Yale spinout MultiTarga is reshaping the sequencing landscape with a technology that unites data science, biomolecular assay design, and translational impact. At the core of their work is the Multi-Targeted-Primer (MTP), an adaptable platform that enables highly specific, scalable genome-wide enrichment for sequencing assays. The technology is positioned to widely impact infectious disease research, diagnostics, and public health surveillance, especially after their recently awarded National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research (NSF SBIR) Phase I funding.

While MultiTarga’s story is one of deep technological invention and translation, it is also a case study in the power of cross-campus collaboration at Yale University, exemplifying the institution’s strength in bringing together expertise across disciplines to tackle scientific and global health challenges.

MultiTarga was co-founded by Dr. Jeffrey Townsend, Elihu Professor of Biostatistics and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. His academic research provided the foundation for the company’s intellectual property, setting the stage for translational innovation from the classroom to the broader scientific and biomedical communities.

Partnering Through SBIR: Bridging Data and Bench Science

The NSF SBIR award supports MultiTarga’s Host-Pathogen platform, which leverages the MTP technology to study interactions between microbes, hosts, and the environment. To translate this vision into real-world experiments, MultiTarga has established a Collaborative Research Agreement (CRA) with Yale, working directly with Dr. Zheng Wang, whose wet lab expertise is critical to developing and evaluating the technology.

In addition, as part of the SBIR award, MultiTarga secured a slot in the National I-Corps
program, which requires the guidance of an Industry Mentor. With the support of Yale Ventures, the team was matched with a Yale Entrepreneur-in-Residence, who now serves in this role.

This collaboration ensures that the computational promise of MTP is rigorously tested in the lab, enabling rapid iteration and validation of assays for complex biological systems.

Building a Network of Infectious Disease Collaborations

MultiTarga’s SBIR grant has opened the door to a remarkable network of Yale researchers advancing infectious disease science. With dedicated SBIR funds supporting experime tation, MultiTarga is collaborating with multiple labs across the university:

• Dr. Sukanya Narasimhan – Lyme disease, tick vectors, and environmental fungi.
• Dr. Henk De Feyter – Single-cell RNA-seq for real-time monitoring of A. fumigatus
  respiratory infection in rat models.
• Dr. Hualiang Pi – Gut microbiome interactions in C. difficile infection.
• Dr. Jing Yan – Biofilm biology.
• Dr. Serap Aksoy – Trypanosoma (sleeping sickness) in the tsetse fly vector.
• Dr. Amy Bei – P. falciparum malaria across lifecycle stages.

We spoke with Dr. Jeffrey Townsend to discuss MultiTarga’s collaborations, growth, and vision for the future.

Q: The Yale Center for Genome Analysis (YCGA) is playing a role in MultiTarga’s SBIR work. How is this collaboration shaping the development of your technology?

A: YCGA has been essential to moving our technology from concept to application. Under the guidance of Bony De Kumar, they’re providing sequencing services and library preparation to validate our Multi-Targeted-Primer (MTP) assays. Beyond that, we’re working closely with them to explore how MTP can expand into single-cell genome and exome amplification. This frontier is exciting because MTPs can be naturally integrated into single-cell protocols, because single-cell approaches are increasingly central to precision genomics, and because MTPs could significantly enhance the robustness of single-cell sequencing results, their scalability, and their specificity.

Q: Beyond the SBIR award, what new directions or collaborations are you most excited about?

A: We’re particularly energized about a collaboration with Dr. Jacob Musser, who has been excited by the potential of MTP in single-cell post-enrichment applications. This specific approach isn’t formally part of the SBIR grant. However, Dr. Musser is providing the kind of organic, idea-driven collaboration that fuels innovation. Having researchers like Dr. Musser engaged provides support for our approach but also points to future directions where MTPs could make an impact.

Q: MultiTarga has been called a model of translational collaboration. How do you see the company’s trajectory within the Yale ecosystem?

A: MultiTarga really shows what’s possible when academic expertise and entrepreneurial drive meet. The NSF SBIR award gives us the resources to build momentum, but a real engine for progress is the collaborative ecosystem at Yale—scientists across disciplines excited to bring discovery forward. Our journey is a reminder that when data science meets biology, and discovery meets collaboration, transformative technologies can emerge. We’re excited not just about what MTP can do for infectious disease research, but also what it can do for any RNA-sequencing experiment, and indeed about the broader translational impact Yale spinouts can achieve.