HexemBio Secures $10.4M for Stem Cell Rejuvenation

A new biotechnology company has emerged with a novel strategy for stem cell rejuvenation, securing a significant $10.4 million seed investment. HexemBio, based in Berkeley and New York, is pioneering a therapeutic platform that aims to restore the function of aging blood stem cells by mimicking their natural origin. Instead of relying on genetic engineering or chemical reprogramming, the company’s Synthetic Human Yolk Sac technology temporarily places a patient’s own cells into a recreated version of the precise embryonic environment where blood stem cells first form. This approach, which has received FDA Orphan Drug Designation for its lead program, represents a fundamental shift in the field of regenerative medicine.

Haematopoietic stem cells are the foundational source of every blood and immune cell in the body. Their gradual decline is a primary driver of age-related immune dysfunction, chronic inflammation, and heightened risk for diseases like blood cancer. Most prior attempts to reverse this decline have involved transcription factors or gene editing, methods that can introduce instability or safety concerns. HexemBio’s platform seeks to avoid these pitfalls by leveraging developmental biology. The scientific foundation for this work was published in the journal Nature in early 2024 by a research team that now forms the company’s scientific leadership.

The company’s initial clinical focus is on improving outcomes for bone marrow transplant patients, particularly those with acute myeloid leukaemia and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Targeting a clear medical need provides a viable pathway for clinical development, as aging itself is not currently a recognized indication for drug approval. HexemBio has completed a Pre-IND meeting with the FDA and is targeting the initiation of first-in-human trials for 2027. The recent seed funding, led by Draper Associates with participation from SOSV and Seraphim, will support the necessary IND-enabling studies and GMP manufacturing scale-up to reach that milestone.

HexemBio’s leadership team brings together expertise from premier institutions including MIT, UC Berkeley, and Harvard. CEO Gabriel Levesque Tremblay is a former Y Combinator founder and UC Berkeley postdoc. The company’s Chief Scientific Officer, Mo Ebrahimkhani, is the inventor of the core technology and a noted pioneer in synthetic developmental biology. Chief Technology Officer Samira Kiani, a Presidential Early Career Award recipient, and AI platform lead Joshua Hislop, whose doctoral work contributed to the key Nature paper, round out the founding scientific team.

The company has assembled a formidable advisory board to guide its development. It includes Robert S. Langer, MIT Institute Professor and Moderna co-founder, who has praised the approach as “fundamentally different” and cited early data as “extremely compelling.” Other advisors provide deep regulatory and clinical expertise, such as former FDA chief counsel Peter Barton Hutt, leading bone marrow transplant clinician Joanne Kurtzberg of Duke University, and former NIH Division of Aging Biology director Felipe Sierra. This collective guidance will be crucial as HexemBio advances its unique cell rejuvenation therapy from concept to clinic.