Illumina Accelerator Celebrates the Graduation of Nine Startups from Our Second Global Funding Cycle
Illumina For Startups | Spotlight Article by Julian Wong
In September 2021, we celebrated the graduation of nine companies from Illumina Accelerator. With the completion of our 12th funding cycle in the San Francisco Bay Area and 2nd funding cycle in Cambridge, UK, our newest graduates share their experiences in building genomics startups and on their time at Illumina Accelerator.
By providing access to seed investment, sequencing, coaching, and fully operational lab space, Illumina Accelerator partners with entrepreneurs globally to build breakthrough genomics startups. Combined, the 61 graduates of Illumina Accelerator have collectively raised over $1 billion in venture capital funding.
In this spotlight article, we asked the founders of our second global funding cycle — BiotaX, Broken String Biosciences, Doloromics, Flightpath Biosciences, Mitra Bio, MultiplAI, Parallel Health, Prenome, and Rubik Therapeutics — to reflect on their progress and to provide advice to entrepreneurs on how to build an innovative genomics startup.
Illumina Accelerator San Francisco Bay Area
Doloromics
Candler Paige, PhD (Co-Founder & CEO), Jackson Brougher, PhD (CSO), and Ted Price, PhD
Q: What is one thing you’d like to share about Doloromics?
A: Doloromics is a platform company developing precision therapeutics for pain. Our goal is to bring much needed relief to the millions of people who suffer from pain. Our platform is based on molecular profiling of the human nervous system at single neuron resolution.
Q: What milestones did Illumina Accelerator help you achieve?
A: We were able to sequence one million single cells from the human nervous system during our time at Illumina Accelerator. This allowed us to generate a comprehensive map of human nociceptors and expand our platform. We were also able to recruit key hires and raise needed capital.
Q: What advice would you give to entrepreneurs?
A: Find a team you love working with and then develop a mission that matches your team’s expertise and passion. Then set goals and milestones to place you firmly on the path to achieving what you have set out to do.
Flightpath Biosciences
Matt Tindall (Co-Founder, President, & CEO)
Q: What is one thing you’d like to share about Flightpath Biosciences?
A: The pandemic reawakened the world to infectious disease and showed us our Achilles heel. However, we’re now repositioned to make even more advancements in science. We will need to merge our creativity with technology to successfully commandeer the benefits. Challenges beget will, which in turn begets ways and means.
Q: What milestones did Illumina Accelerator help you achieve?
A: It helped us overcome the financing hurdles to understanding the biology of Chronic Lyme disease. In 6 months, we started a study with over 900 patients, the largest private study of Lyme disease ever. With this data, we aim to create diagnostic and therapeutic products for this underserved patient group.
Q: What advice would you give to entrepreneurs?
A: If you see patients who are lost to “the system”, who act in desperation because they lack a definitive diagnosis for their well-characterized symptoms, just go after it. If it’s real, it will be a hard-fought journey. If it’s something else that we can’t yet solve, at least we’ll know more than we do today.
Parallel Health
Natalise Kalea Robinson (Co-Founder & CEO) and Nathan Brown, PhD (Co-Founder & CSO)
Q: What is one thing you’d like to share about Parallel Health?
A:We believe precision health is the future. At Parallel, we aim to unlock precision skin health through genomics paired with microbial formulations that are efficacious, sustainable, and beautiful.
Q: What milestones did Illumina Accelerator help you achieve?
A: It enabled us to build our massive proprietary data set of the skin microbiome, as well as our library of over 10,000 bacterial strains, which will feed our product engine. We’re grateful to have built this amazing foundation for Parallel alongside the mentorship of the Accelerator team.
Q: What advice would you give to entrepreneurs?
A: Stay strong in your convictions. Having a bold vision can sometimes be hard because not everyone will “get it.” But if you believe in the world you see, go with it. Go create the future you see.
Prenome
Stevie Cline (Co-Founder & CEO) and Sarah Brozio, PhD (Head of Research)
Q: What is one thing you’d like to share about Prenome?
A: Prenome strives to revolutionize women’s health and Illumina Accelerator pushed us closer to that goal. It was an incredible experience that helped us grow as a company and as founders.
Q: What milestones did Illumina Accelerator help you achieve?
A: We opened our clinical trial, recruited 300 patients, and sequenced 100 patients. We built a predictive machine learning pipeline for women’s health conditions and generated our first PRS for Gestational diabetes. We also pitched at Tech Crunch Disrupt and signed partnerships with DNA ally, Peachy Pay, Johns Hopkins and Cleveland Clinic.
Q: What advice would you give to entrepreneurs?
A: Utilize your network as much as you can. Create an idea you are truly passionate about and then work towards a well-focused product above all else.
Rubik Therapeutics
Anna Chase, PhD (Co-Founder) and Murray Robinson, PhD (Co-Founder)
Q: What is one thing you’d like to share about Illumina Accelerator?
A: Our experience at Illumina Accelerator was tremendous and effectively kicked off our company’s development in earnest. With turn-key lab space and concentrated work on our company story, we were able to translate our computational work to wet lab biology and prepare for our upcoming fundraise.
Q: What milestones did Illumina Accelerator help you achieve?
A: We advanced our solid tumor cell therapy platform by showing we can overcome immune suppression of T cells by modulating inhibitory suppressive nodes. We also advanced our antibody development campaigns for our lead Chimeric Antigen Receptor and the discovery capabilities of our computational engine with proprietary RNA-seq data.
Q: What advice would you give to entrepreneurs?
A: Don’t give up if your initial ideas don’t resonate or if you can’t find the right co-founder(s) to work with. Just keep iterating, getting feedback, and searching for the right team-idea-timing configuration. Of course, some appetite for risk and a desire to make a massive impact is also a must!
Illumina Accelerator Cambridge, UK
BiotaX
Shay Hilel (Co-Founder & CEO), Dean Light (Co-Founder & CTO), and Naama Geva-Zatorsky (Co-Founder & Chief Scientist)
Q: What is one thing you’d like to share about Illumina Accelerator?
A: Illumina Accelerator provided BiotaX with access to lab facilities, genomics experts, and leadership mentoring that helped us reach milestones far and beyond what we originally expected.
Q: What milestones did Illumina Accelerator help you achieve?
A: At Illumina Accelerator, we were able to execute whole genome sequencing of over 1,000 samples, which enabled us to generate unique high-quality metagenomic data that significantly improved our genomic algorithms and enabled us to build our own sequencing protocol.
Q: What advice would you give to entrepreneurs?
A: Think big, move fast, and execute well. Continue learning and improving the process. Be persistent and always look towards a big vision.
Broken String Biosciences
Felix Dobbs, PhD (Co-Founder & CEO), Simon Kerr (Chair & COO), Simon Reed, PhD (Co-Founder & CSO), and Patrick van Eijk, PhD (Co-Founder)
Q: What is one thing you’d like to share about Illumina Accelerator?
A: The Illumina Accelerator experience completely transformed the way we thought about the future development of our genomics start-up company.
Q: What milestones did Illumina Accelerator help you achieve?
A: Rapid completion of early contracts enabled by access to a world-class genomics laboratory allowed us to close a $4.3M seed-funding round by the end of the Accelerator programme.
Q: What advice would you give to entrepreneurs?
A: Everyone’s business is unique, but in our case, the 6-month Illumina Accelerator funding cycle was a sprint, not a marathon!
Mitra Bio
Shakiba Kaveh, PhD (Co-Founder & CEO) and Cristiana Banila, PhD (Co-Founder & CSO)
Q: What is one thing you’d like to share about Mitra Bio?
A: Mitra Bio is a skin longevity company building a non-invasive multi-omics platform to unravel skin health and delay ageing. Our mission is to improve skin longevity by providing actionable insights into the skin’s genetics, epigenetics and microbiome.
Q: What milestones did Illumina Accelerator help you achieve?
A: We were able to test our skin collection prototype, validate it in 400 samples with whole genome sequencing, and file our provisional patent on the technology. We were also able to network with key investors and finalize our first strategic hire in bioinformatics.
Q: What advice would you give to entrepreneurs?
A: Don’t be afraid to ask questions when you are stuck. New people see different angles of the problem. Perseverance is key in entrepreneurship. Problems arise all the time, but with good coaching and support, creative solutions can be found.
MultiplAI
Santiago Miriuka (Co-Founder & CEO), Mark Ramondt (Co-Founder), and Carlos Luzzani (Co-Founder & CSO)
Q: What is one thing you’d like to share about Illumina Accelerator?
A: MultiplAI’s acceptance to Illumina Accelerator was a game-changer. Beyond enabling the generation of a massive quantity of valuable data, it gave us access to the experts, partners and investors that are making the difference in our success.
Q: What milestones did Illumina Accelerator help you achieve?
A: We raised a £500k pre-seed round to launch our business and de-risked operational aspects of our business. We also acquired 540 whole blood samples through three clinical trials and built a proprietary dataset (21 Tb) from sequenced whole blood samples.
Q: What advice would you give to entrepreneurs?
A: Every ounce of energy you put into Illumina Accelerator will pay off in double. Stay focused, be passionate, and be willing to make step changes in your project that could be the difference between a well-written paper or building a thriving business.
Congratulations to all our graduates!
The Illumina Accelerator Team
Now accepting applications for Illumina Accelerator SF Bay Area & Cambridge UK
Drive value for your genomics startup. Apply to Illumina Accelerator’s next funding cycle by October 1, 2021! APPLY NOW!
About Illumina For Startups
Illumina For Startups is focused solely on creating an innovation ecosystem for the genomics industry by partnering with leading venture capital investors and entrepreneurs to create, launch, and grow genomics startups. Illumina for Startups initiatives include Illumina Accelerator, founded in 2014, and Sequoia Capital China Intelligent Healthcare Genomics Incubator, Powered by Illumina, launching Fall 2021. Illumina Accelerator is a company creation engine co-located with Illumina research and development sites in San Francisco Bay Area and Cambridge, UK. Illumina Accelerator has invested in 61 genomics startups from across the globe, which have collectively raised approximately $1B in venture capital funding. For more information, visit our website.
