Concerto Biosciences

Wondering how Concerto thinks about AI, global health, the looming threat of antibiotic resistance, and how the kChip discovery platform fits into all of this? Find out in this feature from Bio.News. https://lnkd.in/eE5hZen6

Let's raise a glass to Concerto’s 4th anniversary as a company. For Gala_004, we gathered for a night of dazzling lights, a live quartet (4 musicians in honor of 4 years, of course), signature microbial cocktails, and absurd, wonderful, collaborative music making (see the pics!). Microbes are the performers of nature’s grandest symphony. We thank everyone—Concertians, advisors, investors, friends—who attended our birthday party to help celebrate them with us.

Drumroll please! Concerto Biosciences has officially secured an open Investigational New Drug (IND) application for Ensemble No.2 (ENS-002) First-In-Human clinical trials. In the biotech world, this is a pivotal moment, not only showcasing our technical rigor, but also representing a huge step toward improving patient lives with microbial treatments. Next stop: the clinic! https://lnkd.in/ek3BTYSk

Another bustling BIO in the books! We presented Concerto Biosciences' vision for human-microbe harmony right after a presentation by a company that formulates drugs on satellites (Varda Space Industries) and right before a company that finds drugs for “undruggable” transcription factors (Talus Bio). It’s fun and gratifying to see Concerto among such diverse and fast-moving innovators. The future of medicine is wild! Roger Frechette, Didier Vingadassalom, PhD, MBA, #BIO2024

Concerto will attend #BIO2024 this year as an NIH Innovation Zone Company. Come see CEO Cheri Ackerman’s presentation (Exhibition Hall on Monday, June 3 at 4:30pm PST) on Concerto’s kChip discovery engine and our plans to bring groundbreaking microbial products to the market. CBO Roger Frechette and Senior Director of Biz Dev Didier Vingadassalom, PhD, MBA will round out the Concerto team, available all week for partnering and investor discussions. Set up a meeting in advance through the BIO Partnering Portal or connect via LinkedIn. See you there!

Our recent Alumni & Friends Dinner at Harvard Business School was an incredible gathering of global entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and innovators. The evening featured an inspiring panel discussion led by our Director of Alumni Programs & Engagement, Thara Pillai. In the panel discussion, Cheri Ackerman and Richa Gupta shared the ups and downs of their founder journeys. Cheri Ackerman's venture, Concerto Biosciences, is pioneering new approaches to microbiome health, while Richa Gupta's Labhya is making social emotional learning accessible to children in public education systems in India. Thank you to everyone that came to the event and made it an unforgettable experience! #HarvardInnovation #HarvardBusinessSchool #Entrepreneurship #WomenFounders

Microbes are the performers of nature's grandest symphony. …and Concertians are composers. In the words of Concerto CSO Jared Kehe, we want to write music "like Beethoven, Mahler, Rachmaninoff composed complex, expressive musical ensembles [where] each instrument plays its role, reacting to the others, informed by and informing the others, and synergizing with the others" (full interview here: https://lnkd.in/etUwgWWb). Let the microbial music play.

How can startups meaningfully engage with state government? Across MA, startups collectively represent thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic potential, but individually, no single startup can devote an FTE to advocate for the public resources that could catalytically enable startup growth and drive overall economic health in the Commonwealth. On Tuesday, Office of Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey talked with Leah Ellis and me about this exact issue, as well as startups’ needs around financing, real estate, and talent sourcing. I was inspired by Gov. Healey’s willingness to engage directly with startup leadership, her commitment to working with individuals like Secretary of Economic Development Yvonne Hao who bring startup experience to influential roles, and her inclusion of financing to support startups and innovation in the Mass Leads Act. If you lead or work at a startup, one very practical way you can engage with our state government is by writing to your representative in support of the Mass Leads Act and advocating for sections that directly support startup funding to be maintained in the final draft of the legislation. Thanks to Benjamin Downing and The Engine Accelerator for organizing this convening, as well as NECEC and MassBio for support. Concerto Biosciences, Sublime Systems

The Concerto Discovery Team has generated over 10 million distinct microbial communities using kChip—and that’s where our Data & Software Team comes in. They work at the cutting edge of big data in microbial ecology, pioneering advancements in image processing, data analysis, and AI to reap the full potential of massive kChip data sets. Concertian Senior Data Scientist Annah Sclafani, PhD shared our progress in data analysis methods and engaged with thought leaders at the Bio-IT World workshops in Boston last month. She’s brought back a wealth of diverse perspectives from across the field, fueling the Data & Software Team with enthusiasm to build the most efficient, insight-driven kChip analysis pipeline imaginable.

Concerto Biosciences' name was no accident. Meet the mind behind the music and the multiplexing, my dear friend and one of Concerto's cofounders: Jared Kehe. Many thanks to GenoWrite and Paul Naphtali, MSc for showcasing Concerto's vision and team!