Therapeutics & oncology · Oncolytic virus therapy
Humane Genomics
A New York biotech engineering synthetic RNA viruses that are designed to infect and kill only cancer cells. Its lead candidate targets pediatric liver cancer and is still in preclinical development, with a cGMP manufacturing partner now on board and no clinical trial yet registered.
A virus built from a computer file
Peter Weijmarshausen describes the process the way he once described printing a physical object at Shapeways, the 3D printing company he ran for a decade. “We can 3D print or synthesize DNA based on a computer file,” he told Fierce Biotech in 2021. “We take a file that contains A, G, C and T in the right order and feed it into a machine that produces DNA fragments.”
Those fragments are assembled into a complete viral genome and transfected into cells to produce a live virus, engineered to infect only cancer cells and to replicate only once it is inside them, a design the company calls "2 factor authentication."
The problem it is chasing
Oncolytic viruses have circled cancer treatment for decades without fully arriving. The only one the FDA has approved, Amgen's Imlygic, was cleared in 2015 for melanoma and is injected directly into tumors; it does not work against metastatic disease. Getting a virus through the bloodstream to a tumor without being destroyed by the immune system first remains one of the field's hardest problems.
Humane Genomics is chasing an indication where the need is stark and the incumbent field is thin: pediatric liver cancer, principally hepatoblastoma, the most common liver tumor in children. In a company blog post announcing its 2025 financing, Weijmarshausen wrote plainly that "there are no good therapies for pediatric liver cancer." The company later extended its lead program to hepatocellular carcinoma, the adult form of primary liver cancer.
A separate and unrelated research effort at Texas Children's, Baylor College of Medicine and Seattle Children's has also targeted liver cancer's GPC3 marker, reporting in the New England Journal of Medicine in September 2026 a complete regression of hepatoblastoma in a child treated with an engineered CAR T cell therapy in the CARE study. That trial uses CAR T cells rather than an oncolytic virus, and the sources gathered for this page do not tie it to Humane Genomics.
Three founders, three specialties
Weijmarshausen is a serial entrepreneur who founded and served as CEO of Shapeways, the 3D printing marketplace. Andrew Hessel, a co-founder, has spent his career in synthetic biology and genome engineering, including as co-executive director of the Genome Project-write initiative and past co-chair of biotech and bioinformatics programming at Singularity University. Chad Moles, the company's chief science officer and third co-founder, holds an M.A. in biotechnology from Columbia University, where his thesis focused on synthetic genome engineering for next-generation vaccines and therapeutics.
In a 2025 blog post marking the company's Series Seed financing, Weijmarshausen traced the idea to a dinner six years earlier: "Six years ago, I had dinner with my friend and co-founder Andrew Hessel and he told me something that blew my mind: it is possible to 3D print DNA." He continued: "we were spending long hours with our other co-founder Chad Moles, Chief Science Officer, figuring out how to turn this idea into reality."
Advisors include Bruce Smith, a molecular geneticist and veterinarian who directs the Auburn University Research Initiative in Cancer, and Michael Whitt, a molecular virologist and former microbiology chair at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center whose background is in VSV reverse genetics, the same platform Humane Genomics builds on.
From a napkin idea to a manufacturing deal
Humane Genomics was founded in 2019. By August 2021, according to Fierce Biotech, it had collected $125,000 in seed funding from Y Combinator and was preparing to pitch investors at the accelerator's Demo Day. At the time it described early programs across bone cancer, liver cancer, small cell lung cancer and glioblastoma, choosing rarer cancers with few existing treatments.
The company narrowed its public focus to pediatric liver cancer, working with Texas Children's Hospital. A December 2022 blog post described a platform producing a sequence-verified, testable virus in under three weeks, with a 73 percent success rate from design to validated DNA. By April 2024 the company was presenting its approach at AACR alongside dozens of other oncolytic virus programs.
In February 2025, Humane Genomics announced a Series Seed round led by Union Square Ventures. Neither the company nor the independent outlet FinSMEs, which also covered the round, disclosed a dollar amount. A month later, a small investment vehicle tied to the company filed with the SEC. In April 2025 the company presented preclinical data on HGI627 at AACR, and in November 2025 it announced a manufacturing partnership with Genezen, a contract development and manufacturing organization, for process transfer and cGMP production of HGI627.
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| HGI627 preclinical data | AACR 2025 poster reported a complete response in Hep3B liver cancer xenografts after a single systemic dose, with greater than 99.9 percent tumor reduction and tolerability at doses 300 times the anticipated clinical starting dose. | Company-stated |
| Earlier efficacy claim | In 2021 the company's Y Combinator profile described "in vivo (mouse) data showing safety" with "a 50% reduction in tumor volume," a materially smaller effect than the complete response later reported in 2025. | Company-stated |
| Platform metrics | Company blog states a 73% success rate from virus design to validated DNA and turnaround under three weeks per design. | Company-stated |
| Texas Children's collaboration | Described by the company since at least 2021 as a research partner on the hepatoblastoma program. No independent confirmation of the partnership's scope was found in the sources gathered. | Company-stated |
| Genezen manufacturing partnership | Announced jointly by both companies in November 2025 for process transfer and cGMP manufacturing of HGI627. Confirms IND-enabling work is underway but does not itself indicate a filed IND. | Company-stated |
| Peer-reviewed publications | Two PubMed-indexed papers list company-affiliated authors (Moles, Basu, Weijmarshausen and colleagues): a 2023 review on selecting oncolytic virus platforms and a 2024 methods paper on engineering vesicular stomatitis virus. Neither reports the company's own hepatoblastoma or HCC efficacy data. | Public record |
| Clinical trials | No trial registered under the company or HGI627 was found. | Not found |
| FDA record | No FDA 510(k), PMA or public IND record was found, consistent with a preclinical-stage company. | Not found |
Read plainly: the xenograft data the company has shown at AACR is striking on its face, but it comes from a conference poster rather than a peer-reviewed publication, and the company's own reported effect size has grown sharply from what it described in 2021. The manufacturing deal with Genezen shows real movement toward the clinic, but nothing in the public record yet places HGI627 in a registered trial or in front of the FDA.
What to watch
- Whether HGI627 or a successor candidate reaches an IND filing and a registered clinical trial.
- Peer-reviewed publication of the AACR 2025 Hep3B xenograft data.
- A disclosed dollar amount for the February 2025 Series Seed round and the names of its investors beyond Union Square Ventures.
- Progress on the additional indications, bone cancer, small cell lung cancer and glioblastoma, that the company described as early targets in 2021.
In their words
“We can 3D print or synthesize DNA based on a computer file.”
Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO, to Fierce Biotech, 2021 · Independent
“It turns out to make a virus that is really good at identifying cancer cells and killing them requires quite a bit of engineering.”
Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO, to Fierce Biotech, 2021 · Independent
“It's not that we didn't know how to do it, but until quite recently, science lacked the tools to do it well.”
Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO, to Fierce Biotech, 2021 · Independent
“We can make a new virus in about a week, and it costs a few hundred dollars.”
Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO, to Fierce Biotech, 2021 · Independent
“Six years ago, I had dinner with my friend and co-founder Andrew Hessel and he told me something that blew my mind: it is possible to 3D print DNA.”
Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO, company blog, February 2025 · Company
“Our first target is pediatric liver cancer. Working closely with Texas Children's Hospital we have developed an oncolytic virus that shows the ability to quickly kill cancer cells and leave healthy cells alone. This is remarkable and exciting since there are no good therapies for pediatric liver cancer.”
Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO, company blog, February 2025 · Company
“We are thrilled to partner with Genezen. Their experienced, dynamic team and state-of-the-art facilities make them a perfect match to turn our groundbreaking science into real therapies for patients.”
Peter Weijmarshausen, co-founder and CEO, November 2025 press release · Company
“Genezen is excited to partner with Humane Genomics on this novel cancer treatment and provide our best-in-class manufacturing expertise to bring this critical therapy to life for pediatric patients.”
Steve Favaloro, chairman and CEO of Genezen, November 2025 press release · Partner-stated
Related companies
Sources
- Public recordForm D, Gaingels Humane Genomics LLC, CIK 0002055148
- Public recordPubMed 39459973, Leveraging Synthetic Virology for the Rapid Engineering of Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV)
- Public recordPubMed 37541726, Rational selection of an ideal oncolytic virus to address current limitations in clinical translation
- IndependentHumane Genomics is 3D-printing oncolytic viruses to treat rare cancers
- IndependentHumane Genomics Raises Seed Funding
- IndependentHumane Genomics company profile
- CompanyAbout Humane Genomics
- CompanyOur platform
- CompanyAnnouncing our Series Seed financing
- CompanyShowcasing data on our oncolytic viral therapy at AACR 2025
- CompanyReflections from AACR: The evolving landscape of oncolytic viral therapies
- CompanyOur Team
- CompanyGenezen Announces Manufacturing Partnership with Humane Genomics to Advance Oncolytic Virus Therapy for Pediatric Liver Cancer
- Public recordCARE study reports complete regression of liver cancer in a child treated with novel immunotherapy
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
