BirdsForLiberty

I don't address press often and have been avoiding talking about the real, detailed reason for the shutdown of Manhattan Genomics. But today, Financial Times wrote an article about the industry with glaringly wrong statements which I addressed multiple times with the reporter. It's about why Manhattan Genomics, a company I co-founded with Eriona Hysolli, former Head of Biology at Colossal Biosciences, shut down within a few short months last year. Here are the facts, and I have all documented proof. - The Cayman Islands entity was Manhattan Genomics' only operating company. Investors invested directly into the Cayman entity. Every employee, contractor, advisor, and vendor related to Manhattan Genomics was paid through this entity. - Eriona Hysolli knew about that entity, signed her co-founder contract with it, and received all payments from it. - After Eriona had become a co-founder of the original Cayman Islands based entity, Eriona and I decided to incorporate in Delaware, with the intent to transfer all assets and contracts from the Cayman to Delaware entity. - Amidst the transfer process, I developed serious concerns about Eriona's leadership, communication, and conduct toward me and other employees, which led me to conclude that I could no longer continue working with her. Shortly after, on around December 8 2025, our investors supported my taking over the company and wanted to facilitate an orderly separation. However, before the investors could obtain their planned board representation in the Delaware entity, Eriona halted the transfer process. By that point, the investors had already terminated their investment agreements with the Cayman entity in anticipation of transferring their investment rights to the Delaware entity. Because Eriona and I held a temporary 50/50 ownership split in the Delaware entity, her decision to halt the transfer prevented its completion, leaving investors without an investment agreement with either entity and unable to enforce their decision. - Following the halted transfer, I became certain that I could not continue working with Eriona on something as substantial and ambitious as germline gene editing. I decided to return the remaining capital in the Cayman entity to investors, which I was able to do as its majority shareholder. This was completed by December 15, 2025. To clarify, I explicitly informed the FT reporter in writing that we returned the remaining capital, not all capital, as Manhattan Genomics had already been operational for over six months. I subsequently used approximately $15,000 of my own personal funds to cover the costs of shutting down the Cayman entity. The Delaware entity, which never became operational because the planned transfer of capital and assets was not completed, was dissolved several months later. The documentary and financial records, including Eriona's agreement, employee and contractor agreements, vendor and advisor agreements, investment documents, payment records, and wire documentation, substantiate these statements. The dispute was not over the early existence of the Cayman entity or where the business operations were to be located. It arose from a breakdown of trust. I am thankful to our investors, employees, and contributors. It was a shame that Manhattan Genomics shut down. However, I remain dedicated to the mission and have continued to work on this very important scientific frontier since this tumultuous chapter of my life.