By Hugo Elliot
As a revered bioscientist with serious clout in her field, Dr. Leen Kawas has spent much of her time walking into rooms and deciding how things are going to play out. Her work with Propel Bio Partners as well as her history developing successful drug trials as the co-founder of Athira Pharma has also earned her a degree of clout within the field.
Most recently, Dr. Leen Kawas has been making the rounds to explore the newest partnership between her angel investing fund, Propel Bio Partners, and its hottest subject, Persephone Biosciences.
Inside a Collaborative Effort
Propel Bio Partners was established by Dr. Leen Kawas after she departed from Athira Pharma, having successfully engineered several successful drug trials as the company reached its IPO. Along the way, Kawas was recognized as the GeekWire Startup CEO of the Year for 2019 as well as the 40 Under 40 in Life Science Leader in 2017. You could say that Kawas has been used to making big moves.
Dr. Kawas knew that she wanted to aim for something meaningful, and that meant tackling a collaborative effort on a subject close to home, infant probiotics.
Kawas said of this decision, “It’s an interesting moment for life sciences, and we have a lot of opportunities out there. We’re excited about a few companies that are both in the public and the private company ecosystem.”
Alongside her investing mentor Persephone Biosciences, Kawas and the team at Propel Bio Partners hope to help lead to some profound changes. Kawas added during her podcast interview, “The thing that attracted us about Persephone is their scientific approach.”
As a thought leader and experienced bioscientist, Kawas understands the importance of the scientific process. Kawas stated of her work with Persephone, “This innovative startup is focused on the applications of gut microbiome health. Initially, the company targeted infants’ microbiome.”
Dr. Kawas wants to make it clear that the work Persephone is doing is essential regardless of her investment in their system. Kawas said, “Persephone is like a company that brings the best in the two worlds: faster access to market and revenue with their consumer pipeline and therapeutic pipeline.”
As a realistic entrepreneur, Dr. Kawas also had this to add, “What I also like about Persephone is they directly acknowledge the market conditions.”
At Persephone Biosciences, research is being performed into the gut microbiome of children in the hopes that the development of healthier probiotics could lead to healthier outcomes. Dr. Kawas emphasized how damaging conditions such as Alzheimer’s can be traced, in some ways, back to the gut’s biome.
Kawas says, “What I love about Persephone is before they even start going into designing their product, they’ve conducted clinical trials to understand the baseline of the human gut biome.”
About Leen Kawas
Dr. Leen Kawas made a name for herself in the bioscience field thanks to her work as the founder of Athira Pharma. Leen Kawas attended and graduated from the University of Jordan in 2008 before attending and acquiring her Doctorate in Molecular Pharmacology from the University of Washington.
