Why We Invested In Creasallis - Pace Ventures Insights

"Conquest of Mexico by (Hernán) Cortés" depicts the 1521 Fall of Tenochtitlan, in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. Unknown author, second half of 17th century.

At Pace Ventures, we partner with visionaries tackling the longest-standing bottlenecks in human health. Few challenges in modern medicine are as intractable, and as critical, as treating solid tumors. Antibodies have transformed cancer therapy. Yet one of their biggest limitations has remained largely unsolved: reaching cancer cells located inside a solid tumor. That is why we are thrilled to announce our investment in Creasallis, a category-defining platform company that is unlocking the full potential of antibody drugs.

Why Antibodies Fail to Meaningfully Address Solid Tumors

Despite decades of innovation, outcomes remain poor for many advanced solid tumors. Monoclonal antibodies are the bedrock of modern targeted therapies, but they face a profound physical limitation: they do not penetrate solid tumors well. The tumor microenvironment is dense, pressurized, and deeply hostile to the movement of large macromolecules.

For years, the industry has been trapped in a biological trade-off. Large monoclonal antibodies possess the exquisite specificity and long serum half-life required for effective dosing, but they are too bulky to penetrate deep into tumor tissue. Conversely, small antibody fragments penetrate tumors beautifully, but their serum half-life is so poor that they are cleared from the body before they can deliver sustained therapeutic value.

We know that increased antibody penetration yields superior clinical outcomes, a fact clearly demonstrated by the recent success of Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs). Yet, until now, no one has developed a solution that perfectly marries high penetration with sustained half-life.

The Breakthrough: A “Moon Lander” for Cancer

Recent years have shown that improving how antibodies are delivered can create enormous clinical and commercial value, particularly through the rise of antibody-drug conjugates.

Rather than inventing entirely new modalities, Creasallis is breaking the limiting paradigm above with their proprietary CreaTap (Creasallis Tumor Antibody Penetration) technology. Through precise, synthetic biology, the team has engineered what they accurately describe as the "moon lander for antibodies".

The concept is remarkably elegant. Creasallis re-engineers the hinge region of an antibody to include a tumor-specific protease cleavage site. In the bloodstream, the antibody remains perfectly intact, retaining its large size, long half-life, and excellent developability profiles.

Once inside the tumor, tumor-associated proteases cleave the engineered hinge, releasing the smaller antigen-binding fragments that can diffuse much deeper through tumor tissue while the Fc region is left behind.

The data speaks for itself. In vivo models demonstrate that CreaTap technology improves antibody penetration into solid tumors by at least 2-fold. Crucially, because tumor-specific proteases are virtually non-existent in healthy serum, the antibody remains entirely stable while circulating in the blood.

A Plug-and-Play DIscovery Engine

What makes Creasallis a generational opportunity is that CreaTap is not a single drug, it is a universal, plug-and-play platform. The technology can be rapidly applied to virtually any existing antibody format.

Creasallis has already successfully applied CreaTap to clinical blockbusters like Trastuzumab, Bevacizumab, Cetuximab, and Pembrolizumab without impacting their fundamental manufacturability or target binding.

Furthermore, it seamlessly integrates with complex Biologics, ScFvs, VHH-Fcs, and ADCs, proving that vital linker-payloads can be preserved while penetration is dramatically enhanced.

The company is executing a highly strategic 3-step approach: upgrading clinically validated antibodies to leverage existing regulatory pathways, collaborating with pharma on later-stage targets, and eventually advancing their own pipeline of novel antibody therapeutics addressing unyielding solid tumors.

The Team Breathes Decades of Antibody Discovery

Building a company around antibody engineering requires deep scientific and translational expertise. CEO and Founder Zahra Jawad brings exactly this. With a PhD in Protein Engineering from the University of Cambridge, she possesses 18 years of biotech and pharma experience specializing in antibody engineering and IND data packages.

She has assembled a powerhouse veteran team: Dr. Nicola Ramsay (Head of Antibody Engineering) brings 25 years of molecular biology expertise and Dr. Silvia Mele (Head of Biology) adds deep in vivo solid tumor pharmacology experience.

The Future of Biologics

The era of treating solid tumors with blunt, surface-level instruments is coming to a close. With multiple patent families, early pharma validation, and broad applicability across therapeutic antibodies, Creasallis has the potential to become foundational infrastructure for the next generation of biologics.

We are exceptionally proud to partner with Zahra and the entire Creasallis joining existing investors Kdt Ventures, Blueyard, and Dolby Family Ventures. Welcome to Pace Ventures.

At Pace Ventures, we partner with visionaries tackling the longest-standing bottlenecks in human health. Few challenges in modern medicine are as intractable, and as critical, as treating solid tumors. Antibodies have transformed cancer therapy. Yet one of their biggest limitations has remained largely unsolved: reaching cancer cells located inside a solid tumor. That is why we are thrilled to announce our investment in Creasallis, a category-defining platform company that is unlocking the full potential of antibody drugs.

Why Antibodies Fail to Meaningfully Address Solid Tumors

Despite decades of innovation, outcomes remain poor for many advanced solid tumors. Monoclonal antibodies are the bedrock of modern targeted therapies, but they face a profound physical limitation: they do not penetrate solid tumors well. The tumor microenvironment is dense, pressurized, and deeply hostile to the movement of large macromolecules.

For years, the industry has been trapped in a biological trade-off. Large monoclonal antibodies possess the exquisite specificity and long serum half-life required for effective dosing, but they are too bulky to penetrate deep into tumor tissue. Conversely, small antibody fragments penetrate tumors beautifully, but their serum half-life is so poor that they are cleared from the body before they can deliver sustained therapeutic value.

We know that increased antibody penetration yields superior clinical outcomes, a fact clearly demonstrated by the recent success of Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs). Yet, until now, no one has developed a solution that perfectly marries high penetration with sustained half-life.

The Breakthrough: A “Moon Lander” for Cancer

Recent years have shown that improving how antibodies are delivered can create enormous clinical and commercial value, particularly through the rise of antibody-drug conjugates.

Rather than inventing entirely new modalities, Creasallis is breaking the limiting paradigm above with their proprietary CreaTap (Creasallis Tumor Antibody Penetration) technology. Through precise, synthetic biology, the team has engineered what they accurately describe as the "moon lander for antibodies".

The concept is remarkably elegant. Creasallis re-engineers the hinge region of an antibody to include a tumor-specific protease cleavage site. In the bloodstream, the antibody remains perfectly intact, retaining its large size, long half-life, and excellent developability profiles.

Once inside the tumor, tumor-associated proteases cleave the engineered hinge, releasing the smaller antigen-binding fragments that can diffuse much deeper through tumor tissue while the Fc region is left behind.

The data speaks for itself. In vivo models demonstrate that CreaTap technology improves antibody penetration into solid tumors by at least 2-fold. Crucially, because tumor-specific proteases are virtually non-existent in healthy serum, the antibody remains entirely stable while circulating in the blood.

A Plug-and-Play DIscovery Engine

What makes Creasallis a generational opportunity is that CreaTap is not a single drug, it is a universal, plug-and-play platform. The technology can be rapidly applied to virtually any existing antibody format.

Creasallis has already successfully applied CreaTap to clinical blockbusters like Trastuzumab, Bevacizumab, Cetuximab, and Pembrolizumab without impacting their fundamental manufacturability or target binding.

Furthermore, it seamlessly integrates with complex Biologics, ScFvs, VHH-Fcs, and ADCs, proving that vital linker-payloads can be preserved while penetration is dramatically enhanced.

The company is executing a highly strategic 3-step approach: upgrading clinically validated antibodies to leverage existing regulatory pathways, collaborating with pharma on later-stage targets, and eventually advancing their own pipeline of novel antibody therapeutics addressing unyielding solid tumors.

The Team Breathes Decades of Antibody Discovery

Building a company around antibody engineering requires deep scientific and translational expertise. CEO and Founder Zahra Jawad brings exactly this. With a PhD in Protein Engineering from the University of Cambridge, she possesses 18 years of biotech and pharma experience specializing in antibody engineering and IND data packages.

She has assembled a powerhouse veteran team: Dr. Nicola Ramsay (Head of Antibody Engineering) brings 25 years of molecular biology expertise and Dr. Silvia Mele (Head of Biology) adds deep in vivo solid tumor pharmacology experience.

The Future of Biologics

The era of treating solid tumors with blunt, surface-level instruments is coming to a close. With multiple patent families, early pharma validation, and broad applicability across therapeutic antibodies, Creasallis has the potential to become foundational infrastructure for the next generation of biologics.

We are exceptionally proud to partner with Zahra and the entire Creasallis joining existing investors Kdt Ventures, Blueyard, and Dolby Family Ventures. Welcome to Pace Ventures.

At Pace Ventures, we partner with visionaries tackling the longest-standing bottlenecks in human health. Few challenges in modern medicine are as intractable, and as critical, as treating solid tumors. Antibodies have transformed cancer therapy. Yet one of their biggest limitations has remained largely unsolved: reaching cancer cells located inside a solid tumor. That is why we are thrilled to announce our investment in Creasallis, a category-defining platform company that is unlocking the full potential of antibody drugs.

Why Antibodies Fail to Meaningfully Address Solid Tumors

Despite decades of innovation, outcomes remain poor for many advanced solid tumors. Monoclonal antibodies are the bedrock of modern targeted therapies, but they face a profound physical limitation: they do not penetrate solid tumors well. The tumor microenvironment is dense, pressurized, and deeply hostile to the movement of large macromolecules.

For years, the industry has been trapped in a biological trade-off. Large monoclonal antibodies possess the exquisite specificity and long serum half-life required for effective dosing, but they are too bulky to penetrate deep into tumor tissue. Conversely, small antibody fragments penetrate tumors beautifully, but their serum half-life is so poor that they are cleared from the body before they can deliver sustained therapeutic value.

We know that increased antibody penetration yields superior clinical outcomes, a fact clearly demonstrated by the recent success of Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs). Yet, until now, no one has developed a solution that perfectly marries high penetration with sustained half-life.

The Breakthrough: A “Moon Lander” for Cancer

Recent years have shown that improving how antibodies are delivered can create enormous clinical and commercial value, particularly through the rise of antibody-drug conjugates.

Rather than inventing entirely new modalities, Creasallis is breaking the limiting paradigm above with their proprietary CreaTap (Creasallis Tumor Antibody Penetration) technology. Through precise, synthetic biology, the team has engineered what they accurately describe as the "moon lander for antibodies".

The concept is remarkably elegant. Creasallis re-engineers the hinge region of an antibody to include a tumor-specific protease cleavage site. In the bloodstream, the antibody remains perfectly intact, retaining its large size, long half-life, and excellent developability profiles.

Once inside the tumor, tumor-associated proteases cleave the engineered hinge, releasing the smaller antigen-binding fragments that can diffuse much deeper through tumor tissue while the Fc region is left behind.

The data speaks for itself. In vivo models demonstrate that CreaTap technology improves antibody penetration into solid tumors by at least 2-fold. Crucially, because tumor-specific proteases are virtually non-existent in healthy serum, the antibody remains entirely stable while circulating in the blood.

A Plug-and-Play DIscovery Engine

What makes Creasallis a generational opportunity is that CreaTap is not a single drug, it is a universal, plug-and-play platform. The technology can be rapidly applied to virtually any existing antibody format.

Creasallis has already successfully applied CreaTap to clinical blockbusters like Trastuzumab, Bevacizumab, Cetuximab, and Pembrolizumab without impacting their fundamental manufacturability or target binding.

Furthermore, it seamlessly integrates with complex Biologics, ScFvs, VHH-Fcs, and ADCs, proving that vital linker-payloads can be preserved while penetration is dramatically enhanced.

The company is executing a highly strategic 3-step approach: upgrading clinically validated antibodies to leverage existing regulatory pathways, collaborating with pharma on later-stage targets, and eventually advancing their own pipeline of novel antibody therapeutics addressing unyielding solid tumors.

The Team Breathes Decades of Antibody Discovery

Building a company around antibody engineering requires deep scientific and translational expertise. CEO and Founder Zahra Jawad brings exactly this. With a PhD in Protein Engineering from the University of Cambridge, she possesses 18 years of biotech and pharma experience specializing in antibody engineering and IND data packages.

She has assembled a powerhouse veteran team: Dr. Nicola Ramsay (Head of Antibody Engineering) brings 25 years of molecular biology expertise and Dr. Silvia Mele (Head of Biology) adds deep in vivo solid tumor pharmacology experience.

The Future of Biologics

The era of treating solid tumors with blunt, surface-level instruments is coming to a close. With multiple patent families, early pharma validation, and broad applicability across therapeutic antibodies, Creasallis has the potential to become foundational infrastructure for the next generation of biologics.

We are exceptionally proud to partner with Zahra and the entire Creasallis joining existing investors Kdt Ventures, Blueyard, and Dolby Family Ventures. Welcome to Pace Ventures.