December 2025 Updates - The Bioentrepreneurs: Stanford, UCSF, Berkeley

December 2025: Funding rounds closing and closed, clinical progress, and JPM contacts!

Hey, this is Michael from The Bioentrepreneurs: Stanford, UCSF, Berkeley. Each month, I bring you key updates and exclusive insights straight from the teams driving innovation across these cutting-edge life sciences ecosystems. 

Also, I’m switching to a different (hopefully better!) newsletter service provider, so I apologize for the delay in getting this out and for any snafus in the migration stage. Please let me know if things are off. 😀

Here's what's happening in December 2025:

📆 CEO Josh Ismin, Director of BD Samantha Tabone, and VP of R&D Jack Nguyen will be attending the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco January 12-16

🧑‍🦱 Currently working on building out their Clinical Advisory Board to help guide Xylo’s clinical and regulatory strategy in the coming months

📊 Successful pre-IND meeting for lead program

📆 Caitlyn Miller, CEO and Co-Founder of TwoStep Therapeutics, will be presenting as an invited speaker at the Antibody Engineering & Therapeutics Conference in San Diego on Dec 17

👤 Hiring: Seeking a highly self-motivated, PhD-level immunologist with strong expertise in regulatory T-cell (Treg) biology. Ideal candidates will have experience leading autoimmune disease–focused research and a demonstrated publication record, including at least one peer-reviewed paper related to autoimmune disease or Treg function. Reach out to [email protected] if interested.

🏆 Won the international 2025 BioVenture Challenge pitch competition held by Nucleate and Alnylam, receiving the top $100,000 prize. Reported here!

📊 Completed a major part of their platform: the first ever human single cell RNA atlas of RNA splicing, capturing isoform diversity across the body in health and disease, in youth and older ages, with incredible depth and resolution.

🤝 If you are interested in RNA biology, advanced transcriptomic methods, or genomics AI, please reach out to [email protected]

📆 Was at WorldADC this November discussing their experimentally-informed and AI-designed ProTrigger linker systems for ADC activation in the tumor microenvironment, as well as their NativeLink-AXC bioconjugation enzyme for more stable and homogeneous antibody conjugates with CRDMO and pharma partners.

📆 The team will be at JPM in January in San Francisco, reach out via their website or the Bio app if you're interested in meeting up there.

⚡ Launching the Galaxy-i! This unlocks new high throughput CRISPR screens in primary cells and novel data generation capabilities to feed AI models - all powered by Portal's unique platform. The Galaxy-i has already been integrated with the PD2, Certus Flex, Integra, GNF, and beyond. Reach out to [email protected] to learn more!

🗞️ Parallel in Forbes: Parallel is building its own predictive AI models based on proprietary microbiome data. See Forbes' coverage on AI in healthcare that includes Parallel in that conversation

🎁 The Gift of Personalization: Give the gift of skin longevity this holiday season. Exclusive to this community, get 30% off the first month when you gift the MD-03 Protocol™, a complete, personalized plan for the person in your life who wants to optimize their skin health. Use code GIFTPARALLEL30.

🎙 Life sciences teams use Nextnet's AI-native knowledge platform to move seamlessly from discovery and ideation to collaborative decision-making and knowledge management, without context switching. See image below. In this new 10-minute tutorial, their Head of Data & Science, Dr. Derek Park, walks you through the crux of Nextnet and shows how to go from a research question to verifiable evidence -- fast! Whether you’re new to the platform or want a quick refresher on the core modules, this video gives you a clear, guided introduction to Copilot and Explorer.

💰 Emerged with $6.6M in Seed financing to revolutionize biomanufacturing for donor derived therapies, including participation from strategic partner Meiji Seika Pharma. Lyric is leveraging advanced bioprinting and tissue engineering technologies to build tissue mimicking bioreactors with ultra-high cell densities (1-2B cells/mL). This allows them to manufacture therapeutics currently collected from human donors in-vitro and for a fraction of the cost, starting with IVIg.

📊 Completed its first human study (RA + healthy controls), giving the team a foundational dataset of interstitial fluid immune biomarkers now entering analysis. These data will inform the first sensor panel and accelerate development of their on-demand immune monitoring tech.

📊 JUV-161 enters the clinic: In May 2025, Juvena advanced into the clinic its lead program, JUV-161, a first-in-class IGF-2 fusion protein that enhances muscle regeneration and insulin sensitivity while reducing inflammation. FIH studies are now nearing completion. JUV-161 has broad potential across muscle atrophy and myopathy disorders. Juvena is initially developing JUV-161 for the treatment of Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 (DM1), for which we have received FDA Orphan Drug Designation. In addition, Juvena is initiating a proof-of-concept Phase 1b study for the prevention of atrophy in H1 2026 designed to validate the mechanism-of-action.

🗞️ Fauna Featured on CNN Vital signs with Sanjay Gupta

📊 Initiated GLP-tox studies on their lead program: Faun1083 with top-line results expected in Q1 2026

📆 Scheduling partnering meetings now for JPM!

📆 Attending the 2026 JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco from January 12-15. If you are an investor or biopharma leader interested in AI for rapid de novo antibody design, please reach out to the team ([email protected]) to schedule a meeting.

📔 Publications: with long-time collaborators, published a bioRxiv preprint on making spatial omics more scalable and accessible with their turn-key solution comprised of their automated microscope, fluidics system, and open source software.

📈 Installations of systems: new Squid+ microscopes / systems have been installed at University of Chicago, Uppsala University, University of Bern, KTH, Caltech (first system), Arc institutes, Stanford, and Genentech in the past 2 months. The first Squid+ in Lokey Stem Cell Research Building at Stanford is up and running. It’s being used to scan brain slices and study cells’ response to different drugs with Calcium imaging.

📆 Public presence: attended EMBL Organoids Symposium (Oct, Germany), SBI2 (Oct, Boston), and SfN (Nov, San Diego) highlighting their Squid product line, learning what’s new and trend in the field, and engaging with collaborators and prospective customers.

🤝 Early Access Program: the Cache team is entering an exciting phase of development as it lines up manufacturing partners and engages industry partners for alpha/beta testing for its latest formulation ahead of launch. If DNA, RNA, or methylation analytes are core to your work—and eliminating cold chain dependencies by storing/shipping at room temperature would save you time, cost, or headaches—reach out to Adrian Fehr ([email protected]) to meet at JPM or learn more about Early Access in 2026.

💰 Fundraising: Building off a term sheet received last month and a pro rata investment from their largest investor, Cache is on track to close a round this month. They are prioritizing a small number of strategic investors to round out the syndicate. If that's you, reach out to [email protected].

🎉 End of Year: The Cache team extends warm holiday wishes to The Bioentrepreneurs community and is grateful for the support!

📊 Announced a development candidate targeting CD33 to restore microglial homeostasis in FTD and ALS (press release)

Celebrating Christmas and New Year’s with friends and family in Denver and SF! Happy holidays to everyone reading this! 🥂 🎆 🎊