# Fauna Bio

> Fauna Bio is an AI-driven drug discovery company that mines roughly 100 million years of evolved disease resistance in mammals to find new human therapies. Founded in 2018 in the San Francisco Bay Area, it combines comparative genomics, a proprietary animal biobank, and machine learning - through its Convergence and Fauna Brain platforms - to translate the biology of hibernators and other resilient species into drug targets for conditions like obesity, heart failure, neurodegeneration, and retinal disease. Its work has attracted a partnership with Eli Lilly worth up to $494 million.

- **Founded:** 2018
- **Headquarters:** Emeryville, California, United States
- **Founders:** Ashley Zehnder (Co-Founder & CEO), Katie Grabek (Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer), Linda Goodman (Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer)
- **Team size:** ~25 employees
- **Products:** Convergence Platform, Fauna Brain, Faun1083, Animal Biobank
- **Notable:** Signed a discovery collaboration with Eli Lilly worth up to $494 million for obesity targets., Nominated its first internal drug candidate, Faun1083, for heart failure (HFpEF) in January 2025., Launched the Fauna Brain multi-agent AI platform in June 2025.

## Products & services

- **Convergence Platform** — A comparative-genomics and AI platform that integrates large-scale cross-species omics data from hundreds of animal species to identify and validate novel human drug targets based on convergent evolutionary adaptations.
- **Fauna Brain** — A multi-agent AI platform, launched in 2025, that automates target discovery - integrating genomic data from 290+ animal species and using the Convergence engine to identify, rank, and generate concept sheets for drug targets in minutes.
- **Faun1083** — The company's first internal drug candidate, a novel oral small molecule for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), discovered by studying cardiac protection in hibernating 13-lined ground squirrels.
- **Animal Biobank** — A proprietary biobank of tissue and multi-omic data from 'extreme mammals' - hibernators and other species that resist disease, cold, starvation, and radiation.

## Achievements

- Signed a discovery collaboration with Eli Lilly worth up to $494 million for obesity targets.
- Nominated its first internal drug candidate, Faun1083, for heart failure (HFpEF) in January 2025.
- Launched the Fauna Brain multi-agent AI platform in June 2025.
- Built a comparative-genomics dataset spanning 450+ animal species.
- Raised $9M seed round in 2021 to scale its platform.
- Selected for NASA NIAC space-health research on torpor and radiation resistance.

## Latest updates

- **2025-06** — Launched Fauna Brain, a multi-agent AI platform integrating 290+ animal genomes to automate and accelerate drug-target discovery.
- **2025-01** — Announced Faun1083, its first drug candidate, an oral small molecule for HFpEF heart failure inspired by hibernating ground squirrels.
- **2024-01** — Reached a milestone in the Eli Lilly obesity collaboration by designating its first metabolic disease drug target.
- **2023-12** — Announced strategic collaboration with Eli Lilly to discover novel obesity targets, worth up to $494 million.

## Links

- Website: https://faunabio.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/faunabio
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/faunabio

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/fauna-bio
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-06