cd47
(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.
HanchorBio Inc. 漢康生技股份有限公司
HanchorBio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company building next-generation cancer and autoimmune therapies on its proprietary Fc-Based Designer Biologics (FBDB) platform. Founded in 2020 by Henlius co-founder Scott Liu, the company engineers multi-target Fc fusion proteins designed to reach tumors that resist conventional PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint drugs. Its lead candidate, HCB101, is an affinity-optimized SIRPalpha-Fc fusion protein targeting the CD47-SIRPalpha 'don't eat me' pathway, engineered to spare red blood cells and avoid the anemia that sank earlier anti-CD47 programs. With operations spanning Taipei, Shanghai, and the San Francisco Bay Area, HanchorBio is advancing a pipeline across solid and hematologic cancers and autoimmune disease.
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.