Precede Biosciences

About Precede Biosciences

Precede Biosciences is a biotechnology company developing a liquid biopsy platform that analyzes transcriptional biology from a simple blood draw. Founded in 2021 by Rehan Verjee, Sylvan Baca, Matthew Freedman, and Toni Choueiri, the company emerged from stealth in October 2023. The technology originated from research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Verjee, the CEO, has an extensive background in the biopharmaceutical industry, including executive roles at Merck KGaA. The other co-founders are affiliated with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School.

The company's core product is a genome-wide platform that profiles circulating chromatin and the DNA methylome from a single milliliter of plasma. This approach provides insights into the activation status of approximately 20,000 gene promoters and 1 million gene enhancers, revealing the biological drivers of a disease at the gene and pathway level. By focusing on epigenomics—the regulatory software controlling genes—Precede aims to provide a more dynamic and comprehensive view of disease biology than traditional genomic sequencing alone. This allows for the identification of therapeutically relevant targets and the mechanisms behind treatment response and resistance.

Precede Biosciences operates on a dual business model. It partners with biopharmaceutical companies and academic researchers, offering its platform on a Research Use Only (RUO) basis to support drug development and discovery. Concurrently, the company is developing its own blood-based clinical tests intended to replace more invasive tissue biopsies for guiding the use of precision medicines in clinical practice, with an initial focus on cancers like breast, lung, prostate, and colorectal. The company has secured $57 million in funding from investors including 5AM Ventures, Lilly Asia Ventures, Illumina Ventures, and Bristol Myers Squibb.