atherosclerosis
(3)
Bitterroot Bio
Bitterroot Bio is a Palo Alto, California clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the field of cardio-immunology - the science of how the immune system drives heart disease. Founded by veterans of Forty Seven (the CD47 company Gilead bought for ~$5 billion), Bitterroot is turning the immune-checkpoint playbook from cancer toward atherosclerosis. Its lead candidate, BRB-002, is an immunomodulating protein that blocks the CD47 'don't eat me' signal on arterial plaque, prompting macrophages to clear inflammation and stabilize plaque - a mechanism that works differently from cholesterol-lowering drugs. The company launched out of stealth in June 2023 with a $145 million Series A, which it called the largest-ever round for a preclinical cardiovascular biotech.
Intravascular Imaging Incorporated (i3)
Intravascular Imaging Incorporated (i3) is a Wilton, Connecticut medical device company building a next-generation coronary imaging catheter. Its 3-French NIRF-IVUS catheter fuses intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), the clinical standard for guiding stent placement, with near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) molecular imaging in a single device. The combination lets cardiologists see not just the anatomy of a coronary artery but the biology inside it - plaque inflammation, arterial dissections, transplant vasculopathy, and fibrin in unhealed stents. Spun out of work at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and the Technical University of Munich, i3 aims to upgrade percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) by helping doctors look beyond anatomy.
Pavan Cheruvu
Dr. Pavan K. Cheruvu is the President and CEO of Bitterroot Bio, a Palo Alto-based biotech pioneering the field of cardio-immunology — the intersection of the immune system and cardiovascular disease. A Rhodes Scholar, board-certified cardiologist, and physician-scientist who trained at Duke, Oxford, Harvard/MIT, Johns Hopkins, and UCSF, Cheruvu is guiding Bitterroot Bio's lead program BRB-002 — a first-in-class CD47-targeting therapy for atherosclerosis — through clinical development after a landmark $145M Series A in 2023 and positive Phase 1 results in 2025.