees in Seattle, Cambridge, and South San Francisco. In 2019, we raised capital to enable our broad vision, began to acquire technology and establish an IP estate across cell and gene therapy, and made significant progress validating our cell and gene therapy platforms. Growing from this foundation, we intend to push forward our platforms and product pipeline in 2020 and beyond.
We are a San Francisco Bay Area-based research stage biopharmaceutical company aiming to discover, develop and commercialize innovative therapeutics for the treatment of rare and age-related diseases. We are developing compounds to modulate molecular pathways that address the underlying causes of disease initiation and progression, such as oxidative, cellular and environmental stress.
Omicia is unlocking the potential of individualized medicine. Our mission is to help researchers and clinicians understand and apply the most relevant information from personal genome sequences, to improve disease management and medical outcomes. Researchers and clinical diagnostic organizations use our solutions to analyze and identify the genetic basis of a variety of conditions, including childhood disease, cancer and cardiovascular disease. Opal™, the leading platform for fast, accurate and flexible genome analysis, enables clinicians, researchers and bioinformaticians alike to derive clinically relevant insights from genomic data. VAAST, our robust novel disease gene finder and variant scoring algorithm, is in use at more than 300 academic and clinical institutions including the NIH, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, Institut Pasteur, University of Maryland Institute for Genome Sciences, and UCSF.
Kezar co-founder Christopher Kirk, Ph.D. began his work on the unique function of the immunoproteasome at Proteolix in 2005, while working on the compound that would become the successful multiple myeloma drug KYPROLIS™ (carfilzomib). As VP of Research at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, which acquired Proteolix in 2009, Christopher led the efforts to develop the first selective inhibitors of the immunoproteasome and designed multiple studies demonstrating their profound immunomodulatory effects. In parallel with this work, Christopher and Kezar co-founder Jack Taunton, Ph.D. collaborated on several research projects involving protein secretion. This collaboration inspired a belief in the strong synergies between protein degradation and protein secretion, two fertile areas for drug discovery with platform potential. In 2014, Christopher and Kezar co-founder John Fowler began developing the business plan for Kezar, acting on a longstanding desire to work together and build a world-class company. In 2015, John and Christopher raised $23M and negotiated a worldwide, exclusive license agreement with Amgen for the Onyx immunoproteasome inhibitor patent estate. Now underway, John and Christopher are excited to leverage their complementary skill sets to build Kezar into a leader in small molecule drug development.