Sapien Capital, the DeSci investment arm of the Sei Foundation managing a $65M Open Science Fund I, today announced that Michael Baran, PhD, MBA, Partner at Pfizer Ventures, has joined as a strategic decentralized science (DeSci) advisor to help evaluate investments and deployment strategies with the Open Science Fund to establish Sei as the infrastructure rails and backbone for the future of health, longevity, biotech and other verticals within DeSci.
The appointment comes at a pivotal moment for DeSci. While the movement has produced fascinating experiments in decentralized research funding and data ownership, many remain small-scale proof-of-concepts rather than the scalable infrastructure that frontier science demands. Baran's unique trajectory, not only in biotech company and Intellectual Property (IP) creation and investment but also as an early DeSci supporter, uniquely positions him to help translate DeSci concepts into companies that scale, solving real problems across the drug development value chain.
The timing is part of a broader initiative to make Sei the home for the sciences and catalyze a Cambrian explosion of potential applications across health, longevity, and other applications of frontier science. Traditional research remains trapped in silos with fragmented funding, closed-circuit data sharing, and coordination mechanisms that can't match the speed of breakthrough developments in other industries, such as AI and robotics. As an early DeSci advocate, Baran brings a unique perspective from the intersection of life sciences, investment strategy, and now emerging technologies. He will help explore how Sei's performant infrastructure can continue enabling new forms of scientific collaboration, from capital formation in early stage R&D to global research coordination systems that operate at institutional scale. The goal is to flip Eroom’s Law in the sciences, with the right infrastructure coupled with a best-in-class team.
"Science moves at the speed of collaboration, but our infrastructure hasn't caught up," said Michael Baran, Strategic Advisor to Sapien Capital. "Sei represents the first blockchain capable of supporting the computational demands and coordination requirements that research actually needs. There’s a huge opportunity to expedite the sciences that simply wasn’t feasible before."
Baran holds a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and an MBA in Healthcare Management from Wharton. His experience spans the full spectrum from lab bench discoveries to billion-dollar investment decisions.
“Michael has an unmatched perspective for making DeSci scalable and institutional. We’re here to build beyond the bubble, and realize the full potential that crypto has in the sciences.” said Eleanor Davies, Head of DeSci of the Sei Development Foundation. “His experience in the industry, and DeSci from day 1, makes him the ideal partner to make the DeSci V2 ecosystem an even bigger success. We’re still early, and there’s a lot of potential. We’re thrilled to welcome him into the fold and as we make Sei the go-to destination for DeSci and frontier technologies.”
About Sapien Capital
Sapien Capital is the decentralized science (DeSci) investment arm of the Sei Foundation which supports the growth of the Layer-1 blockchain, Sei. Sapien Capital was established in January 2025 with $65M in capital deployed by the Sei Foundation into its first DeSci investment fund, Open Science Fund I. This venture fund will exclusively invest in DeSci startups building natively on the Sei blockchain, with the goal of expanding access to scientific research funding, enabling open data sharing and ensuring fair compensation for scientists.
To learn more about Sapien Capital, please visit: https://www.sapienfund.xyz