To treat metastatic cancer, a radiotherapeutic must deliver a potent isotope to the tumor and keep it there long enough to kill the cancer, but clear quickly enough to avoid harming healthy tissue. So far, few radiotherapeutics have managed to meet both requirements.

Asta Bio aims to overcome these challenges with 211-Astatine—the most druggable alpha-emitting radioisotope and the only one that is made in a cyclotron rather than derived from uranium decay. They engineer Radiobody™ molecules to target 211-Astatine to metastatic cancers. Derived from alpaca nanobodies, these multispecific targeting molecules remain within tumors for up to two days but clear the rest of the human body within hours—long enough to kill the cancer but short enough to avoid harming healthy tissue.

Extending the human health span has long been a visionary goal for humanity, and Hexembio is at the forefront of achieving it. The company is revolutionizing aging and disease prevention by rejuvenating Hematopoietic Stem Cells (HSCs), also known as blood stem cells. This breakthrough offers exciting new possibilities for approaching age-related decline and chronic diseases, a phenomenon directly impacted by aging blood stem cells.

To accelerate its path to market and FDA approval, Hexembio is first targeting bone marrow transplant failure—a life-threatening condition. In preclinical studies, their approach has reduced transplant failure by up to 10 times in mice, offering hope for patients with few other treatment options. What sets Hexembio apart from existing longevity therapies is the speed, minimal invasiveness, and lasting impact of their treatment. Blood stem cells are extracted from the patient’s bone marrow in a single appointment, rejuvenated in the lab, and then returned intravenously in a second visit.

Medical researchers have genetically modified T cells to recognize and attack cancers, but they’ve run into some obstacles. Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) therapies are expensive ($373-475K per treatment), ineffective against solid tumors, potentially neurotoxic, and require gene editing if they’re sourced from healthy donors.

Tinkeso Therapeutics is developing off-the-shelf, allogeneic invariant natural killer T (iNKT) therapies that harness the power of the innate and adaptive immunity to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases. Its CAR-iNKT cells last a long time in freezers and can be used on demand. With its proprietary iNKT cell expansion platform, Tinkeso can generate enough doses for up to 500 patients from one donor leukopak, making the therapy more affordable and scalable than CAR-T alternatives.

Every year, 2 million people develop corneal blindness, but only about 200,000 undergo a corneal transplantation to regain their vision. Almost 13 million people are on waiting lists for donor tissue, and even if they obtain it, the rejection rate for corneal replacements climbs from 10% in the first two years to almost 50% by year 15. Existing corneal alternatives (keratoprostheses) are last resort options for sight restoration. None are standard of care treatments due to complications including inflammation, infection, extrusion, opacification, and glaucoma.

BioLattice Ophthalmics, Inc. is developing CorneaClear™, a synthetic, room-temperature-stable, biocompatible material that could expand access to corneal replacement surgery and outperform donor tissues and existing keratoprostheses.

The varroa mite is the leading cause of bee colony collapse. In the U.S., at least 45% of commercial colonies are infected with varroa; between 2023 and 2024, 55.1% died off. Unless we want food shortages and price spikes, the world needs a biopesticide that lays waste to varroa.

Quorum Earth turns the fungi metarhizium into a biopesticide that can kill almost anything, including varroa. Metarhizium is non-toxic, safe for bees, and highly effective. However, no one has commercialized metarhizium successfully because it struggles when taken out of its natural habitat. So, Quorum’s platform naturally modifies metarhizium to kill almost any pest. The modifications are so minimal that regulators consider the altered fungi genetically identical to the original. That means approval for new products can be completed faster and cheaper than ever before.

The world’s $6.2 trillion in crop production depends on domesticated plants that have been optimized for yield, not resilience. Their defensive mechanisms against pests have been silenced, and in their stead, chemical pesticides have protected crops, ending hunger in much of the world. In a changing climate, however, pests are spreading and evolving quicker than pesticide makers can adapt, putting global food supplies in jeopardy.

Semion turns the table on pests with sprayable biological products that activate dormant defense mechanisms in crops. Its first solution targets the corn leafhopper, a major corn pest devastating crops in the Americas.

Every year, pests destroy 20% to 40% of global crop yields despite widespread use of synthetic pesticides. We spend $100 billion per year on chemicals that perform poorly, kill pollinators, and have been correlated with cancer, endocrine disruption, and brain damage in human beings. Farmers will need better solutions to feed 9.7 billion people in 2050, up from 8 billion today.

BugBiome harnesses nature’s own defenses to protect crops from pests without any harm to people or pollinators. The team sources bioprotectants from the microbiomes of plants that have evolved to eliminate the target pest. BugBiome then uses a specialized consortia of microbes to camouflage the bioprotectant, luring in pests while minimizing their ability to develop resistance.

Companies working in precision fermentation have ambitious plans to upcycle organic waste, but most struggle with high costs and poor scalability. They rely on a few engineered bacterial strains and must operate in short batches to keep them healthy and productive. That means stopping and restarting their bioreactors frequently, which introduces downtime and a higher risk for contamination.

Capro-X has pioneered a “microbiome refinery” that uses hundreds of bacterial species in a single fermenter to produce one highly targeted end product. The company’s novel continuous extraction technology enables continuous fermentation of waste into upcycled products for years on end. Currently, Capro-X upcycles acid whey, a difficult dairy byproduct from Greek yogurt production, into caproic acid, a platform molecule used in animal feed, fragrances, flavors, cosmetics, textiles, bioplastics, and more.

The $5 trillion bioeconomy aims to produce next-generation food, fuels, and fabrics, but it faces a critical bottleneck: a shortage of affordable, carbon-negative feedstocks. Global demand for sugars and cellulose will soon outstrip supply, threatening cost and scalability challenges for industries like precision fermentation, bioplastics, upcycled textiles, and green building materials. Meanwhile, 2 billion tons of agricultural waste are burned or left to rot annually, emitting methane and CO₂—a missed $2.6 trillion opportunity.

Mothership Materials solves these challenges by transforming agricultural waste into circular feedstocks for the bioeconomy. The company’s patented TRACE™ platform operates directly at the waste source—whether on farms or industrial sites—using solar energy to extract sugars, cellulose, and other high-value molecules.

Fashion is among the world’s most wasteful industries. Textile production alone accounts for up to 10% of global carbon emissions – approximately the same as the steel industry. In the U.S., 85% of all clothes are landfilled or incinerated. Under pressure from regulators and consumers, apparel brands have taken steps to make a circular transition, but it is impossible for them to do this using legacy fibers.

To address this, Sci-Lume Labs has developed Bylon, a 100% recyclable, biodegradable, melt-processable polymer that can drop seamlessly into the textile supply chain. Bylon offers the moisture properties and comfort of cotton with the strength and lightness of synthetics like polyester and nylon.

In the U.S. alone we use 12 to 15 billion pounds of food packaging film annually, but less than 5% is recycled. Moreover, these plastic films contain PFAS (aka, “forever chemicals”) that leach into foods and have been linked to serious health risks. So far, sustainable alternatives to petrochemical film are either too expensive or lack the barrier properties of plastic.

Tastee Tape is developing edible, compostable, biodegradable packaging film that can preserve foods without harming people or the planet. Their patent-pending blend of plant fibers is strong and moisture proof, making it ideal for food safety.

The global transition to net-zero emissions hinges on the mining of critical minerals, yet copper and lithium production, projected to grow 30% and 465% by 2050, will still fall short of meeting demand. Mining faces daunting challenges: 70% of copper remains locked in low-grade ores, and extracting it is increasingly uneconomical due to the massive amounts of water, energy, and chemicals required.

Giraffe Bio is revolutionizing mining through the development of cell-free biomolecules that bind to specific metals in low-grade ores and tailings, enabling their extraction with unprecedented efficiency and sustainability. These biomolecules are custom-engineered to target each mine’s unique geological profile, delivering unmatched selectivity, higher yields, and faster processing times while significantly reducing energy, water, and chemical consumption.

The $10 billion precision agriculture industry is struggling to power the millions of sensors it needs to improve crop yields, reduce costs, and support food security amidst climate change. Farms are usually remote and lacking in energy infrastructure, but sensors reliant on single-use batteries or solar systems are prohibitively expensive because they require maintenance.

Bactery has developed a battery system that draws electricity from natural bacteria as they break down organics in agricultural soils, releasing electrons. In one year, a single Bactery can generate the amount of energy stored in ten AA batteries—double what a typical sensor requires. The low-profile device sits submerged almost entirely underground, safely out of the way, and requires no additional infrastructure or maintenance. Bactery calculates that its units are 5,000 times less expensive than solar units over their lifetimes and also generate zero carbon emissions during use.

The world depends on insulation that wastes up to 60% of heating and cooling energy, is heavy and bulky, and is 80% derived from petrochemicals. There’s been little innovation in this $65 billion industry, which still sells thick glass, sand, and plastic composites invented nearly a century ago. Aerogels—the lightest, thinnest, and best insulating materials known—could disrupt the insulation market. But so far, they’re too expensive and fragile for anything but niche uses.

Enter NanoPlume which has developed a bio-based aerogel that is strong enough for the built environment and three times more insulating than mineral wool and fiberglass insulation. NanoPlume upcycles widely available biowastes and uses conventional industrial equipment to produce this aerogel. The resulting insulation is affordable, biodegradable, dust- and mold-free, fire-retardant, and composed of 99% air.

Global demand for cement, a key ingredient in concrete, is expected to grow from 4.2 billion tons today to 6.2 billion by 2050. The construction industry relies on it to build everything from homes and buildings to roads and bridges to dams and seawalls. Cement, however, is responsible for almost 90% of concrete emissions. So far, technologies that eliminate cement (or clinker, cement’s carbon-intensive bonding agent) have failed because they cannot scale or compete on cost.

Starstone is developing a bio-concrete that removes cement from the equation. Instead of hauling rock from quarries to kilns to make cement, Starstone grows bacterial cement in fermentation tanks situated at concrete casting facilities that includes genetically modified bacteria mixes, enzymatic active ingredients, upcycled bacteria feed, recyclable media, and aggregates sourced from industrial byproducts. These will make Starstone concrete cost-competitive with conventional concrete at scale.