The Paradigm Shift
We are not just identifying risk factors; we are uncovering the genetic secrets of resilience — why some individuals with high-risk mutations never develop the disease.
We’re not asking what makes people sick, we’re discovering why some people stay well despite risk.
Traditional medical research begins by asking what goes wrong in a disease. At Halia Therapeutics, we’ve flipped that approach by studying people who stay healthy despite carrying high-risk genetic mutations. These individuals hold the key to understanding genetic resilience, the body’s natural ability to resist disease.
By decoding these real-world cases of resistance, we uncover drug targets rooted in proven human biology, not just theoretical pathways. This shift leads to therapies that’re not only more effective but also inherently safer, as they’re designed to mimic the body’s own protective mechanisms.
By starting with resilience instead of pathology, we’re not just treating disease—we’re redefining what’s possible for human health.
Health isn’t merely the absence of disease — it’s the active presence of protective mechanisms that keep biological systems in balance. At Halia Therapeutics, we focus on individuals who defy the odds: those with harmful genetic risk factors who remain symptom-free. These real-world cases reveal the biological signatures of protection, offering powerful insights grounded in actual human outcomes.
This marks a fundamental shift in how we approach medicine. Instead of asking only,“What causes disease?”, we now ask,“What prevents it?”This reorients the entire drug development process — from chasing dysfunction to amplifying resilience.
The result is a new generation of therapies inspired by nature’s own defenses — medicines that restore balance, reinforce what’s working, and promote safer, more durable health outcomes. Viewed through this lens, chronic conditions like Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease, and cancer are no longer just problems to fix — they become opportunities to harness human resilience as the path forward.
Our Origins
From Inflammation to Resilience
01
Halia Therapeutics was founded in 2017 by groundbreaking research led by Dr. John “Keoni” Kauwe. While working with the Utah Population Database — one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive resources for linking genealogical, demographic, and medical records — Dr. Kauwe identified an extraordinary family in Cache County, Utah. Despite carrying the high-risk APOE4 gene variant, which is strongly associated with Alzheimer’s disease, none of the family members developed the condition.
02
Intrigued by this anomaly, Dr. Kauwe conducted in-depth genetic analysis and discovered a protective mutation in the RAB10 gene. This mutation appeared to shield these individuals from the harmful effects of APOE4, marking one of the first real-world demonstrations of genetic resilience to a major neurodegenerative disease.
03
This discovery became the spark for Halia’s founding mission: to decode the mechanisms of resilience and translate them into therapies. Initially, the company focused on leveraging the RAB10 pathway to develop a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. However, as science progressed, it became evident that the same pathway also conferred protection against chronic inflammation—a fundamental driver of numerous conditions, including neurodegeneration, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and inflammatory disorders of the skin, liver, and gut.
04
Recognizing this, Halia expanded its vision to create a broader therapeutic platform. By targeting the RAB10 pathway and modulating upstream and downstream regulators such as LRRK2 and NEK7, the company began developing a strategy to regulate the NLRP3 inflammasome — a central component of the body’s inflammatory response.
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Today, Halia is advancing a pipeline of resilience-based therapies into clinical development. Early preclinical data indicate the potential to reset the body’s inflammatory balance and deliver durable protection across multiple organ systems.
What began as a focused investigation into Alzheimer’s resistance has evolved into a transformative model for treating — and ultimately intercepting — a broad spectrum of chronic diseases.