Dash Bio is a company that is transforming clinical bioanalysis to expedite drug development. By utilizing AI and robotics, the company delivers higher-quality assays with turnaround times up to 10 times faster than the industry average for clinical trials and GLP studies. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Dash Bio co-founder and COO Ander Tallett to learn more about the company.
Ander Tallett’s Background
What is Ander Tallett’s background? Tallett said:
“Becoming a founder of Dash Bio is a journey that has been over a decade in the making. After selling my first company, I joined Moderna Therapeutics for an incredible six years. I then went on to found my own consulting company DigitalRadius, lead Enterprise Systems at Resilience, and take on the role of Chief Strategy Officer for Science Exchange.”
“A consistent theme in all of these roles is a laser-focus on bringing tech into the front and center of biotech to reduce costs, reduce manual labor, and improve outcomes. ROI measured in better treatments for patients is the biggest driving force in my life and central to the story of Dash.”
Formation Of Dash Bio
How did the idea for the company come together? Tallett shared:
“The idea for Dash Bio was born out of firsthand frustration with the inefficiencies in drug development. In many ways, we’re living through a golden age of biotech and AI-powered drug discovery. But all of the AI models in research won’t matter if we can’t fix development. If you cut the cost and time of drug discovery to 0 you would have minimal impact on the industry because of the time and expense in Clinical Development.”
“Dash Bio is aiming to change that calculus by leveraging cutting-edge AI and robotics as well as integrated software. We are redefining bioanalysis by focusing on solutions, not billable hours. We have assembled a dream team for this task, including my co-founders CEO Dave Johnson (former Chief Data and AI Officer at Moderna) and CTO Ely Porter (former CTO and co-founder of Rootpath, a pioneer in synthetic immunology and gene synthesis).”
Funding
When asking Tallett about funding details, he revealed:
“We recently closed a $6.5 million seed financing round led by Freestyle Capital, with participation from Swift Ventures, LifeX Ventures, and other private investors. This funding allows us to scale our operations, enhance our capabilities, and bring our first clinical bioanalysis lab online. While we’re still early, as this was our first funding round, the strong support from our investors is a testament to the market’s belief in our vision and our ability to execute.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Tallett affirmed:
“Dash Bio stands out by taking a technology-first approach, which means building everything from the ground up in a way that embraces AI, automation, and modern software to fundamentally reinvent the way drugs are brought to market. Our first capability is a highly automated clinical bioanalysis lab that promises to deliver GLP-compliant services with unprecedented speed.”
“Clients are turning to us because they know our track record having built similar systems at Moderna and for other cutting-edge organizations, and out of frustration with the existing, manual, and labor-centric providers being too slow.”
Future Company Goals
When asking Tallett about future company goals, he pointed out:
“Our immediate focus is on scaling our clinical bioanalysis lab and showcasing innovation there. Long-term: we aim to tackle other painful parts of the drug development lifecycle by continuing to integrate technology into every stage of the process and expand our customer base, working closely with growth-stage biotechs and larger pharmaceutical companies to drive industry-wide change. Ultimately, our mission is to accelerate drug development so that groundbreaking medicines reach those who need them faster. We believe there are many areas where technology, automation, and AI can change the current paradigm. We are bringing automation and technology to a manual world.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Tallett reflected:
“Our first team dinner. The team came together quickly as Dave and I had a strong vision of who we wanted and the kind of culture we were looking for. One moment, it became real for me, sitting down to dinner with the first six hires and realizing what a team we had. Starting a company is a daunting task. It is extremely important to believe in the team around you. The dinner was great, and I was the last to leave. I got to have a moment of reflection where I realized that with this team, this group of people, we can really pull it off. That was a great moment.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Tallett explained:
“We are focused on bioanalysis and will be starting with the core assays that are most commonly used in Clinical Development: ELISA, LC-MS, and PCR are our first three. After that, we will expand into other assays and potentially adjacent services and solutions. In part that will be lead by the market and our customers, and in part by our analysis of what areas are best suited to the kind of tech-enabled transformation we bring to bear as a team and company.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Tallett and the company faced in building the company? Tallett acknowledged:
“Biotech is an interesting industry. While it is fundamentally based on technology – ‘tech’ – many people in the industry do not naturally embrace what we would generally call technology: automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, software engineering, data science outside of research. So you have these companies where most of the work is manual, including a lot of the Clinical work, the scale-up, and the processes, but the core science is based on advanced tech.
We are finding the companies and individuals who want to change that model, and want to bring technology to bear across all aspects of biotech, in particular Clinical Development.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics to discuss? Tallett concluded:
“Dash Bio is a mission driven organization. Dave and I chose to tackle a hard problem because we believe that disruption in Clinical Development is needed, overdue, and hugely impactful to patients. AWS unlocked the software industry, we will unlock biotech.”
