Vijay Pande and Andy Tran from Andressen Horowitz have penned a piece about the top 16 open problems that they can see in engineering biology, particularly in the pharma space. There are a number of “traditional” methods waiting to be disrupted, from animal testing to computational modelling. Our portfolio company Mekonos is targeting problem #6 – engineering delivery systems.
Read the full article here: https://a16z.com/2020/07/22/16-open-problems-engineering-biology/
A recent update from Vas Narasimhan, the CEO of Novartis, tells a story of how digital technologies are revolutionising healthcare, and how they are trying to accelerate progress through their support of start-ups like Mekonos. Read more here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/accelerating-digital-revolution-healthcare-vas-narasimhan/
The University of California Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship has released a really great, accessible article about Mekonos, one of our portfolio companies. It details the journey that the team has taken, and how they plan to take gene therapy using nanobots into the future!
To read more, see https://www.ucop.edu/innovation-entrepreneurship/innovation-resources/collaborative-chip-technology-startup-looks-to-make-gene-therapy-affordable-accessible.html
The world’s largest pharmaceutical company, Novartis, has signalled their intent to move away from expensive manufacturing and towards new disruptive technologies like Crispr and CAR-T. While this means job losses in some manufacturing plants, jobs will also be created in cell and gene therapy manufacturing. This is great news for Mekonos, who have already been brought into Novartis facilities to develop their nano-robotic solution to cure diseases through cell therapy. Read more here: https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/novartis-to-cut-over-2000-jobs/3009579.article
