Tome Biosciences

Rahul Kakkar, as CEO, controls the firm's capital allocation. Tome is a venture-backed operating company, not an investment firm — its 'deployment' is spending on internal R&D rather than portfolio construction. The board, which includes representatives from ARCH Venture Partners and a16z, approves major budget and partnership decisions.

Tome's technology is based on programmable genomic integration via serine integrases rather than CRISPR nucleases. It does not cut the DNA double helix; instead, it inserts large sequences of new genetic code at targeted 'landing pad' sites. This avoids the DNA-damage repair pathways that can produce off-target mutations with CRISPR-based editing, a distinction central to the firm's safety proposition for in vivo therapies.

The core PASTE (Programmable Addition via Site-specific Targeting Elements) technology was developed by co-founders Omar Abudayyeh and Jonathan Gootenberg during their doctoral and postdoctoral work at MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research. Tome holds exclusive licenses to that IP from MIT. In December 2023, the firm expanded its IP estate with a similarly exclusive license from the Broad Institute for CRISPR-associated transposase systems.

No public disclosure links Tome to a single-family office or family wealth. The firm is a classic venture-backed biotech startup. Its $213 million in launch funding came entirely from institutional venture capital firms including ARCH Venture Partners, a16z Bio + Health, GV, and Polaris Partners, with no named individual family investor.

Tome is a preclinical-stage therapeutics company with no investment arm. It does not invest in other companies or run a corporate venture fund. Its financial strategy is to advance internal drug candidates through Investigational New Drug filings using its $213 million capital base. The company's clinical-readiness timeline has not been publicly disclosed beyond a focus on liver metabolic disorders.

Tome has stated publicly that its initial focus is on liver metabolic disorders, a tissue class where delivery technologies are relatively mature and the 'landing pad' approach has a clear safety rationale. The firm has not disclosed programs in oncology, which typically relies on cell-killing rather than gene-correction mechanisms, nor has it announced any ex vivo cell therapy programs. Its public statements emphasize in vivo delivery to solid organs.

Tome is structured as a Delaware C-corporation. Its board includes representatives from its lead venture backers. Rahul Kakkar serves as CEO and sits on the board; the scientific co-founders hold equity but have not disclosed operational management roles. The commercialization strategy is led by Kakkar, a serial biotech entrepreneur, while Abudayyeh and Gootenberg remain affiliated with MIT, providing a bridge to ongoing academic innovation.