Tagged: biomarkers
16 results
Valar Labs
Valar Labs is a Palo Alto precision-oncology company building AI tests that read the pathology slides already made during routine cancer care. Its Vesta platform applies proprietary foundation models to standard H&E-stained tissue images to predict how individual patients will respond to therapy - starting with bladder cancer, where it forecasts whether a patient is likely to benefit from BCG treatment and stratifies the risk of recurrence and progression. Founded in 2021 by Stanford AI researchers, the company has raised $26M total and earned the FDA's first Breakthrough Device Designation for an AI digital-pathology prognostic test in bladder cancer.
Circular Genomics
Circular Genomics is a San Diego biotechnology company turning circular RNA (circRNA) into a new class of blood-based biomarkers for brain health. Spun out of the University of New Mexico in 2021, the company uses brain-enriched circRNAs that cross the blood-brain barrier and stay stable in whole blood to detect and predict neurological and psychiatric conditions, from Alzheimer's disease to major depressive disorder. Its goal is to replace guesswork in brain care with measurable, actionable data, starting with early Alzheimer's detection and SSRI treatment-response testing for depression.
Bob Wassman
Dr. E. Robert (Bob) Wassman is Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Clinical Development at MARAbio, a Utah-based diagnostics company building a maternal blood test to identify an autoimmune subtype of autism. A board-certified pediatrician and medical geneticist with more than 40 years in the field, he has served as chief medical officer for a long roster of genetic-testing pioneers including Genzyme Genetics, Ambry Genetics, Rosetta Genomics and Good Start Genetics, repeatedly turning frontier laboratory technology into clinical service across reproductive medicine, cancer, and neurodevelopmental disability.
David Matthews
David Matthews, PhD, is Chief Business Officer at Beacon Biosignals, the computational neurodiagnostics company turning EEG brain data into AI-powered biomarkers for neurological and psychiatric disease. A computational neuroscientist by training, he spent two decades moving between the lab, the boardroom, and the market - from NIH- and NSF-funded research at the Salk Institute to a partnership at Boston Consulting Group to commercial leadership at digital-health platform BrightInsight. He now drives partnerships and commercial growth at a company betting that the brain can be measured at home, at scale.
MARAbio
MARAbio is a Salt Lake City precision-immunology company that built the first-ever blood test to identify Maternal Autoantibody Related Autism (MARA), a biological subtype of autism caused by a mother's own IgG autoantibodies crossing the placenta and binding fetal brain proteins. Founded on more than two decades of research by Dr. Judy Van de Water at the UC Davis MIND Institute, the company's MAR-Autism test screens mothers for specific autoantibody combinations linked to autism risk, and the company is now extending the science toward therapeutics that could neutralize those antibodies before they reach a developing brain.
Numen
Numen (formerly Cleancard) is a San Francisco biotech building rapid at-home cancer screens that read like a pregnancy test. By combining synthetic biology, machine learning, and computer vision, its platform detects multiple cancer biomarkers from a single urine sample in about 30 minutes, with no lab machinery required. Founded by Rhodes Scholars Thomas Carroll and Luca Springer, the company's first screens target prostate, bladder, and ovarian cancer, with a mission to drive cancer mortality toward zero.
Dugal Bain-Kim
Dugal Bain-Kim is the co-founder and CEO of Lifeforce, a clinically integrated health optimization platform he launched in February 2022 with Tony Robbins, Dr. Peter Diamandis and Joel Jackson. An Australian-born finance and healthcare operator who went from BlackRock and Cambridge to telehealth, he built Lifeforce after his own fragmented hunt for answers about his changing body at 38. The company tests 40+ biomarkers via at-home blood draws and pairs the data with clinicians, coaching and supplements, on a stated mission to extend healthy lifespan for five million people by 2030.
Mohan Purushothaman
Mohan Purushothaman is the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Progentec Diagnostics, an Oklahoma City company building blood tests and digital tools that aim to predict autoimmune disease flares before they happen. He came to diagnostics by an unusual route: a Johns Hopkins Ph.D. focused on pharmaceutical pricing, a Harvard research fellowship, five years inside Roche, and a pricing-software practice he built and sold to Alliance Life Sciences. In 2014 he turned that commercial instinct toward lupus, partnering with the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, and in 2020 raised a $5M Series A led by Plains Venture Partners to bring the aiSLE DX flare-prediction platform and the LupusCorner patient community to market.
Triveni Bio
Triveni Bio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company in Watertown, Massachusetts building first-in-class antibody therapeutics for immunological and inflammatory (I&I) diseases. Born from the 2023 merger of Amagma Therapeutics and Modify Therapeutics, the company pairs a genetics-informed approach with advanced antibody engineering to target root-cause biology rather than just downstream inflammation. Its lead program, TRIV-509, is a half-life-extended monoclonal antibody that inhibits active kallikreins 5 and 7 (KLK5/7) and is in a global Phase 2 proof-of-concept study for moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis. Backed by roughly $223M across Series A and Series B rounds, Triveni aims to repair the skin barrier and break what it calls efficacy ceilings in dermatology and beyond.
Beacon Biosignals
Beacon Biosignals is a Boston-based neurotechnology company that pairs FDA-cleared wearable EEG hardware with AI to turn brain electrical activity - especially during sleep - into scalable, at-home neurodiagnostics. Its platform powers drug development, clinical trials, and precision medicine across neurology, psychiatry, and sleep medicine.
Evvy
Evvy is a precision women's health company building the first AI-powered vaginal healthcare platform around a CLIA-certified, at-home metagenomic vaginal microbiome test. Founded in 2021 by Stanford alums Priyanka Jain and Laine Bruzek, Evvy pairs state-of-the-art testing that screens for 700+ bacteria and fungi with clinician-reviewed results, personalized prescription treatment, and one-on-one health coaching. By generating one of the largest datasets on female biomarkers, Evvy aims to close the gender health gap - starting with conditions like bacterial vaginosis that have been chronically under-researched.
Saad Alam
Saad Alam is the co-founder and CEO of Hone Health, a telehealth platform built around preventative, biomarker-driven longevity care. After a year lost inside the conventional healthcare system, he set out to build the clinic he wished he'd found. Hone now counts hundreds of thousands of tested patients and closed a $33M Series A in early 2025, alongside the acquisition of in-home care company ivee. Before Hone, Alam co-founded the edtech company Citelighter and led market research for Eli Lilly's neuroscience franchise.
Prenuvo
Prenuvo runs a chain of clinics built around a 60-minute whole-body MRI designed to spot cancer, aneurysms and hundreds of other conditions before symptoms show up. Founded by Andrew Lacy and radiologist Raj Attariwala, the company is trying to drag American healthcare from reactive to preventive, one scan at a time.
ArteraAI
ArteraAI is a precision medicine company building multimodal AI tests that personalize cancer therapy. Its flagship ArteraAI Prostate Test is the first AI-enabled predictive and prognostic biomarker recommended in the NCCN Guidelines for localized prostate cancer, validated across five Phase 3 trials.
Vivoo
Vivoo is a San Francisco-based health tech company that makes at-home urine test strips analyzed via smartphone camera. Founded in 2017, the company offers a wellness platform that measures 8+ biomarkers — including hydration, vitamins, minerals, pH, ketones, and oxidative stress — and delivers personalized nutrition and lifestyle recommendations through a free mobile app. Backed by $19.4M in funding led by Tim Draper, Vivoo is sold at Target, Walmart, and Sam's Club, and has expanded to 100+ countries with a focus on making lab-grade health insights accessible to everyday consumers.
Anirudh Joshi
Anirudh Joshi is the co-founder and CEO of Valar Labs, a Palo Alto-based AI oncology company building tools that let doctors predict whether a specific cancer treatment will work before a patient wastes months on the wrong one. A biomedical engineer trained at Georgia Tech and Stanford, he previously built AI at Microsoft, PathAI, and Curai before co-founding Valar in 2021 with teammates from Stanford's AI in Medicine group. Valar raised $26M total, landing a $22M Series A from Andreessen Horowitz and DCVC in 2024, and its flagship test Vesta — predicting BCG therapy response in bladder cancer — is now live at 20 U.S. hospitals. Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Healthcare 2025.