Contact

1545 Park Avenue
Emeryville, California 94608
info@metagenomi.co

© 2023 Metagenomi

About us

We forge naturally evolved enzymes into powerful gene editing systems

Seemingly random pill-shaped particles, signifying genetic material sourced from natural environments, emerge from the ground

Our origins

Metageno­mi co-founders Bri­an C. Thomas and Jill Ban­field are pio­neers in the field of metage­nomics — the study and process of char­ac­ter­iz­ing the genomes of microbes from nature. While many con­tem­po­rary gene edit­ing ther­a­pies are devel­oped around a sin­gle enzy­mat­ic tech­nol­o­gy (such as CRISPR-Cas9), Metageno­mi posed, ​“why would nature cre­ate just one?” And with that ques­tion, we start­ed exploring.

Although Metagenomi’s sam­pling expe­di­tions start­ed small, our ever-grow­ing team con­tin­ues to embody that spir­it of sci­en­tif­ic curios­i­ty in their relent­less quest to dis­cov­er oth­er­wise unknown organ­isms. This dri­ve and exper­tise allow us to expand our options in human gene edit­ing for ther­a­peu­tics; by bioin­for­mat­i­cal­ly unearthing the char­ac­ter­is­tics of tiny, pow­er­ful organ­isms pre-screened by evo­lu­tion, we’ve begun to uncov­er the vast poten­tial these nov­el gene edit­ing tech­nolo­gies hold.

As we devel­op the largest, most diverse, whol­­ly-owned tool­box of gene edit­ing sys­tems, we’re stead­fast in pro­gress­ing our pro­pri­etary lead tech­nolo­gies, ther­a­peu­tics pro­grams, and part­ner­ships with world-class indus­try experts.

Leadership

Executive leadership

Board of directors

  • Brian C. Thomas, PhD

    CEO & Founder

  • Jürgen Eckhardt, MD, MBA

    Head of Leaps by Bay­er at Bayer

  • Sebastian Bernales, PhD

    Gen­er­al Part­ner of Hum­boldt Fund

  • Willard H. Dere, MD

    Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus, Inter­nal Med­i­cine, Uni­ver­si­ty of Utah

  • Risa Stack, PhD

    Ven­ture Part­ner at RA Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment LLC, Gen­er­al Man­ag­er, The Pro­duc­tion Board

  • Santhosh Palani, PhD, CFA

    Part­ner of PFM Health Sciences

Scientific advisory board

  • Philip Greenberg, MD

    Head of Immunol­o­gy Research at the Fred Hutch, Pro­fes­sor of Med­i­cine & Immunol­o­gy at UW, Sci­en­tif­ic Co-founder of Juno Therapeutics

  • Aude Chapuis, MD

    Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Med­ical Oncol­o­gy at Uni­ver­si­ty of Washington

  • Thomas Schmitt, Ph.D.

    Research Asso­ciate in Green­berg Lab at the Fred Hutch

  • Chad Cowan, MD

    CEO of Clade Ther­a­peu­tics, Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor of Med­i­cine at Har­vard Med­ical School

  • Jak Knowles, MD

    Co-founder, Pres­i­dent, and CEO of Affini‑T Therapeutics

Partners & investors

Partners

  • Moderna
  • Affini-T

Select investors

From the banks of marshes and sulfur pools in Yellowstone to former volcanic land and deep sea vents, Metagenomi ventures out into less-trodden natural environments to source undiscovered genetic material—and then brings it into their lab to sequence and engineer into genetic medicines.

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Clouds and mist between Evergreen tree-lined mountains.
Green grass and white blooming Dandelion in a field at the base of a mountain range.
Bright orange moss covers a stone wall.
The large-rooted base of a sizable tree.
A scientist wearing blue gloves collect test tubes of plant cells for lab testing.
Salt flakes from a salt pool cover someones palm.
A scientist wearing protective gloves pours an unknown liquid into a test tube.
Various colored lichen on flat rocks.
A macro-view of a delicate mushroom growing from the side of a moss-covered, wet mound of soil.
A close-up of a mature woman smiling while enjoying a sunset on the beach.
A macro-view of a small piece of moss on wet tree bark.
Sprawling moss-covered lava fields on an overcast day.
Microbial mats in geothermal pools in Yellowstone National Park.
A diver walks through a bay of shallow water to collect samples on a sunny day.
Golden marsh grass lines a tide pool.
A hand holds a test tube of a water sample out in the field.
Grey mud pits with volcanic activity.
A macro-view of a cream and burnt-orange colored salt formation.
A collection of marine invertebrates in a tide pool between two large rock formations.

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Values

What lies at our core?

  • Inspiration

    Every­one at Metageno­mi plays a crit­i­cal role in achiev­ing our mis­sion of build­ing and trans­lat­ing poten­tial­ly cura­tive genet­ic med­i­cines. We work to build a trust­ing, cre­ative envi­ron­ment where every­one has the per­mis­sion to speak up, take risks, and learn. We val­ue the health and well-being of our peo­ple and sup­port their well­ness and career goals.

  • Integrity

    Patient out­comes dri­ve all of our research, mean­ing our ther­a­peu­tics need to be as safe as they are effec­tive. To achieve this, we must oper­ate with high sci­en­tif­ic integri­ty and orga­ni­za­tion­al trans­paren­cy. We hold our­selves account­able for our suc­cess­es and failures.

  • Innovation

    We’re inno­va­tors in the gene edit­ing space. By build­ing a flex­i­ble and robust plat­form that dis­cov­ers new tech­nolo­gies and real­izes them into pio­neer­ing ther­a­peu­tic appli­ca­tions, we are com­mit­ted to devel­op­ing ther­a­pies for all peo­ple and look for­ward to part­ner­ing with orga­ni­za­tions that will con­nect us to patients worldwide.

  • Inclusivity

    At Metageno­mi, we’re com­mit­ted to cre­at­ing an inclu­sive and wel­com­ing work envi­ron­ment. We’re proud to say that over half of our employ­ees iden­ti­fy as female. To main­tain a fair and equi­table work­place, we con­tin­u­ous­ly pri­or­i­tize our DE&I initiatives.

Join us in devel­op­ing next-gen­er­a­tion genet­ic medicines

If you’re eager to pave a new path in gene edit­ing to advance health for all of human­i­ty, join our team.

View our open positions