Guardian Bio

About

Your immune system is your body’s best weapon and defense against cancer. It is only when it is overcome that cancer develops into full blown disease. Dendritic cells sit at the helm of the immune system, directing and dictating immune responses. Data has shown dendritic cells are often dysfunctional in cancer patients, and that this dysfunction is a bottleneck for other therapies. Guardian Bio’s approach is focused on creating a dendritic cell-based product which drives anti-tumor activity through activating the killers of the immune system AND training them against multiple cancer targets. We take stem cells from cancer patients, turn them into specific therapeutic dendritic cells specially trained against that patient’s tumor, and re-introduce them back into the body. Our therapeutic dendritic cells revitalize the killers of the immune system and give them the kickstart they need to fight - and win - against cancer.

Founders

Ananya ZutshiFounder

Ananya is Co-Founder and CEO of Guardian Bio, a company which controls immunity using dendritic cell-based therapies. She has a Bachelors in Science in Engineering from Duke and Masters in Engineering and MBA from Harvard. Her experiences span across the pharma/biotech industry in operations, engineering, project management, and early stage investing. She is passionate about delivering better therapies for patients and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Ricky BarrettFounder

Co-founder and CSO at Guardian Bio. Ricky started his career as a marine biologist and research diver at FAU with a focus on marine natural products and drug discovery. He pursued a PhD at UCF, focused on immunology followed by a postdoc in cancer immunology and tumor microenvironment at the University of Pennsylvania. Ricky is a prolific science communicator creating educational science content for an audience of over a quarter million followers across various social media platforms.