Origin
AI for safer cell & gene therapies
About
Designing novel regulatory DNA (e.g., enhancers and promoters) to program precise therapeutic gene expression patterns - for diseases like cancer, CNS disorders and more. We're building the largest proprietary dataset of synthetic regulatory sequences across diverse cell-states.
Founders
Founder
CTO @ Origin | Prev: Computer Science @ UIUC, ML Research @ Wadhwani AI, Automorphic (YC S23). Published disease modeling research done in high school in Nature Scientific Reports.
AI Research Report
Problem & Solution
Problem and Solution Report
Origin addresses a critical bottleneck in the development of cell and gene therapies: the lack of precise control over gene expression. Current gene therapies often suffer from poor efficacy, unintended toxicity, and a lack of tissue specificity. Because therapeutic genes are often 'always on' or expressed in the wrong cells, they can cause severe side effects or fail to reach therapeutic levels where they are needed most. This lack of control limits the safety and reach of potentially life-saving treatments.
Origin's solution is an AI-first approach to designing 'DNA switches and dials'—synthetic regulatory DNA elements that program gene expression with unprecedented precision. By engineering these regulatory sequences, Origin enables therapies to activate therapeutic genes only in specific target disease cell-states or tissues. This 'programmable' approach aims to make cell and gene therapies significantly safer and more effective by ensuring the right dose is delivered to the right cell at the right time.
The core of Origin's technology is 'Axis,' a state-of-the-art generative and predictive model for regulatory DNA. Axis is designed to both generate new regulatory elements and predict their functional activity. The company claims that Axis outperforms existing benchmarks, such as Google DeepMind’s AlphaGenome, at predicting regulatory element binding activity by 6.7%. To support this, Origin is building a massive proprietary dataset consisting of millions of experimentally validated synthetic regulatory sequences, bridging the gap between computational design and biological reality.
Market & Competitors
Market and Competitors Report
Origin operates in the rapidly evolving 'AI for Biology' market, specifically targeting the enabling technologies segment of the cell and gene therapy industry. The market is characterized by a shift toward 'programmable medicines,' where the focus is not just on the therapeutic payload but on the control systems (regulatory DNA) and delivery vehicles (capsids). The target audience includes biopharmaceutical companies developing AAV-based gene therapies, CAR-T cell therapies, and other advanced medicinal products that require precise expression control to meet regulatory safety standards.
The competitive landscape for Origin includes both direct technical rivals and adjacent platform companies. A primary direct competitor is Google DeepMind, whose AlphaGenome model also focuses on predicting regulatory sequence activity. Origin distinguishes itself by claiming superior predictive accuracy (a 6.7% improvement over AlphaGenome) and by offering a generative component that designs new sequences rather than just predicting existing ones. Other adjacent competitors include companies like Dyno Therapeutics (focused on capsid design), Deep Genomics and Insitro (computational genomics and drug discovery), and synthetic biology giants like Twist Bioscience and Synthego.
Origin’s primary competitive advantage lies in its 'closed-loop' approach: combining a high-performance generative AI model with a massive, proprietary wet-lab validated dataset. While many academic groups and tech labs work on similar problems, Origin’s focus on commercial-grade 'switches and dials' for therapeutic applications provides a clear value proposition for pharma partners. However, as a Winter 2026 Y Combinator startup, Origin faces the challenge of competing against better-funded incumbents and established academic institutions like the Broad Institute, necessitating rapid experimental validation to maintain its technical lead.
Total Addressable Market
Quantitative Total Addressable Market (TAM) Report
Origin operates at the intersection of the gene therapy and cell therapy markets, providing critical enabling technology for the next generation of advanced therapeutics. As of 2024-2026, the broader market for these therapies is valued in the billions and is experiencing rapid growth. MarketsandMarkets estimates the gene therapy market alone will reach $36.55 billion by 2032, up from $8.85 billion in 2024. Simultaneously, Grand View Research projects the global cell therapy market to grow from $4.74 billion in 2023 to over $20 billion by 2030. Some high-end estimates from Fortune Business Insights suggest the combined cell and gene therapy market could reach as high as $200 billion by 2034.
To determine Origin's specific Total Addressable Market (TAM), a methodology focusing on the 'discovery and design' segment of these industries is required. Typically, early-stage R&D and molecular design account for approximately 5% to 20% of total program development spend. Based on a conservative combined top-line market of $20 billion for gene and cell therapies in the 2024-2026 period, the total discovery and design spend is estimated at roughly $2 billion annually.
Origin's addressable portion of this discovery spend—specifically for regulatory sequence design and expression control—is estimated to be between 5% and 25%. This results in a near-term TAM of approximately $100 million to $500 million for specialized regulatory-sequence-as-a-service. As the complexity of therapies increases and more products move toward clinical stages requiring precise 'switches and dials,' the platform's licensing potential could scale into the low billions, mirroring the growth of the underlying therapy markets.
Founder Analysis
Founders and Professional Background
Origin was founded by Yash Rathod and Malhar Bhide, both of whom bring a strong technical foundation in computer science and machine learning to the intersection of biology and AI. Yash Rathod serves as the CEO of Origin. He holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Rathod has a distinguished background in computer vision and reinforcement learning research, notably winning first prize in the 2022 OpenCV AI Research Competition, which underscores his expertise in developing advanced AI models.
Malhar Bhide serves as the CTO of Origin and also shares an educational background in Computer Science from UIUC. Before co-founding Origin, Bhide gained significant experience in machine learning research at Wadhwani AI. He is also a seasoned entrepreneur within the Y Combinator ecosystem, having previously participated as a founder or key member of Automorphic (YC S23). His technical leadership is central to the development of Origin's proprietary AI models for regulatory DNA.
The leadership team is supported by a prestigious group of scientific advisors who provide deep domain expertise in genomics and bioengineering. This advisory board includes Dr. Manolis Kellis, a renowned professor at MIT known for his work in computational biology; Dr. Nicole Paulk, an expert in gene therapy and AAV vector engineering; and Dr. Rashid Bashir, the Dean of the Grainger College of Engineering at UIUC and a leader in bionanotechnology. This combination of frontier AI talent and established scientific authority positions the company to tackle complex challenges in gene expression programming.
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