>FASTA_25

To become God or to create God; Olden Labs; Gameto’s ovary platform; NFX x women's health; $20M for skinspan; From tennis to cosmetics; Folk medicine; 1000 designer flowers; Tempo the biological watch

>FASTA: weekly short reads of the global biotech ecosystem | Papers and patents, acquisitions and bankruptcies, biotech philosophy | Read in under 5 min | Follow on LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and Instagram! | Versión en Español

---

Pilgrim is proud to sponsor >FASTA! We’re developing the next generation of military medicine to meet the operational demands of modern warfare—moving beyond theory and bringing biotechnology from the benchtop to the battlefield.

1/9: To become God or to create God

Humans use AI to select which genes to edit in all kinds of organisms, from plants to humans. We grant them control of cloud automated labs where these organisms are born from artificial wombs — In such dystopian world, we don’t become Gods; AI does.

2 out of every 100 American babies are conceived through IVF already. What most people don’t think about is that the sperm IVF selects for is different because they’re not traveling the same distance as in the fallopian tube. A 2019 study suggests that ICSI-conceived men may have impaired sperm production — Does this mean we will IVF ourselves out of existence?

---

🎙️ Biofounders episode with Michael Florea, cofounder & CEO of Olden Labs

2/9: AI-smart and low-cost animal cages

While the news says that organoids and simulations are making animal testing obsolete, that still seems far from reality in practice. Anywhere where you have multisystem interactions, you need a whole organism. Organoids and chips are expensive to maintain, and full organism modeling is still decades away.

Olden Labs builds AI-smart and low-cost cages with built-in cameras, microphones, wifi, and an AI-powered data platform so you know what your mice are doing all the time, at scale. In the first month of launching, they secured over 100 labs, companies, and institutions to sign up for their cages and they’ve already shipped over 40 Domes starting at $1,000 each.

---

3/9: Gameto’s $44M Series C

Instead of hormone-pilling women to extract their eggs (causing undesired side effects), Gameto has engineered in-vitro maturation organoids from iPSCs to mature eggs outside the body. These ovaries in a dish reduce the protocol from 2 weeks to 2-3 days. Their product is already available in Mexico, Peru, and Australia, and is at the last phase of clinical trials in the US.

It’s interesting how the company is taking a platform approach, such that the same organoids they use to mature eggs can also be used to develop cell therapies that slow down menopause. They have already received $10M from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) for this research.