Company Dossier • Biotechnology • New York + Singapore
Paratus Sciences
The biotech reading the genome of the world's most resilient mammal - the bat - to design medicines humans have never had.
The biotech reading the genome of the world's most resilient mammal - the bat - to design medicines humans have never had.
Bats live decades, rarely get cancer, carry viruses that would flatten most mammals, and - in the case of fruit bats - stay metabolically healthy on a diet that is roughly 60% sugar. Over about 65 million years, evolution debugged their biology in ways human medicine still struggles to match. Paratus Sciences was built to read that record and turn it into medicine.
Founded in 2023 and operating from dual sites in New York and Singapore, Paratus integrates cell biology, comparative genomics and informatics into a single discovery platform. It compares the evolved patterns of disease resistance in bats against the patterns of disease progression in humans - and where the two diverge, it looks for a target. The company's near-term focus is inflammatory and cardiometabolic disease, with a longer view toward virology, metabolism, oncology and aging.
Bats are biological outliers. Each trait below is not a metaphor - it is a measurable adaptation Paratus mines for drug targets. The bars show, roughly, how far bat biology outperforms typical mammalian norms on each axis.
Most drug discovery revisits the same well-worn biological targets. Paratus starts somewhere else: it asks which animal already solved a disease humans still face, then works backward to the mechanism. That gives its pipeline evolutionarily validated starting points - biology that has already survived a 65-million-year test - rather than hypotheses that only exist on a whiteboard.
Bats switch inflammation off without losing immune defense. Paratus aims to restore immune homeostasis and stop disease progression without compromising the body's natural defenses.
By studying biological outliers - like fruit bats thriving on sugar - Paratus targets the underlying drivers of cardiometabolic disease rather than only the symptoms.
Through its Bat Biology Foundation, Paratus built one of the largest collections of bat genomes and tissue - a proprietary dataset that competitors cannot simply buy.
Paratus' lead candidate, PS-1001, is a first-in-class pan-inflammasome inhibitor targeting ASC - designed both to prevent new inflammasome assembly and to dismantle existing extracellular complexes. Alongside it sit additional immunology programs and cardiometabolic targets.
| Program | Area | Mechanism / Focus | Stage |
|---|---|---|---|
| PS-1001 | Immunology & Inflammation | First-in-class pan-inflammasome inhibitor (targets ASC) | Lead |
| I&I portfolio | Immunology & Inflammation | Additional inflammasome / immune targets | Discovery |
| Cardiometabolic | Cardiometabolism | Targeting metabolic dysfunction & cellular stress | Discovery |
| Platform | Cross-cutting | Cell biology + comparative genomics + informatics | Ongoing |
Beyond the current focus, the company has signaled interest in virology, longevity and oncology - all areas where bat biology offers a natural head start.
As a preclinical biotech, Paratus' ultimate beneficiaries are patients with inflammatory and cardiometabolic diseases where today's therapies fall short. Its near-term stakeholders are pharmaceutical partners, research collaborators such as the National Heart Centre Singapore, and the investors funding the platform's validation.
The value it creates today is scientific: proprietary targets, validated mechanisms and a growing pipeline that partners and acquirers can build on.
Paratus is a venture-backed R&D company. It develops a proprietary discovery platform and advances a pipeline of first-in-class candidates, with value realized through partnerships, licensing and out-licensing to pharma and clinical development.
Revenue today is pre-commercial (third-party estimates put it near $4.2M). The real asset is the platform and the data behind it.
In 2024, Paratus and the National Heart Centre Singapore ran a striking test: they gave bat and mouse hearts dobutamine, a cardiac stress drug. The bat hearts pumped harder and shrugged off the stress that strained the mouse hearts - evidence that bat hearts are inherently more robust, managing the extreme demands of flight through unique DNA-repair and cellular-renewal genes. The collaboration now hunts the protective factors behind that resilience, with an eye toward preventing human heart failure.
"For the first time ever we will be able to elucidate insights related to the amazing physiology of bats to develop better medicines."
Phil Ferro • Founding President"This collaboration underscores our shared commitment to uncover transformative insights that could revolutionize therapeutic strategies."
Theresa Heah • Paratus Singapore"We are proud to partner Paratus on this novel initiative to uncover what lies beneath the unique make-up of the hearts of bats."
Prof. Derek Hausenloy • NHCS"A global team of drug hunters dedicated to transforming nature's most resilient traits into first-in-class medicines."
Paratus SciencesScientific co-founders Paul Matsudaira, Richard Young and Thomas Zwaka set the intellectual foundation. Amir Nashat of Polaris Partners served as founding CEO and now chairs the board.
In 2026, veteran biotech leader Alicia Secor - former CEO of Atalanta Therapeutics and Juniper Pharmaceuticals - became President & CEO, joined by CFO Jeffrey Young and an expanded clinical team. The company blends deep evolutionary science with proven pharmaceutical operators.
Paratus emerged from stealth in March 2023 with a $100M Series A, a rare launch scale for a first-round biotech.
Paratus emerges from stealth in March 2023 to develop therapeutics from bat biology, with sites in New York and Singapore.
A dedicated unit sources bat samples and builds one of the largest bat genome and tissue collections.
Advances a first-in-class pan-inflammasome inhibitor and cardiometabolic programs; presents at major biopharma summits.
Launches a collaboration on bat heart resilience to accelerate heart-failure research.
A veteran biotech leader takes the helm as the leadership team expands for the next phase of growth.
It studies the extreme biology of bats - inflammation control, viral tolerance, cancer resistance, metabolism and longevity - and translates those adaptations into first-in-class drug targets for human disease.
Bats evolved over roughly 65 million years to resist diseases that harm humans. By comparing their disease-resistance with human disease progression, Paratus finds evolutionarily validated therapeutic targets.
Paratus' lead candidate: a first-in-class pan-inflammasome inhibitor that targets ASC to both prevent new inflammasome assembly and dismantle existing extracellular complexes.
It launched in 2023 with a $100M Series A co-led by Polaris Partners, ARCH Venture Partners, ClavystBio, EcoR1 Capital and Leaps by Bayer, with participation from Alexandria Venture Investments.
Paratus operates from dual sites in New York, NY and Singapore. Alicia Secor serves as President & CEO as of 2026.