Carolina Angel Network invests in Network Bio, AI biotech founded by Lampe Joint BME alumnus. CAN joins leading institutional investors backing the company, which emerged from stealth this summer; CAN also announces Innovation Fellowship pilot with the Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering CHAPEL HILL, N.C., October 23, 2026 - The Carolina Angel Network (CAN), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's angel investing network, today announced its investment from earlier this year in Network Bio, a biotechnology company building disease-specific AI models from human biological data to support the personalized practice of medicine. CAN invested alongside a syndicate of institutional investors that includes Section 32, Thiel Bio, Founders Fund, Breyer Capital, Blue Venture Fund and JSL Health Capital. Network Bio is led by CEO and co-founder Asad Ahmad, Ph.D., a graduate of the Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State University. Network Bio emerged from stealth in August 2026, announcing $50 million in financing and what it describes as the world's largest patient tissue training dataset. The company has built a research network of leading U.S. academic biobanks, including Mass General Brigham, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Colorado Anschutz. Harmonized standards across these sites let Network Bio generate "AI-ready" datasets that pair patient tissue and blood samples with longitudinal clinical outcomes, at a scale no single institution can reach. On that data foundation, Network Bio is developing bio-native AI designed to learn biological principles that transfer across diseases, tissues and data types. Its work spans immunology, metabolic, cardiovascular and autoimmune disease, with peer-reviewed research published in Nature Machine Intelligence. The company has also signed a co-development and licensing agreement valued at more than $30 million with a Fortune 100, top-10 healthcare company. Ahmad earned his degree from the Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, a program shared by UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State that has become a steady pipeline of entrepreneurial founders. Its graduates train at the intersection of engineering, medicine and life sciences, and a growing number go on to translate that training into companies. Network Bio is the latest example of a BME-trained founder building at the frontier of AI and human biology. "Building the first artificial organ model of the colon as a UNC Biomedical Engineering student shaped everything we are doing at Network Bio today. Having the Carolina Angel Network join this round means a great deal to me personally. With their support, we are turning decades of banked patient tissue at leading academic medical centers into AI models that can detect disease earlier and match patients to the right therapy." * Asad Ali Ahmad, PhD, CEO and Co-Founder, Network Bio "The Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering consistently produces strong ventures, from undergraduates and postdocs to alumni like Asad. Network Bio is a standout: deeply rooted at UNC-Chapel Hill and now backed by leading West Coast venture funds. Alongside our investment, we're partnering closely with the BME department to give researchers the resources and a clear path to launch university IP into new companies through Innovation Fellowship program pilot." * Brett Luing, Director, Carolina Angel Network New Innovation Fellowship to Build the Next Generation of BME Founders Building on that track record, CAN is collaborating with the Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering to pilot the Innovation Fellowship. The program gives a postdoctoral researcher one year to explore building a company around intellectual property developed at the University. In year two, fellows who are ready to spin out receive a $100,000 catalytic early investment to launch their venture. The pilot is now open to donors interested in using donor-advised fund (DAF) assets to support and invest in these emerging ventures, with future potential returns flowing back to original DAFs and/or re-directed to University Endowments. Interested donors can learn more and submit interest through CAN's Innovation Fellowship page. About the Carolina Angel Network The Carolina Angel Network (CAN) connects UNC-Chapel Hill alumni, donors and friends with promising early-stage startups affiliated with the University. Founded in 2016, CAN gives accredited investor members access to curated investment opportunities each year. Portfolio companies are founded or led by UNC alumni, faculty or students, or are built on UNC intellectual property. Beyond capital, CAN provides mentorship, due diligence and network support to help founders scale. Since inception, CAN has invested more than $34MM across 41 companies. Learn more at carolinaangelnetwork.com. About Network Bio Network Bio is a biotechnology company building disease-specific AI models from human biological data to support the personalized practice of medicine. Through collaborations with U.S.-based academic medical centers, the company has connected data spanning immunology, metabolic, cardiovascular and autoimmune disease, among others. By integrating this biological foundation with AI purpose-built for medicine, Network Bio is developing technologies to accelerate diagnostics, biomarker discovery and drug development. For more information, visit www.network.bio. Media Contact Brett Luing Director, Carolina Angel Network [email protected] October 23, 2026

Network Bio launches with $50 million financing and world's largest patient tissue training dataset. Network Bio is redefining the landscape of personalized medicine with its groundbreaking AI models and extensive patient tissue dataset. Aug 25, 2026 Network Bio, a pioneering biotechnology firm dedicated to developing disease-specific AI models from human biological data, has officially launched with a robust financing round of $50 million. Backed by investors such as Section 32, Thiel Bio, Founders Fund, Breyer Capital, Blue Venture Fund, and JSL Health Capital, this funding will bolster the expansion of Network Bio's innovative life science platform. The company's mission is to create AI models tailored to specific diseases by utilizing a vast array of tissue, blood, molecular, and clinical datasets. The extensive collaboration with prominent U.S. academic biobanks enables Network Bio to generate an unparalleled disease-focused dataset that supports advancements in human health. Through partnerships with esteemed academic medical centers like Mass General Brigham, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Colorado Anschutz, Network Bio has established a comprehensive research network of biobanks. The implementation of standardized selection criteria, sample quality benchmarks, and data harmonization across these institutions allows for the creation of "AI-ready" datasets. This integration of patient tissue samples, blood samples, and longitudinal clinical outcomes facilitates data generation at an unprecedented scale. Asad Ali Ahmad, Ph.D., CEO and Co-Founder of Network Bio, shared insights into the company's vision: "Every patient leaves a barcode of their disease in their tissue, and until now no one has been able to read those barcodes at scale. Working with the biobanks of some of the country's leading academic medical centers, we built the network that makes reading them possible. We then built an AI platform that is already finding signals in conditions it was never trained on. This is the future of medicine." Kimberly Muller, Chief Innovation Officer at CU Anschutz Innovations, emphasized the significance of this collaborative effort: "No single academic medical center can capture the full complexity of human disease. By bringing together biobanks from leading institutions with industry partners, Network Bio is creating a research resource that reflects diverse patient populations and supports discoveries that can translate into real-world clinical practice." Network Bio's AI infrastructure is designed to learn biological principles that transcend individual diseases, tissues, and data types. The company's vertically integrated platform comprises two key technologies: a biological research network that compiles and structures data from leading academic centers, and a bio-native AI architecture tailored to interpret multimodal biological data. The platform has already shown promise across various disease domains, with published findings in respiratory diseases and ongoing studies in ovarian and bone diseases. This adaptability showcases Network Bio's ability to leverage its AI capabilities even in scenarios with limited datasets. A notable highlight for Network Bio is its strategic collaboration valued at over $30 million with a Fortune-100, top-10 healthcare company, aimed at developing next-generation AI models. Mike Pellini, M.D., Managing Partner at Section 32 and Chairman of Network Bio's Board of Directors, remarked, "Medicine is approaching an inflection point where AI can fundamentally change how biomedical discovery is done. What differentiates Network Bio is the combination of the network of academic medical center biobanks with an AI architecture built for medicine. Rather than building models one disease at a time, the company is building General Medical Intelligence that becomes more capable with every new biological question it answers." Co-founders Hani Goodarzi, Ph.D., and Raphael Potter articulated their foundational belief: "We built Network Bio based on the belief that AI and data hold the keys to advancing the human condition. We have been focused tirelessly on the dual mandate of gaining access to the tissue datasets which explain disease and building the AI systems capable of interpreting the complex results." Morgan Cheatham, M.D., Partner at Breyer Capital, added, "Clinical care is the largest biological experiment ever conducted, and we have no system for learning from it at scale. Network Bio pairs deep molecular and clinical phenotyping with tissue and longitudinal outcomes at leading US academic medical centers. The platform enables fundamental mechanistic understanding of human health and disease, compounding at every layer of the stack: data, intelligence, diagnostics, therapeutics." About Network Bio Network Bio is at the forefront of biotechnology, developing disease-specific AI models from human biological data to enhance personalized medicine. Through collaborations with U.S.-based academic medical centers, the company integrates diverse data spanning various diseases, including immunology, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular issues, and auto-immune diseases. By merging this biological foundation with specialized AI, Network Bio aims to accelerate diagnostics, biomarker discovery, and drug development. For more information, visit www.network.bio.