Mana.bio, a startup that uses machine learning to design lipid nanoparticles, posted preprint data in December 2025 showing its particles transfected T cells in non-human primates while keeping liver uptake low. The company raised a $19.5 million seed round in October 2023 and has not publicly announced a later one.
The result draws attention because most lipid nanoparticles, or LNPs, the fatty bubbles that carry genetic cargo into cells, still end up in the liver. Developers of in vivo CAR-T therapy, which reprograms immune cells inside the body, and of gene editing need carriers that reach other tissues. A lot of well-funded companies are chasing the same goal.
What Mana.bio built
The company describes itself as an AI-native platform for programmable drug delivery, according to its technology page (accessed Oct. 29, 2026). It concentrates on extrahepatic targeting, meaning delivery beyond the liver, for nucleic-acid payloads such as mRNA, siRNA and CRISPR components. Its process is a design-build-test-learn loop paired with high-throughput screening.
The preprint, posted Dec. 4, 2025, on Research Square with Sheba Medical Center, reported dose-dependent transfection of CD3+ T cells in non-human primates at roughly 2.5% to 15%. Transfection of CD4+ cells reached about 25%. As of Oct. 29, 2026, the work had not been peer reviewed.
Mana.bio also had a poster at the ASGCT 2026 meeting (abstract ID 1083), "Machine Learning-Driven Design of Lipid Nanoparticles for In Vivo T-Cell Engineering," slated for May 12 at 5:30 p.m., according to company news. Separately, on Sept. 17, 2025, it launched Mina, a publicly available assistant built on a large language model that handles LNP literature questions, predictive modeling and formulation insights.
Team, backers and advisers
Multiple profiles say Mana.bio was founded in 2021, and a conference PDF from Kenes Exhibitions puts its incorporation in October of that year. Yogev Debbi, the chief executive, co-founded Genome Compiler, later ran Twist's Israel operations as general manager and held an executive post at monday.com, according to a Life Sciences Baltics biography. Roy Nevo, the chief technology officer, held the same title at Genome Compiler. The scientific co-founders are Avi Schroeder, a professor at the Technion, and Kira Radinsky.
The seed round, announced Oct. 10, 2023, drew Andreessen Horowitz Bio + Health, Base4 Capital, NFX, LionBird and the Technion, according to PR Newswire. Caplight and Crunchbase both list it as the most recent round. Any other funding figure in circulation should be treated as unverified.
The company has been adding to its bench in 2026. On May 5 it announced a board member, Thaminda Ramanayake, a board observer, Michelle Lynn Hall, and a strategic adviser, Guy Van Meter. A correction to that announcement followed May 6. On July 27, it named Laura Sepp-Lorenzino, PhD, to its Scientific Advisory Board. She is a former chief scientific officer of Intellia, and her earlier career includes stints at Vertex, Alnylam and Merck.
LinkedIn lists 11 to 50 employees, a self-reported figure that could not be independently confirmed.
Partnerships so far include Ginkgo Bioworks' Technology Network (Feb. 28, 2024), NVIDIA's Inception program (March 25, 2024) and a Sheba Medical Center ARC collaboration on RNA delivery in oncology and autoimmunity (Oct. 1, 2024). LinkedIn posts from mid-2026 point to a Blue Marlin Therapeutics collaboration on in vivo CAR-T, though Mana.bio's site carried no press release about it as of Oct. 29, 2026.
Rivals in extrahepatic delivery
Companies working on targeted LNPs are numerous. ReCode Therapeutics, which uses SORT LNPs and has lung and central nervous system programs, announced more than $29 million in additional financing in September 2025. Aera Therapeutics nominated AERA-109, a targeted LNP CAR-T candidate, on Sept. 24, 2025, and had said it planned to enter the clinic in the second half of 2026.
Sail Biomedicines, a Flagship Pioneering company, announced a collaboration with Johnson & Johnson on in vivo CAR-T in July 2026. Acuitas Therapeutics supplies LNP technology used in COMIRNATY and ONPATTRO and has an option deal with Pfizer.
On the AI side, Dyno Therapeutics applies machine learning to capsids, the protein shells used in viral gene delivery. Roche licensed a neuro capsid from Dyno in January 2025, and Astellas exercised a skeletal muscle license on April 8, 2026. "This license is evidence that we're achieving that vision," Dyno's release said.
Market and regulatory backdrop
Estimates of the LNP market vary by source. Grand View Research puts it at $786.4 million in 2024, growing to $1.54 billion by 2030, a compound annual growth rate of 13.6%. Mordor Intelligence arrives at different numbers: $1.02 billion in 2026 and $1.83 billion in 2031, or 12.3% a year.
Activity in RNA medicine continues to build. The ASGCT Landscape Report counted 23 RNA trials initiated in the first quarter of 2026, up from 22 in the fourth quarter of 2025, and a Nature review counted 27 FDA-approved RNA therapeutics as of August 2026.
Intellia's biologics license application for lonvo-z (NTLA-2002) in hereditary angioedema has been accepted with Priority Review and carries a PDUFA date of March 10, 2027. BCG wrote that "gene editing reached a watershed moment with Intellia's filing of the first potential in vivo CRISPR therapy."
The AI pitch deserves some caution. Axios reported on July 20, 2026, that AI has yet to discover a drug that has won FDA approval. Money is still flowing into the sector, though: BioPharma Dive reported at least $9.1 billion in venture funding across at least 68 biotechs in the first half of 2026.
What to watch
The nearest hurdle for Mana.bio is peer review of its T-cell data, followed by a route to a clinical program or a deal with a larger drugmaker. Its public record shows no financing since the 2023 seed, so a new round would be the plainest sign of investor appetite. Aera's clinical debut, if it arrives on the timeline the company gave, will offer the first look at how a targeted LNP CAR-T behaves in people.
