waltham
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Jennifer Honeycutt and the value of a change of mind
She began as a water chemist, then discovered she preferred leading the work to working alone at the bench. At Veralto, Jennifer Honeycutt is applying that lesson to a company built around water, packaging and the details people depend on.
Devoted Health puts a person back in the plan.
The Medicare Advantage company combines insurance, medical care, and human Guides. Its wager: helping people use healthcare can matter as much as paying for it.
Jignesh Patel and the business that starts over every morning
He bought his first hotel in 2004 with a background in technology. At JNR Management, Jignesh Patel has spent the years since bringing software discipline to a business measured one room, one shift and one night at a time.
The Biotech Fund That Likes the Awkward Middle
Agent Capital invests where molecules, milestones and money collide. Its small team backs healthcare companies across the development curve, then stays close enough to help science become a financeable business.
Carbon Biosciences
Carbon Biosciences is a Waltham, Massachusetts preclinical genetic-medicine company building gene therapies on non-AAV parvovirus vectors. Founded by Longwood Fund with gene-therapy pioneers John Engelhardt and Robert Kotin, it uses a proprietary vector engine (PAVE) to design capsids from the broad parvovirus family - including human bocavirus - that carry larger genetic payloads, target specific tissues, and provoke little pre-existing immunity, opening the door to re-dosing. Its lead program targets cystic fibrosis by delivering the full-length CFTR gene to the lung, with a second vector aimed at cardiac disease.
Ensem Therapeutics
Ensem Therapeutics is a Waltham, Massachusetts clinical-stage biotech using its Kinetic Ensemble platform - a blend of AI/ML, molecular simulation, and experimental biophysics - to find cryptic and allosteric pockets in proteins that are otherwise considered difficult to drug. The company designs small-molecule precision medicines for cancer, with two lead programs: ETX-636, an allosteric pan-mutant-selective PI3Kalpha inhibitor and degrader for breast cancer (FDA Fast Track), and ETX-197/BG-68501, a selective CDK2 inhibitor partnered with BeiGene.
Shengfang Jin
Shengfang Jin is a co-founder and the President and CEO of Ensem Therapeutics, a Waltham, Massachusetts biotech developing small-molecule cancer drugs by targeting protein pockets that only exist while the protein is in motion. Under Jin, Ensem built its Kinetic Ensemble platform, took its first CDK2 inhibitor into the clinic, and its ETX-636 breast cancer program earned FDA Fast Track designation. She trained at Tufts and Harvard, spent years at Agios helping deliver first-in-class cancer metabolism drugs, and then ran discovery biology at Editas before starting Ensem.
Fortitude Biomedicines
Fortitude Biomedicines is a Waltham, Massachusetts biotech that launched in early 2026 with $13M in seed financing to develop next-generation antibody-based therapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer. Its proprietary GLUE-DAC platform bolts molecular glue degraders onto antibody-drug conjugates, aiming to use catalytic targeted protein degradation to widen the therapeutic window of ADCs and overcome the resistance that has dogged the field. Its lead program, FORT-202, is a first-in-class T-cell targeting bispecific antibody for axial spondyloarthritis expected to reach the clinic in the first half of 2027.
Blue Oak Pharmaceuticals
Blue Oak Pharmaceuticals is a Waltham, Massachusetts biotech founded in 2016 to discover the next generation of drugs for brain disorders. Led by neurobiologist and former Eli Lilly and Sunovion executive Tom Large, the company designs novel, CNS-focused 'privileged chemotypes' and pairs them with systems-neurobiology behavioral assays and AI to hunt first-in-class small molecules for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and treatment-resistant depression. Its work runs through partnerships with phenotypic-screening firm PsychoGenics and AI drug-design company Exscientia.
Ottometric
Ottometric is a Waltham, Massachusetts software company that uses AI to automate the validation and training of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and autonomous-vehicle software. Its platform distills petabyte-scale, multimodal sensor data into decision-ready KPIs, cutting validation cost and time by more than half for the Tier-1 suppliers and OEMs that build the cars' eyes and reflexes.