Stylus Medicine emerges from stealth to develop in vivo genetic medicines
Posted on June 3rd, 2025
Stylus Medicine, Inc. emerged from stealth on May 13, 2025 with $85 million in a Series A financing to develop its in vivo genetic medicines platform. The company was founded by Stanford University professors Ami S. Bhatt, MD, PhD, Michael C. Bassik, PhD, and Lacramioara Bintu, PhD, along with Patrick Hsu, PhD at Arc Institute and University of California, Berkeley. The founders received research funding and support through SPARK to further develop their work on large serine recombinases toward use in a therapeutic setting.
The founders, along with former Stanford graduate students Matthew Durrant and Josh Tycko, joined SPARK in 2021 to discover and refine microbial recombinases with affinity for human genes. The team, aided by graduate student Alison Fanton at Berkeley, identified natural large serine recombinases – enzymes that could target the human genome to integrate large genetic payloads. Stylus Medicine was founded in 2022. Stylus selected, optimized, and validated recombinases for efficiency, selectivity and deliverability, and went on to develop novel, therapeutic-grade recombinases for in vivo genetic medicines. Stylus’ in vivo genetic medicines platform comprises its proprietary engineered recombinases with lipid nanoparticle delivery to enable targeted, sequence-specific integration of large and complex therapeutic payloads. The platform can overcome limitations in other genetic engineering platforms by delivering and encoding transgenes that would otherwise be too large.
The company’s goal is to develop in vivo genetic medicines that can expand the reach of gene and cell therapies. Stylus plans to advance its platforms first to create in vivo CAR-T therapies targeting immune cells, in which the platform can deliver therapeutic payloads directly to the cells inside the body.
Dr. Bhatt, Professor of Medicine and of Genetics at Stanford University, said “SPARK played a major role in guiding our lab from the initial microbial genomics work to identify thousands of LSRs and predict their integration sites through the process of co-founding Stylus Medicine. From working with our superstar former PhD students, Matt Durrant and Josh Tycko, on our pitch, to connecting us with valuable VC and key opinion leader contacts, SPARK was an ideal, responsive and highly engaged partner in this exciting journey!”
“We are excited about the potential of this technology to address key challenges in therapeutic gene delivery that would enable new types of medicines for patients,” said Dr. Bassik, Associate Professor of Genetics at Stanford University.
“Recombinases are such elegant enzymes: they find the right spot in the genome and can insert large genes without relying on DNA repair pathways. I am excited that our collaborative work set the seed for Stylus to develop new therapies based on these amazing enzymes. I hope this will lead to more efficient and safer genetic medicines for patients,” said Dr. Bintu, Associate Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University.
Stylus continues to advance its preclinical studies. At the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) 28th Annual Meeting that was held May 13-17, 2025, Stylus gave presentations showcasing its recombinase engineering approach and in vivo CAR-T platform.
For more information on Stylus Medicine, please visit www.stylusmedicine.com.