We’ve reinvented how biologic drugs are made

Lumen’s patented technology allows us to use the well-known food algae spirulina to make and orally deliver therapeutic proteins.

Patented Technology
With Unlimited Potential

The astonishingly high cost of biomanufacturing has long made orally delivered biologics commercially infeasible. That’s no longer true. Lumen’s patented biologic drug platform shortens the development process, reduces costs and risks, and accelerates time-to-market, making us the first company to make orally delivered antibody drugs commercially viable.
  • >$84M

    Invested To Date

  • 33

    Issued Patents

Formation

  • Incorporated April 2017
  • Foundational IP, core team, assets

Funding

  • > $84 million in platform investment to date
  • The innovative technology has attracted record non-dilutive funding from nearly a dozen U.S. federal agencies, the Gates Foundation, and other leading philanthropies focused on human and animal health
  • Collaboration funding from leading global biopharmaceutical companies

Physical Capabilities

  • 95 FTEs, including 40+ with MDs, PhDs, and other post-graduate degrees
  • Fully integrated, dedicated cGMP production facility with capacity for 15+ kilograms of GMP drug substance per week
  • Full-time clinical operations and FDA regulatory affairs team
  • High-throughput strain engineering facility
  • Advanced protein engineering and optimization
  • Large-scale AI/machine learning–enabled yield optimization
  • On-premise antibody selection and optimization capabilities (hit-to-lead clinic), including advanced “silico” and “protein” engineering and optimization

Intellectual Property

  • 33 issued patents 
  • Issued patents include broad, composition-of-matter claims covering engineered spirulina, recognition that Lumen was the first in the world to engineer this microbe
  • Broad continuation claims cover all long-term contemplated products
  • 17 other patents pending

A conventional biopharma company typically builds its team with a fairly narrow set of skills within a single discipline—most often a single disease area. Most drug development happens through contractors like CROs and CDMOs.

Lumen is different.

Like the bold visionaries who exploited the first two waves of cell-engineering breakthroughs (Genentech with E. coli in the 1970s; Amgen with mammalian cells in the 1990s), Lumen is completely vertically integrated. From our facilities in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, our team directly executes nearly all aspects of the drug development process—from hit-to-lead discovery and protein engineering through GMP manufacturing and clinical development.

Close team integration under one roof lets us move much more quickly and efficiently, which is part of why our development costs and timelines are a small fraction of those of other biopharma companies. It’s also a lot more fun, with big new discoveries happening almost every week.

“Working for Lumen is an exciting opportunity to grow your skillset while also contributing to a technology that can really make a difference and impact so many people.”

Mark Heinnickel
Principal Scientist

Expertise. Ingenuity. Execution.

We’ve assembled a talented group of leaders with deep expertise in synthetic biology, protein design, immunology, photobioreactor engineering, and cell physiology, each with the vision and skills needed to achieve our mission.

Leadership Team

Brian Finrow

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

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  • Adaptive Biotechnologies
  • AltAir Fuels
  • Cooley, LLP
  • Harvard Law School

Jim Roberts

Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer

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  • Director, Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center, Basic Sciences Division
  • Former HHMI Investigator
  • Transformation technology
  • Co-inventor of a mammalian cell

Craig Behnke

EVP, Production/Development

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  • Sapphire Energy
  • Takeda Pharmaceuticals
  • University of Washington, PhD, Biochemistry

Scientific Advisors

Barry Stoddard

  • Member, Fred Hutch Cancer Center, Basic Sciences Division
  • Structural biology and protein design

Jim Nataro

  • Professor and Chair, Pediatrics, University of Virginia School of Medicine

James Lord

  • Assistant Member, Benaroya Research Institute Gastroenterology, University of Washington School of Medicine

Richard Guerrant

  • Founding Director, Center for Global Health
  • Professor of International Medicine, University of Virginia, Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health

Scott Hensley

  • Associate Professor of Microbiology Penn Institute for Immunology
  • University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Alex DePaoli

  • Formerly at Amgen
  • Practicing Diabetes & Metabolism Endocrinologist

Steven Heymsfield

  • Professor Pennington Biomedical Research Center
  • Leading metabolism researcher

Davis Maggs

  • Formerly at Amylin
  • Adjunct Faculty Member of the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center

Board Of Directors

Brian Finrow

CEO & Co-Founder, Lumen

Jim Roberts, MD, PhD

CSO & Co-Founder, Lumen

Rob Carlson

Bioeconomy Capital

Mark Litton

Athira Pharma

Marcos Milla

Samsara BioCapital

Erik Anderson

WestRiver Group

Funding Organizations

Lumen’s technology presents a new way to target diseases that conventional biopharma technologies have failed to solve, so we are thankful for the significant funding support we have received from a range of private foundations, NGOs and government agencies.

Research Collaborators

In many cases the cutting edge of discovery is carried out at non-commercial research institutions like universities and government labs. We are honored to be working closely with so many leaders in their respective fields.