Intertwined Biosciences
Evolution. AI-Native Discovery. Therapeutics.
Decoding animal superpowers to transform human health
Science
The Problem
Immune Cells Fail to Heal In chronic disease immune cells get stuck in destructive states that drive ongoing damage. No treatments restore function at advanced stages.
The Solution
Solutions Validated by Evolution We identify interventions that restore immune function and resolve disease. We learn from disease-resistant mammal species to guide what works.
The Technology
AI-Native Discovery The Virtual Immune Cell simulates interventions, designs experiments and literature surveys, and learns from each result.
News
2026UpdateIntertwined Biosciences Announces Pre-Seed FinancingIntertwined Biosciences today announced the closing of its pre-seed financing round. The company is backed by Boost VC, Plug and Play Tech Center, and C10 Labs, and is based at LabCentral in Kendall Square. Intertwined is decoding animal superpowers to transform human health. The company is building a Virtual Immune Cell, an AI-native discovery system designed to identify disease-resistance mechanisms and guide therapeutic development.Apr 8, 2026 2026UpdateIntertwined selected as semi-finalist in the Boston Capital Investment Club Pitch CompetitionEarlier this week, Intertwined Biosciences came out of stealth. Today we're selected as a semifinalist in the Boston Capital Investment Club pitch competition — one of 12 companies chosen from nearly 200 amazing companies, presenting to 200+ VCs and investors on March 27th.BCIC has facilitated over $300 million in funding for biotech startups since 2022. Past finalists have gone on to raise $10M, $24M, $60M and beyond.The momentum is real. The science is ready. The experiments are live.If you're an investor who believes the next frontier in medicine lives at the intersection of evolution, AI, and biology — we'd love to connect.Mar 19, 2026 2026UpdateIntertwined Biosciences Selected into Second Cohort of AI BioHub AcceleratorIntertwined Biosciences has been selected to join the AI BioHub accelerator. The program brings together a focused cohort of AI-native biotech startups building at the frontier of machine learning and life sciences. Participation accelerates our ability to tightly integrate computational design with rapid wet-lab validation as we advance immune cell programming.Feb 24, 2026 2026UpdateIntertwined Biosciences Accepted into LabCentralWe’re thrilled to share that Intertwined Biosciences has been accepted into LabCentral in Kendall Square - the premier lab community for innovative biotech startups. Residency at LabCentral provides immediate access to world-class infrastructure and a vibrant scientific community built to translate bold ideas into real-world impact. Being part of this ecosystem accelerates our progress as we advance our AI-native immune cell programming platform toward key milestones.Feb 1, 2026
Blog
Related Publications
2025Journal ArticleMachine-guided cell-fate engineering Appleton, E., Tao, J. et al.Cell Reports, Volume 44, Issue 6, 115726 2022Journal ArticleTargeted intracellular delivery of Cas13 and Cas9 nucleases using bacterial toxin-based platformsTian, S. et al.Cell Reports, Volume 38, Issue 10110476 March 08, 2022 2019Journal ArticleDiverse motif ensembles specify non-redundant DNA binding activities of AP-1 family members in macrophagesFonseca, G., Tao, J., et al.Nature Communications, Volume 10, Article number: 414 (2019)
Leadership
Max Rye
CEO / Co-Founder
Max Rye is a repeat biotech founder and CEO who has built and scaled venture-backed life sciences platforms. As a co-founder of TurtleTree, he raised over $40M and led the company from concept to scaled biomanufacturing operations. At Intertwined Biosciences, Max drives company strategy, capital formation, and execution. He brings disciplined operational leadership and a track record of translating breakthrough biology into scalable, businesses.
Evan Appleton
CSO / Co-Founder
Evan Appleton is an expert in stem cell biology and synthetic biology, Evan earned his PhD from Boston University and completed his postdoctoral training in the Church Lab at Harvard Medical School. He went on to lead the Stem Cell Biology group at Colossal Biosciences, deriving and establishing the first induced pluripotent stem cells from elephants and other organisms. At Intertwined, Evan leads efforts to translate evolution-validated disease resistance into regenerative therapies for humans.
Jenhan Tao
CTO / Co-Founder
Jenhan Tao is a scientist with expertise applying AI and machine learning to solve complex biological problems. He earned his PhD studying the innate immune system using genomics and ML in the laboratory of Chris Glass at UC San Diego. As an early scientist at Generate:Biomedicines, he built and scaled ML systems for protein design, supporting programs advancing toward the clinic. At Intertwined, Jenhan leads development of the company’s AI-native discovery process.
Scientific Advisory Board
George Church
Professor, Harvard
George Church is a Harvard and MIT Professor, co-author of 760 papers, 170 patent publications & book "Regenesis". NAS/NAE, Bower Prize, Time100. Developed methods used for first genome sequence (1994), subsequent 20-million-fold cost improvements (via fluorescent-NGS, nanopores), plus barcoding, DNA assembly from chips, multiplex genome editing/writing/recoding; co-initiated: BRAIN Initiative (2011) & Genome Projects (HGP-1984, HGP-Write-2016, PGP-2005:world's open-access, personal/precision medicine datasets); AI-ML for protein engineering, tissue reprogramming, organoids, gene therapy, aging reversal, xeno-transplantation, in situ 3D DNA/RNA/protein imaging; co-founded 48 companies.
Chris Glass
Professor, UC San Diego
Christopher K. Glass is Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. His primary interests are to understand the mechanisms by which transcription factors regulate the development and function of macrophages. A major direction of his laboratory has been the use of assays that are based on massively parallel DNA sequencing. The combination of these technologies with molecular, genetic, lipidomic and cell-based approaches is providing striking new insights into mechanisms that regulate macrophage gene expression and function that are relevant to inflammatory diseases including diabetes, atherosclerosis and neurodegenerative diseases.
Vera Gorbunova
Professor, Rochester University
Vera Gorbunova is an endowed Professor of Biology at the University of Rochester and a co-director of the Rochester Aging Research Center. Her research is focused on understanding the mechanisms of longevity and genome stability and on the studies of exceptionally long-lived mammals. Dr. Gorbunova pioneered comparative biology approach to study aging and identified rules that control the evolution of tumor suppressor mechanisms depending on the species lifespan and body mass. Her work received awards from the Ellison Medical Foundation, the Glenn Foundation, American Federation for Aging Research, and from the National Institutes of Health.
Douglas Densmore
Professor, Boston University
Douglas Densmore is Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University. His research focuses on the development of tools for the specification, design, assembly, and test of synthetic biological systems. His approaches draw upon his experience with embedded system-level design and electronic design automation (EDA). Extracting concepts and methodologies from these fields, he aims to raise the level of abstraction in synthetic biology by employing standardized biological part-based designs which leverage domain-specific languages, constraint-based genetic circuit composition, visual editing environments, microfluidics, and automated DNA assembly. This leads to a new research area he calls “Hardware, Software, Wetware Co-design”.