We’re a passionate group working to empower a patient-led future for research and development.

We’re a team of tech enthusiasts and advocates who see that institutions lack incentives to build infrastructure for rare diseases. We believe the way to foster new treatments is to amplify the grassroots work of patient groups who fight for what patients need.

Jan 2023

Comend is founded

We re-united to fix broken areas of healthcare after working in drug development and biomedical engineering.

Apr 2023

First investment

We received investment from Character Labs to build solutions for rare families. We met Sierra in one of our early user tests.

Sep 2023

Launched Librarey

With Sierra's help, we launched a free search platform for rare resources and attended rare disease conferences to gather feedback.

Mar 2024

Launching 2 products

We're currently working with several patient groups to build a new scientific communicator and patient data platform.

Co-designed with these organizations so far

Our values

We follow a few guiding principles.

Designed by and for the people: We strive to do everything in partnership with the community. We’re active and empathetic listeners who welcome feedback with open arms. Come build with us.
Build things that last: We move with the urgency needed to disrupt the status quo and accelerate cures but with the self-awareness to avoid breaking things. We aim to create sustainable innovations by building robust products that can last beyond us.
Lead with transparency: We operate with clear incentives that prioritize the needs of patient families. We make decisions and take actions with full transparency to demonstrate our integrity.
Great science can come from you: We’re deep believers in the power of citizen science to solve the world's hardest problems. Our model empowers families from any background to create change for their loved ones.

Meet the team

Want to chat or collaborate? We're all ears! Contact us.

Albert Wang
Co-founder and CEO
I went to school for biomedical engineering, have worked with deep tech startups and in life sciences research, and spent a past life volunteering with kids. On the weekend, I try to catch up with the happenings in genomics.
Flawnson Tong
Co-founder and CTO
Hi there! I’m the guy behind the screen building what you see here. My background is in machine learning engineering and these days I do a lot of full stack development. I love playing piano, travelling, and working out.
Sierra Phillips
Chief Rare Mom
Hello! I'm a twin mom, rare mom, heart mom, genetics enthusiast, and relentless advocate on a mission to to curate the most comprehensive freely-available disability resource database.
Pepi Martinez
Head of Data Governance
Excited to help Comend revolutionize the future of patient-first drug discovery. I come from a software engineering background with a focus on decentralization, governance systems, and on-chain dynamics. I've been a passionate builder for about 10 years, and have been theorizing heavily in the future of patient drug discovery for the last 3 years.
Betty Trevino
Head of Product Marketing
I'm a mom of two amazing boys, one of whom has been diagnosed with Aicardi Goutieres Syndrome, and a wife to my wonderful husband. My goal is to create a welcoming space in the rare disease community where everyone feels connected and better equipped. When I'm not busy, you'll often find me snuggled up with my family while listening to T.S. 🫶🏻
Bruce Bloom
Advisor
Experienced C-suite executive and a thought leader in drug development, philanthropy, and patient advocacy with professional experience in all areas of executive management, including strategy, advocacy, medical affairs, legal, operations, finance, sales, marketing, and IT; success in small, mid-size, and large businesses, and entrepreneurial ventures.
Sanath Ramesh
Advisor
I am a bold and visionary software leader, open source pioneer, and rare disease drug developer! I am on a mission to break rare disease data silos with open source software and open data network through my latest startup CuresDev. I build software in the day and disrupt biotech industry in the night/weekends.
Andrew Wells
Advisor
Experienced C-suite executive and a thought leader in drug development, philanthropy, and patient advocacy with professional experience in all areas of executive management, including strategy, advocacy, medical affairs, legal, operations, finance, sales, marketing, and IT; success in small, mid-size, and large businesses, and entrepreneurial ventures.
Foy Savas
Advisor
Thrilled to support Comend and its vision for the future of patient-led research! My background includes working at a medical device CRO, bootstrapping a healthcare analytics company, investing as a VC, and contributing to open source communities.