Ditto Biosciences GTM brain

Ditto Biosciences discovers parasite-inspired protein therapeutics for autoimmune disease and seeks scientific partners in drug development.

category

Autoimmune drug discovery

market profile

  • text: Autoimmune drug development seeks new immune-modulating mechanisms and protein scaffolds.
  • text: Translating foreign proteins into drugs requires assessment of immune responses and clinical development risk.

personas

  • title: Head of immunology research at a pharmaceutical company
    pains:
    • Existing drug targets may not address unmet needs across autoimmune indications
    • Finding differentiated immune-modulating mechanisms requires extensive biological discovery
  • title: Biologics discovery and protein engineering lead
    pains:
    • Novel proteins need engineering for therapeutic use
    • Immunogenicity must be characterized before development

icp

  • text: Biopharmaceutical companies with autoimmune or inflammation discovery programs and external research partnerships.
  • text: Biotech teams developing biologics or protein therapeutics that need novel scaffolds and immunogenicity approaches.

message pillars

  • text: Develop therapies grounded in evolutionary biology.
  • text: Mine parasite biology for new medicines.
  • text: Natural organisms have historically yielded effective drugs.

objections

  • objection: Can parasite-derived proteins become safe human medicines?
    response: Discuss the candidate-specific engineering and immunogenicity evidence; clinical outcomes are not yet established publicly.
  • objection: How is the platform relevant to our indication?
    response: Assess target biology, candidate data and a defined research collaboration with the scientific team.

competitors

  • name: Celdara Medical
    why: Has explored parasite proteins as potential autoimmune and Crohn's treatments.
  • name: AbbVie
    why: Large established developer of autoimmune therapies, competing for indications and pharma resources.

influencers

  • name: Adair Borges
    url: https://www.ycombinator.com/founders/adair-borges
    why: Ditto founder focused on evolutionary therapeutics.
  • name: Emily Weiss
    url: https://www.ycombinator.com/founders/emily-weiss
    why: Ditto founder leading parasite-derived therapeutic engineering.

keywords

  • parasite derived immunomodulatory proteins
  • autoimmune biologics discovery
  • novel immunology drug targets
  • protein therapeutic immunogenicity
  • AI protein engineering autoimmune

voice

  • scientific
  • nature-inspired
  • optimistic

signals

  • text: A pharma team is seeking external autoimmune mechanisms or new biologic scaffolds.
  • text: A protein therapeutics program is investigating immunogenicity early in discovery.

pricing

model: unknown

motion

unknown

channels

  • scientific publications
  • blog
  • YC launch

confidence

medium

Founders

  • name: Dennis Sun
    title: Founder/CEO
    role: CEO
    bio: Scientist and operator transforming natural proteins into therapies. Trained in evolutionary and developmental biology at Harvard (AB) and UC Berkeley (PhD). Previously led software teams, product development, and scientific partnerships as Chief of Staff at a $500M biotech. Now building a platform to mine proteins from viruses, ticks, and worms that will become the next blockbuster drugs for autoimmune disease.
  • name: Adair Borges
    title: Founder
    role: Founder
    bio: Entrepreneurial scientist using evolution to build the next generation of therapeutics for autoimmune disease. UCSF-trained PhD with expertise spanning parasitology, virology, and genomics. Published over 50 scientific papers, and is a coinventor on a patent for anti-CRISPR proteins. Former Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley, and previously led a venture creation team at an early stage biotech company. Motivated by a lifelong fascination with parasites.
  • name: Emily Weiss
    title: Founder
    role: Founder
    bio: I'm a molecular and computational biologist working to revolutionize drug discovery for autoimmune disease. At Ditto, I lead the platform for engineering parasite-derived therapeutics. I hold a PhD in microbiology, genomics, and plant genetics, with a focus on sequencing, high-throughput screening, and computational pipeline development. Published in Nature Microbiology and eLife. Previously at Illumina, DuPont, and an early-stage biotech venture team.

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