Co­di­ak gets a com­peti­tor, as Mantra Bio leaves stealth and en­ters grow­ing ex­o­some space

Alex Mok had been try­ing to build mi­ni-or­gans in a lab for years, when he start­ed read­ing about re­search in­to a form of cel­lu­lar postal ser­vice called ex­o­somes.

Sci­en­tists were be­gin­ning to see how these minute en­velopes car­ried mes­sages be­tween cells, help­ing them form tis­sue or, when things go wrong, cause dis­ease. Mok start­ed im­mers­ing him­self in­to the field too late to change the com­pa­ny, called Cel­lA­SIC, which he co-found­ed af­ter leav­ing UC Berke­ley. It was still good enough to sell it to Mer­ck KgAA, but he be­gan won­der­ing about the pos­si­bil­i­ties.

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