Jess Li
| Jess Li | |
| Occupation | Chief Scientific Officer and Co-founder of Biocartesian |
|---|---|
| Known for | Co-founding Biocartesian |
| Education | PhD in genetics and epigenetics, University of Pennsylvania |
Jess Li is an American entrepreneur and scientist who is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of Biocartesian, a biotechnology company that converts biological information into digital molecular maps.[1] The company was part of Y Combinator's Summer 2024 batch and is based in San Francisco.
Early life and education
Li holds a PhD in genetics and epigenetics from the University of Pennsylvania, where her research focused on genetics, epigenetics, and next-generation sequencing technologies.
Career
Prior to founding Biocartesian, Li worked in business development at Imvaria, where she gained experience bridging scientific research and commercial applications.
In 2023, Li co-founded Biocartesian alongside Ian Dardani. The company develops technology that combines advanced microscopy with novel chemistries to profile biological tissues at the molecular level. According to the company, existing tools for analyzing diseased tissue can detect less than one percent of the molecules present; Biocartesian's platform aims to see approximately fifty times more, generating detailed digital molecular maps of DNA, RNA, and proteins within tissue sections.[2]
Biocartesian's capabilities include tissue profiling of DNA, RNA, and proteins in tissue sections; AI-powered data visualization and analysis tools with automated workflows; and high-throughput RNA and protein profiling for cell cultures, including screening services and co-culture model analysis.[2] The company operates in the spatial omics space, a field concerned with mapping the spatial distribution of molecules within biological samples. Its work has applications in disease research, diagnostics, and drug discovery.
The company is classified within the hard tech, B2B, biotech, diagnostics, and drug discovery sectors.[1]
Li has also written about entrepreneurship; in a 2019 Medium article, she discussed insights gathered from speaking with over one hundred startup founders.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Biocartesian – Y Combinator". 'Y Combinator}'. Retrieved 2026-03-18.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Biocartesian". 'Biocartesian}'. Retrieved 2026-03-18.