Generative AI- and biomarker-powered therapeutics to enhance and protect microglia — the immune cells of the brain.
The Unmet Patient Need
The Problem
Clearance of harmful pathogens and brain cell debris by microglia — the immune cells of the brain, worsens with aging, infection, injury, and disease. This breakdown leaves the brain vulnerable and underlies a wide range of neurological conditions.
Our Solution
Microglial Enhancement
Therapeutics designed to enhance and protect microglia, restoring their ability to clear harmful brain cell debris and pathogens.
Generative AI-Powered
Leveraging cutting-edge generative AI to accelerate drug discovery and identify novel therapeutic targets in neurological disease.
Biomarker-Driven
Biomarker-powered precision medicine to ensure the right treatment reaches the right patients at the right time.
Supercharged Microglial Drug Pipeline
Indications: Alzheimer's Disease (AD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and adjacent brain indications
Note: AI-suffix = Generative AI-engineered variant
What Makes Us Different?
Generative AI Power
We develop and apply novel generative AI tools to engineer large and small molecule drugs that supercharge microglia — with predicted improvements in efficacy and safety. We verify our predictions with high-throughput experiments for microglial clearance, inflammation, and mitochondrial function.
Biomarker Power
Through a partnership with Gryphon Bio, we reverse-translate blood biomarkers from clinical studies to improve the odds of successful preclinical studies, as well as future clinical trials, with our microglial drugs.
The Owl Leadership Team
Our proven, cohesive leadership team is comprised of innovative and dedicated drug developers, scientists, clinicians, and business leaders.
Co-Founder & CEO
William Haskins
Dr. Haskins brings 20+ years experience in therapeutic R&D, including leadership roles at Genentech and Catalent. Well-versed in CNS biomarkers and large molecule drug development (OCREVUS®, KADCYLA®, POLIVY®, etc.).
Co-Founder & CTO
Franklin Okumu
Dr. Okumu brings 20+ years in R&D experience from Genentech, Novo Nordisk, and Dr. Reddy's (KADCYLA®, PERJETA®, DIFICID®, SERNIVO®, ZEMBRACESYMTOUCH®, IMPOYZ®, etc.)
Co-Founder & Technical Advisor
Henry Lowman, PhD
Dr. Lowman brings 20+ years of leadership roles in antibody engineering at Genentech, NGM Biopharmaceuticals, CytomX Therapeutics, Triphase Accelerator U.S.
Co-Founder & Clinical Advisor
Todd Kilbaugh
Dr. Kilbaugh is the Associate Anesthesiologist in Chief and Associate Chair of Research for the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Recent Publications
Research from our team and collaborators on blood biomarkers across the TBI–MCI–AD continuum. Preprints have not been peer-reviewed; published versions are linked where available.
January 31, 2024
Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics · Review article
"…UCH-L1 and GFAP levels increase significantly in the bloodstream following traumatic brain injury, aiding in early and accurate diagnosis."
February 24, 2025
Critical Care Medicine · Conference abstract, SCCM Critical Care Congress 2025
"Isolated DAI is associated with unique blood biomarker and outcome profiles in msTBI patients."
January 15, 2026
medRxiv preprint · Related research
Published version: Prior Traumatic Brain Injury and Alzheimer Disease Blood Biomarkers — JAMA Neurology, June 29, 2026
"…accuracy was 90% in Veterans without TBI history, but was significantly lower (63-78% accuracy) in Veterans with TBI history, with lowest accuracy in those with greater TBI severity."
September 3, 2026
Proteoform-resolved neoGFAP™ as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker across the TBI–MCI–AD continuum in Veterans
medRxiv preprint
"…neoGFAP™ discriminated mild cognitive impairment plus Alzheimer's disease from non-Alzheimer subjects with an area under the receiver-operating-characteristic curve of 0.81 versus 0.73 for total GFAP…"
September 3, 2026
Serial neoGFAP™ outperforms total GFAP for monitoring and 6-month outcome discrimination after moderate to severe traumatic brain injury: an exploratory single-site cohort study
medRxiv preprint
"…IMPACT plus late neoGFAP™ achieved AUROC 0.90 versus 0.84 for late total GFAP…"
September 22, 2026
medRxiv preprint
"These pilot findings support the analytical feasibility of capillary DPS sampling for GFAP and NfL measurement in TBI…"
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