# Melissa McCracken

> Melissa McCracken is a Series B investor at Nextech Invest backing Biotechnology. See 8 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Oct…

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Nextech Invest](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/nextech-invest)
- Location: Boston, United States
- Total investments: 8
- Last investment: Apr 2025
- Lead investor: 50%
- Last updated: Oct 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-mccracken-ph-d-ab241913/

Melissa McCracken is a Series B investor at Nextech Invest in Boston focused on Biotechnology and Medical. Melissa McCracken is the Partner at Nextech Invest. She was a former Associate at Third Rock Ventures.Melissa McCracken joined Third Rock Ventures in 2017 as an associate to focus on new company formation and due diligence.Prior to joining Third Rock, Melissa was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford’s Institute for Stem Cell Biology andRegenerative Medicine with her research focused on understanding the anti-tumor immune response. While at Stanford, Melissa was an A.P. Giannini Postdoctoral Fellow and the recipient of the School of Medicine Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellowship. Melissa received her Ph.D. in Molecular and Medical Pharmacology from the University of California, Los Angeles and a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Davis. Melissa’s interest in biotechnology started when she interned at Amgen in research and development during summers in college.Melissa is an avid home cook and has spent the last year perfecting her sourdough bread recipe.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Melissa McCracken: work email, personal email, work phone, personal phone and socials. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-email/melissa-mccracken?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Biotechnology | 6 | 75% |
| Medical | 3 | 38% |
| Therapeutics | 2 | 25% |
| Product Research | 2 | 25% |
| Health Care | 1 | 13% |

6 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series B | 4 | 50% |
| Series C | 2 | 25% |
| Series A | 1 | 13% |
| Post-IPO Equity | 1 | 13% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 5 | 63% |
| Canada | 1 | 13% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AIRNA | AIRNA is a biotech company that is pioneering RNA editing therapies to improve the health of individuals suffering from both rare and common ailments. | $155M | Series B | Apr 01, 2025 | https://airna.com |
| Be Biopharma | Be Biopharma is developing B cells as medicines. | $92M | Series C | Jan 15, 2025 | https://www.be.bio/ |
| Alpha-9 Oncology | Alpha9 Theranostics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. | $175M | Series C | Oct 23, 2024 | https://www.alpha9tx.com/ |
| Tyra Biosciences | Tyra Biosciences, Inc. is a precision oncology company focused on developing purpose-built therapies to overcome tumor resistance and improve outcomes for patients with cancer. Tyra is using its proprietary SNÅP platform, which is optimized to enable rapid and precise refinement of structural design through iterative molecular SNÅPshots, in orderto generate next-generation product candidates that are specifically designed to address acquired drug resistance and provide alternative treatment options. Tyra is initially focused on developing a pipeline of selective inhibitors of the Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor, or FGFR, family, which are altered in approximately 7% of all cancers. Tyra’s lead product candidate, TYRA-300, is designed to selectively inhibit FGFR3, with an initial focus on patients with bladder cancer. | $200M | Post-IPO Equity | Feb 02, 2024 | https://tyra.bio/ |
| K36 Therapeutics | K36 Therapeutics mission to translate epigenetic modulation of oncogenic pathways into first-in-class small molecule therapies. | $70M | Series B | Jun 28, 2023 | https://www.k36tx.com/ |
| Alpha-9 Oncology | Alpha9 Theranostics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. | $75M | Series B | Dec 14, 2022 | https://www.alpha9tx.com/ |
| AmbAgon Therapeutics | AmbAgon Therapeutics is a developer of cancer molecule therapeutics. The company offers research of a small molecule that augments a tumor-suppressing protein. AmbAgon Therapeutics was founded by Christian Ottmann, Lucas Brunsveld, and Michelle Arkin. | $85M | Series A | Jan 06, 2022 | https://ambagontx.com/ |
| Tyra Biosciences | Tyra Biosciences, Inc. is a precision oncology company focused on developing purpose-built therapies to overcome tumor resistance and improve outcomes for patients with cancer. Tyra is using its proprietary SNÅP platform, which is optimized to enable rapid and precise refinement of structural design through iterative molecular SNÅPshots, in orderto generate next-generation product candidates that are specifically designed to address acquired drug resistance and provide alternative treatment options. Tyra is initially focused on developing a pipeline of selective inhibitors of the Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor, or FGFR, family, which are altered in approximately 7% of all cancers. Tyra’s lead product candidate, TYRA-300, is designed to selectively inhibit FGFR3, with an initial focus on patients with bladder cancer. | $106M | Series B | Mar 31, 2021 | https://tyra.bio/ |

8 of 8 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [RA Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ra-capital-management) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Biotechnology Value Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bvf-partners-3e10) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [ARCH Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/arch-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Biotechnology Value Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/biotechnology-value-fund) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Longitude Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/longitude-capital) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Alta Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alta-partners) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

## About Nextech Invest

VC Fund · Zürich, Switzerland

Nextech Invest is a venture capital and private equity firm specializing in early, mid-stage, late-stage, and emerging growth investments. The firm also invests in incorporation, spin-outs, reverse-take-over, and PIPE transactions. It only considers investments where evidence in preclinical animal models that a drug is efficacious is available or a device prototype fulfills the requirements. The firm seeks to invest in the field of information technology, biotechnology, and healthcare with a focus on oncology companies developing cancer drugs and diagnostics. It prefers to invest in life science and enabling technologies with a focus on interdisciplinary technical and scientific projects, therapies, diagnostics, medical technologies, and services. The firm seeks to invest in companies based in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, North America, and Europe including Switzerland, Germany, and neighboring regions. It also considers co-investments in the rest of Europe. The firm seeks to invest between CHF 1 million ($0.93 million) and CHF 5 million ($4.7 million) per financing round. It seeks a Board position in the portfolio companies. The firm seeks to exit its investments within three years via trade sale.

5 contacts available at Nextech Invest.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kanishka Pothula | Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/kanishka-pothula |
| Megan Graziano | Director Of Operations | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/megan-graziano |
| Melissa McCracken | Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/melissa-mccracken |
| Thilo Schroeder | Managing Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/thilo-schroeder |
| Thomas Geninatti | Principal | — |

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## FAQ

### What does Melissa McCracken invest in?

Melissa McCracken invests primarily in Biotechnology, Medical and Therapeutics startups, most often at Series B and Series C stage. Most of the 8 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact Melissa McCracken?

Public channels for Melissa McCracken include LinkedIn. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### When did Melissa McCracken last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Melissa McCracken closed in Apr 2025. Shizune tracks 8 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Oct 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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