Variant Bio

A very thoughtful piece by the team at SoftBank about the work we do at Variant Bio:

Very honored for Variant Bio to be highlighted by SoftBank Investment Advisers Sōzō Insights series! Please check out the article which is full of fantastic images, videos, and interview clips, to learn more about the work we're doing.

From a recent piece published by the SoftBank Vision Fund: "From the start, Variant Bio was determined not to repeat the mistakes other companies have made in working with Indigenous and other underrepresented groups. Many have a long history of colonial exploitation and are wary of collaborating with scientists and companies from abroad. When Variant Bio is interested in making contact with a community, it’s often the company’s director of ethics and engagement, Sarah LeBaron von Baeyer, a cultural anthropologist with a Ph.D. from Yale, who takes the first steps. Attuned to cultural sensitivities, she seeks out local experts for collaboration."

"They’re solving the biggest bottleneck that exists in drug discovery." -- John Xue, SoftBank Investment Advisers (for more, read the recent Sōzō Insights feature piece highlighting Variant Bio's unique approach to drug discovery): https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/e5_42_Ky

Spotlight on our portfolio company Variant Bio. High-quality rich data is a scarce and valuable resource in medical research, and data hungry researchers continue to mine the same widely studied datasets, hoping to glean new insights. Variant stands out as a leader in generating and interpreting unique and differentiated data from a wide range of human populations. Read more here: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/ehyMekJ7 John Xue Andrew Farnum Stephane Castel Stacey Drabic

At General Catalyst, we’re deeply committed to harnessing technology to transform human health. Kenneth C. Frazier, Alessandra Cesano, and I are excited to share more broadly about our fund strategy in life sciences and the companies we’ve partnered with over the past 3-4 years. read more here: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/gk9dKKXB #HealthAssurances #VentureBeyond with Hemant Taneja, Chris Bischoff, Holly Maloney, Caitlin Donovan, Reva Nohria, Candace Richardson, Alexandre Momeni, Rachit N., Tyler Olkowski, Anant Pai, Dylan S., Daryl Tol, Marc Harrison, Stephen Klasko, Ronald Paulus

A project close to my heart is now live in Nature Genetics. Our recent publication describes the SABR resource, the largest functional genomics dataset to date from a continental African cohort. We analyzed blood RNA-seq data from over 600 individuals across three Southeastern Bantu-speaking groups, mapping the genetic architecture of cell type composition, gene expression, and splicing. As GWAS increasingly include African populations, the need for ancestrally aligned functional genomics resources has never been more urgent. We hope SABR helps fill that gap. All summary statistics are publicly available, and individual-level WGS/RNA-seq data can be accessed through controlled access on the EGA. If this dataset could support your research, please don’t hesitate to apply — we’re eager to see it have broad and meaningful impact. Thanks to all of our incredible collaborators at the University of the Witwatersrand especially Michèle Ramsay. This work highlights the huge impact that collaborative multi-national research can have. https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/grAp9snX

Variant Bio and University of the Witwatersrand unveil the largest functional genomics resource ever created for a continental African population out now in Nature Genetics: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/eA_q6W9u

Who will be in Helsinki this September for #EPIC2025? Looking forward to it!

Team members from Variant Bio visited Brisbane, Australia to present on genomics research and meet with study collaborators in Queensland: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/eQucj5iU