About
We harness the powers of engineered biology and machine learning to create target-activating antibodies to unlock key challenging disease targets
The founders at Abalone Bio saw an opportunity to apply complementary skill sets in cell biology, genetics, synthetic and systems biology, structural biology, and computer science to address a long-standing problem and opportunity: finding specific and functionally active drugs for important and challenging disease targets. Our team’s development of the largest-scale, biological measurement platform for antibody activity against key targets intersected in a very timely manner with the re-emergence of artificial intelligence with sequence-based large language model tools that could extract the most useful predictive information from our unique, large-scale activity datasets. We’re the first to demonstrate a predicted functional antibody activator (agonist) sequences for a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) target, and are just getting started on unlocking a whole pipeline of high-impact disease targets
Our team
Discovering the next generation of antibody drugs
Leadership team
Board of Directors
Scientific Advisory Board
Gustavo Pesce, PhD
Abalone Bio carries on the legacy of co-founder Gustavo Pesce. His scientific vision, rigor, and curiosity - and one-of-a-kind personality- are deeply encoded in Abalone Bio's DNA.
Gustavo started his scientific journey working on gene regulation with Alberto Kornblihtt at the University of Buenos Aires and then in cell biology and genetics with Peter Walter at UCSF. He then expanded his research toolset into experimental and computational systems biology and synthetic biology with Roger Brent and Sydney Brenner at the Molecular Sciences Institute, where he met co-founder Richard Yu in 2003. He co-founded the algae biofuel startup GPB in 2008 with Rich, and then worked on industrial synthetic biology projects at Bolt Threads and Amyris Biotechnologies before starting Abalone Bio in 2018.
Abalone Bio was seeded by his shared desire with Rich to apply their complementary skillsets, experiences, and personalities to developing uniquely impactful therapeutics. The company is the namesake of the delicacy that Gustavo, an avid open ocean swimmer and diver, used to hunt in Northern Californian waters.
August 4, 1967 - February 18, 2021
Richard Shen is a Managing Director at Sedgwick Yard, a venture capital firm specializing in early-stage, paradigm-shifting biotechnology investments globally. In 2021, he identified and led the pre-Series A investment in DJS Antibodies, an Oxford University spinout focused on GPCR antibody discovery, alongside LifeArc, Amgen Ventures, JJDC, and Oxford Science Enterprises. DJS Antibodies was acquired by AbbVie in 2022. Before joining Sedgwick Yard, Richard worked in the investment banking divisions of Goldman Sachs and UBS in both London and Hong Kong.
Neil Berkley has over 20 years of experience in corporate development, business development, and strategic planning across large pharmaceutical companies, midsize biotech/pharma, and small biotech startups. He is currently Chief Business Officer at Alector, a biotechnology company developing therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. Prior to Alector, Neil served as Chief Corporate Development Officer at Juvena Therapeutics, a Series A biotech focused on metabolic and muscle diseases, and as Chief Business Officer at AbCellera, a public biotech company specializing in antibody therapeutic discovery. He also served as Vice President and Head of Business Development at Halozyme Therapeutics, a public biotech focused on enabling drug delivery platforms. Neil has held various business and corporate development roles at Axerovision, COI (Avalon Incubator), Acadia, and GSK. Earlier in his career, he was Head of Business Development at Cadence Pharmaceuticals, where he played a key role in the company’s $1.3 billion acquisition. Additionally, he co-founded and helped build two San Diego-based biotech companies, Mpex Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Aptalis) and Vaxiion.
Nathan Caffo is a seasoned executive with over 26 years in the biotechnology industry, specializing in cancer therapeutics, personalized medicine, and genomic technology applications. He currently serves as a Strategic Advisor at Candel Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company advancing oncolytic viral immunotherapies for solid tumors. Previously, Nathan was Chief Business Officer at Candel, where he played a key role in leading the company’s successful $80 million IPO in July 2021. Prior to that, he was Chief Business Officer at ALX Oncology, an immuno-oncology company, where he helped secure $120 million through private and debt financings and facilitated the company’s $186 million IPO in July 2020. Nathan also served as President and CEO of Presage Biosciences, where he led the development of an intratumoral micro-dosing platform for evaluating multiple oncology agents and established strategic partnerships resulting in over $30 million in upfront capital. Earlier in his career, he held leadership positions at Perlegen Sciences, Applied Biosystems, and Celera, focusing on drug in-licensing and genomic services.
With experiences spanning health tech, synthetic biology, and drug discovery, Dr. Soi has spearheaded initiatives leveraging data and machine learning to drive impact for patients.
At Atomwise, as Director of Drug Discovery Data Science, he led the development of uncertainty quantification methods for deep learning models of small molecule binding as well as tools for evaluating and improving similarity-based searches for hit-to-lead generation.
At Zymergen, he managed the productionization of statistical and machine learning models that supported the company’s portfolio of high- throughput screening projects. Before that, at Grand Rounds (now Included Health) he engineered a platform enabling the scaling of machine learning for clinical outcomes models across indications for which he received a patent.
Monica has a deep background in early discovery and platform development.
At Achaogen, she led the development of a microfluidic B-cell capture and screening platform, in addition to her efforts in target development and characterization.
At Zymergen, she was project and portfolio leads for multiple teams to develop and scale cellular engineering technologies.
Lauren brings a wealth of antibody and immuno-oncology drug development experience to Abalone Bio.
At Xoma and Distributed Bio, she was behind the development of two of the most well-regarded antibody libraries used for antibody drug discovery, and she managed multiple antibody drug discovery and preclinical drug development teams.
At QLSF, she directed three pre-clinical stage bispecific antibody drug development programs for immuno-oncology.
Toshi brings over 20 years of industrial experience and expertise in antibody expression and engineering, therapeutic discovery and development, and project and departmental leadership to Abalone Bio.
Prior to joining Abalone Bio, Toshi worked at companies ranging from small startups (Bioren, acquired by Pfizer) to large multinational companies (Bayer). As VP of Discovery Research at XOMA Corporation, he was responsible for selection, engineering and characterization of multiple clinically developed antibodies. Most recently, as VP of Discovery Research at Second Genome, he helped develop therapeutics derived from the human microbiome.
Richard has been in and around startups since 2008, on both sides of the lease and term sheet, as founder, incubator manager, and venture capital principal.
His path to co-founding Abalone Bio started at UC Berkeley in Biophysics and Computer science, and wound its way through protein engineering, structural biology, and then systems biology and synthetic biology at the Molecular Sciences Institute, where he met co-founder Gustavo Pesce.
Abalone Bio grew out of an “a-ha!” moment shared with Gustavo defining a technology that uniquely combines their skillsets and experiences to meet a long-standing therapeutic need- safe and effective drugs for promising yet difficult to drug targets.