─ $85 million in financing includes recent $45 million Series A extension with participation from founding investors RA Capital Management and Khosla Ventures and six new investors including biopharmaceutical company venture funds Chugai Venture Fund, Eli Lilly and Company, and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC

─ Stylus leverages therapeutic-grade recombinases and lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery to precisely encode therapeutic payloads, starting with in vivo CAR-Ts

─ The company is led by cell and gene therapy industry veterans including Emile Nuwaysir, Chairman and CEO, and Jason Fontenot, Chief Scientific Officer

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Stylus Medicine, Inc. (“Stylus”), a biotechnology company dedicated to developing transformative in vivo genetic medicines, today emerges from stealth with $85 million in financing. Stylus’ funding includes a $45 million Series A extension financing with participation from RA Capital Management, Khosla Ventures, and six new investors including Chugai Venture Fund, Eli Lilly and Company, and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC. This financing follows a $40 million Series A investment from founding investors RA Capital and Khosla Ventures.

Stylus will use this financing to advance its in vivo genetic medicines platform and pipeline of in vivo therapeutic programs. The company’s powerful and elegant engineering platform combines sequence-specific genome integration with cell-targeted lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery. The platform is based on Stylus-designed therapeutic-grade recombinases capable of encoding polyfunctional multi-kb payloads with high efficiency, high specificity, and high fidelity. This system enables durable, flexible, and scalable in vivo cell engineering, overcoming major limitations of ex vivo cell therapy manufacturing and expanding the reach of transformative genetic medicines.

“Stylus was established to reimagine how genetic medicines reach patients. At the core of our approach are three defining features of an ideal therapy: safe and targeted in vivo delivery, specific integration, and durable expression of a therapeutic payload,” said Emile Nuwaysir, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Stylus. “By removing the complexity of ex vivo and viral manufacturing, we will dramatically simplify patient treatment. Our goal is to bring the life-saving promise of genetic medicines to every patient in need, starting with CAR-T therapies.”

“Stylus was created in 2022 by Raven, RA Capital’s healthcare incubator, and Khosla Ventures to solve the fundamental challenges holding back genetic medicines,” said Joshua Resnick, M.D., Partner at RA Capital and President of Raven. “The Stylus system is incredibly elegant, and Stylus has the right team, capital, and strategy to succeed. The company has the potential to vastly expand the availability of life-changing therapies, while creating a scalable, efficient model that is attractive from both a clinical and commercial perspective.”

Leadership and Organization

The Company’s leadership includes Emile Nuwaysir, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Jason Fontenot, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer.

Dr. Nuwaysir brings more than 25 years of experience in executive leadership positions in the cell and gene therapy field to the role. As a serial entrepreneur and operator, he has launched and led multiple biotechnology companies from inception to exit, including senior leadership roles at BlueRock Therapeutics (acquired by Bayer), Cellular Dynamics (acquired by FujiFilm), and NimbleGen (acquired by Roche). He was most recently the CEO of Ensoma and the CEO and Chairman of BlueRock Therapeutics. Dr. Nuwaysir is also the past Chairman of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine.

Dr. Fontenot, Stylus’ Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), brings more than two decades of experience in senior scientific roles and a track-record of leadership in cell and gene therapy. He was most recently the CSO of Sangamo Therapeutics and the CSO of Immusoft Corporation. He led the Exploratory Research group at Juno Therapeutics and was a group leader in Immunology Research at Biogen. Dr. Fontenot’s academic research was focused on lineage specification in the immune cells. His seminal discoveries in regulatory T cell biology established the molecular basis for dominant immune tolerance with broad implications in autoimmunity and oncology.

“The genetic medicines revolution began decades ago, but despite the immense therapeutic potential we’ve treated a limited number of patients because of manufacturing and delivery challenges, and the inability to deliver large genetic payloads. Most genetic medicines available today are an important proof-of-concept, but not a practical solution,” said Nessan Bermingham, Ph.D., Operating Partner at Khosla Ventures. “Stylus set out with a bold vision to solve those challenges. Achieving this vision requires exceptional leadership, and with Emile and Jason at the helm, Stylus is optimally positioned to realize our goal to bring transformative genetic medicines to the millions of patients who desperately need them.”

Drs. Nuwaysir and Fontenot are part of an accomplished leadership team, and an experienced Board of Directors comprised of industry veterans and scientific innovators, including:

Board of Directors

• Emile Nuwaysir, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
• Nessan Bermingham, Ph.D., Operating Partner at Khosla Ventures, formerly Chief Executive Officer at Intellia Therapeutics
• John Gustofson, President at Chugai Venture Fund, formerly Managing Director at AbbVie Ventures
• Patrick Hsu, Ph.D., Scientific Founder of Stylus Medicine, Co-Founder of the Arc Institute, and Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and Deb Faculty Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley
• Joshua Resnick, M.D., Partner at RA Capital Management and President of Raven, RA Capital’s healthcare incubator

Scientific Founders

• Patrick Hsu, Ph.D., Co-Founder of the Arc Institute and Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and Deb Faculty Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley
• Ami S. Bhatt, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Medicine & Genetics at Stanford University
• Michael C. Bassik, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Genetics at Stanford University
• Lacramioara Bintu, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University

“Recombinases are ideal enzymes for integrating large genetic payloads into the genome. Stylus’ unique approach centers on an extensive, proprietary library of therapeutic-grade recombinases, optimized through computational design and machine learning for protein engineering,” said Patrick Hsu, Ph.D. “By developing engineered recombinases for in vivo genetic medicines, Stylus is unlocking a new era of therapeutic possibilities.”

About Stylus Medicine

Stylus Medicine is developing transformative in vivo genetic medicines to unlock cures. Stylus combines engineered recombinases with non-viral delivery to specifically encode therapeutics. The company’s approach is versatile and modular, with potential therapeutic application across oncology, autoimmune, genetic diseases, and beyond.

For more information about Stylus Medicine, please visit stylusmedicine.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

Contacts

Company Contact
Cecilia Sun
Stylus Medicine
cecilia.sun@stylusmedicine.com

Media Contact
Amanda Lazaro
1AB
amanda@1abmedia.com

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