# CellType

> CellType is a Y Combinator W26 biotech startup building an 'agentic drug company' that simulates human biology to de-risk drug discovery. Founded by Yale professor David van Dijk and ML engineer Ivan Vrkic, it pairs Cell2Sentence, a 27-billion-parameter biological foundation model built with Google DeepMind, with AI agents that run the discovery pipeline from hypothesis to compound screening. The goal is to replace animal models and cell lines with computational simulations of human biology and cut preclinical failure rates.

- **Founded:** 2025
- **Headquarters:** New York City, New York, United States
- **Founders:** David van Dijk (Co-Founder & CEO), Ivan Vrkic (Co-Founder)
- **Team size:** 2-5
- **Products:** Cell2Sentence (C2S), C2S-Scale foundation model, Agentic discovery pipeline
- **Notable:** Screened 4,000+ compounds computationally and identified Silmitasertib (CX-4945) as a candidate to increase tumor immune visibility., Prediction of ~50% increased antigen presentation (with low-dose interferon) was experimentally validated in living cells., Cell2Sentence method published and presented at ICML 2024.

## Products & services

- **Cell2Sentence (C2S)** — Core method that translates single-cell gene expression profiles into ranked 'cell sentences' that large language models can learn from. Developed at Yale with Google DeepMind collaborators and presented at ICML 2024.
- **C2S-Scale foundation model** — A 27-billion-parameter biological foundation model built on Google's Gemma architecture, trained on billions of cell sentences spanning cell types, tissues, disease states and drug perturbations to predict cellular drug response.
- **Agentic discovery pipeline** — Orchestration layer of AI agents that chains discovery steps - hypothesis generation, compound screening, lead prioritization, mechanism and off-target prediction - to run autonomous research overnight.

## Achievements

- Screened 4,000+ compounds computationally and identified Silmitasertib (CX-4945) as a candidate to increase tumor immune visibility.
- Prediction of ~50% increased antigen presentation (with low-dose interferon) was experimentally validated in living cells.
- Cell2Sentence method published and presented at ICML 2024.
- Accepted into Y Combinator's Winter 2026 batch; named among top Bio & Health startups in W26 by The Silicon Valley Post.
- Founder David van Dijk holds 11,000+ citations with work in Cell, Nature, NeurIPS and ICML.

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Signed an MOU with Senhwa Biosciences to integrate its platform into CX-4945 (Silmitasertib) clinical development.
- **2026-03** — Announced pre-seed backing from Y Combinator and Pioneer Fund.
- **2026-02** — Revealed as part of Y Combinator's W26 batch; began hiring founding engineers.

## Links

- Website: https://celltype.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/celltype/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/celltypeinc

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/celltype-yc-w26
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-31