CRISPR Startups funded by Y Combinator (YC) 2026

Algen is using CRISPR to uncover disease-driving RNA messages to find treatments for cancer, inflammation and diseases with high unmet needs. We are harnessing the power of CRISPR and machine learning to find first-in-class drugs that modulate RNA messages at single-cell resolution. Algen's founders are bioengineer from Jennifer Doudna Lab and biotech commercialization expert, teamed up with experienced pharmaceutical executives.

Our founder Noah, an experienced tech entrepreneur, was directly impacted by a severe genetic disease when his daughter was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome, a disease that afflicts 1 in 10,000 girls. Using an innovative polytherapy strategy, we’ve successfully improved her quality of life, and have designed new therapeutics that each could be worth billions and together could deliver a cure.

Nephrogen is a biotech company developing curative gene therapies for kidney and pancreatic diseases. Kidney disease affects 1 in 7 Americans (~50 million people), has no cure, and accounts for nearly 10% of the Medicare budget.

LEAH Labs is building living therapies for pets first, and their people next. We're first focused on CAR-T cell therapy for dogs with B cell lymphoma, the naturally occurring clinical analog of human non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. CAR-T cells are curative in humans, and our early results are showing the same - we're inducing remissions in pets with late stage lymphomas. Our virus-free gene editing platform allows us to engineer a dose of CAR-T cell therapy for ~$500, and brings the promise of a curative outcome. Given our safety and efficacy data to date, we believe this product could be used by general practice veterinarians, meaning we have thousands of customers all across the USA who typically treat with palliative care or refer cancer patients to specialty oncologists. Our CAR-T cell platform is regulated by the USDA, not the FDA, affording us a cost effective "full stack" to iterate and innovate on CAR-T cell therapy from a hypothesis through clinical validation.