Flagship Pioneering Unveils Etiome to Pioneer Preemptive Healthcare

Etiome's Temporal Biodynamics™ AI-powered platform is the first end-to-end solution to detect disease and preempt progression before it becomes too late

Company emerges following four years of platform development and an initial commitment of $50 million from Flagship Pioneering

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Flagship Pioneering, the bioplatform innovation company, today unveiled Etiome, a company redefining how we detect and preempt disease progression. Etiome's Temporal Biodynamics™ platform is the first end-to-end technology to characterize disease with increased resolution over time and accelerate the development of preemptive medicines that promise better health outcomes for people at risk of chronic or progressive diseases. The AI-powered platform makes it possible to forecast how individuals are likely to progress along the disease continuum, confirm disease biostages with temporally relevant markers, and develop Biostaged Medicines to halt or reverse disease before it becomes debilitating and irreversible. Flagship has initially committed $50 million to Etiome to advance the Temporal Biodynamics™ platform and develop an initial pipeline of preemptive medicines. Etiome was founded from Flagship Pioneering's Preemptive Health and Medicine Initiative, which is pioneering a new field to protect, maintain, or improve people's health before they get sick.

"By combining expansive, multimodal population-level data and single cell omics with artificial intelligence, we have, for the first time, revealed unprecedented insights into the complex dynamics of disease biology over the course of progression," said Avak Kahvejian, Ph.D., Founding CEO of Etiome and General Partner at Flagship Pioneering. "In doing so, with our Temporal Biodynamics™ platform we have unlocked the ability to accurately characterize the biostages of disease progression, selectively identify and engage patients across stages, and create targeted medicines designed to alter the course of disease, even at its earliest stages, ensuring the right patient gets the right medicine at the right time."

Etiome designed the Temporal Biodynamics™ platform based on an understanding that the underlying biology of disease is dynamic and will mandate stage-specific interventions to effectively impact progression. To pioneer these targeted preemptive medicines, the platform first leverages expansive clinical, cellular, and molecular data and artificial intelligence to develop a deeper, time-based understanding of disease biology and forecast when individuals are likely to progress further into disease. With proprietary phenotype-aware AI, the platform then isolates and uncovers underlying temporal shifts in thousands of genes and proteins specific to each disease, revealing unique Biostage Markers—stage-specific biomarkers that indicate where a patient resides along the disease journey—and potential stage-appropriate therapeutic targets. Finally, temporally tuned, translational assays allow for target validation and the development of Biostaged Medicines.

"Until now, healthcare practices for serious and progressive diseases have often been reactive, treating diseases after they have caused significant damage and resulting in patient decline that can be irreversible," said Raj Panjabi, M.D., MPH, Senior Partner and Head of Flagship Pioneering's Preemptive Health and Medicine Initiative and board director of Etiome. "Etiome is redefining how we think about disease progression and developing interventions precisely designed for critical intervention windows, at the earliest stages of disease – helping to slow, stop or even reverse it. This represents a significant shift towards preemptive medicine—a future where people can live healthier and longer lives."

Etiome is initially focused on developing Biostaged Medicines to address serious and progressive metabolic, neurodegenerative, pre-cancerous and autoimmune diseases, all of which impact large populations and have clear unmet needs. With these targeted therapeutics, Etiome aims to reduce morbidity, lower healthcare burdens and costs, and extend healthy and productive lifespans.

Scott Lipnick, Ph.D., Co-Founder and President of Etiome and Flagship Pioneering Origination Partner, added, "We envision a world where patients can be treated for a disease when it is still possible to slow, stop, or entirely preempt its progression. Doing so can prevent suffering, save lives, and lower healthcare costs. Over the last four years we have been building Etiome around this vision and look forward to making meaningful and rapid progress towards this future."

Etiome's team includes leaders with extensive expertise in biology, omics, and artificial intelligence. In addition to Kahvejian and Lipnick, Etiome's founding team includes Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering; Torben Straight Nissen, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board for Etiome, Flagship Pioneering Executive Partner and CEO of Repertoire Immune Medicines; Yann Echelard, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer of Etiome and Flagship Pioneering Operating Partner; and Katharine von Herrmann, Ph.D., Chief Innovation Officer of Etiome and Flagship Pioneering Principal. Additionally, the Etiome board includes Gregory J. Moore M.D., Ph.D., a Senior Advisor at Gates Ventures and the former Corporate Vice President at Microsoft leading Health and Life Sciences.

About Flagship Preemptive Health and Medicine
Flagship Pioneering's Preemptive Health and Medicine Initiative is pioneering a new field to protect, maintain, or improve people's health before they get sick. In its fifth year, the initiative is grounded in the premise that health should be accessible for all and pursues interventions that protect health from external threats and prevent or delay the onset of diseases. By leveraging significant advances in computational and life sciences, Flagship's aim is to predict and detect who is on a path toward disease, and then to preempt with therapeutic and other interventions to stop, slow or reverse the trajectory towards disease.

About Etiome
Etiome is redefining how we detect and preempt disease progression to build a healthier future for patients with chronic and progressive diseases. Its Temporal Biodynamics™ platform is the first end-to-end technology to characterize disease with increased resolution over time and accelerate the development of preemptive medicines that promise better health outcomes. The platform makes it possible to predict where individuals are along the disease continuum, confirm disease biostages with temporally relevant markers, and develop Biostaged Medicines to halt or reverse disease before it becomes debilitating and irreversible. Etiome was founded by Flagship Pioneering in 2021. For more information, visit www.etiome.bio or follow us on LinkedIn and X.

About Flagship Pioneering
Flagship Pioneering invents and builds bioplatform companies, each with the potential for multiple products that transform human health or sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, Flagship has originated and fostered more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $60 billion in aggregate value. Flagship is operating with $14 billion of assets under management as of its latest capital raise, announced in July 2024. The current Flagship ecosystem comprises over 40 companies, including Foghorn Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FHTX), Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ: SANA), Generate Biomedicines, Inari, Indigo Agriculture, and Tessera Therapeutics.

Media Contacts:
[email protected] 

SOURCE Flagship Pioneering