Nature Biotechnology’s annual survey highlights academic start ups that are, among other things, correcting misfolded or disordered proteins, creating second-generation GPCR agonists, building a new gene delivery platform and mining cancer genomes for novel targets.

As in previous years of our survey, we focus on R&D-intensive startups spun out from academic institutions (Table 1). These were first identified as having raised a series A financing in 2021. Our editors then assessed publicly available information about each firm’s research to select those that appear below. (Some firms were selected but not included because they were still in ‘stealth mode’ or declined to be interviewed.)