Crystal Brown’s CircNova Raises $3.3M to Accelerate Development of RNA Therapeutics

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Published by Stephen Oluwadara at February 26, 2025

How Does CircNova’s Solution Work

The company is led by Boston-based co-founder and CEO Crystal Brown. It uses technology developed by MIT alumni and CSO Joe DeAngelo. Circular RNA is a newly discovered molecule that regulates biological processes and can potentially treat complex health issues.

CircNova found a way to generate, analyze, and identify circular RNA for therapeutic development, with the prospect of treating ovarian cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and rare genetic diseases.

Circular RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is a class of structures forming a circle rather than a strand that can be used to build therapies for varied medical conditions. CircNova identifies circular RNA via an AI-based system it has developed called NovaEngine. It’s an AI tool that uses deep learning to create and analyze new circular RNA for medical treatments, similar to Google’s DeepMind AlphaFold technology.

“We can reverse engineer. We can go from sequence to structure. We can go from structure to sequence when developing the molecule,” Brown said. The ultimate goal is to “treat diseases that have not been treated so far, such as ovarian cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and rare genetic diseases,” she added.

Furthermore, CircNova has a so-called wet lab, which means its AI engine produces the actual physical molecules that can be validated and researched in collaboration with the University of Michigan.

The Unconventional Journey of CircNova’s Co-founders

Crystal Brown took an unconventional journey into the startup world. She transitioned from an automotive career to biotech, initially working part-time for a life science startup before becoming a founder.

The University of Michigan graduate initially worked in Detroit’s automotive industry, even considering a shot at the C-suite. However, chance brought her into the life sciences industry when a friend introduced her to the CEO of a biotech startup. The biotech startup CEO was looking for a business manager and thought Brown would be a good fit.

She took to the sector with zest, taking a massive pay cut from her well-paying six-figure job to intern-level pay. Brown learned about startups, raising money and worked her way up to director of operations. The company went public, giving her a healthy enough payout to buy a house.

Flushed with success, she launched a biotech startup, a contract research lab, Great Lakes Biologics. She raised money, then made all the classic first-founder mistakes. “I hired people too quickly. I opened up my lab,” she told TechCrunch.

Two years in, her startup burned through its funds, and she knew she had to shut down. It broke her heart and her bank account. She even lost her house, she recalled.

But Brown had gained a stellar reputation in Michigan’s tight-knit startup community, and she recalls that VCs told her, “You’re a good founder anyway.” Most of them told her they’d be open to funding her next idea.

DeAngelo was a consultant at Great Lakes Biologics. Anticipating her availability for a new venture, he began sharing research on circular RNA with her. He envisioned combining it with AI for drug discovery. Together with investor and chief business officer William Grenawitzke, they launched CircNova in May 2023. He was previously the CEO of biotech Neochromosome.

On investing in Brown’s venture again, VCs like Nia Batts, a General Partner at Union Heritage Ventures, had no reservations. “We are no stranger to the resilience that is needed when you engage in the journey of entrepreneurship,” Batts said, adding that she knew she wanted to back this new venture “the moment” she met Brown and heard about the idea.