Healthcare Startups funded by Y Combinator (YC) in Boston 2026

Ginkgo Bioworks is the organism company. We design custom organisms for customers across multiple markets. We build our foundries to scale the process of organism engineering using software and hardware automation. Organism engineers at Ginkgo learn from nature to develop new organisms that replace technology with biology.

Manufacturing pharmaceutical drugs faster and in the USA

SynsoryBio is creating next generation, protein therapeutics that sense where they are in the body and only activate at diseased tissue. This technology platform has the potential to expand the therapeutic window of highly potent drugs and apply to many diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disorders.

Pando is an AI-driven synthetic biology company revolutionizing enzyme engineering for the pharmaceutical industry. Our ultra-high-throughput screening platform screens 1000-fold more enzymes 75% faster and 80% cheaper than traditional methods. This empowers our generative AI to efficiently optimize enzymes across multiple properties, delivering high-performing, tailored enzymes that reduce costs and enhance efficiency.

Your immune system is your body’s best weapon and defense against cancer. It is only when it is overcome that cancer develops into full blown disease. Dendritic cells sit at the helm of the immune system, directing and dictating immune responses. Data has shown dendritic cells are often dysfunctional in cancer patients, and that this dysfunction is a bottleneck for other therapies. Guardian Bio’s approach is focused on creating a dendritic cell-based product which drives anti-tumor activity through activating the killers of the immune system AND training them against multiple cancer targets. We take stem cells from cancer patients, turn them into specific therapeutic dendritic cells specially trained against that patient’s tumor, and re-introduce them back into the body. Our therapeutic dendritic cells revitalize the killers of the immune system and give them the kickstart they need to fight - and win - against cancer.

We are building high-precision implantable neuromodulation devices that can sense and stimulate neural activity in the brain with the goal of transforming the efficacy and adoption of deep brain stimulation (DBS), an existing FDA-approved therapy used to treat Parkinson’s, essential tremor and epilepsy.

Brown Foods is a Stanford, Rice University and IIT Delhi alumni venture building the next-generation of food products. They are creating UnReal Milk- lab based, clean milk - extremely sustainable 'real milk' but made without any cows. Unlike any other option in the USD 22 billion dairy alternatives market today, it will be exactly similar to cow’s milk in terms of nutritional profile, taste, texture and could also be processed into butter, cheese and ice creams. They envision to disrupt the USD 700 billion conventional dairy market by giving the world its 1st 'cow free' real milk option, reducing the carbon footprint of milk by over 90% while being completely cruelty-free.

Non-invasive brain stimulation is a widely-utilized, FDA cleared treatment used for patients diagnosed with depression, but is limited to a hospital setting due to the cost of the device, and complexity of treatment application. Our proprietary brain stimulation device allows patients to be treated directly from their home, with the same efficacy, and at a lower cost of treatment. Currently in FDA pivotal phase for Major Depressive Disorder, and Pilot phase for Alzheimer's and Parkinson diseases.

Navigating chronic illness is an isolating and lonely process which ultimately reduces medical adherence and adversely impacts outcomes. There are over 100 deadly chronic conditions as 1 out of 2 Americans is currently living with at least 1 chronic condition. The US healthcare system has over $1 trillion dollars in direct costs. Medical adherence rates for therapeutic programs and medicine are only 50% because patients feel lonely, isolated, and unsupported in their chronic illness journey. Reviving Mind is an in-network telehealth provider that improves clinical outcomes and program adherence for the senior medicare and medicare-advantage population that is plagued with loneliness and chronic illness. This is done through a novel and proprietary clinical program and technology platform that integrates virtual, private, curated, and professionally led groups that scale up to 8-patients with individualized and goal oriented lifestyle medicine coaching that is automated but managed by a licensed provider. Scaling rapidly across the United States.

Our mission is to enable pharmaceutical and biotech companies to bring more antibody therapies to patients. Using AI and massively parallel experimentation, we design antibodies that precisely bind the disease target at the right location, while minimizing manufacturability and toxicity risks. We are a well-funded, revenue-generating, bilingual company of wet- and dry-lab scientists, and are founded by AI and protein design experts from Harvard University.

Kiwi Biosciences can help 18M Americans suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) enjoy a normal meal without running to the bathroom two hours later. We develop novel, patent-pending enzymes that break down common digestive triggers in food.

We are building a platform of bacterial molecules to awaken our body’s innate ability to control inflammation and heal. Our first indication is Crohn’s Disease, which affects over 500,000 Americans at an annual cost of $10B. After Crohn's disease, we are going for type 1 Diabetes and Multiple Sclerosis.

Parallel Bio created a human 'immune system in a dish' to discover drugs and immunotherapies more likely to work in patients. Our platform has all of the same elements as a human immune system, meaning you can test drugs and vaccines as if you were testing them in actual patients from the start. The biggest reason why 95% of new drugs fail is that they were tested in mice - but with our human platform, pharma companies will know which drugs will successfully treat patients, speeding up the process and reducing the cost. To date our platform has successfully been used to test 12 drugs, and vaccines against 8 different diseases. The company is founded by Robert DiFazio, a former Stanford R&D director with a PhD in immunology, and Juliana Hilliard, a former System1 Biosciences R&D lead with an MSc in bioengineering, both of whom have led drug discovery programs for years.

At Pirouette, we have developed a low-profile, disk-shaped, rugged injection device with a patient-centric focus on affordability, portability, and usability. The patented device, based on extensive patient input, is designed to make administering an injection as easy as pushing a button. This allows individuals with limited or no training to easily and intuitively perform an injection on themselves or others.

We are the only AI-native biotech pioneering small and large molecule therapeutics discovery by integrating massive multimodal data, frontier AI models, and high-throughput lab automation into an infrastructure for AI-enabled drug discovery.

Valink Therapeutics develops next generation antibody-based therapeutics. We identify novel mechanism of action from known targets by incorporating multiple antibody modifications at once, rapidly and scalable generating complex drug candidates (bi-/multispecificity, multivalency and drug-conjugation in a single discovery process). Our research focus is on solid tumours poorly addressed by immunotherapy.

Volta Labs is a genomics applications company that has developed a cutting-edge digital fluidics platform to maximize performance and scalability of sample preparation in genomics while providing unparalleled consistency. Volta is transforming the way biological research and analyses are performed, allowing scientists to focus on what they do best -- pushing the boundaries of biology. As a collective of scientists and builders working at the intersection of engineering and biology, we imagine a world where extracting vital information from biological samples is as simple as pressing a button. That's our vision, and we're turning it into reality. Our HQ is in Boston’s Seaport, where we develop and manufacture our technology. We believe in cross-functional collaboration and continuous learning – whether your interest is in biology, MechEng, CompEng, or simply joining a fast-growing startup striving to make the world a better place, we'd love to welcome you to our team. Check out some of our blog posts to learn more about work life at Volta.

Kernal Bio is a biotech company pioneering mRNA 2.0 immunotherapies. We leverage selective mRNA-LNP technology to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases with precision, ensuring targeted cell delivery and minimal off-target effects. Our KR-402 program achieves over 90% delivery efficiency with T-cell-targeted LNPs, enabling direct CAR-T programming within the body and resulting in B-cell depletion within a week. Kernal Bio is led by a team with experience from MIT, Harvard, Merck, and BMS, boasting three FDA-approved therapies and over 120 patents. Based in Cambridge, MA, we are backed by Hummingbird Ventures, Amgen Ventures, HBM, and even NASA. With roots at MIT, Harvard and Biopharma, Kernal’s management team has deep expertise in mRNA therapeutics space. CEO Yusuf Erkul, M.D., M.B.A. is a successful drug hunter whose research at Merck enabled an FDA-approved drug for ovarian cancer. President Burak Yilmaz, M.S., previously founded Sentegen, a thriving synthetic biology company which commercializes synthetic DNA, RNA, and diagnostic kits for genetic and infectious diseases. Sr. VP of R&D Manfred Kraus is a leader in immuno-oncology, who was most recently Scientific Sr. Director at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS).

We are developing a new paradigm for consumer health tech wearables by replacing a 100lb optical instrument with an area of silicon smaller than a postage stamp.

We are a nonprofit stool bank, expanding safe access to fecal transplants and catalyzing research on the human microbiome.

Stealth-mode, rapidly scaling, venture-backed startup at the vanguard of automated robotic surgery revolution -- just closed our Series A round. We are improving access to dental care in underserved populations by combining novel imaging technology with AI and surgical robotics to automate surgery in the $452B dental industry. We are bringing a new imaging modality to dentistry which can see inside teeth and below the gingiva all without the need for x-rays. AI is used to diagnose decay and plan treatment. Automated robotics reduces the time for surgery down to one minute, reducing patient discomfort and saving time and reducing cost for the dentist. YC 2020, Winner of the Forsyth DenTech 2021 CareCaptial award

PostEra is building a modern 21st century biopharma. We're using our advances in machine learning to accelerate Medicinal Chemistry and bring more cures to patients. PostEra advances small molecule programs through partnerships with biopharma while also advancing its own internal pipeline. We've raised $26M from top investors and closed $1Bn in AI partnerships, signing multi-year agreements with Amgen, Pfizer and the NIH. PostEra also launched and led the world's largest open-science drug discovery effort; COVID Moonshot.

DNA has emerged as a compelling data storage medium due to its density, longevity, and eternal relevance compared to current memory technologies. However, the high price of synthesizing DNA remains a major bottleneck for adoption of this promising storage solution. We are pioneering new approaches to synthesizing DNA for data storage with enzymes and custom digital codecs. We are building an interdisciplinary team to build the world's most scalable information infrastructure in DNA. We seek technical experts in enzyme engineering, chemistry, hardware engineering, and information theory. We also seek business development to identify emerging markets for early use cases of our technology.

We develop surgical navigation and robotics tools to make minimally invasive surgeries easier, faster and more accessible.

At XGenomes, we are building a technology comprising novel biochemistry, hardware and algorithms for sequencing DNA. Our product will be streamlined: there is zero library preparation; we sequence directly on unadulterated single molecules of DNA; DNA extraction will be integrated with sequencing; there is no bioinformatics bottleneck. The sequence we produce will be of unprecedented accuracy due to several layers of in-built redundancy including the sequencing both strands of the double-helix concurrently. The sequence we produce will be complete, encompassing: structural as well as single nucleotide variants; long-range haplotype phase; the repetitive "dark matter" of the genome. The cost of goods (consumables) of sequencing will be <$10, which will allow us to price our product at a level that will help grow the market while still achieving >90% margin. We will start by offering access as a service to high value customers, which be followed by a razor and blade model of selling instruments and consumables.

We deploy location beacons to track the movements of patients and doctors, measure the inefficiencies in the doctors’ workflows, and then give the hospitals targeted recommendations on how to improve.

Technology finds information and delivers physical products to us almost instantly. mRNA does the same for biology. At HelixNano, we see a world where treatments are cheap, progress is decentralized, and you can modify biology at the push of a button. By focusing on mRNA improvements from first principles, we’re getting there faster than we thought. Experiments that used to take months or years can be done in weeks and cost thousands instead of millions. The rate limiting step for our progress is now scientific curiosity. Rigid hierarchies and top-down decisions will miss the magic. Some of our most powerful technologies started out as side projects of junior team members. At HelixNano, every individual scientist can have a massive impact on the company's direction. And the more diverse our team, the faster we’ll find the really cool ideas. We've started rolling out some of our new tech — moving a COVID-19 vaccine candidate for the immunocompromised towards the clinic, and testing an intervention with massive environmental impact. But we’re scientists at heart, and team focus is solidly on the horizon.

We’re a group of Harvard and Yale-trained physicians, engineers, designers, and social entrepreneurs who came together to transform care delivery. Medumo’s CareTours™ enable healthcare organizations to effectively provide turn-by-turn guidance to patients without disrupting workflow by utilizing automated, precisely-timed messages sent via text and email. - Dramatically improve procedural completion rate - Increase referral conversion - Reduce staff burden - Recover revenue loss Want to get started in automating patient navigation for your Hospital, ASC, or Practice? We serve all specialties. Reach out to our leadership team for a brief chat or full presentation. Bob Smith - Director Strategic Partnerships Bob@medumo.com Cell # is 502-744-2911 EST

TetraScience provides the world’s first and only R&D Data Cloud, with a mission to transform life sciences R&D, accelerate discovery, and improve human life. Scientists at global pharma and biotech organizations rely on our innovative Tetra Data Platform for easy access to centralized, harmonized, and actionable scientific data to accelerate their digital lab transformation. With best-in-class SaaS performance, a team of industry innovators, and excellent product/market fit, Tetra is positioned to become an iconic life sciences software company.