Therna Biosciences

About Therna Biosciences

Therna Biosciences is a biotechnology company that utilizes an AI-powered platform to design and develop programmable RNA-based medicines. The company emerged from stealth in August 2025 with $10 million in seed funding from investors including AIX Ventures, Pear VC, and Fusion Fund. Therna was co-founded by CEO Nazli Azimi, Ph.D., a biotech entrepreneur, and Hani Goodarzi, Ph.D., a scientist from UCSF and the Arc Institute with extensive experience in RNA biology and generative AI.

The company's core technology is a biology-guided platform that combines generative AI and RNA foundation models to engineer and design RNA therapeutics. This system employs a "lab-in-the-loop" workflow where AI generates new RNA sequences, which are then validated through lab experiments. The results are fed back into the model to enhance its predictive accuracy over time. The objective is to create programmable RNA molecules optimized for specific properties such as improved translation, durability, immune evasion, and tissue-specific expression. This approach aims to significantly shorten the development cycle for new RNA medicines compared to traditional manual methods.

Therna's platform is designed to address key challenges in RNA drug development, such as immunogenicity and poor expression in target tissues. It can design custom mRNAs with specific therapeutic properties and also identify optimal target sites for antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) and siRNA drugs. This allows for the up-regulation, down-regulation, or fine-tuning of gene expression. The company's focus spans multiple therapeutic areas, including genetic and rare diseases, ophthalmology, and immunology.