Switchpoint Bio raises $5.3M to develop AI-powered blood tests for drug development

$5.3M pre-seed round aims to transform drug development

Switchpoint Bio, a biotech startup split between Helsinki and Cambridge, has raised $5.3 million in pre-seed funding. Treehouse Delmar Investments led the round, contributing $5 million of the total.

The company’s platform uses epigenomic profiling and AI to monitor biological changes in patients—entirely from blood samples. Its tests target epigenomically active regions in circulating immune cells, focusing on areas linked to disease and immune response.

Blood tests could replace invasive biopsies

Most drugs today target specific biological pathways, but tracking how an individual patient’s biology shifts during treatment remains a challenge. Tissue biopsies are invasive, slow, and often impractical for repeated tests. Conventional blood biomarkers, meanwhile, often fail to capture the underlying biology.

Switchpoint Bio’s technology reads epigenomic marks in blood samples, offering real-time insights into disease progression and treatment effects. The approach is designed to scale across drug trials and routine clinical care.

Founders merge academic breakthroughs with industry experience

Switchpoint Bio was launched by Samuel Myllykangas and Jason Buenrostro. Myllykangas, the company’s CEO, previously built and scaled Blueprint Genetics, which Quest Diagnostics acquired in 2020. Buenrostro, a Harvard professor and director of the Epigenomics Program at the Broad Institute, invented ATAC-seq, a technique that maps open chromatin regions to reveal active genes.

The team also includes Niilo Färkkilä, chief commercial officer, who brings experience from Amgen and GSK; Jussi Paananen, chief technology officer and former CTO of Blueprint Genetics; and Mitja Kurki, a scientific advisor with expertise in population genomics from FinnGen.

Funding drives clinical trials and pharma partnerships

The $5.3 million will fund clinical validation, expand the company’s datasets, and refine its epigenomic and AI platform. Switchpoint Bio is already testing its technology in autoimmune diseases, with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) as its first target.

"We’re collaborating with pharma and biotech partners to design industry validation programs," Myllykangas said. "Our goal is to deliver objective, blood-based readouts of immune states and how they change during treatment."

Investor backs startup’s biology-driven approach

Dave Proctor, a partner at Treehouse Delmar Investments, called the startup’s approach groundbreaking. "We invest in science that can redefine how disease is understood and treated," he said. "This team has a clear path to turn breakthrough biology into tools that actually improve patient outcomes."

What this means

Lazyfounder analysis — our interpretation, not reported fact.

Switchpoint Bio’s approach could let drugmakers monitor treatment effects in real time—reducing reliance on costly, invasive biopsies and accelerating drug approvals for autoimmune diseases like lupus.

Key takeaways

• $5.3 million pre-seed round will fund clinical validation and partnerships with pharmaceutical companies.
• Blood-based epigenomic profiling eliminates the need for invasive tissue biopsies.
• Founders combine academic innovation (ATAC-seq) with commercial experience (Blueprint Genetics).
• First clinical focus is systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a complex autoimmune disease with few reliable biomarkers.

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