Culmination Bio

Sep 30, 2024

Culmination Bio is a company changing the world by discovering better health. It provides unparalleled value to healthcare organizations by unlocking biological data and enriching it with clinical, claims, and genomic data. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Culmination Bio CEO Lincoln Nadauld to learn more about the company. Lincoln Nadauld’s Background What is Lincoln Nadauld’s background? Nadauld said: “Before Culmination Bio, I focused on putting precision medicine into action. At Intermountain Health, I led the development of their precision genomics program. It’s incredibly rewarding to see how tailoring treatments to a patient’s specific genetic makeup can revolutionize cancer care.” “Now, at Culmination Bio, we take that a step further. We’re building the world’s largest data lake of biological and clinical data. Think of it as a massive library of anonymized patient information. This helps our partners, like pharma companies, design better tests and treatments. It’s like giving them a treasure trove of insights to navigate through.” “We’re not the ones in the lab coat directly making the medicines, but we’re the ones helping discover what works and what doesn’t. Imagine searching for a cure for a disease – we provide the map to accelerate that journey. The most exciting part? Witnessing the real-world impact. We’ve contributed to discoveries of genes linked to various conditions, all published in top journals. This paves the way for more targeted treatments and is a step forward in getting away from the one-size-fits-all approach of the past.” Formation Of Culmination Bio How did the idea for Culmination Bio come together? Nadauld shared: “It takes over ten years to bring a new drug to market and costs over $1 billion. In that time, patients are dying, waiting for better treatments and diagnostics. However, because of the immense financial and time risk, pharmaceutical and biotech companies aren’t able to develop new treatments unless they have the right data, which de-risks the process. While pharmaceutical companies overflow with data, it is often unstructured from multiple fragmented data sources. And still, there is a need for a specific type of data that is missing: longitudinal and multi-modal.” “Culmination Bio was built to address this problem and bring next-generation medicines and diagnostics to patients at an unprecedented pace. Patients deserve the best of what data has to offer, and we are building the largest multi-modal dataset available to deliver on that need. With a data lake full of 40+ years of biospecimen (blood, tissue) and clinical (EHR, claims) data, Culmination Bio has the ability to rapidly uncover discoveries hidden in the data to deliver better health to patients everywhere.” Favorite Memory What has been Nadauld’s favorite memory working for the company so far? Nadauld reflected: “I recall when we applied ML/AI tools to our data for the first time, and we found a unique insight regarding the diagnosis of a common neurodegenerative disorder that we had never understood. It was illuminating to see confirmation of our hypothesis that novel tech applied to unique data can lead to new discoveries.” Core Products What are the company’s core products and features? Nadauld explained: “Unlike many health systems, Intermountain Health has retained all of the physical biospecimens like tissue, blood, and biopsies, as well as the digital data from the specimens, which enables researchers to not only have access to retrospective “omics” level data but to run new tests on the biospecimens from the past 40 years. Pairing this with patient electronic health records gives researchers an in-depth look at why patients responded or didn’t respond to treatments based on their biological data. This unique combination allows researchers to not only see a patient’s medical history but also potentially run new tests on their biospecimens.” “Culmination Bio acts as a ‘search engine’ for this data, allowing researchers to quickly find the information they need for their specific area of interest. This rapid access to comprehensive patient data is a game-changer, potentially leading to faster discovery of new drugs and diagnostics. The company also speeds up clinical trial recruitment of unique cohorts. We can connect with patients currently in the Intermountain Health system and, with their consent, secure their participation in new clinical trials. This database is unlike any other in terms of longitudinal, multi-modal data.” Challenges Faced What challenges have Nadauld and the team faced in building the company? Nadauld acknowledged: “One of the challenges we encounter is that our data sets are vast. They span across the spectrum of human disease. So, we are building technologies using AI/ML that can assimilate and analyze trillions of data points.” Evolution Of Culmination Bio’s Technology How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Nadauld noted: “Our data has grown significantly which has required us to continuously build out our platform to accommodate the depth and breadth of data we’ve accumulated.” Significant Milestones What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Nadauld cited: “Our team has secured $10 million in funding from Amgen Ventures and Merck Global Health Innovation Fund,  and we’ve recently announced partnerships with Merck and Billion-to-One. The impact of the data is even more impressive. Culmination Bio’s data lake has played a key role in published research on a variety of conditions, including identifying genes linked to vertigo, migraines, and blood clotting disorders. These breakthroughs appear in top scientific journals like Nature and Cell, showcasing the quality of the data. We have also expanded our reach by collaborating with six major pharmaceutical companies and continue to grow our data lake by collecting hundreds of thousands of biospecimens annually.” Customer Success Stories After asking Nadauld about customer success stories, Nadauld highlighted: “Culmination Bio’s patient data repository has been instrumental in driving significant discoveries. These breakthroughs are in publications such as Nature, Cell, and JAMA, validating the quality and impact of its research. Culmination Bio’s data lake has helped identify eight genes linked to vertigo, six genes associated with migraines, and a staggering 93 genes contributing to blood clotting disorders.” Funding Upon asking Nadauld about the company’s funding details, he revealed: “In November 2023, Culmination Bio secured $10 million in funding from Amgen Ventures and Merck Global Health Innovation Fund. With investments from two of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in the US and larger-scale R&D partnerships with them in the works, the funding is an early indicator of the company’s commercial success. With the funding, Culmination Bio plans to accelerate commercial partnerships, further develop its data repository with omics-level insights, and expand its team.” Future Goals What are some of the company’s future goals? Nadauld pointed out: “Our success lies in the ability to access patients’ data over the last 40 years through longitudinal data that no other company can access. We also continue collecting 300K+ samples a year and conduct prospective recruitment for niche clinical trials and research. Our company has been leveraged in several pharma partnerships, including with Merck, and will continue to provide its data, both clinical (electronic health records (EHR), labs, medications) and paired biospecimen (tissue and blood) from several cohorts of various sizes and qualifications.” “As our company grows, its impact is unlimited. Because our data lake is disease-agnostic, researchers can study the mechanisms behind almost any disease—from conditions that impact millions to those that impact dozens—providing a healthier future for all.” “In the future, we look forward to continuing to partner with pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies to enhance the future of precision medicine.” Pulse 2.0 focuses on business news, profiles, and deal flow coverage.