Some companies raise money. Others raise eyebrows. DNA Nanobots just raised $3.5M in seed capital from a prominent family office, closing a meaningful portion of its $5M seed round and securing an 18-month runway to attack the least glamorous and most important problem in gene therapy delivery. Real delivery. The kind that shows up on target, carries more than a polite payload, and does not leave the immune system looking for revenge.
DNA Nanobots did not appear overnight. It came out of Ohio State University the hard way, built on more than a decade of research from Professor Carlos Castro and the Nanoengineering and Biodesign Laboratory. Since 2013, that lab has been folding DNA into functional machines, not metaphors. Cancer delivery systems, vaccines, biosensors. By the time the company was founded in 2021, the science had already taken its punches and learned how to stand.
The founding team reflects that grind. Patrick Halley brings over 10 years of DNA origami experience as CTO. Christopher Lucas leads science with deep immunology roots and published proof that these nanostructures can bypass drug resistance. Carlos Castro anchors innovation and long-term vision. Jeff Spitzner helped shape the company early as Founding CEO and now guides strategy. Adel Mikhail, Michael Camp, and Melika Shahhohesseini round out a group that understands both how molecules behave and how companies break if you are careless.
James Lynch stepped in as CEO in July 2024 with 30+ years of drug development and commercialization experience. This raise carries his signature. Capital with intent. Money pointed at preclinical data, manufacturing scale, and IP depth, not noise. The NIH noticed too, awarding a $349,801 SBIR grant to advance the non-viral gene delivery platform.
What makes DNA Nanobots dangerous in the best way is not the $3.5M. It is the platform. DNA origami nanoparticles capable of delivering full-length genes up to 15 kb, sidestepping immunogenicity issues that haunt viral vectors, and offering targeting precision that LNPs and ADCs struggle to match. When you can load real cargo, aim it accurately, and dose repeatedly without lighting up the immune system, comparisons stop being theoretical.
The partnerships reinforce that point. An exclusive gene editing license from University of California Berkeley integrating CRISPR and HDR. A collaboration with Destroy Duchenne to deliver full-length dystrophin where AAVs tap out at 4.7 kb. Clinical guidance from John Byrd. This is not future math. This is present execution.
DNA Nanobots is not loud. It is deliberate. It assembles molecules the way durable companies assemble strategy. Carefully. Intentionally. With $3.5M in and $1.5M left to close, it has the room to prove that in gene therapy, delivery is not a footnote. It is the sentence everyone remembers.
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