Crystal Brown, co-founder of biotechnology company CircNova, is climbing the ranks as a Black woman in technology, an amazing feat all without having ever studied biology or tech, AfroTech reports.
Brown became the co-founder and CEO of CircNova, a biotechnology company generated by AI NovaEngine, in May 2023, alongside scientist Joe Deangelo, after starting a career in the automotive manufacturing industry. The University of Michigan graduate never studied biology or technology, but was introduced to the fast-paced industry after working part-time as a business manager for a life science startup. Getting her foot in the door, her friends encouraged her to dump the auto industry, but she was hesitant. “I was like, no one’s gonna take me seriously. I’ve never studied biology. I studied poli sci and women’s studies,” she said.
But she was wrong. After the company went public, she received a lucrative payout and started her own company. There were some setbacks, resulting in the company being shuttered.
However, her reputation in Michigan’s startup community preceded her, leading her to co-found CircNova. The company’s LinkedIn profile highlights it as being the first in the world to “generate, analyze, and identify circular RNA (ribonucleic acid) for therapeutic development.”
The company’s goal is to bring new treatments to market, with Circular RNA being a vital molecule in cells that can regulate critical biological processes. “We are focused on RNA therapeutics, more specifically circular RNA, which gives us access to treat more undruggable diseases,” Brown said.
“Compared to linear RNA, which can degrade at both ends, has a shorter lifespan, and is not necessarily always able to stay in the cell, circular RNA is a continuous loop. It allows us to be more efficacious and precise in binding to the disease target, allowing us to treat the disease in a more full-scope way than before.”
Raising a $3.3 million seed round for its technology, according to TechCrunch, Brown says the startup has been able to develop a “proprietary AI engine that allows us to identify, design, and then produce novel, non-coding, circular RNAs.” CircNova has its eye on being able to “treat diseases we haven’t treated so far, things like ovarian cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, rare genetic diseases,” Brown describes.
Startups in the therapeutic and pharmaceutical industry are on the come-up. More so from leaders who had no thoughts of dabbling in the space. Herriot Tabuteau, the founder of drug development company Axsome Therapeutics, is on his way to becoming a game changer for Alzheimer’s patients with a new drug called AXS-05.
After going to market in 2023, it became the first approved drug to treat agitation — defined as extreme emotional distress that can lead to resisting care, shouting, or becoming physically violent.
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