Raven (RA Ventures)

At Raven, rethinking how we tackle challenges in the clinical and regulatory spaces is a daily practice—driven not just by innovation but by personal experiences. Take Blackbird, for example. We recognized that clinical trials needed to be faster and more affordable, but we also knew they needed to be more patient-centered. That’s why we created Blackbird—a tech-enabled team chartered to accelerate clinical research, cutting costs and timelines and elevating the voice of the patient. Blackbird isn’t a CRO or a vendor, but rather a thought partner that brings innovative tools and strategies to help bring treatments to patients faster. This approach hits close to home for us, as one of our own team members, Gunnar Esiason, has firsthand experience navigating the complexities of participating in clinical trials and his story drives our commitment to improving the process for patients everywhere. Then there’s RACE (RA Capital Regulatory and Clinical Excellence), an initiative dedicated to solving the regulatory and clinical development headaches that can often halt or delay progress for small biotech companies. We’ve seen how challenging the regulatory landscape is for startups and how the hurdles can feel insurmountable. With RACE we are hoping to anticipate and prevent problems before they arise and ensure smoother paths to approval, so new treatments can reach patients in need, faster. With Blackbird and RACE we’re not just offering solutions; we’re creating a future where developing new therapies is more efficient, more accessible, and ultimately more focused on the patients we serve.

Meet Gunnar Esiason, Head of Patient Engagement at Raven, RA Capital Management's Healthcare Incubator, where he is leading innovative efforts to transform how the biotech industry works with patients. A passionate patient advocate, Gunnar is a cystic fibrosis (CF) and rare disease patient leader. He plays a vital role in helping our portfolio companies design and execute clinical trials alongside our Blackbird team, ensuring the patient voice is integral to cutting-edge initiatives and key advocacy efforts across the RA ecosystem. Gunnar has been the face of fundraising efforts for the Boomer Esiason Foundation, which has yielded nearly $200 million for the fight against CF since he was diagnosed with the condition in 1993. Before joining Raven, Gunnar led patient operations at a health tech startup and co-hosted the widely acclaimed Breathe In: A Cystic Fibrosis Podcast, which ranked among the top 200 health podcasts on iTunes in 2018. In addition to his blog, which has garnered nearly 1 million page views since 2015, Gunnar’s health policy perspectives have been featured in respected outlets including the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Hill, and STAT News. Gunnar holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, an MPH from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, and a BA from Boston College. Outside of his work at Raven, he was a founding board member of No Patient Left Behind (a non-profit dedicated to promoting reforms of America’s healthcare system and drug industry). Gunnar also enjoys skiing and looks forward to returning to the hockey rink as a coach once his children are old enough to play. Gunnar is also a contributor to RApport. His latest piece, published today, is a reflection on an upcoming ESPN documentary about his life with CF, the roles of patients and their caregivers in drug development, and the important scientific struggles we so rarely see publicly depicted. https://bit.ly/3ZXkZc1 He has previously written with Raven Venture Partner Michael Sherman about the dangers that state-level prescription drug advisory boards pose to patient access to lifesaving medicines. https://bit.ly/400EaSc

Meet Milind Kamkolkar, Venture Partner at Raven, RA Capital Management's Healthcare Incubator. Milind is a dynamic leader driving innovation at the intersection of health, AI, and data whose distinguished career spans big pharma, management consulting, and tech startups. Prior to joining Raven, Milind co-founded Paradigm in 2022, helping to raise $203.5M for their Series A to support their efforts to democratize clinical trial access for patients everywhere. He was the first enterprise Chief Data Officer (CDO) at Sanofi, where he led data strategies and AI initiatives across the organization and he was the CDO at Cellarity, a Flagship Pioneering biotech company, where he applied AI to revolutionize drug discovery and disease biology at the cellular level. Milind also played a key role in launching digital medicine at Novartis as VP of AI & Behavioral Science. A thought leader and featured speaker in Digital Health, AI, and Big Data, Milind seeks to drive transformative change in healthcare through his creative approach to data science and his commitment to enabling more equitable access to treatments. Milind enjoys spending time with his family, exploring new technologies, and mentoring the next generation of innovators – and if that’s you, he’d love to hear from you. We are proud to have Milind as part of our team, leading the way with vision, passion, and impact.

AbbVie has completed its $1.4 billion acquisition of Aliada Therapeutics, marking another milestone for RA Capital Management’s Raven healthcare incubator. ALIA-1758, currently in Phase 1 trials, could revolutionize #Alzheimer's treatment through groundbreaking blood-brain barrier technology - and this is exactly the kind of scientific breakthrough we love to nurture at Raven. “Delivering therapeutics across the blood-brain barrier with a low-volume, subcutaneous injection would be revolutionary for treating Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders, and has long been a dream in the field,” said Laura Tadvalkar, PhD, Managing Director at RA Capital Management and former board chair at Aliada. We here at Raven are proud to see companies advancing innovative medicines and creating value for patients and partners. Huge congratulations to AbbVie, the Aliada Therapeutics team and our fellow co-founders! #Biotech #RavenBuilds #Healthcare #Alzheimers #Innovation

🚀 Unlocking the Power of "Design-Build-Test" in Machine Learning for Biology 🌟 In the quest to bridge machine learning and biology, a profound truth emerges: computational models alone are not enough. Despite groundbreaking achievements like AlphaFold, real progress demands more than just prediction—it requires iteration and refinement to drive discovery. This is where the "Design-Build-Test" cycle shines. By designing experiments, building models, and rigorously testing outcomes, we create feedback loops that drive true understanding and innovation in the biological sciences. 💡 Jacob Oppenheim's opinion piece from earlier this year dives deep into why this iterative approach is critical for advancing machine learning in biology and creating the next generation of therapeutics. If you're curious about how the synergy of technology and biology can be harnessed to transform our understanding of life, give it a read! 🔗 Check it out here: https://bit.ly/4inBTrk

Meet Jacob Oppenheim, Venture Partner at Raven, RA Capital Management's Healthcare Incubator, where he plays a pivotal role in driving the next generation of life science innovations. Prior to joining Raven, Jacob co-founded Fresnel, a platform renowned as “the Bloomberg for Biology"; led Data Science & Engineering at EQRx; and developed machine learning systems to drive agricultural innovations at Indigo. He is passionate about using AI/ML to tackle some of the toughest biological problems. Jacob holds a PhD in Biological Physics from Rockefeller University and an AB in Physics from Princeton University. His career has been marked by his ability to build high-performing teams and establish scalable data infrastructure. Jacob is also a regular presenter at leading conferences such as NeurIPS and ML4Health and holds multiple patents at the intersection of biology and machine learning. When Jacob isn’t disrupting the status quo in life sciences, he enjoys exploring the swamps of New England in his folding kayak, cooking gourmet meals for his family, and working to get more homes built for everyone in Massachusetts. We are thrilled to have him on the Raven team, pushing the boundaries of innovation and driving meaningful impact. 🙌 #EmployeeSpotlight #Innovation #LifeSciences #AI #MachineLearning #RavenIncubator #TechLeadership #Biotech #HealthcareInnovation #RACapital

We are excited to announce the first acquisition of a fully-baked company from RA Capital's RAVen (RA Ventures) incubator - congratulations to the Mariana Oncology team! You can read more about how RAVen helped build the company that became Mariana in the RApport article below. https://lnkd.in/eQmjvZQu