Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem do you solve?
Christina Port, founder of 2NA Fish: Personalized medicine requires personalized diagnostics. It is now known that RNA biomarkers play a decisive role in the therapeutic response to tumor diseases. (Editor’s note: RNA = ribonucleic acid). However, existing technologies for analyzing these RNA biomarkers either provide insufficient information or are not suitable for use in clinical laboratories for reasons of cost and complexity.
With 2NA Fish, we have developed and patented a groundbreaking technology for the spatial analysis of RNA biomarkers (“Spatial Transcriptomics”). We combine DNA (=deoxyribonucleic acid) nanotechnology with artificial intelligence to enrich tumor analysis with a new, currently unavailable spatial dimension of RNA expression. Our aim is to revolutionize therapy decisions in cancer treatment!
Nanotechnology in tumor analysis
Munich Startup: But that already exists!
Johannes Breulmann, founder of 2NA Fish: That would be nice! Spatial transcriptomics technologies have experienced a real boom in recent years and were even named “Nature Method of the Year” in 2021. However, these technologies are not yet suitable for use in the clinic. For two main reasons: Either the technologies are too expensive and complex to purchase, implement or analyze images. Or the technologies are not scalable. In other words, they are only suitable for detecting a maximum of three biomarkers simultaneously, but not for detecting ten or twenty RNAs, so they are limited in their application. Our technology, on the other hand, works on the standard equipment that pathology laboratories already have and can be integrated into existing workflows.
Munich Startup: What is your founding story?
Johannes Breulmann: I would describe it as a “forced coincidence”. After selling my previous startup, InsureQ, I was looking for a new challenge. We actually wanted to go much higher with InsureQ. Unfortunately, we had failed to find follow-up financing for our team of 30 people. So I wanted to start up again and preferably in the field of biotechnology, as I have had a penchant for science fiction and the limits of what is scientifically possible since I was a child. I found out about Christina and her team at TUM through a former intern of mine who knew about this passion.
Funding in the amount of 1 million euros
Christina Port: Exactly. At the time, I had already validated the technology and, with a lot of sweat and tears, raised over a million euros in funding. The early days in particular were brutally difficult and I put all my savings into founding the company. When I had the feeling that the technology was now ready to leave the lab, I actively looked for a co-founder with startup experience. The fact that Johannes approached us at exactly the right time was actually a lucky coincidence.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Christina Port: Convincing the very first people to believe in me and the product was definitely one of the biggest challenges so far. In the meantime, we have already won a number of prizes and funding, for example the Medical Valley Award, the Science4Life business plan competition and the Munich Startup Award. And we have established prestigious partnerships. This makes it a little easier to establish further good contacts and also to convince investors of our idea. But the very first steps were, as is so often the case, the most difficult.
2NA Fish: First pilot projects launched
Munich Startup: How is business going?
Johannes Breulmann: As an EXIST-funded startup, we are not yet allowed to make any sales. Nevertheless, we have already started several pilot projects with renowned research institutions. We expect to generate our first sales towards the end of the year, once the EXIST funding has expired and we have completed our financing round. In fact, there is already a waiting list of people interested in our technology, but we are currently only able to work through this very slowly. Although we already have eight employees, we would be able to grow much faster with additional staff – especially scientists.
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Christina Port: The network for startups in general and biotech startups in particular is already really good. I would particularly like to emphasize the BioM cluster, through which we have received many relevant contacts and support. But thanks to Ivana Hecimovic, Joanna Whyte and many startup friends, we also feel that we are in very good hands at the TUM Incubator. Of course, there is always room for improvement and the bureaucracy surrounding the administration of our funding is not always easy – but other locations probably have this problem too
Johannes Breulmann: I have a similar view. What I think is still missing is a kind of co-working lab space in the center of Munich – for example in the Werksviertel or other places with lots of startups. The premises that BioM is currently building with MAxL in Martinsried are a good example. We’d love more of them.
Do it yourself!
Munich Startup: Outsource or do it yourself?
Johannes Breulmann: So far, the focus has clearly been on doing it ourselves. This applies both to the core of our technology in the laboratory and the initial customer acquisition. We currently want to learn as much as possible about our technology and customers. As soon as we feel that the learning curve is decreasing (does it ever?), we would consider outsourcing the production and distribution of our technology.
