Archon Biosciences

”David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, your ground-breaking work in computational protein design and protein structure prediction has revolutionised these fields. It has opened up completely new possibilities to design proteins that have never been seen before, and we now have access to predicted structures of all 200 million known proteins. These are truly great achievements.” Watch the very moment the chemistry laureates received their Nobel Prize diplomas and medals during the 2024 Nobel Prize award ceremony. #NobelPrize

The Archon Biosciences content continues! Recently, I sat down with Archon's co-founder and CEO James Lazarovits to talk about the company’s journey out of stealth and the incredible work they’re doing in protein-based biologics. Archon spun out of Nobel Laureate David Baker's lab at the Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington with a brand new modality, tons of AI innovation and firepower, and a huge vision for transforming protein based medicines. The amazing founding team of George Ueda, Craig Halder, and Jon Graves along with the entire Archon team has been a joy to work with and is making progress at an incredible rate. Madrona is thrilled to have been part of this journey from day one. This conversation is the first time Jamie has spoken publicly about the company and I'm very excited to help share his company building insights and compelling vision for Archon in this podcast. Jamie also has an amazing personal journey that we dive into during this discussion: from bootstrapping deep tech investments before transitioning back in to academia, to finding the right co-founder and launching Archon, this episode of Founded & Funded is full of lessons for anyone building something ambitious — biotech founder or not. Listen in to hear how Archon is reshaping medicine with AI and what it took to bring this vision to life!    A few of Jamie’s insights: Partner with investors you trust and who align with your mission. Ask for help and build teams with complementary skills — no founder succeeds alone. Apply AI thoughtfully — it’s a tool, not a magic wand. Product vision and execution will win out at the end of the day. Don’t rush — ensure your foundation is strong before scaling. Set a high bar for talent and culture — great people build great companies. Communicate your differentiation — make your value clear to all stakeholders.   Listen or watch wherever you get your podcasts: YouTube: https://bit.ly/48Jhj0p Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3UOAct5 Apple: https://apple.co/40Fxbio Amazon: https://amzn.to/4fL2sVj Full Transcript: https://bit.ly/40Ljuyy

Yesterday, Archon Biosciences emerged from stealth and shared their revolutionary Antibody Cage ("AbC") technology for the first time. By merging AI, generative design, and cutting-edge protein engineering, George Ueda, James Lazarovits and the entire Archon team have created an entirely new class of biologic medicinces. This incredible set of innovations has the potential to fundamentally change antibody based therapeutics to bring novel and effective medicines to patients. Today, though, I wanted to share some more color on why Madrona was so excited to help spin the company out of the Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington and why we continue to be blown away by the technology and progress. Besides the amazing underlying science, I knew that George and Jamie were a unique founding team well before they decided to start a company. In fact, I first met them at a dinner over a year before Archon came into existence. And as we discussed the idea of a company, both George and Jamie were adamant about two non-negotiable priorities: the science needed to be fully ready to go and the people around the table needed to be completely aligned on culture and vision. This thoughtful approach solidified my belief that this was a world-class and unique founding team and reminded me that great companies can take time to come to fruition! After meeting at that initial dinner, Joseph Horsman and I spent over a year regularly touching base with George and Jamie to discuss the potential new company. From getting together in a cramped, hot, one and a half person office at the IPD, to long nights discussing team culture over beers at a subterranean dive bar off of the UW campus, George and Jamie methodically worked to build out the Archon vision. By the time the company was ready to spin out, everyone at Madrona was thrilled to support this incredible team and vision. We wrote more about this in the blog post linked below and stay tuned for more Archon content over the next week! https://lnkd.in/gq3Pajwx