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Our Story
Founder's Family Journey with CMT1A
Timeline
August 2021
January 2022
April 2022
September 2024
Something's not quite right...
We knew something was up with Ari, but were told it's a "delay not a disability" by several doctors at both UCSF & Stanford over the course of 12+ months.
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As CRO of a startup and my wife Partner at a VC fund, we weren't able to advocate for Ari the way we wanted to. I left a leadership role in a SaaS startup to focus on Ari.
Ari's Diagnosis
After insisting on getting a genetic test (which we were dissuaded to pursue, and paid for out-of-pocket), we received the diagnosis of CMT1A, and an apology from several doctors who had misled us.
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It was devastating to learn that CMT1A has no treatment or cure, and that it is progressive (it gets worse over time).
Immersed in the world of CMT​
Four months after Ari's diagnosis I joined the Board of the CMTA and dove deep into the underlying science through biotech courses and reading medical publications.
With the support of advisors from Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and leading biotech executives, we developed a hypothesis on how to accelerate the path to a treatment for CMT1A.​​
Founded Shark Tooth Biotech
Shark Tooth was founded in September 2024 to bring this hypothesis to life and develop the first treatment for CMT1A. ​
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CMT1A is the acronym for Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease Type 1A. It's pronounced Shark-O-Marie-Tooth Disease, hence our company name.
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