The condition has a name that barely fits on a medical chart: heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Cardiologists call it HFpEF for short, and it's been a persistent clinical headache—millions of patients whose hearts stiffen and fail despite appearing to pump adequately by conventional measures. Standard treatments have offered modest help at best.
Now a spinout from Duke-NUS Medical School believes the answer lies not in the heart's mechanics, but in its metabolism. Brano Therapeutics, a Singapore-based startup founded in 2025, announced in May 2026 it has secured $6.8 million in seed funding to develop a small-molecule therapy targeting a nutrient-processing pathway that appears to malfunction in these patients.
The round was co-led by Trinity Innovation Bioventure Singapore and SEEDS, the investment vehicle operating under SG Growth Capital, which itself sits within Singapore's combined Economic Development Board and EnterpriseSG platform. Joining them: SGInnovate, the government-owned deep-tech investor, and Duke-NUS LIVE Ventures, which put in $380,000 in what marks its first direct investment in a spinoff from its own institution.
That lineup—a snapshot of Singapore's tightly woven biotech ecosystem—suggests more than routine enthusiasm. Langdon Wu, managing director at TIBS who also serves as Brano's CEO, pointed to the company's "scientific vision and translational strategy" in the announcement, though he might have added: and a clinical problem that's remained unsolved long enough to frustrate an entire specialty.
When the Heart's Energy System Falters
What Brano is chasing is metabolic dysfunction, not mechanical failure. The company's research roots trace to work by Prof. Yibin Wang, who leads Duke-NUS's Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disorders Programme and co-founded Brano with Dr. Chen Gao. Clinical analyses, according to Duke-NUS, identified a distinct metabolic abnormality in HFpEF patients with worse outcomes—a nutrient pathway that appears to collapse precisely when the heart needs it most.
"Our research has shown that a failed nutrient-processing pathway plays a critical role in HFpEF," Wang said. Preclinical studies, the company reports, indicate that treating this pathway can reduce heart stiffness and restore function. Whether that hypothesis holds in humans remains the question that will define Brano's next several years.
Heart failure affects roughly 64 million people worldwide, and HFpEF represents a growing proportion of cases as populations age and metabolic disease rates climb. The therapeutic landscape has shifted somewhat—SGLT2 inhibitors, originally developed for diabetes, have shown benefit in outcomes trials and now form part of the standard approach. But the condition remains complex, incompletely understood, and only partially addressed by existing drugs. There's room, in other words, for a fresh angle.
The Clinical Clock Starts Now
Brano operates under a licensing agreement with Duke-NUS, giving it access to the school's research platforms and datasets. With the seed capital secured, the company is eyeing first-in-human trials by 2029—a timeline that allows roughly three years to wrap up preclinical work, complete IND-enabling studies, and clear regulatory hurdles.
It's compressed, though not implausible for a small-molecule program that already has proof-of-concept data. The company, which lists between two and ten employees on LinkedIn and operates out of Singapore's Science Park, will need to execute cleanly. No room for detours.
Christine Giam from SG Growth Capital framed the investment as "translating Duke-NUS research towards the clinic," a formulation that could describe half the deals in academic biotech but happens to fit here. Jasmine Qiu of SGInnovate positioned Brano's metabolic focus within the firm's broader emerging-technology thesis, which has leaned into life sciences and precision medicine in recent years.
The investor confidence is noteworthy—LIVE Ventures made its first direct investment in a spinoff with Brano, and SEEDS tends to be selective. But confidence alone doesn't translate into clinical success, particularly in a field where metabolic interventions have promised much and delivered unevenly. The science is promising. The unmet need is undeniable. Whether the two converge in a marketable therapy is the story Brano will spend the next few years trying to tell.
For now, the company has capital, a hypothesis, and a deadline. And perhaps more urgency than usual: every month that passes without a meaningful HFpEF breakthrough is another month that clinicians keep managing a condition they can't fully fix.
