genetic-engineering
(5)
BIOMEDICAN Skipped the CBD Gold Rush and Taught Oily Yeast to Make the Scarce Stuff
The Fremont biotech says its engineered Yarrowia yeast can brew rare cannabinoids in days at 70-90% below conventional costs. The clever part is not cannabis at all - it is a reusable fermentation platform, and the hard part is proving that lab economics survive the factory floor.
Colossal Biosciences
Colossal Biosciences is a Dallas-based genetic engineering company using de-extinction science - ancient DNA, CRISPR gene editing, and reproductive technology - to revive lost species like the woolly mammoth, thylacine, dodo, and dire wolf, and to apply the same tools to protecting endangered wildlife. Co-founded in 2021 by tech entrepreneur Ben Lamm and Harvard geneticist George Church, it became Texas' first decacorn with a $10.2 billion valuation and has spun out companies in computational biology and plastic degradation.
Dimi Kellari
Dimi Kellari is the co-founder and CEO of Neion Bio, a New York biotech using genetically engineered chicken eggs as biological factories to produce complex biologics like monoclonal antibodies at a fraction of the usual cost. An MIT-trained aerospace engineer who previously built autonomous-vehicle infrastructure at Cavnue and worked at Alphabet's X moonshot factory and McKinsey, Kellari co-founded Neion in 2024 with biologist Dr. Sam Levin around a single question: why, in 2024, are we still making our most important medicines in hamster cells? In June 2026 the company closed an oversubscribed $23 million Series A led by Caffeinated Capital.
Neion Bio
Neion Bio is a New York biotech company that genetically engineers chicken eggs into factories for complex biologic drugs. Its Raptor platform aims to make monoclonal antibodies and other glycosylated proteins at a fraction of the capital cost and carbon footprint of conventional cell-culture bioreactors. Founded in 2024 and emerged from stealth in March 2026, the company raised an oversubscribed $23 million Series A in June 2026 and signed an early multi-product biosimilar deal with a major global pharmaceutical company.
Biotechnology Innovation Organization
The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) is the world's largest trade association for the biotech industry, representing more than 1,000 companies, research institutions and state and regional bio centers across the United States and 30-plus countries. Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., BIO lobbies on drug pricing, intellectual property, regulation and biosecurity, and runs the BIO International Convention - the industry's flagship annual dealmaking and networking event. Led since 2024 by President and CEO John F. Crowley, a rare-disease entrepreneur whose own children have Pompe disease, BIO's stated mission is to advance a 'bio revolution' that cures patients, protects the climate and nourishes humanity.