Key points from article :
Biostate AI, co-founded by David Zhang and Ashwin Gopinath, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Accel, bringing its total funding to over $20 million. The company is using this capital to advance its mission of making RNA sequencing (RNAseq) more accessible for US-based molecular research and to develop predictive models that could transform precision medicine.
The startup focuses on analyzing the full RNA transcriptome—a comprehensive snapshot of gene activity in cells—as a real-time biomarker for human health. Traditional RNAseq has been limited by high costs, complex data aggregation, and inconsistent methodologies across labs. Biostate AI addresses these challenges with patented technologies (BIRT and PERD) that reduce costs nearly tenfold, standardize workflows, and enable the collection of millions of RNAseq profiles globally.
Leveraging this vast dataset, Biostate’s AI models go beyond conventional diagnostics, detecting subtle gene expression changes that can predict disease progression or treatment response long before symptoms appear. Unlike standard approaches that tackle individual diseases separately, Biostate aims to develop general-purpose AI capable of understanding and helping to treat multiple diseases.
Since launching commercially just six months ago, Biostate has processed over 10,000 samples from more than 150 collaborators, including leukemia studies with Cornell University and multiple sclerosis projects with the Accelerated Cure Project. The company is scaling rapidly, with agreements to process hundreds of thousands of additional samples annually, accelerating AI model development and clinical impact.
