# Nutcracker Therapeutics

> Nutcracker Therapeutics built a compact, biochip-based system for designing, delivering and manufacturing RNA medicines, then offered its production capability to other drug developers. Its NMU-Symphony platform was designed for small, individualized batches rather than one enormous product run. In 2025, Medici Therapeutics acquired the company to bring RNA manufacturing into its oncology platform.

- **Founded:** 2018
- **Headquarters:** Emeryville, United States
- **Founders:** Igor Khandros (Co-founder and former CEO), Benjamin Eldridge (Co-founder and CTO)
- **Products:** ACORN, CodonCracker, Nutshell, CRDMO services, NMU-Symphony
- **Notable:** Raised a $60 million Series B in 2020 and a $167 million Series C in 2022., Reported reviewing data from more than 2,000 RNA production cycles by November 2024., Introduced NMU-Symphony in June 2025 and reported manufacturing for several partner programs.

## Products & services

- **ACORN** — Original computer-controlled, microfluidic biochip manufacturing platform for nanoparticle-encapsulated mRNA medicines.
- **CodonCracker** — RNA design software used to optimize therapeutic constructs.
- **Nutshell** — Nanoparticle delivery vehicle platform, including peptoid-based formulations studied in a 2024 ACS Nano paper.
- **CRDMO services** — Contract research, development and manufacturing services for external RNA drug developers, from discovery through clinical and commercial-grade material.
- **NMU-Symphony** — Second-generation biochip-based RNA manufacturing system with single-use chips and ProcessVision monitoring.
- **NTX-0250** — Preclinical multimodal mRNA immunotherapy candidate for HPV16-driven cancer.
- **NTX-472** — Preclinical nanoparticle-formulated mRNA candidate encoding a multispecific molecule aimed at CD19, CD20 and CD47 in B-cell lymphoma.

## Achievements

- Raised a $60 million Series B in 2020 and a $167 million Series C in 2022.
- Reported reviewing data from more than 2,000 RNA production cycles by November 2024.
- Introduced NMU-Symphony in June 2025 and reported manufacturing for several partner programs.
- Reported a three-week sequence-to-released-product turnaround and capacity for more than 2,000 patient-specific therapeutics annually at its 2025 facility; these are company-reported capabilities.
- Published peptoid-based RNA delivery research in ACS Nano in 2024.
- Acquired by Medici Therapeutics in 2025.

## Latest updates

- **2025-12** — Medici Therapeutics acquired Nutcracker to bring RNA manufacturing in-house, according to Endpoints News and investor LongeVC.
- **2025-07** — Announced a pilot with Elegen to pair cell-free DNA template production with biochip-based RNA manufacturing.
- **2025-06** — Unveiled the second-generation NMU-Symphony manufacturing system and described completed partner-program runs.
- **2025-03** — Co-founder Igor Khandros retired as CEO; Cynthia Collins became executive chair and interim CEO.

## Links

- Website: https://www.nutcrackerx.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nutcracker-therapeutics

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/nutcracker-therapeutics
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-29