“There’s No Point in Waiting”: Kioga Bio on Graduating from the Alethios Early Stage Program

When we piloted  the Alethios Early Stage Program, we did so with a clear observation: early-stage teams in human health are often asked to prove too much, too early, with too little support.

Kioga Bio — and its cofounder Adam Bohr — understand that tension firsthand.

Kioga recently became the first company to graduate from the Alethios Early Stage Program. We sat down with Adam to discuss the barriers early-stage teams face in running human research, what surprised him most about decentralized studies, and why he believes founders shouldn’t wait to generate real evidence.

The Early-Stage Research Catch-22

Before discussing Kioga’s experience, Adam was candid about the structural barriers facing most early-stage companies.

For many startups, generating human evidence isn’t just a scientific decision — it’s a financial paradox.

“As a new company we faced a classic start-up scenario in which we needed human data to attract financing and needed financing to get human data.”

Traditional research infrastructure only compounds that challenge.

“Without financing, it was impossible for us to drop hundreds of thousands of dollars on a CRO to execute our study. We had expertise in house to conduct the study but needed a platform and access to participants to pull it off.”

This dynamic — needing capital to generate data and data to raise capital — stalls countless promising ideas before they ever reach human testing.

Kioga Bio was determined not to let that happen — and when they found Alethios, we were equally determined to help them move forward.

The Turning Point: Speed and Accessibility

Kioga’s first study through Alethios was not as a lightweight pilot. It was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial designed to test whether preclinical findings on stress resilience translated into real-world human outcomes.

In traditional models, recruitment is often the greatest bottleneck — where early-stage teams lose time, confidence, and capital.

For Kioga, it became a source of momentum.

“I was shocked at the speed at which we were able to get a representative sample enrolled. Alethios’ recruiting methods kept a stream of potential participants in our queue on a daily basis.”

With access to a participant network in the thousands and embedded recruitment infrastructure, enrollment ran alongside the company’s day-to-day operations. Instead of building institutional-scale machinery or pausing progress elsewhere, Kioga was able to execute a rigorous clinical trial while continuing to build the business.

What once felt reserved for established institutions became fully operational for a lean team — the exact feeling of empowerment the Alethios Early Stage program hopes to curate. 

Building Toward the Next Trial

The early data clarified what a larger, more objective trial should look like — and shifted how the team thinks about execution.

Running the first study reduced uncertainty around recruitment and enrollment and strengthened their confidence in scaling up.

“It will allow us to execute with more speed… this experience gives us more confidence that we can execute a bold trial moving forward.”

It also revealed operational inefficiencies they can streamline next time by shifting more responsibilities to Alethios.

“There were also some inefficiencies with how we did our first trial due to us keeping certain things in house that in a subsequent trial we could pass off to Alethios.”

This progression — from first signal to smarter, faster second study — reflects one of the core advantages of the Early Stage Program. With up to 12 months of discounted access, teams have room not just to run a single trial, but to learn, refine, and scale their research strategy thoughtfully.

“There’s No Point in Waiting.”

When asked what advice he would give to other early-stage teams considering their first human study, Adam was direct:

“There’s no point in waiting. The industry is moving in a direction where human data is no longer a nice-to-have but a must.”

That conviction reflects why the Alethios Early Stage Program exists. Early evidence doesn’t require a massive trial on day one — but it can fundamentally change a company’s trajectory.

Kioga Bio’s journey shows what happens when access, not ambition, is the barrier removed.

If you’re ready to run a real study, we’d love to hear from you.

→ Apply to the Alethios Early Stage Program

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