Why Our Partnership with CyanoCapture Excites Me

Enabling patients to eat peptide and protein drugs is going to change everything

Karthik Raman

CEO, Persist AI • February 2026

I got into formulation development after my mom was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

We spent years taking her to the clinic for chemotherapy and radiation. The treatments worked, but they took over her life. Appointments, side effects, recovery days. The disease was one battle; the treatment regimen was another.

That experience shaped how I think about drug delivery. It's not enough for a therapy to work in a clinical trial. It has to work in a patient's life.

What excites me most is the possibility of treating patients without disrupting their regular lives. It's important to make medicine that fits into how people already live, not the other way around.

This is where our collaboration with CyanoCapture comes into play.

In high school, when mom was diagnosed with a brain tumor, I took her to many of her chemotherapy sessions. IV infusions in the clinic were exhausting for her. Now we have a chance to change that for future patients with CyanoCapture's oral peptide delivery technology platform. With oral delivery, patients won't need IV infusions for life-saving biologics.

The Rise of Peptides

Peptide therapeutics are having a moment. Nowhere is this more evident than in the explosive growth of GLP- 1 receptor agonists for weight loss and diabetes management. What was once a niche corner of drug development has become the hottest category in pharma.

At Persist AI, we've been working with several pharmaceutical companies on long-acting peptide formulations-helping them develop injectable depots that can deliver therapeutic peptides over weeks or even months. It's been exciting work, but an even bigger shift is underway.

The industry is now racing toward oral peptide delivery.

Novo Nordisk broke ground with Rybelsus (oral semaglutide)—the first GLP-1 receptor agonist available in pill form, approved by the FDA in 2019. It proved that oral delivery of peptides was possible at scale. Now Eli Lilly is following with orforglipron, their own oral GLP-1 candidate that could further expand patient access.

The Adherence Problem

However, even the best therapies fail when patients stop taking them.

The statistics are stunning. About half of patients with chronic diseases do not follow their doctor's advice on medications. In fact, more than a quarter of all prescriptions are never filled.

Why is it so hard to follow doctor's orders?

Cyanobacteria are common health foods that are included in salads and green juices. By utilizing CyanoCapture's technology, cyanobacteria can be loaded with therapeutic proteins and peptides. By making it simple to take medications, we expect to improve patient adherence for chronic disease treatments.

• Injection fatigue — Self-administering injections weekly or daily becomes burdensome

• Side effects — Nausea, vomiting, and gastrointestinal discomfort are common, especially early on

• Cost — These therapies can be expensive, and insurance coverage is inconsistent

• Cold chain requirements — Some formulations require refrigeration, complicating travel and storage

• Lifestyle friction — Fitting a treatment regimen into daily life is harder than it sounds

Even oral options like Rybelsus come with strict dosing requirements: taken on an empty stomach, 30 minutes before food or other medications. That's a lot to ask of patients, every single day.

This is why I'm so excited about CyanoCapture.

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic bacteria. Engineered cyanobacteria can be loaded with therapeutic proteins and peptides like GLP-1s and grown with just sunlight and water.

Imagine a world where therapeutic peptides aren't delivered through injections or carefully-timed pills but through food. CyanoCapture is engineering edible cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) to produce and deliver therapeutic peptides orally. These bacteria can be grown easily and scaled to massive quantities through simple photosynthesis. No complex manufacturing or cold chain.

The potential is enormous: a platform that can deliver multiple therapeutic peptides across various indications, produced sustainably and affordably at scale.

Why This Partnership Makes Sense

What makes CyanoCapture's approach so compelling is that patients don't have to change their lifestyle to benefit. Therapeutic peptides delivered through food means no injection schedules, no strict dosing windows, no disruption to daily routines. It's medicine that fits into life, not the other way around.

At Persist AI, we're bringing our robotics, AI, and automation capabilities to this partnership. Together, we can:

• Iterate through multiple formulations — Rapidly testing and improving stability and bioavailability

• Accelerate time-to-market — Moving from concept to clinic faster than traditional development timelines

This collaboration is a chance for us to bring a real drug product to market by combining forces with an incredibly innovative company.

We're excited to partner with CyanoCapture not only because their technology has massive scale and potential, but because we both operate as fast-moving entities. The synergies between our platforms are clear: reduced costs, scalable manufacturing, and faster development timelines for the drugs we're working on now and for future therapeutics.

We are super excited to work together with David Kim and the rest of his team to bring this novel technology to market.