Fauna Bio

Fauna Bio is a biotechnology company in Emeryville, California that applies comparative and functional genomics to data from mammals with unusual natural disease resistance in order to identify drug targets for human disease. Its stated premise is that species such as the 13-lined ground squirrel (which alters its metabolism dramatically during hibernation, rebuilds skeletal muscle after months of immobility, and can reverse cardiac, brain and early fibrotic damage), spiny mice (scar-free healing of brain, spinal cord, kidney and skin), tenrecs (cardiac regeneration into adulthood), elephant seals (resistance to metabolic disease), scorpion mice (pain tolerance) and bumblebee bats (tolerance of DNA damage, parasites and viruses) contain conserved mammalian genes that can be translated into human therapeutics.

The company operates a proprietary biobank and AI platform called Convergence, organized into modules named Orca (identifies protective signatures in extreme-animal datasets versus human data), Centaur (maps results to human genomics data and validates them in human cell models) and Leo (predicts compounds that mimic natural protection in human cell lines). Fauna Bio also describes a biomedical knowledge graph integrating human data with animal disease-resistance data and hundreds of curated functional genomics studies using RNA sequencing and proteomics, and it has launched a further AI platform, Fauna Brain, which combines internal and external datasets with literature analysis to identify and score targets. Disclosed pipeline programs include FAUN1083 in cardiopulmonary disease and FAUN264G in retinal disease, both at discovery/preclinical stage, plus a partnered obesity program dated 2023; early discovery datasets span neurodegeneration, heart failure, kidney disease, GI disease, inflammation, fibrosis and tissue regeneration.

Alongside therapeutics, Fauna Bio runs space-health research programs: Project ADAPT (formerly STASH), the development of a microgravity physiology suite called RESPYRS for the ISS, commercial stations and the lunar Gateway, funded by NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts; and Project RADIANCE (formerly ASCRIPTS), a multi-year study with Colorado State University at a NASA-funded neutron irradiation facility testing whether hibernation protects 13-lined ground squirrels from radiation simulating galactic cosmic rays, supported by NASA's Space Radiation Element and the Canadian and Italian space agencies.

Founding story

Fauna Bio was founded by three scientists with backgrounds in non-model organism biology: Ashley Zehnder, a board-certified avian veterinarian with a PhD in cancer biology from Stanford, who serves as CEO; Katie Grabek, who holds a PhD in human medical genetics from the University of Colorado Anschutz and trained in computational biology at Stanford with a research focus on hibernation, who serves as CSO; and Linda Goodman, who holds an MPhil in computational biology from Cambridge and a PhD in genetics and genomics from Harvard and previously worked at the Broad Institute and Stanford, who serves as CTO. The 2021 seed round announcement described Fauna Bio as having an all-female co-founding team.

Business model

Fauna Bio generates value from its proprietary animal-genomics datasets and computational platforms both through internal therapeutic programs advancing toward the clinic and through partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. The Eli Lilly obesity agreement, for example, comprises an upfront payment, an equity investment, and eligibility for up to $494 million in milestone payments plus royalties on discoveries made with Fauna's platform. Additional non-dilutive support for its space programs comes from government space agencies.

Partnership-based: upfront payments, equity investment, milestone payments and royalties from pharmaceutical collaborations on targets discovered with the Convergence platform, plus government agency funding for space-health research programs.

Traction

Fauna Bio reported in 2021 that its Convergence platform had identified two compounds and four novel genetic targets under evaluation for heart disease and related disorders, plus seven novel genetic targets aimed at reducing fibrosis. It announced its first Target Designation under the ongoing Eli Lilly obesity collaboration, and its pipeline lists FAUN1083 (cardiopulmonary) and FAUN264G (retinal) programs. Data assets include 292 animals, 24 tissues, 21 time points and more than 46 billion sequence reads. Its NIAC-funded space program was selected from a pool in which fewer than 5% of proposals are funded.

Latest developments

Fauna Bio announced its first Target Designation in the ongoing obesity discovery collaboration with Eli Lilly and launched Fauna Brain, an AI platform that identifies and scores targets using internal and external datasets plus literature analysis. In December 2025 the company presented work on a cross-species graph neural network for translating animal disease resistance into human drug targets, and it lists scheduled appearances into 2026 including a longevity and healthspan therapeutics panel in January 2026 and the 8th CKD Drug Development Summit in March 2026. Its space programs, now named ADAPT and RADIANCE, have added support from the Italian Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.