Tenant Spotlight on Radar Therapeutics: Homing In on Precise, Accessible Genetic Medicines

By Niki Borghei.

Genetic medicine, which includes DNA and RNA based therapies, is one of the greatest medical innovations of our time. But it’s far from perfect. Collateral damage and limited scalability are two major problems. A core challenge for genetic medicine is accessing and targeting the right cells at the right time while sparing healthy tissues. Current solutions to this challenge are costly and inaccessible to many patients. In particular, many of these treatments must be administered ex vivo, which is hugely time consuming and expensive. Sophia Lugo, CEO and co-founder of our tenant Radar Therapeutics, has hope for a better future for genetic medicines.

“We envision a future where genetic medicines are more affordable and more accessible,” Sophia says. “And we can do that by creating safe, precise, in vivo genetic medicines.”

Many of today’s cell and gene therapy patients face a grueling process. If a patient is able to find a doctor to refer them for the treatment and get through the waitlist, they need to get to specialized academic medical centers found in only certain large cities. At the hospital, the patient has their blood removed. The blood is separated, then sent to a specialized manufacturing site to be isolated, modified, and expanded. The cells undergo a rigorous quality control process, then are shipped back to the academic medical center. Meanwhile, the very sick patient may have been waiting up to a month. The weakened patient may receive chemo to suppress their immune system before modified cells are transplanted back into the patient’s blood via IV.  Even so, patients may still face complications like cytokine release syndrome—a dangerous immune flare-up that can become life-threatening if it spirals out of control.

And then there’s cost. Cell and gene therapies typically cost millions of dollars per treatment. A significant portion of that cost can come from a lengthy inpatient stay after infusion, which may include costly immunosuppression treatments. Cell shipping and handling, personalized cell engineering in specialized facilities, the need for viral vectors, and companies’ needs to recoup R&D costs from these novel treatments with poor scalability also drive costs.  

But Sophia and her co-founder, Radar’s CSO Eerik Kaseniit, envision an alternative solution enabled by their technology, based on Eerik’s PhD research at Stanford on an enzyme called “adenosine deaminase acting on RNA,” or ADAR. Radar employs RNA sensors that recruit ADAR to turn on therapeutic protein production only in cells that have the right RNA expression profiles. To find these profiles, Radar is mining the cornucopia of single-cell transcriptomics data generated in recent years. 

If Radar’s RNA-targeting were widely adopted, instead of undergoing lengthy hospital stays and high-risk procedures, patients could receive an IV infusion at any clinic equipped for basic transfusions. This treatment would be tailored to target the right cells in the body, reprogramming them precisely where needed, without causing widespread damage. The patient could receive the therapy and go home the same day.

This model would not only make treatment cheaper—thanks to reduced reliance on expensive raw materials and shorter hospitalizations—but also more accessible. With Radar’s technology, more clinics would be capable of offering genetic medicine and could do so intravenously, meaning patients wouldn’t have to travel far or bear the financial strain of prolonged stays in specialty centers.

Motivation for Sophia is both personal and far from unique. An estimated 25 million people across the United States lack health insurance, leaving the cost burden of their care entirely on themselves.“I grew up near the U.S.-Mexico border,” Sophia says. “On the American side, my family didn’t have health insurance. I had to accept the painful reality that, while world-class treatments and medical providers were available, they were out of reach for me and my loved ones.”

While studying at Harvard as an undergrad, Sophia was immersed in groundbreaking innovations. Yet, despite witnessing firsthand the transformative potential of these advancements, a nagging truth stayed with her: These medical breakthroughs meant little to millions who would never be able to access them.

So she sought out opportunities that would allow her to bridge the ever-growing health equity gap. She completed clinical and observational rotations in clinics in the US and across the world, secured a prestigious internship at the US Surgeon General’s Office, worked at BGI Genomics in Shenzhen on precision public health-related spinouts and strategy, collaborated with life science and healthcare clients at BCG, and worked to bring the promise of mRNA therapeutics to underserved communities around the world at the Gates Foundation.

But after earning her MBA at Stanford, Sophia realized that true change would come from forging her own path. And so, she set her sights on something bigger: starting a company.“What we are doing is something no one has ever done before. That is the bar,” Sophia says. “And it really does remind you that innovation is people.” Following their $13.4 million seed round in May, the Radar team has now grown from Eerik and Sophia to 12 talented people. “It happens because of really capable people that are ambitious towards a goal that’s never been achieved before. That is the story of every drug company and every successful drug. When I look back at the progress we’ve made, I think it’s amazing what people can do, what human innovation can do.”