Minicircle

Minicircle is an Austin-based biotech founded in 2020 by Mac Davis and Walter Patterson that develops minicircle DNA plasmid gene therapies designed to produce transient, non-heritable expression of proteins like follistatin (a myostatin inhibitor associated with muscle growth and reduced body fat) and klotho (associated with aging biology). Therapies are administered through licensed clinicians at independent partner clinics in Próspera ZEDE, Honduras and other jurisdictions outside FDA review, on a patient-pays basis. The company has attracted backing from longevity and crypto-aligned investors including Founders Fund, Adam Neumann's Flow, Balaji Srinivasan, Sam Altman and Peter Thiel, and gained public attention through high-profile self-experimenters such as Bryan Johnson.

Minicircle is the highest-profile test case for offshoring early-stage gene therapy outside FDA jurisdiction and selling it directly to patients — an unconventional regulatory and commercial model that, if it scales, could redraw the boundary between investigational biotech and the consumer longevity market.

minicircle.io Gene Therapy

United Statesprivate

At a glance

Total raised

Undisclosed

no public funding on record

Headcount

11-50

approximate · public range

Headquarters

Austin

United States

Founded

2020

6 years active

Status

Private

Gene Therapy

Subsector

Gene Therapy

Non-Viral Gene Therapy

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Funding history

Total raised

—

Rounds tracked

No dated funding rounds on file. This company is privately held and may be raising or operating on undisclosed capital.

Founder backgrounds

Mac Davis

Founder & CEO

Studied chemistry and physics at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, where he met Walter Patterson — now Minicircle's CSO and President. Before founding Minicircle in 2019, Davis founded and chaired Prophase Biostudios, an Austin-based community biohackerspace and biotech incubator. He is also associated with Exosphere Technologies. A serial biotechnology entrepreneur, Davis has publicly positioned himself as a proponent of self-experimentation with gene therapies, frequently discussing his own use of Minicircle's plasmid treatments in podcasts and media appearances.

Walter Patterson

Founder & Chief Science Officer

Co-founder, Chief Scientific Officer, and President of Minicircle. He met Minicircle CEO Mac Davis while studying chemistry and physics at the University of North Carolina Pembroke, where the two began collaborating on the idea of making gene therapy more accessible. Patterson has published research on bacterial bioluminescence and other topics. Minicircle applies a non-viral, reversible minicircle DNA platform to develop gene therapies targeting longevity, performance, and wellness, delivered through partner clinics primarily outside FDA jurisdiction.

AI bull / bear

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In the news

Minicircle · last 30 days

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Leadership

Mac Davis

Founder & CEO & Chief Executive Officer

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Walter Patterson

Founder & Chief Science Officer

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Mae Davis

Chief Operations Officer

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Ryan Rossner

Chief Research Officer

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Jay Spall

Chief Revenue Officer

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Angelica Giuffre

Director of Scientific Strategy & Compliance

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Products

Follistatin Gene Therapy
Minicircle's flagship therapy is a non-viral minicircle DNA plasmid encoding follistatin, a natural inhibitor of myostatin. It is administered as a subcutaneous injection at partner clinics and is intended to produce transient, non-heritable expression that the company associates with increased lean muscle mass, reduced body fat percentage and changes in epigenetic age markers in early participants. The product is investigational, has not been reviewed by the FDA, and is offered to consenting adults outside the United States.
Klotho Gene Therapy
A second minicircle DNA plasmid therapy, in development and slated for partner-clinic availability in 2026, encoding the longevity-associated protein klotho. Klotho expression has been linked in preclinical literature to kidney, cardiovascular and cognitive aging pathways. As with follistatin, the therapy is designed to be non-integrating and transient, delivered via subcutaneous injection and offered as an investigational product through international partner clinics rather than through the US regulatory pathway.
Minicircle Plasmid Platform
Underlying both therapies is a non-viral minicircle plasmid platform that uses small, circular DNA constructs stripped of bacterial backbone sequences to deliver target genes without viral vectors and without integrating into the host genome. The platform is designed for relatively low-cost manufacturing and rapid iteration on new gene targets across longevity, metabolic and performance indications, and underpins the company's ambition to offer a pipeline of patient-pays gene therapies through international clinic partners.

Open roles

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