Minutia is pioneering a functional cure for Type I Diabetes (T1D) that will allow patients to live without insulin injections and not suffer the long-term complications of the disease. 

Founded in 2021 out of UCSF, Minutia has already raised $13.5M, $6.5M in pre-seed SAFEs and $7M in grants,  and has derisked the safety of their minimally-invasive transplant procedure, in human patients, with a UCSF trial. Now they are raising for a Phase 1 human study in Australia.

The T1D cell therapy market is substantial, with billion dollar market movements seen with Vertex and Sana based on n=2 studies of islet transplants. To win this market, there are many considerations. The islet organoid must be successfully immune-cloaked, and that alone may not be enough – there needs to be an easy, fast kill switch, in case an immune reaction is provoked. The transplant cells will often wander, too, so they have to be trackable. And going into deep organs could be a problem, if the cells need to be removed. It also has to be affordable, to reach a broad population. 

For each and all of these criteria, our team believes Minutia has the best-in-class solution. The secret? Gold nanostars.  

We love founders with a passionate vision for a life changing product. You can feel this at a visceral level when you meet Katy Digovich, the founder CEO, who suffers quietly with T1D. Katy strives for the day when Minutia’s innovative cell therapy will replace the ardor and angst of T1 – with a single injection every 5 years.