Biodynamics CEO Raj Krishnan and CFO Kevin Han shared their vision of developing liquid biopsy to detect cancer at the earliest stage to ensure the best results for patients. This question and answer is based on an email response to the question.
Why did you start this company?
Raj: I feel that we are placed on this earth for a noble purpose. For me, part of this goal is to build things that can help people. My motivation can be traced back to when I was growing up in the Bay Area in the 1990s, when everyone started their own .com company. I have always wanted to build something that will help save lives. I completed my PhD and eventually stumbled upon something very revolutionary—the ability to directly separate biomarkers from high-conductivity solutions—that was once considered theoretically impossible. The technology itself uses electrical engineering principles not commonly found in biological applications. We finally applied for a patent for this technology and started looking for cancer biomarkers. I won several business plan competitions and used this momentum to start a company. But I don’t just want to build a company, I also want to build a company that can have a real impact on the world.
Kevin: My interest in human health began when I was in high school at the North Carolina College of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM), where we were exposed to college-level biology courses. During this period, the Human Genome Project is underway, which is definitely helpful, because my interest has turned into a passion and curiosity for disruptive medical technology. I completed my pre-medical requirements at UNC-Chapel Hill. Although the idea of helping patients in the local community is interesting, I think I can make a bigger impact by advising companies that are committed to global life-saving missions.
After completing my studies, I worked at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, researching medical equipment and diagnostic companies, and eventually became an investor in the healthcare field for more than ten years. Fast forward to today, and I am very happy to be able to join biodynamics at these exciting times. Given my career, I believe this is the perfect crystallization of my past experience. I was an investor in the diagnostics field and led various financial and operational tasks of Bio-Rad Laboratories, a S&P 500 index healthcare company. Biological Dynamics has highly differentiated technologies in the emerging and disruptive field of liquid biopsy. The ability to detect cancer at the earliest stages has the potential to save lives and bring transformative improvements to the healthcare system.
What specific needs/problems are you seeking to solve in the healthcare sector?
Raj Krishnan
Raj: The sooner cancer is detected, the sooner cancer can be treated. The earlier the cancer is treated, the higher the chance of survival. We want to focus on early cancer detection, starting with Phase 1A. At Biological Dynamics, we have developed a unique platform to enable early cancer detection, which will enable oncologists to intervene at the earliest stages of the disease.
What does your product do? How does it work?
Raj: The current difficulty in early cancer detection is to find the marker at the earliest stage. Current technologies are limited by the methods used to separate molecules from blood, which often leads to errors. Biological Dynamics’ platform uses an AC electric field, similar to that used to power wall sockets, to separate particles of a specific size range from the blood, such as extracellular vesicles, long fragments of DNA, RNA, or proteins. Our technology allows us to gently and non-destructively extract molecules of interest from solutions without the need for chemical or mechanical bonding or subjecting them to shear stress. Analyzing these molecules from the natural state of complex solutions (such as blood) provides a very good signal-to-noise ratio as to whether cancer may be present. Our ultimate goal is to build an integrated infrastructure that can completely identify and quantify the markers of interest on the chip without any additional technology.
Is this your first healthcare startup? What is your background in healthcare?
Raj: Yes, this is my first healthcare startup. I have a PhD degree in biological engineering and a bachelor degree in electrical engineering. I started working at the Morse Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego. Although there are many outstanding oncologists around me, I try to learn as much as possible to solve one of the biggest problems facing mankind.
Kevin Han
Kevin: I have worked in the healthcare field for nearly 20 years, including my early research and epidemiological work, especially studying the metabolic effects of various therapies on HIV patients. This research was published at the International AIDS Conference and laid the foundation for many follow-up publications in leading academic journals. These achievements have also earned me a full academic scholarship from UNC-Chapel Hill, where I continue to pursue my passion for human health. I was in pre-university and my professor of organic chemistry helped develop the first bioabsorbable scaffold, which was another inspiration for me. As I studied deeply and started to follow the doctor, I realized that I didn’t really like the hospital environment. I have also begun to realize that even without surgery or face-to-face communication with patients, you can have a positive impact on patients’ lives through disruptive medical technology. This ability to reach so many patients and affect their lives attracted me to investment in healthcare. I started my equity research career at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in New York City, covering medical technology and diagnostics. Then, I managed healthcare investment strategies in different investment management companies for more than ten years, where I continued to focus on genomics-related companies. Finally, before joining Biological Dynamics, I was the Director of Investor Relations and Sustainability at Bio-Rad Laboratories, where I also supported various other functions such as corporate strategy, business development, corporate communications, and financial planning and analysis.
Who are your customers? How do you generate income?
Kevin: Our vision is to make our multi-cancer screening test a medical standard for everyone. Whenever patients go to the doctor for annual screening, cholesterol or glucose testing, for example, a small blood sample can also be collected to screen for cancer. If we can incorporate this part of everyone’s screening process, then more cancers will be detected in the early and more treatable stages. If we have achieved great success, then we can all begin to imagine a world in which it is considered a rare event to be diagnosed with cancer at stage 3 or 4.
Having said that, in the end, patients are our customers. However, healthcare purchasing decisions are more complicated than your standard consumer or retail purchasing decisions. In a standard purchase decision, such as buying a computer, the individual (or entity) who decides which computer to buy also pays for the computer, and finally uses the computer to meet their needs. In healthcare purchasing decisions (such as diagnostic tests), the doctor decides which specific test to order, and the insurance company/government pays for the product, and the person who benefits and/or uses the product is the patient. Therefore, although we treat patients as our ultimate customers, we will need the support and support of the entire healthcare system to realize our vision.
In the short term, we plan to generate revenue through the LDT approach because we have a CLIA laboratory in our headquarters in San Diego, California. In the LDT income stage, we hope to get income from a larger self-insured employer and comprehensive medical network. Over time, we will seek FDA approval, which will help obtain reimbursement through commercial and government payers. The revenue through the LDT and FDA channels will be generated through the Diagnosis as a Service (DaaS) model, which does not require our customers to purchase any equipment or require our customers to obtain CLIA exemptions every year. We will act as a complete operator-service laboratory, This will reduce friction for our customers while maintaining our own cost scale.
Is your product clinically validated?
Raj: Like other innovative types of diagnostic companies, we must go through proper regulatory procedures. Although our technology has not yet been approved by the FDA, we are publishing data. These data give us confidence to continue the commercialization of our products.
Kevin: In order to support our clinical validation program, we are currently in the final stage of financing, which will be used to conduct a comprehensive analysis and validation before establishing a larger clinical utility study. Our next focus is to launch our products through the LDT channel, and we will apply the current fundraising funds accordingly to support the plan. As you know, we are very excited about the company’s mission, and we thank our team for their dedication and support!
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