atherosclerosis
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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.