New bio theses

Biotech for endangered species, LVMH for bio, platforms for SOTA -omics

Compound is a research and thesis-driven fund investing in frontier tech across AI/ML, robotics, crypto, and bio. We have a public database of areas we’re currently tracking and always adding to it.

Feel free to reach out if your building here or in adjacent verticals - we’d love to speak.

Thesis #1: Biotech for endangered species

Concept

As more species become endangered and extinct, there will be more efforts to preserve species through vaccination campaigns, likely new vaccine formulation, disease monitoring systems, and eventually longevity enhancements. 

Longer Description

Invasive species introduction has taken place intentionally and unintentionally many times. Although there are occasionally some positives, foodchains can be transformed and ecosystems can be shifted for the worse. Because of previous mishaps, the stance of most conservationists to date has been to interfere as little as possible.

However, with many species on the brink of extinction, the attitude around intervention has started to shift. Koalas, golden tamarins and hawaiian monk seals all have active, interventionist vaccination campaigns in train. In the case of koalas, chlamydia has been sweeping through the population and creating mass infertility due to cyst development in ovaries, which is problematic given the already limited population. Vaccination campaigns will hopefully reduce the damage and stop koalas from going extinct from 2050, which is the current trajectory. Golden tamarinds vaccination campaigns are geared towards fighting yellow fever and monk seals vaccination campaigns are focused on immunizing against Morbillivirus (group of viruses responsible for canine distemper and measles). These vaccination programs are conducted and funded through associated governments with vaccination campaigns slow going. Colonies of tamarins can take days to months to track down, and must be trapped for the inoculation to take place. Given the time and cost of this process it makes sense to layer in as many vaccines as possible as well as testing for diseases to which the endangered species might be exposed.

Venture models here aren’t immediately obvious because of the small and bespoke processes involved with endangered species vaccination. The government-centric sales cycle is another barrier to entry. However, biosurveillance around endangered species paired with improved vaccine formulations to include broader strains, servicing global ecosystems could have a compelling moat in an expanding market.

Other Thoughts

• As the amount of endangered species increases there might be a need higher than what government agencies can execute so a company might shift from formulation and biosurveillance to vaccine contracting.

• Might be possible to autonomously sample and maybe vaccine wildlife with robotics advancements.

• As an aside there are also programs to freeze koala and golden tamarin sperm to allow for for in vitro fertilization campaigns.

Related Reading

• https://www.savetheliontamarin.org/news/how-global-partnerships-are-saving-golden-lion-tamarins-from-yellow-fever

• https://apnews.com/article/science-brazil-climate-and-environment-health-animals-8914729b25c06e1fb2f9e5eaec9d7981

• https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/conserving-hawaiian-monk-seals-through-protections-and-vaccinations#:~:text=They%20receive%20their%20first%20vaccine,the%20Papah%C4%81naumoku%C4%81kea%20Marine%20National%20Monument.

Thesis #2: LVMH for bio*

Concept

High-end bio fashion platforms could become profitable with higher margins/less pressure on economies of scale.

Longer Description

I’ve been witnessing a groundswell of people talking about the convergence of design and biology. Neri Oxman is at the forefront of the field making hybrid living materials, glass 3D printing, cultivating bacteria in people’s last breaths. She runs a business putting together different bio-inspired installations. Suzanne Lee is another person in the field who has been making materials from bacteria for the past 20 years. She also runs a conference on biodesign, Biofabricate. Although biodesign installations aren’t inherently scalable, a shop that can more quickly prototype designs and high-end products could potentially be a large business.

A special blend of designers and biologists would need to be coordinated here with expertise in biomanufacturing, fashion, clothing assembly, and marketing/brand building. The products developed would likely come from a central tech advancement, like Ecovative has many products around its mycelium technology. Brand and market building around the products would be required by activating well-known figures in the fashion community.

Related Reading

• Resurrecting the Sublime is a high-tech art installation https://www.resurrectingthesublime.com/

• https://oxsci.org/relationship-between-science-creativity-need-to-change/

• https://www.biodesignchallenge.org/

* ‘LVMH for bio’ phrasing was developed by Mike Dempsey. He also introduced me to the work of Neri Oxman.

Thesis #3: Platforms for SOTA sequencing experiments

Concept

The demand for SOTA sequencing tech (spatial and single-cell) is outpacing the number of expert experimentalists and bioinformaticians.

Longer Description

Most companies that aim to facilitate data analysis for biologists have opted to address the biologists that don’t code as well as the simplest workflows (bulk genome and transcriptome analysis via Latch, Form, Watershed, etc). However, relatively few tools have been built for the most complex use-cases such as single-cell and spatial transcriptomics. Software that has been built here (CellxGene) are in the purview of non-profit sector which is great for the broader community and an indication that there might be a proverbial gap in the market.

Patents for single-cell transcriptomics-related technologies over time from lens.org.

The relative dearth of software here is primarily because of the small market size. However, the demand for of single-cell and spatial -omics might outstrip the number of ‘expert labs’ and require expanded feature sets not currently included in the incumbent tools. Because of this, there’s potential opportunity for a company to be built in the SOTA data capture and analysis market. Ideally, a company would start capturing the expert market as they try to scale experiments and analyses to identify rare cell types, cell-cell interactions, cellular lineages, and heterogeneity. There would then be natural selection for new customers to use the expert-verified platform which has advanced feature sets already in-built. In order to capture value in the presently small market, a company would ideally have wet lab capabilities which it could use to carry out the experiments. The wet lab would have the most up-to-date life science tools such as the MERSCOPE platform for combined single-cell and spatial genomics. In addition to this great UI/UX and facile data probing to get to the actionable insights would create a combined data generation and product moat. As single-cell metabolomics and proteomics, and epigenomics proliferate an ideal companies would be able to layer in these added functionalities. The downside of this model is that it would trade on somewhat of a discount given the services model but eventually could transition to purely a software company as more analysis of SOTA methods becomes commonplace.

Related Reading

• Enable Medicine is working here

• Mendel AI focusing on the data analysis side

• Vizgen offers life science tools wetlab services as well as life science tool sales

• 10x Genomics provides life science tools and fairly good software. However, this the focus is primarily on tooling not analysis.