There are few areas of promise more exciting than that of the medical field. Fueled by great leaps in progress and changes to our world, people like Dr. Leen Kawas hope to help generate the next big jump in human innovation.
Dr. Leen Kawas first cut her teeth in the industry as the founder of Athira Pharma as well as a leader in helping to prepare the company for its IPO. Along the way, Kawas would generate research into one of the company’s leading drug candidates, ATH-1017.
After departing from Athira, Kawas would establish herself as the leader at Propel Bio Partners, an angel investing fund that is seeking to fuel more innovation in the field.
Kawas said of her work with Propel, “Just to clarify, we are a new fund. I was a CEWO of a public company, and I transitioned into the investment world with the idea that we want to help entrepreneurs be successful.”
Looking to her past, Kawas added, “We’ve invested in a few private companies, some of them that are already public, a few that will be announced soon.”
Partnership Manifests With Persephone Biosciences
Propel Bio Partners has looked long and hard for good businesses to invest in, eventually landing on Persephone Biosciences. The company was established to study the efficacy of the baby biome as well as how research into solutions can fundamentally change health outcomes down the line.
Recently, Kawas appeared on a podcast titled Angel Invest Boston, where she was interviewed by host Sal Daher. Diving into her insights regarding “The Microbiome of Babies”, Dr. Kawas added, “It’s an interesting moment for life sciences, and we have a lot of opportunities out there.”
Kawas went on to discuss how collaborative the team at Persephone was while underscoring their approach to the baby’s gut microbiome. Kawas said, “What I love about Persephone is before they even start going into designing their product, they’ve conducted clinical trials to understand the baseline of the human gut microbiome.”
Kawas went on to emphasize how Persephone is “laser-focused” on developing potential probiotics that could lead to health benefits for both the mother and their child. Kawas said of this goal, “As we look at the probiotics market, there are no products in the marketplace based on science and data that address the true gap and changes and architecture of the human gut microbiome.”
Kawas concluded, “They are creating infant probiotics that will help and empower mothers to make decisions that are the best for them and the baby.”