Alexandria Venture Investments

Alexandria Venture Investments, LLC is a venture capital firm established in 1996 and located in Pasadena, California. As a subsidiary of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, the firm specializes in seed, early-stage, and growth capital investments primarily within the healthcare sector. Its focus areas include biopharma, diagnostics, life sciences, research tools, agrifood technology, and technology. By leveraging its extensive industry expertise and a robust network of relationships with leading investors and scientific advisors, Alexandria Venture Investments aims to support innovative companies that are developing breakthrough technologies and therapies to enhance human health.

Aaron Jacobson

Senior Vice President, Venture Counsel

Hunter Reed

Vice President

Stephen A. Richardson

Co-CEO

Past deals in Life Science

Ozette

Series A in 2022
Ozette Technologies specializes in digitizing biology using machine learning to give an entire view of an individual’s immune system. By digitizing immune data, they accelerate the discovery and development of therapies and diagnostics.

DEM BioPharma

Series A in 2022
DEM BioPharma is an immuno-oncology company that is working to eradicate cancer by targeting novel innate immune system checkpoints.

Dren Bio

Series B in 2022
Dren Bio is a biotechnology company that specializes in protein engineering technologies designed to target and deplete pathogenic cells, protein aggregates, and other disease-causing agents. With a focus on hematologic neoplasms, solid cancers, autoimmune disorders, and diseases related to protein aggregation, the company aims to provide innovative solutions for healthcare professionals in their efforts to combat various serious diseases. Operating under a holding company model, Dren Bio develops multiple projects as standalone assets, seeking to create value through its diverse portfolio of biotechnology initiatives.

Pleno

Seed Round in 2022
Pleno is a biotechnology company that aims to speed up disease diagnosis and treatment. The company’s proprietary Hypercoding technology leverages signal processing techniques from the telecommunications industry to deliver targeted biological information at unprecedented scale, precision, and performance. It was founded in 2017 and is based in San Diego, California.

Ambys Medicines

Series A in 2021
Ambys Medicines is a biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing regenerative and restorative therapies. Ambys Medicines is working to fundamentally transform the lives of people suffering from severe liver diseases by creating breakthrough therapies capable of restoring liver function, preventing the progression of liver disease, and treating the devastating complications of liver failure.

Lycia Therapeutics

Series B in 2021
Lycia Therapeutics is the operator of a biotechnology firm that aims to research and produce first-in-class therapies. The company's lysosomal targeting chimeras (LYTACs) platform is used to develop therapeutics that degrade extracellular and membrane-bound proteins that drive a variety of difficult-to-treat diseases, such as cancer and autoimmune conditions, allowing doctors to obtain drugs to cure patients.

Asher Bio

Series B in 2021
Asher Biotherapeutics, Inc. is a biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, California, founded in 2019. The company specializes in the development of immunotherapy drugs aimed at effectively treating cancer. Its innovative therapies are designed to enhance the immune system's ability to target and eliminate cancer cells while minimizing side effects. This focus allows healthcare providers to deliver effective treatments to patients in a shorter timeframe, aiming to improve overall outcomes in cancer care.

Cyrus Biotechnology

Venture Round in 2021
Cyrus Biotechnology, Inc. specializes in developing software tools for protein structure prediction and design, aiming to enhance research in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. The company's flagship product, Rosetta, allows for the design of biologically active proteins that can address critical health issues, such as brain cancer treatment and gluten breakdown in Celiac Disease patients. Additionally, Cyrus Bench offers an enterprise version of the Rosetta toolkit, equipped with a variety of bio-molecular computation tools. The company also provides Cyrus CryoEM services, which include advanced structure refinement and model building. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Cyrus Biotechnology serves a diverse clientele, including pharmaceutical companies, venture-backed startups, and mid-sized biotech firms focused on therapeutic discovery and industrial biotechnology innovation.

Neurona Therapeutics

Venture Round in 2021
Neurona Therapeutics Inc. is a biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, California, that specializes in developing cell-based therapies for neurological disorders. Founded by neuroscientists and stem cell pioneers at The University of California, San Francisco, the company focuses on creating therapeutic compositions of specific types of neurons for targeted delivery into the injured nervous system. Drawing on nearly two decades of research, Neurona seeks to harness particular subpopulations of neurons capable of integrating and repairing dysregulated neural circuits. With a dedicated team of scientists and advisors, the company aims to accelerate the development of breakthrough treatments for patients suffering from significant unmet medical needs in the realm of chronic neurological diseases.

Senda Biosciences

Series B in 2021
Senda Biosciences is a developer of therapeutic applications intended for novel treatments of human disease. The company studies the molecular relationships between bacterial, botanical, and human cells as well as how they define health and disease, providing medical professionals with novel medications and delivery methods. Senda Biosciences was established in 2017 by David Kolesky, Ignacio Martinez, and John Casey in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Invaio Sciences

Series C in 2021
Invaio Sciences is a technology company that is dedicated to unlocking the potential of our planet’s interdependent natural systems to solve pressing agriculture, nutrition, and environmental challenges. Invaio Sciences is a flagship pioneering company startup in Cambridge. They are at the forefront of developing novel technologies based on groundbreaking science with an intent to positively impact their planet by enabling the application of breakthrough solutions in agriculture, human health, animal nutrition and animal health.

Advanced Animal Diagnostics

Venture Round in 2021
Advanced Animal Diagnostics, Inc. commercializes proprietary technology for the diagnosis of farm-animal diseases. It uses an animal's own immune response to detect and stage infections to improve the quality of life for producers, processors, animals, and consumers. The company offers QuickSmear, a rapid differential slide to speed and simplify production animal research using differential cell counts; and the SCC+ System for early detection of mastitis. Advanced Animal Diagnostics was founded in 2001 and is based in Durham, North Carolina.

Ensoma

Series A in 2021
Ensoma is expanding the reach of the curative power of genomic medicine by pioneering a next-generation in vivo approach using its Engenious vectors. Ensoma’s vectors are designed to deliver a diverse range of gene modification technologies without the need for stem cell collection or prior myeloablative conditioning (e.g., chemotherapy). As a result, Ensoma’s therapies can be delivered as a single injection in a diverse range of settings, including outpatient and settings where access to sophisticated healthcare systems may be limited.

LEXEO Therapeutics

Series A in 2021
LEXEO Therapeutics is a fully integrated biotechnology company. LEXEO Therapeutics’ pipeline consists of adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated therapies primarily developed at Weill Cornell Medicine’s Department of Genetic Medicine. Beyond LEXEO Therapeutics’ lead programs – which are focused on both rare and non-rare monogenic (single gene mutation) diseases – the company’s preclinical pipeline spans monogenic diseases, as well as hereditary and acquired diseases across a spectrum of patient population sizes and a range of unmet medical needs. Importantly, LEXEO Therapeutics will focus on advancing clinical programs through to commercialization, with the goal of maintaining an ongoing research collaboration with Weill Cornell Medicine’s Department of Genetic Medicine to help advance the company’s pre-clinical pipeline.

Dren Bio

Series A in 2020
Dren Bio is a biotechnology company that specializes in protein engineering technologies designed to target and deplete pathogenic cells, protein aggregates, and other disease-causing agents. With a focus on hematologic neoplasms, solid cancers, autoimmune disorders, and diseases related to protein aggregation, the company aims to provide innovative solutions for healthcare professionals in their efforts to combat various serious diseases. Operating under a holding company model, Dren Bio develops multiple projects as standalone assets, seeking to create value through its diverse portfolio of biotechnology initiatives.

Sonoma Pharmaceuticals

Series A in 2020
Sonoma Pharmaceuticals is a global healthcare company that designs, manufactures and markets prescription and non-prescription products in 33 countries. The company’s products, over 100 SKUs commercialized worldwide, are used to treat patients in advanced wound management, dermatology, women’s health and animal health; addressing the unmet medical needs of these markets—while raising the standard of patient care and lowering overall healthcare costs.

Sonoma Biotherapeutics

Series A in 2020
Sonoma Biotherapeutics is a company invloved the development of adoptive Treg therapies cell for autoimmune and degenerative diseases. Using next generation genome editing and target-specific cell therapy, Sonoma is focused on developing its best-in-class platform across the entire spectrum of Treg cell therapeutic capabilities. Founded by pioneers in Treg biology and cell therapy, the company brings together leading expertise and proprietary methodologies for the discovery and development of disease modifying and curative therapies.

Vor Biopharma

Series B in 2020
Vor Biopharma, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, focused on developing engineered hematopoietic stem cell (eHSC) therapies for cancer treatment. The company's lead product candidate, VOR33, is designed specifically for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and is currently in preclinical development. VOR33 eHSCs are engineered to lack CD33, a protein commonly expressed by AML cells, allowing for selective targeting of the cancer without harming normal cells. This innovative approach seeks to minimize the toxicities associated with traditional immunotherapies, which often affect both cancerous and healthy tissues. By protecting healthy stem cells from depletion while generating functional immune cells, Vor Biopharma aims to enhance therapeutic outcomes for patients with hematological malignancies.

Element Biosciences

Series B in 2020
Element Biosciences is a life science company that focuses on developing innovative genetic analysis tools. The company is developing a modular and high-performing DNA sequencing platform that will deliver high-quality data, workflow flexibility, and make next-generation sequencing technology more accessible. The company's proprietary approach to improving the signal-to-noise ratio allows us to provide groundbreaking innovations in surface chemistry, instrumentation, and biochemistry to drastically decrease the run and capital costs while delivering high sequencing data quality.

TARA Biosystems

Series A in 2020
Tara Biosystems provides predictive, in vitro human cardiac tissue models for use in drug discovery, safety assessment and translational medicine. Tara Biosystems offers a high-fidelity solution that is based on human stem cell-derived cardiac tissue matured to physiologically relevant adult-like levels and provides direct measures of cardiac functionality, including contractile force. The company is dedicated to pioneering predictive cardiac tissue models that enable the faster, safer, and more reliable development of new medicines.

Silverback Therapeutics

Series B in 2020
Silverback Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in Seattle, Washington, that specializes in developing tissue-targeted therapeutics aimed at treating cancer, chronic viral infections, and other serious diseases. The company’s lead product candidate, SBT6050, is currently undergoing a Phase I/Ib clinical trial; it is a TLR8 agonist conjugated to a HER2-directed monoclonal antibody, targeting tumors such as breast, gastric, and non-small cell lung cancers. Additionally, Silverback is advancing SBT6290, which is in preclinical development and targets Nectin4, found in bladder, triple-negative breast, head and neck, and non-small cell lung cancers. The company is also developing SBT8230, aimed at treating chronic hepatitis B virus infection, and exploring other agents that utilize its proprietary technology to modulate pathways in oncology and fibrosis indications. Silverback's innovative ImmunoTAC platform enables the design of therapies that are systemically delivered but act specifically at disease sites, unlocking previously inaccessible pathways for treatment.

Variant Bio

Series A in 2019
Variant Bio is leveraging the power of human genetic diversity to discover new therapeutics. The company's focus is to identify individuals and populations around the world who are extreme outliers for traits of medical relevance and to use innovative sequencing and analytic approaches to identify genes and pathways linked to these traits. Variant Bio was founded in 2018 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Boundless Bio

Series A in 2019
Boundless Bio is a company that develops novel cancer therapeutics intended to understand and treat untraceable cancers. It aims to be the biopharma company interrogating extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) biology to deliver transformative therapies to patients with previously intractable cancers.

X-Vax

Series A in 2019
X-Vax Technology is a biotechnology company focused on the preclinical and clinical development of vaccines against pathogens that cause mucosal infections such as herpes, influenza, tuberculosis and HIV, affecting hundreds of millions of people around the globe. They believe that inducing antibodies that mediate the killing of infected cells will provoke an entirely new and effective immune response – so that they can finally beat these pathogens. The company was founded in 2015 and based in Jupiter, Florida.

GreenLight Biosciences

Venture Round in 2019
GreenLight Biosciences is an integrated life sciences company with a cutting-edge platform to deliver higher-quality RNA at a lower cost and more quickly than was ever before possible. GreenLight develops RNA products and collaborates with industry leaders to advance vaccine development, pandemic preparation, crop management, plant protection and support the health of bees and other pollinators.

Immusoft

Series B in 2019
Immusoft is a biotechnology company that is commercializing technology to program the human immune system by modifying the DNA in immune cells. The core components of Immusoft’s Immune System Programming (ISP) technology was developed in the Baltimore Lab at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and exclusively licensed by Immusoft. The technology instructs a patient’s cells to produce gene-encoded medicines (biologics). Cells that are reprogrammed using ISP become miniature drug factories that are expected to survive in patients for many years. It was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Silverback Therapeutics

Series A in 2018
Silverback Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in Seattle, Washington, that specializes in developing tissue-targeted therapeutics aimed at treating cancer, chronic viral infections, and other serious diseases. The company’s lead product candidate, SBT6050, is currently undergoing a Phase I/Ib clinical trial; it is a TLR8 agonist conjugated to a HER2-directed monoclonal antibody, targeting tumors such as breast, gastric, and non-small cell lung cancers. Additionally, Silverback is advancing SBT6290, which is in preclinical development and targets Nectin4, found in bladder, triple-negative breast, head and neck, and non-small cell lung cancers. The company is also developing SBT8230, aimed at treating chronic hepatitis B virus infection, and exploring other agents that utilize its proprietary technology to modulate pathways in oncology and fibrosis indications. Silverback's innovative ImmunoTAC platform enables the design of therapies that are systemically delivered but act specifically at disease sites, unlocking previously inaccessible pathways for treatment.

Epic Sciences

Series E in 2018
Epic Sciences is a privately held diagnostics company committed to improving cancer management by providing easily accessible and real-time biopsy material to guide personalized medicine. Epic is founded on a powerful platform to identify and characterize rare cells including circulating tumor cells ("CTCs"). Epic is working with a number of partners including numerous pharmaceutical companies, major cancer centers, the National Cancer Institute, and the National Institutes of Health.

BlueLight Therapeutics

Series C in 2018
BlueLight Therapeutics uses a proprietary structure-based platform to discover small molecules against difficult-to-drug targets. BlueLight Therapeutics leverages a proprietary, structure-driven platform to develop novel therapeutic molecules against challenging, high-value drug targets. The company has a passionate and experienced team with unique expertise on developing structural assays across a broad range of target classes.

Magnolia NeuroSciences

Series A in 2018
Magnolia Neurosciences aims to discover and develop proprietary, selective, and drug-like small molecule therapeutics for the prevention of neuronal cell death, thereby providing novel treatment options for patients suffering from neurodegeneration and related conditions. Magnolia Neurosciences Corporation, created to pursue technologies developed at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Therapeutics Discovery Division and the Neurodegeneration Consortium (NDC), is a New York-based Accelerator Life Science Partner portfolio company.

ORIG3N

Series B in 2018
ORIG3N is a biotechnology company developing breakthrough treatments for rare genetically inherited diseases with targets in heart, liver, and neurodegenerative indications. It was founded in 2014 and is based in Boston, Massachusetts.

StrideBio

Series A in 2018
StrideBio is a gene therapy company focused on developing genetic medicines with curative potential for patients with devastating conditions. It leverages its proprietary structure-inspired adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector engineering platform to create unique and differentiated vectors that improve upon naturally occurring AAV serotypes to overcome current limitations of first-generation gene therapies. The company was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

QurAlis

Seed Round in 2018
QurAlis is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that is developing precision medicines with genetically validated targets for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative diseases. Its proprietary platforms and biomarkers allow for the design and development of drugs that target disease-causing genetic alterations directly.

LifeMine Therapeutics

Series A in 2017
LifeMine Therapeutics combines genomics with AI and synthetic biology to discover and develop a pipeline of novel medicines. LifeMine’s Avatar-Rx platform integrates high-throughput microbiology, data science and machine learning, genome engineering, and automation technologies to search the fungal biosphere for novel GEMs having a predetermined target and biological function. The platform integrates chemoinformatic-assisted drug optimization and state-of-the-art chemical synthesis with biotransformation to advance new product candidates into development. Founded by Gregory Verdine, PhD, Rick Klausner, MD, and WeiQing Zhou, MBA. LifeMine Therapeutics is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Evelo Biosciences

Series B in 2017
Evelo Biosciences is dedicated to improving the lives of patients globally through the development of a new modality of medicines – monoclonal microbials. Monoclonal microbials are orally delivered medicines that modulate systemic immunology and biology through direct interactions with human cells in the gut. These new medicines are broadly applicable across many diseases – including autoimmune, immunoinflammatory, metabolic, neurological, neuroinflammatory diseases, and cancer. Monoclonal microbials have the potential to fundamentally change traditional models of drug discovery and development. By finding and selecting naturally occurring monoclonal microbial with defined therapeutic effects, Evelo can improve the speed, cost, and success of drug discovery and development. Evelo’s platform enables pharmacological intervention at all stages of the disease with naturally occurring, safe, and effective monoclonal microbials. Evelo Biosciences was conceived and created within VentureLabs®, Flagship Pioneering’s institutional innovation foundry, and launched by Flagship in 2015.

Avelas Biosciences

Series C in 2016
At Avelas Biosciences, their mission is to advance a new standard-of-care in cancer surgery by providing a real time luminous map for oncologic surgeons, leading to improved surgical results and better outcome for patients.
Yumanity Therapeutics is transforming drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases caused by protein misfolding. Founded in December 2014 by award-winning protein folding expert, Susan Lindquist, and renowned biotech industry leader, Tony Coles, Yumanity is working to identify and develop new, disease-modifying therapies that address several illnesses with critical unmet medical needs. The initial focus of the company is neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The company’s proprietary platforms have already identified one potential new target for treating Parkinson’s disease, and Yumanity is actively advancing its new chemical lead series for this condition, as well as identifying additional compounds for Alzheimer’s disease and ALS.

EpiBiome

Series A in 2016
EpiBiome, Inc. is a precision microbiome engineering company focused on developing therapies to combat infectious diseases in humans and agriculture without relying on small-molecule antibiotics. Founded in 2013 and based in South San Francisco, California, EpiBiome offers innovative phage therapy solutions that target specific strains within the microbiome, addressing issues such as antibiotic resistance and providing alternatives to traditional antibiotics. The company’s therapies are designed to treat conditions like mastitis in dairy cows and infections caused by Escherichia coli in humans. EpiBiome employs advanced sequencing and bioinformatic processes to identify pathogenic bacteria and microbiome alterations that may lead to disease, facilitating patient recovery and enhancing health outcomes. As of mid-2018, EpiBiome operates as a subsidiary of Locus Biosciences, Inc.

Syros Pharmaceuticals

Series C in 2016
Syros Pharmaceuticals is a life sciences company that is focused on treating disease by mapping gene regulatory circuits and modulating the factors that regulate gene expression. Syros has pioneered world-leading gene control research and drug discovery capabilities with a proven ability to integrate disease biology and genomic data--a proficiency that is not well represented in pharmaceutical R&D. Central to the Syros approach is a proprietary platform of carefully integrated assay technologies, bioinformatics, and biologic insights developed by members of Syros' senior leadership. While this scientific approach has applications in many therapeutic areas, Syros has demonstrated success initially in oncology, where it may help address numerous unmet medical needs.

Lodo Therapeutics

Series A in 2016
Lodo Therapeutics Corporation is a drug discovery and development company focused on the creation of naturally derived novel therapeutics that will have a dramatic impact human health on a global basis. Lodo seeks to work in partnership with global pharmaceutical companies and world leading Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) to tackle some of the greatest challenges in human health: resistant infectious disease and cancers. Lodo Therapeutics was created to pursue the scientific vision of Dr. Sean Brady at Rockefeller University. Dr. Brady and his laboratory have developed a genome-based, culture-independent platform for the discovery, biosynthesis, and characterization of small molecules from microbial sources present in soil samples. Lodo believes that the potential cures for a number of deadly and/or debilitating diseases literally lie at our feet. By combining the advancements in DNA sequencing and bioinformatics, this innovative discovery platform exploits the power of microbial evolution for the identification of therapeutically valuable pharmaceutical products derived from natural sources. Lodo Therapeutics, an Accelerator Corporation-backed entity, is headquartered in New York City. The company’s lab and offices are located in the Alexandria Center for Life Science, New York City’s first and only premier life science park.

TARA Biosystems

Seed Round in 2016
Tara Biosystems provides predictive, in vitro human cardiac tissue models for use in drug discovery, safety assessment and translational medicine. Tara Biosystems offers a high-fidelity solution that is based on human stem cell-derived cardiac tissue matured to physiologically relevant adult-like levels and provides direct measures of cardiac functionality, including contractile force. The company is dedicated to pioneering predictive cardiac tissue models that enable the faster, safer, and more reliable development of new medicines.

Biological Dynamics

Series C in 2015
Biological Dynamics, Inc. is a healthcare company committed to improving global health outcomes by detecting diseases in their earliest stages. The company's proprietary platform simplifies access to native-state biomarkers and nanoparticles, enabling multiomics applications. The company is focused on detecting cancers by applying its platform technology along with its machine learning capabilities. For more information, please visit www.biologicaldynamics.com and follow us at @BiodynSD on Twitter. It was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

Calimmune

Series B in 2015
Calimmune is a clinical-stage gene therapy company. The company’s lead therapeutic candidate, is a gene-based therapy engineered to control HIV infection and to protect individuals with HIV from progressing to AIDS. The therapy is currently being evaluated in Phase I/II studies. Cal-1 is designed to reduce production of CCR5, a protein on the surface of white blood cells that plays a critical role in enabling HIV to infect cells. It also has a second mechanism aimed at preventing viral fusion, the process by which the virus enters the cell. This dual approach was shown to be effective against broad strains of HIV in pre-clinical studies.

Syros Pharmaceuticals

Series B in 2014
Syros Pharmaceuticals is a life sciences company that is focused on treating disease by mapping gene regulatory circuits and modulating the factors that regulate gene expression. Syros has pioneered world-leading gene control research and drug discovery capabilities with a proven ability to integrate disease biology and genomic data--a proficiency that is not well represented in pharmaceutical R&D. Central to the Syros approach is a proprietary platform of carefully integrated assay technologies, bioinformatics, and biologic insights developed by members of Syros' senior leadership. While this scientific approach has applications in many therapeutic areas, Syros has demonstrated success initially in oncology, where it may help address numerous unmet medical needs.

Visterra

Series B in 2014
Visterra, Inc. engages in pharmaceutical drug research and development of therapeutic and diagnostic products for infectious diseases. It also provides structure-based design of therapeutics and diagnostic platforms, based on an understanding of glycobiology and glycochemistry. The company was formerly known as Parasol Therapeutics, Inc. and changed its name in May 2010. Visterra, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Seres Therapeutics

Series B in 2014
Seres Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotherapeutic company that develops ecobiotic therapeutic products. They engaged in developing biological drugs which are referred to as ecobiotic microbiome therapeutics. The company is a group of experts in microbiome research and drug development. Its executive team, board of directors, and scientific advisory board have a wealth of experience in the development, regulatory approval, and profitable commercialization of a wide range of therapeutic products.
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