They don't start with a drug. They start with a patient's RNA - then ask the whole body what would fix it. A Harvard spinout turning overlooked diseases into treatable ones.
Medford, Massachusetts. Inside a lab where the patient - not the molecule - is the starting line.
Most drug companies pick a target first, then spend a decade and a fortune finding out whether the body agrees. Unravel Biosciences reversed the order. It begins with a patient's RNA, feeds that unbiased molecular data into a probabilistic model of human health called BioNAV, and asks a blunt question: which existing molecule pushes this disease back toward normal? The target, if there even is a tidy one, can wait.
The result is a company built around a single north star - does the drug help the patient? - rather than a favorite pathway. It is an unfashionable idea in a field that loves its mechanisms, and it is exactly why rare-disease families keep calling.
We set out to build therapeutics programs that provide efficacy first, without requiring an initial commitment to a drug target.
No microscopes in this photo - just a network model that treats the whole body like a map to be navigated.
Start with patient RNA - even from a home collection kit - to define the disease with unbiased molecular data instead of a preset hypothesis.
A probabilistic network model of human health screens 40,000+ compounds in silico and predicts which ones restore health.
Validate in whole-organism models - including CRISPR-engineered tadpoles - then translate to patients in the clinic.
A proprietary probabilistic network model of human health - think GPS for biology - that predicts molecules to move a disease state back toward healthy.
Living animal-model screening, including tadpoles CRISPR-edited to carry disease, used to confirm predictions across multiple tissues before the clinic.
An end-to-end program that hands the platform to patients and disease foundations, using RNA and Living Molecular Twins to hunt their own therapies.
A proprietary formulation of an already-approved drug, granted FDA Orphan Drug Designation for Rett syndrome and now in clinical proof-of-concept studies.
The breakthrough started as a question between colleagues: could you CRISPR a tadpole into modeling Rett syndrome?
CEO Richard Novak - Emory biology, a Berkeley PhD in bioengineering, and years as a lead engineer at the Wyss Institute - teamed with CRISPR specialist Frederic Vigneault, who had cut his teeth in George Church's lab. Their side project to model Rett syndrome in engineered tadpoles became the whole company. Advisors include George Church himself.
Unravel's model runs on collaboration - foundations fund programs, hospitals run trials, and research institutions supply models. The roster reads like a who's-who of rare disease.
The Predictable Medicine company.