Blank Bio · Jul 2026
Blank Bio introduced Ladon, its bulk transcriptomics foundation model, and described its embedding-search MCP for scientific discovery.
RNA-based AI for better drugs and smarter clinical trials.
Company research
Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals
Updated Jul 29, 2026
Overview
Blank Bio is a San Francisco-based YC S25 applied AI research lab building RNA foundation models for precision oncology and clinical-trial decision support. It was founded in 2025, raised a $7.2M seed round in May 2026, and is collaborating with PacBio on long-read RNA-seq data to improve patient-level prediction.
Primary product
RNA foundation models for precision oncology and clinical-trial decision support (including its bulk transcriptomics model Ladon)
Founded
2025
Headquarters
San Francisco, California, United States
Team size
2-10 employees
Industry
Biotechnology Research
Sub-industry
RNA foundation models / precision oncology AI
Offices
San Francisco, California, United States
Business model
B2B enterprise platform
research partnerships with pharma and diagnostics
clinical trial decision-support software
Funding
Stage
Seed
Total raised
$7.2M
Latest round
Seed · May 2026
Latest amount
$7.2M
May 2026
People & investors
Work & culture
Early-stage, fast-moving, cross-disciplinary, and comfortable with ambiguity; the team emphasizes ownership and helping shape both the science and the culture.
Visa sponsorship
Yes
Compensation
Public job postings show salaries of roughly $125K-$250K depending on role, plus 0.20%-1.00% early-stage equity.
Benefits
Competitive salary
Meaningful early-stage equity
Health coverage
Dental coverage
Vision coverage
Generous vacation
Parental leave
Visa sponsorship available
Product & market
Pricing
Custom enterprise / research-partnership pricing; not publicly disclosed.
Differentiators
- —Trains RNA foundation models on bulk RNA-seq and transcriptomic data
- —Focuses on patient heterogeneity for trial design and response prediction
- —Uses clinically accessible bulk RNA-seq as the core signal
- —Collaborates with PacBio for long-read, isoform-resolution RNA data
- —Open-source models reportedly used by Sanofi and GSK
- —Builds embedding-search tools for scientific discovery
- —Published benchmarking work such as mRNABench
Technology
Python
Docker
container orchestration
RNA-seq data pipelines
bulk transcriptomics foundation models
embedding-search MCP
benchmarking suites
Claude Science integration
Customers
Pharmaceutical companies
Biotech companies
Diagnostic companies
mRNA therapeutics companies
CRISPR therapeutics companies
RNA biomarker teams
Competitors
Evotec
Strand Life Sciences
DNAnexus
other RNA / precision-medicine AI platforms
Scale & contact
Latest news
Business Wire · May 2026
Blank Bio announced a $7.2M seed round and a strategic collaboration with PacBio to generate long-read RNA-seq data for model training and evaluation.
GenomeWeb · May 2026
GenomeWeb covered the seed round, investors, and the PacBio collaboration, including the company’s use of public and proprietary RNA-seq data.
BioSpace · May 2026
BioSpace republished the press release describing the seed financing, founders, and collaboration details.
Jobs and careers at Blank Bio
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