Today VitaDAO announced it raised $4.1m in tokens from Pfizer Ventures, Shine Capital, L1 Digital and several other web3 and decentralised science organizations. One of its investors is Balaji Srinivasan former Coinbase CTO and a16z partner. VitaDAO, as its name implies, is structured as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) where token holders vote on its governance and the project it funds. It aims to help biotech startups find funding, particularly for longevity research.
One example of the sort of project that VitaDAO funds is €30,000 for Mantis Photonics. It is developing a hyperspectral camera to enable Alzheimer’s to be screened early through retinal scans before the onset of symptoms. A key feature of Alzheimer’s is Amyloid beta plaque which builds up in the brain. Recent studies indicate that these plaques appear on the retina before the cognitive decline is noticed.
To date, VitaDAO says it has funded $3.5m in research. Apart from providing financing, the intellectual property (IP) from research is tokenized on blockchain by VitaDAO as IP-NFTs. And it spins out new biotech companies.
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