# Ryan Swoboda

> Ryan Swoboda is the co-founder and CEO of NAVAN Technologies, a San Carlos, California biotech commercializing NanoStraw, a non-viral platform that pokes microscopic hollow tubes into living cells to deliver DNA, mRNA, and proteins without killing them. He spun the technology out of Stanford's Melosh Group in 2017 while finishing his graduate research, holds inventor status on early NanoStraw patents, and ran the company's NSF STTR Phase II grant before becoming CEO in 2019. A first-generation college graduate, he splits his energy between scaling a deep-tech delivery platform for cell and gene therapy and running science demos for low-income kids.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at NAVAN Technologies
- **Organizations:** NAVAN Technologies, Stanford University (Melosh Group)
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** M.S., Materials Science & Engineering, Stanford University, B.S., Materials Science & Engineering (focus: NanoScience), Stanford University
- **Known for:** Co-founded NAVAN Technologies and led its core NanoStraw technology transfer out of Stanford, Named inventor on early-stage NanoStraw patents, Principal Investigator of an NSF Small Business Technology Transfer Phase II grant (award no. IIP-1759075)

## Career timeline

- **2017** — Co-founded NAVAN Technologies while doing graduate thesis research with Stanford's Melosh Group
- **2017-2019** — Served as Principal Investigator on NAVAN's NSF STTR Phase II grant (award no. IIP-1759075) for nanostraw-mediated immune cell reprogramming
- **2019-04** — NAVAN's last reported funding round (Seed)
- **2019-07** — Became CEO of NAVAN Technologies

## Achievements

- Co-founded NAVAN Technologies and led its core NanoStraw technology transfer out of Stanford
- Named inventor on early-stage NanoStraw patents
- Principal Investigator of an NSF Small Business Technology Transfer Phase II grant (award no. IIP-1759075)
- Built a non-viral, cargo-agnostic delivery platform capable of delivering functionally-active proteins including Cas9

## Latest updates

- **2025-04** — Appeared on the Austinpreneur podcast episode 'The Future of Gene & Cell Therapy with NanoStraws,' recorded live at Capital Factory House

## Links

- Website: https://navanbio.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanswoboda
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/Navan_Tech

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ryan-swoboda
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-21