Tejus Mane

🧬 This week's Austin Bio & Health Roundup features well deserved recognitions, strategic deals, policy shifts, & sharp insights from our frontier innovators. 🧬 💡 Insights from Local Builders & Innovators Ryan Roddy of Seaside Ventures makes the case for biology as the next major software platform. He explains the Bio Innovation Tech Stack making living systems programmable and where the first trillion-dollar opportunity might emerge. 🤝 Partnerships and M&A Harmonic Bionics, Inc., the robotics and rehab company has been acquired by Bioness Medical, Inc. 🏆 Recognition Jonathan Swerdlin of Function Health, along with Tom Dorsett and Siva Mohan of RazorMetrics, have been named Gulf South regional winners of EY’s Entrepreneur Of The Year. Austin Bio & Health is representing! Natera just celebrated its five-year anniversary in Austin. Congrats & looking forward to seeing more of you around the ecosystem. 🏗️ Infrastructure & Policy The FDA launched its National Priority Voucher program, offering faster reviews (1-2 months) for products that address US health priorities including public health crises, unmet medical needs, innovative cures, and increased domestic drug manufacturing. 🤠 Texas Bio Triangle San Antonio: Hera Biotech has acquired HeraFem, expanding its diagnostic platform for endometriosis. Congrats Somer Baburek, MBA & team. Irving: Caris Life Sciences completed a $494 million IPO and saw its stock jump 33 percent on the first day. The IPO window is officially open! What’s Next? 🤠 🚀 🦾 🧬

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Glad to finally announce that we're partnered with Amazon on it's Amazon Devices Climate Tech Accelerator. What makes this program unique is the the way it's designed. Participants receive dedicated support from Amazon technical experts to validate real deployment potential that can help reduce the carbon impact of millions of Amazon devices. 👉 If you're an interested startup, learn more and apply to the 2026 cohort here by February 24: https://lnkd.in/g6DZbtVh

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Drove along the Bay Bridge with Shaun Johnson, Founding Partner at AIX Ventures ($250M AUM), backing deep technical founders building category-defining AI companies from day zero. We talked about growing up in Texas selling refurbished computer parts, why he left CS for electrical engineering after a summer at Intel, and how building six startups before business school gave him the operator lens that now shapes his investing. We also got into AI’s leap from software to robotics, the case for humanoid form factors, and why AIX is betting big on TechBio, where AI-native companies are launching with 10+ therapies, skipping animal trials, and patenting proprietary wet-lab data.

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New #podcast episode: SPACE & BIOLOGY with Paul Kamoun, PhD, HDR from SpacePharma. Among other things we discuss - Why space/microgravity is so relevant for life sciences - Key use cases - What it takes to make space bio scalable and the "next big thing" See comments on where to find the episode. Enjoy!

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Excited to announce that Greentown Labs Houston is launching an AI lab in partnership with Shoreless.ai! 🚀 At Greentown, we're seeing firsthand how AI is becoming a critical enabler for climatetech startups—from decarbonizing supply chains to accelerating the energy transition. This new lab will give our entrepreneurs hands-on access to AI-driven tools and expertise to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing their corporate partners: Scope 3 emissions. Through "climate sprint" sessions, Shoreless will help our startups and their partners uncover opportunities to reduce costs, cut emissions, and unlock new revenue streams. It's exactly the kind of practical, high-impact support that can accelerate the path from lab to market. Huge thanks to Ken Myers, Chris Buckner, and the whole Shoreless team for bringing this vision to life. #climatetech #AI #innovation #Houston #decarbonization

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I was honored to contribute insights to this piece on San Diego's biotech ecosystem—a market I've watched evolve significantly over 27 years in healthcare and life sciences. The article features 11 powerhouse companies, from Illumina and Thermo Fisher to emerging leaders like Element Biosciences and Crinetics. But beyond the profiles, it captures something essential about what makes San Diego different. Three observations from the ground: 1. Density without bureaucracy. The Mesa creates a true innovation corridor—UC San Diego, Salk, Scripps Research, and Sanford Burnham Prebys interweave with startups and scaled biopharma. This proximity reduces friction for diligence, talent recruitment, and specialized services in ways Boston and the Bay Area can't replicate. 2. Science-led, but transaction-optimized. San Diego has evolved from "discovery-first" to a complete company-building engine. Teams now design programs around pivotal endpoints, clean CMC plans, and partner-ready data packages earlier. Good science doesn't just get published here—it gets built. 3. Capital is increasingly earned. We're seeing more structured financing (tranched rounds, milestone-based pay-ins), CVRs, and hybrid collaborations. Strategic partners underwrite risk more explicitly. The winning teams treat capital strategy as a product—staging proof points and designing deal structures that preserve upside while de-risking 12-24 months out. Looking ahead, I expect San Diego's next growth phase to be defined by modality-driven oncology, neuroscience/neurodegeneration, precision immunology, and industrial-strength enabling platforms. The market increasingly rewards companies that combine compelling biology, manufacturability, and a partner-ready clinical narrative. I hope you find the article worth a read, especially if you're tracking West Coast biotech or thinking about where innovation capital flows most efficiently. #Biotech #LifeSciences #SanDiego #Innovation #InvestmentBanking #Dealmaking #Healthcare

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It's been a real pleasure working with Ryan Goethals and Jesse Gray of Metal Light Inc. this summer in the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship Clean Energy Accelerator. Their novel zinc-air power system bridges the gap between long duration energy storage and zero-emission electric power generation, offering meaningful competitive advantages over incumbent technologies in both arenas. Imagine safe electric power storage at a fraction of the cost of Li-ion or flow batteries, and imagine the additional possibility of using sheet metal as a reusable, clean fuel for off-grid power and marine transportation. That's Metal Light Inc. in a nutshell. So seek them out on Tuesday, September 16 at the Energy Tech Nexus Pilotathon, on Wednesday, September 17 at the startup showcase at Ion Houston, and on Thursday, September 18 at the Energy Technology Venture Forum at Rice University. Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week Houston Energy and Climate Week #cleanenergy #energystorage

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Chemtech has long been ignored by the mainstream startup and VC ecosystem - especially sustainable and green chemistry. We're working to change that. Through an amazing partnership between Founder Institute Berlin / Germany and greenCHEM, promising researchers and aspiring entrepreneurs in the green chemical sector can get access to equity-free funding, guaranteed housing (fully furnished!), free lab facilities, and the top startup mentors in Europe to validate and launch a startup. The mission is simple: to unlock the sustainability potential of green chemistry. If you’re ready to turn chemistry into impact, we want to hear from you! Interested applicants can learn more and apply at https://lnkd.in/dAk289Ym So proud of the work done here by Rikke Klitskov, Ferdinand Mühlhäuser, Kai Malkwitz, Amanda Fornal, Mohammad Hossein Tavangar, ✯ Nathan Paul Evans ✯, and Ayhan K. Isaacs 👏

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The next frontier for AI isn’t just text or images—it’s biology. Maggie Basta's latest piece explores the rise of biological foundation models and the real opportunities (and illusions) in AI-powered drug discovery We’ve seen the hype cycles before—genomics, Schrödinger, “platform plays”—but this time, with transformer-scale models and a maturing buyer base, the equation may finally be shifting. In bio, value still accrues to assets—not software. But AI may be the first force powerful enough to change that. this read is essential:

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Solugen is reinventing the trillion-dollar chemical manufacturing industry by combining biology and chemistry in a new way. In this episode of Hard Tech, YC's Jared Friedman visits co-founders Gaurab Chakrabarti, MD, PhD and Sean Hunt at their Houston HQ to see how they went from a $7,000 PVC reactor to a billion-dollar company competing with industry giants. They cover the breakthrough behind their enzymatic + catalytic production, how they found their first customers, and why starting small and staying close to customers let them win in a capital-intensive industry. Tune in: https://lnkd.in/gDseCs2r

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I had a conversation with Karl Schmieder, MS MFA on how #radicalcollaboration is needed to bring a bio-manufacturing industry to life. We talked about: Why invention alone isn’t enough: Discovery is no longer the bottleneck—industrial scaling, regulation, and consumer adoption are. The new role of orchestrators: The most valuable companies will be those that coordinate across supply chains, regulators, and corporates, turning fragmented players into functioning ecosystems. What this means for founders and investors: The future winners in biotech may not be those with the most novel science, but those who master the art of integration. https://lnkd.in/g4bshddA Kylie Porter Michele Stansfield David Weiner David Kestenbaum Mark Warner Sam Perkins Ian O'Hara Arturo Elizondo James Petrie Jim Fader Paul Riley Ed Husic MP Robyn Denholm Guy Reypert Chris Liu Rob Brown Emerald Scofield Dirk van der Kley

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We are launching our Biotech Startup Academy in Dallas this fall for anyone interested in learning more about the inner workings of biotech startups. How to build, how to fund, and how to grow a biotech company. It's hybrid in-person in Dallas over three sessions with two weeks of zoom-based interaction and coursework in between. Our goal is to bring together an incredible cohort of entrepreneurially-minded folks who are aligned with our mission of collaboratively curing all disease and making medicine accessible and affordable to all. All are welcome! This is not just for PhDs!

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Excellent Read: LA Times Business Spotlights Breakthrough Space Startup David Nusbaum's compelling article in today's LA Times Business Magazine (linked below) showcases an outstanding LA Basin startup that's revolutionizing pharmaceutical manufacturing. Varda Space Industries has achieved a breakthrough that validates the future of medicine beyond Earth's atmosphere. The El Segundo company recently completed its fourth successful mission manufacturing pharmaceuticals in microgravity, becoming the first to operate commercially outside the International Space Station. With $329 million in funding and exclusive FAA licensing through 2029, Varda demonstrates how space-based manufacturing can create drug formulations impossible to produce on Earth. CEO Will Bruey and co-founder Delian Asparouhov have developed automated capsules that launch raw pharmaceutical compounds into low-Earth orbit, where microgravity enables unique crystallization patterns and molecular structures. After processing in space, the capsules return to Earth with their precious cargo intact, potentially transforming medications that currently require intravenous delivery into shelf-stable pills. This technological leap exemplifies exactly why the Transnational Space Alliance Summit will feature a dedicated pharmaceutical track titled "Beyond Earth: Pharmaceutical Frontiers in Space." TSAS 2026 will bring together 10,000 global leaders from traditional aerospace, emerging space ventures, and adjacent industries to accelerate the trillion-dollar space economy through unprecedented cross-sector collaboration. Our pharmaceutical track will unite space technology innovators with established drug manufacturers, regulatory experts, and investors to explore how microgravity research can revolutionize terrestrial medicine. As competition intensifies in this emerging sector, pharmaceutical companies can no longer afford to ignore space-based opportunities. The summit provides the essential platform where these industries converge to shape humanity's healthiest future both on Earth and beyond. https://lnkd.in/gCEw_aWX #VardaSpace #SierraSpace AXIOMSPACE #BlueOrigin SpaceX Merck #SpaceManufacturing #Pharmaceuticals #SpaceBiotech #MicrogravityResearch #TSAS2026

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