A nine-month accelerator connecting early-stage founders with scientific expertise, business mentoring and investment. Build technologies that help biopharma ask better questions—and take the next step toward answering them.
Whether you are refining a platform, defining its first use case or preparing to engage industry, the Studio brings scientific and entrepreneurial perspectives into the same conversation.
Selected startups receive a $100,000 USD investment through a SAFE—a Simple Agreement for Future Equity—from Merck GHI in collaboration with regional partners.
A starting point for the next stage of your company. Investment terms are provided by the MDSS team.
Access Merck specialists and personalized mentoring from Centech advisors. Bring the scientific, technical and commercial questions most relevant to your stage.
From clarifying a use case to communicating the evidence behind your technology.
Structured sessions with industry leaders and investors help you develop your value proposition, business model and approach to market.
Explain what your technology changes, who needs it and why it matters.
Connect with founders, alumni and corporate innovators through shared learning and the Studio network.
Different technologies. Familiar challenges. A community to exchange experience with.
Our existing focus spans discovery, pre-clinical and clinical development. We are expanding into precision medicine, connecting biological differences with more informed development decisions.
What should we investigate next?
Technologies that help researchers explore disease biology, identify promising targets and prioritize candidates for further study.
The founder question: Which research decision does your platform improve, and what evidence demonstrates the difference?
How can we learn more before clinical studies?
Platforms that help teams characterize candidates, study biological effects and generate evidence before testing in people.
The founder question: How does your model or workflow improve the relevance, repeatability or speed of the evidence?
How can clinical evidence become more useful?
Digital approaches that help development teams understand patient populations, design studies and interpret clinical data.
The founder question: Where does your technology fit into a clinical workflow, and how will its performance be evaluated?
These examples illustrate the kinds of problems within each focus area. Discuss your specific technology and stage with the Studio team.
Our 2027 priorities bring a sharper focus to technologies that can change how research teams discover, build and test.
AI platforms for early-stage target discovery and predictive health modeling.
The question your model addresses, the data it uses, and how its predictions can be evaluated in a relevant setting.
High-throughput bioengineering and expression platforms designed to shorten drug development cycles.
The bottleneck you address, the performance you can demonstrate, and how your platform fits into an existing workflow.
Next-generation in vitro assay platforms offering alternatives to traditional cell lines.
The biology your model captures, its reproducibility, and the development decision it could help inform.
We are adding precision medicine to the Studio’s focus.
We want to hear from founders connecting biological signals, diagnostic insights and data to a clearer understanding of which approaches may work for which patient groups.
Precision medicine connects all three development stages: discovering biological signals, testing their relevance in models and interpreting their role in patient populations.
Platforms that identify and interpret measurable biological signals, or group patients by characteristics relevant to research and development.
Potential applications: biomarker discovery, subgroup identification and translational evidence.
Tests and analytical platforms that connect diagnostic information with therapeutic decisions. Companion diagnostics provide information essential to the safe and effective use of a corresponding therapy.
Potential applications: test development, assay validation and therapy-linked diagnostic strategies.
Tools supporting antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs), which combine an antibody with a drug payload, and adjacent biologics research.
Potential applications: target characterization, analytical platforms and models for evaluating biological response.
AI tools that connect laboratory findings, biological data and clinical evidence to help teams investigate development questions.
Potential applications: evidence integration, hypothesis generation and research workflow support.
Building in one of these areas? Tell us what you are developing and the next question you need to answer.
Discuss your fitMDSS supports early-stage startups building digitally enabled technologies for biopharma. Your platform may span more than one focus area.
A useful first conversation starts with the problem, the evidence you have today and the milestone you want to reach next.
Talk to the StudioA concise description of your technology, its intended use, your current stage and the evidence behind it. Tell us what makes your approach different and what kind of support would be most useful.
The program includes a $100,000 USD SAFE investment for selected startups. A SAFE is an agreement for future equity. The MDSS team provides the applicable investment and program terms.
Applications open October 1, 2026. Sign up for application notifications to hear when the application window opens.
Next cohort detailsYes—discovery, development and precision medicine can overlap. Describe the specific problem you address and the workflow in which your technology would be used so the team can discuss fit.
Building a company, exploring the program or looking to contribute? Tell us what you have in mind.