Business Wire · Apr 2026
Kernal Bio said it will present new ASGCT 2026 data on its AI-driven mRNA 2.0 platform, including cell-selective translation, in situ CAR-T programming, and T-cell-targeted LNPs.
Kernal is creating mRNA 2.0 therapies that work in specific cells
Company research
Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals
Updated Aug 16, 2026
Overview
Kernal Biologics is a Cambridge-based biotechnology company developing onco-selective mRNA therapeutics for cancer, with a platform designed to drive cell-specific protein expression in malignant cells and improve the therapeutic window of mRNA medicines.
Primary product
mRNA 2.0 platform and lead oncology candidate KR-335
Founded
2016
Headquarters
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Team size
11-50 employees
Industry
Biotechnology Research
Sub-industry
mRNA therapeutics / oncology biologics
Offices
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Distributed workforce in the United States and United Arab Emirates
Business model
therapeutics development
technology licensing
Funding
Stage
Series A
Total raised
$73.1M
Latest round
Series A · Jul 2022
Latest amount
$25M
Jul 2022 · Hummingbird Ventures
Seed Round
Oct 2020
Non Equity Assistance
May 2018
Corporate Round
Aug 2016
People & investors
Leadership
Yusuf Erkul
Co-Founder & CEO
Burak Yilmaz
Co-Founder & President
Jeff Ozdemir
Co-Founder & Head of Platform
Sieun Barnes
Director
Manfred Kraus
Vice President of Research and Development
Work & culture
Public materials emphasize deep expertise in mRNA, roots at MIT/Harvard/Big Pharma, and a research-driven approach to oncology innovation. No explicit employee benefits or formal culture page was found in primary sources.
Compensation
No public compensation details found in primary sources.
Product & market
Pricing
Not publicly disclosed; likely a mix of drug development value capture and technology licensing.
Differentiators
- —Onco-selective mRNA designed for selective translation in malignant cells
- —Machine-learning-backed computational pipeline for cell-specific mRNA sequence discovery
- —Internal oncology pipeline plus out-licensing for non-oncology applications
- —Roots at MIT, Harvard, and major biopharma
- —Focus on widening mRNA therapeutic window in cancer
Technology
benchling
python
greenhouse
cuda
github
nvidia
google cloud
graphpad prism
git
harvest
capillary
primer
c
box
Customers
Global pharma and biotech companies (technology licensing partners)
Cancer patients / oncology programs (therapeutic end users)
Competitors
Moderna
BioNTech
Translate Bio
Arcturus Therapeutics
Senti Biosciences
Scale & contact
Estimated revenue
~$5M-$10M annually (Exa estimate: $8.5M)
Estimated monthly visits
2.6K
Traffic estimate as of Jun 2026
Latest news
BioSpace · Oct 2025
ARPA-H awarded Kernal Bio up to $48 million for KR-402, an in vivo CAR T-cell therapy program, with collaborators Stanford, Dana-Farber, and The Jackson Laboratory.
Business Wire · Oct 2025
Kernal Bio said it relocated to Lilly Gateway Labs in Boston, kept strategic independence, and highlighted kernaLM and NVIDIA Inception support.
Kernal Biologics · Aug 2025
The company said it joined NVIDIA Inception to use GPU infrastructure, NVIDIA RAPIDS, and BioNeMo for AI-driven mRNA design and research.
BioCentury · Jul 2022
Brief market note confirming the Series A and board participation by Hummingbird's Firat Ileri.
Jobs and careers at Kernal Biologics
3 jobs at Kernal Biologics
Director, LNP Formulation
On-site
R&D
Cambridge, MA; Boston, Massachusetts, United States
1w ago
On-site
Full-time
Associate Director/Director of Preclinical Development
On-site
R&D
Boston, MA; Boston, Massachusetts, United States
1mo ago
On-site
Full-time
Principal Scientist, mRNA-tLNP Analytical Development
On-site
R&D
Boston, MA; Boston, Massachusetts, United States
1mo ago
On-site
Full-time