Glympse Bio

Glympse Bio, Inc. is a Cambridge, Massachusetts biotechnology company focused on measuring biological activity inside the body in order to detect disease, stage it, and predict or measure response to treatment. Its platform, marketed as Glympse Inside, uses bioengineered, tunable synthetic biomarkers — proprietary nanoparticle-based activity sensors administered to patients — that interrogate the activity of key biological targets such as proteases, which drive disease pathways in fibrosis, cancer, inflammation and infection. Signals generated by the sensors are carried to the urine, where they are read out and interpreted with machine learning and artificial intelligence methods, producing a noninvasive, repeatable measure of disease activity at the site of disease.

The company's lead program addressed nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a liver disease the company described as affecting 16 million people in the United States and 100 million worldwide. The approach was positioned as an alternative to needle liver biopsy, potentially identifying NASH stage before histopathological changes are visible and enabling serial monitoring of treatment progress. Glympse completed first-in-human studies with its NASH product in the first half of 2020 and stated plans to advance into PMA-enabling NASH studies, while also developing an oncology program to track tumor progression and response across immunotherapies, targeted therapies and standards of care, and initiating an infectious disease program.

Glympse Bio operated from the LabCentral incubator in Cambridge and later listed an address at 35 Cambridgepark Drive, Suite 100, Cambridge, MA. It is classified in medical equipment and supplies manufacturing / medical devices. In August 2023 the company combined with Sunbird Bio, with the merged entity reported to be directing resources toward a blood-based test for Alzheimer's disease.

Founding story

The company was founded in 2015 as a spin-out from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, based on work from the laboratory of bioengineer Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia; the MIT Deshpande Center traces it to a 2013 project on an ultrasensitive noninvasive disease monitoring platform.

Business model

Glympse Bio developed a proprietary in vivo biosensor and diagnostic platform and worked with biopharmaceutical partners, entering strategic collaborations under which its synthetic biomarkers were used within partners' clinical development programs; financial terms of the Gilead Sciences collaboration were not disclosed.

Traction

Completed first-in-human studies of its NASH product in 2020, secured an oversubscribed $46.7 million Series B, and established a strategic collaboration with Gilead Sciences for use of its biomarkers in Gilead's NASH clinical program.

Latest developments

In August 2023 Glympse Bio combined with Sunbird Bio, a Singapore-based biotech; reporting describes the transaction both as Sunbird Bio acquiring Glympse Bio and, in earlier April 2023 coverage, as Glympse Bio acquiring Sunbird Bio. The combined organization was reported to be directing resources toward a new blood test for Alzheimer's disease.