Reuters · Oct 2025
Reuters reported that Algen agreed to license its AI-driven gene-editing platform to AstraZeneca in a deal worth up to $555 million for immune system-related therapies.
Using CRISPR to find treatments for cancer and inflammation
Company research
Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals
Overview
Algen Biotechnologies is a San Francisco-based biotech platform company founded as a UC Berkeley spin-out that uses proprietary CRISPR gene modulation and AI foundation models to reverse-engineer disease trajectories, decode gene/RNA signaling, and identify therapeutic targets for hard-to-treat diseases, especially oncology and immunology/inflammation.
Primary product
AlgenBrain platform, powered by the AlgenCRISPR gene-modulation system
Founded
2018
Headquarters
San Francisco, California, United States
Team size
10-20
Industry
Biotechnology Research
Sub-industry
AI-powered CRISPR functional genomics drug discovery
Offices
665 3rd St #280, San Francisco, CA 94107, United States (HQ)
Business model
B2B pharma/biotech discovery partnerships
target discovery and validation collaborations
license-and-milestone-based preclinical deals
Funding
Stage
Later Stage VC
Total raised
$12.6M
Latest round
Later Stage VC · Mar 2025
People & investors
Leadership
CEO & Co-Founder
CBO & Co-Founder
Jeff Whitten
CSO
Head of Bioinformatics
Associate Director of Molecular and Cell Biology
Sudhir Chowdhry
Director, Translational Science
Founders
Spencer Knight
Founder
Work & culture
Hiring materials describe the team as fast-paced, collaborative, and creative, with an emphasis on independence and close collaboration with the executive team.
Visa sponsorship
Yes
Compensation
Public hiring materials describe a competitive package with benefits and paid time off, but no salary bands were found.
Benefits
Competitive package
Benefits
Paid time off
Product & market
Pricing
B2B partnership and licensing / milestone-based collaboration model
Differentiators
- —Proprietary next-generation CRISPR modulation platform
- —Human-centric single-cell data generation at scale
- —AI foundation models built on billions of dynamic gene-expression changes
- —Disease-trajectory reverse engineering rather than correlation-only target discovery
- —End-to-end wet-lab plus computational platform
- —Focus on translatable therapeutic endpoints and clinical relevance
- —Disease-agnostic platform spanning oncology, immunology, and metabolism
Technology
AlgenCRISPR
AlgenBrain
CRISPR gene modulation
single-cell functional genomics
AI foundation models
deep learning
RNA signaling network modeling
Python
R
GitHub
Google Cloud Platform
AWS
Azure
JIRA
Confluence
Smartsheet
Linux
bash
Unix
Apache Spark
Customers
AstraZeneca
global pharma companies
drug discovery partners
Competitors
Caribou Biosciences
KSQ Therapeutics
Mammoth Biosciences
Strand Therapeutics
Alnylam
Scale & contact
Estimated revenue
$0-$1M
Estimated monthly visits
1.6K
Traffic estimate as of Jun 2026
Latest news
Business Wire · Oct 2025
The company’s official press release says Algen will receive up to $555 million through upfront, near-term, and milestone payments for a preclinical immunology partnership.
CNA · Oct 2025
CNA summarized the Reuters report and added that the deal did not include AstraZeneca buying a stake in Algen.
LifeSpan Vision Ventures · Nov 2024
LifeSpan Vision Ventures announced an investment in Algen and highlighted its CRISPR plus deep-learning platform for age-related disease discovery.
Algen Biotechnologies · Jan 2024
Algen’s news page lists this event as a company update during JPM week.
Jobs and careers at Algen Biotechnologies
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