We are a groundbreaking immunotherapy venture studio fund focused on company creation. We accelerate early-stage R&D and build drug discovery programs to cure diseases across autoimmunity, inflammation, and immuno-oncology.
Our studio of experienced, immunology-focused drug developers enhances value creation by forming multiple, thematically aligned startups to develop and commercialize immunotherapeutics. We partner with university-based collaborators to extend novel and untapped fundamental biological observations, create proof-of-concept data, and generate advanced development candidate packages using our expertise and internal laboratories.
A dysfunctional immune system is increasingly being recognized as a key factor, if not the factor, in the causal development and maintenance of a broad spectrum of diseases from cancer to infectious, autoimmune, and inflammatory diseases.
We focus on more efficiently developing and validating drug concepts into advanced development candidate packages that can be spun out into biotech companies or acquired by pharmaceutical companies for clinical development.
We are propelled by deep immune phenotyping datasets (Immune Archetype Platform), developed by Max Krummel and colleagues. We utilize AI and modern machine learning to characterize and compare the immune states in health and disease, provide key insights into the cause and consequence of disease, and to interconvert the immune system of a particular tissue from disease to healthy.
Novel immunotherapeutics face a formidable therapeutic valley of death. Successfully navigating this valley can provide significant value to patients and investors – typically the largest step-up in a program’s lifetime. We provide the necessary R&D infrastructure to rapidly and effectively traverse this valley.
Our studio was forged in 2021 by – Max, Michel, and Sriram – united by their shared goal to re-establish discovery as the basis for the next generation of immunotherapies.
With their deep knowledge of immunobiology and their impressive track record of discovering and developing multiple, multibillion-dollar immunotherapies, they have positioned Foundery to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the pre-clinical R&D process.
They aim to preserve the innovative culture of biotech and bridge the translational gap by providing leading academic scientists with exclusive access to best-in-class technology platforms and the necessary R&D infrastructure to transform their discoveries into breakthrough therapies.
Matthew Krummel, Ph.D. is the Chair of the UCSF ImmunoX Initiative (immunox.ucsf.edu) and holds the Robert E. Smith Endowed Chair in Pathology. His lab (krummellab.com) specializes in using real-time imaging to launch and test hypotheses related to how the immune system processes information and makes decisions. Key recent discoveries have included determining features of T cell membrane biology and motility that govern how they efficiently survey for antigens as well as the discovery of archetypal collections of immune systems in cancer, notably those involving networks of cells built around stimulatory dendritic cells. His work spans scales from membrane organization, to cell biology, to entire immune systems. He received his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, and completed his postdoctoral studies at Stanford University.
Dr. Krummel drives collaborative science: he founded a microscopy ‘collaboratory’ at UCSF which unites ‘shared’ technical personnel, and he developed a novel industry consortium-funded project (immunoprofiler.org) which unites studies of over 15 cancer indications to understand the biology of individual patients. Together with other UCSF faculty, he founded the ImmunoX initiative, a radical collaboration platform focused on methods and data sharing as a means to accelerate discovery and cures. His initiative also emphasizes public outreach and interaction as a means to disseminate the value of science. Dr. Krummel’s work has led to multiple clinical advances including discovering anti-CTLA-4 ‘checkpoint blockade’ drugs (over 100,000 patients treated) and new next-generation immunotherapies through Pionyr Immunotherapeutics, and now Foundery Innovations, ventures that he co-founded and which have extensive academic-industry collaboration. The aim of all of his research is to understand and apply the immune system to improve human health.
Michel, Foundery Innovation’s CEO, has extensive scientific and executive management experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, leading drug development from discovery through the early clinical stage, with a focus on therapies for cancer, chronic viral, autoimmune, and inflammatory diseases. He has over 30 years of leadership, innovation, team-building, collaboration, fundraising, and management experience in biologics and small molecule drug development, and over twenty-five years of experience directing basic and applied research at several companies, including Pionyr Immunotherapeutics, Gilead Sciences, Merck Research Laboratories, Schering-Plough Research Institute (acquired by Merck, Inc), Organon BioSciences (acquired by Schering-Plough), and ImmunoGen Inc., as well as a faculty member for ten years at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. He played key roles in advancing multiple novel and biosimilar biologics into clinical development, including the first FDA approved immunotherapy, IFN-alpha2/IntronA®, and the anti-PD-1 immuno-oncology drug, Keytruda®. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and conducted his postdoctoral training in the Division of Tumor Biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Sriram is an accomplished researcher with nearly 15 years of biopharmaceutical research experience developing biological and small molecule therapeutics against tumor immunotherapy targets. Prior to joining Max and Michel in starting Foundery, Sriram was an early employee at Pionyr Immunotherapeutics. At Pionyr, Sriram played a key role in building the research team. He also led the operational move from the incubator space to an independent facility and served as the nonclinical lead for the PY314 program. Further, Sriram was the author, editor, and coordinator for all of Pionyr’s Pre-IND and IND regulatory filings. Before his time at Pionyr, Sriram worked at Gilead Sciences. Sriram established and successively led several immuno-oncology programs at Gilead Sciences and Merck. At Merck Research Laboratories (formerly the Schering-Plough Biopharma prior to its acquisition by Merck), Sriram also served as the cross-site pharmacology lead for all the immuno-oncology programs, including the anti-PD-1 antibody, Keytruda. Sriram received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Immunology from the University of Madras, India, and completed his post-doctoral training in immunology at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
Jate is the Chief Business Officer at Foundery Innovations. In addition to working closely with the management team in their fundraising efforts, he also leads corporate and business development, strategic planning, budgeting, and investor relations. He joins Foundery from Tranquis Therapeutics, a clinical-stage neuro-immunology company, where he was Vice President and Head of Finance and Corporate Development. Prior to Tranquis, Jate was Senior Director of Business Development and Licensing at Horizon Therapeutics, where he led the company’s venture capital initiatives. Previously, Jate spent seven years as Country Head for Allexcel | Red Bull Malaysia and Executive Director of Strategy & Investments for Allswell | Red Bull Singapore. Before moving to Asia, Jate spent close to a decade in the Global Healthcare Investment Banking groups of Evercore, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch in the Bay Area focusing on capital raising and M&A for life sciences clients.
Jate serves on the Advisory Board of the Rausser College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley. He is also a Bio Track Advisor at Berkeley SkyDeck and member of Life Science Angels. Jate has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a B.Sci. in Molecular Environmental Biology from UC Berkeley, and is a Certified Licensing Professional.
