Allysta Pharmaceuticals is a private, venture-backed, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class therapeutic peptides that target adiponectin signaling. Its lead compound, ALY688, is described as the first adiponectin receptor agonist to enter human testing, with anti-inflammatory, anti-fibrotic, cell-regenerative and metabolic properties. Allysta is advancing ALY688 as an ophthalmic solution for dry eye disease and as an extended/sustained-release formulation for systemic conditions such as NASH/MASH and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Örn Almarsson is the co-founder and CEO of Axelyf, an Icelandic-American biotech building next-generation lipid nanoparticles to deliver RNA medicines beyond the liver. Before Axelyf he ran the delivery sciences team at Moderna from 2013 to 2020, helping engineer the components behind the Spikevax COVID-19 vaccine, after earlier stints at Merck and Alkermes. A bioorganic chemist by training, he is the co-author of more than 70 publications and over 60 patents, and is now pairing a proprietary lipid library with a machine-learning model called ANNA to crack the hardest problem in RNA medicine: delivery.
Noveome Biotherapeutics is a Pittsburgh clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company built around ST266, a multi-targeted secretome of hundreds of biologically active proteins harvested from a novel population of amnion-derived cells. Rather than transplanting cells, Noveome delivers the healing signals those cells secrete - aiming to modulate inflammation, protect nerves, and accelerate tissue repair. Its lead program treats necrotizing enterocolitis, a devastating gut disease in premature infants, with additional pipeline work spanning ophthalmology, neurology, and dermatology.