I: TechBio Latest Summer News & Updates
I: TechBio Latest Summer News & Updates
Trends on TechBio ⛽: Lantern, Asimov, Scriptome, Insitro, Xtalpi (Ailux), Eurofins, Basecamp, X-Chem, Verseon and Top 10 Swiss AI Healthcare Startups
"Know thyself" (Greek: Γνῶθι σαυτόν, gnōthi sauton)
Temple of Apollo in the ancient Greek precinct of Delphi
This week’s Trilogy:
Trends on TechBio ⛽: Lantern, Asimov, Scriptome, Insitro, Xtalpi (Ailux), Eurofins, Basecamp, X-Chem, Verseon and Top 10 Swiss AI Healthcare Startups
II: TechBio Latest Summer News & Updates
Trends on TechBio ⛽: Ignition, Terray, SmartCADD, Iktos, TxGNN, IPA, Aigen, Benevolent, VedTechBio, 1910 Genetics, BullFrog, Antiverse, Alleo, Cernais, Longenesis, DeepMind and AZ (MILTON)
III: TechBio Latest Summer News & Updates
Trends on TechBio ⛽: Dotmatics, Seqera Labs, Mi Laboratories, Speed Invest, Flinn, PipeBio, Databricks, VeriSIM Life, neoX Biotech, SandboxAQ and Okomera
I: TechBio Latest Summer News & Updates
Lantern Pharma Inc
Lantern Pharma Inc (Nasdaq: LTRN)’s Investigational Drug-Candidate, LP-184, just received 🏅 Fast-Track Designation in Glioblastoma from the FDA. Fast Track Designation for LP-184 (or STAR-001) recognizes Glioblastoma (GMB) as a serious condition impacting more than 13,000 U.S. adults each year and approximately 300,000 globally. A Phase 1b/2a clinical trial for recurrent GBM is targeted to start in late 2024/early 2025.
LP-184, which will be developed as STAR-001 for CNS and other neuro-oncology indications by Starlight Therapeutics (a wholly owned subsidiary of Lantern Pharma) has the potential to be the first new drug for treating GBM in more than 20 years (Lantern Pharma’s Investigational Drug-Candidate, LP-184, Receives Fast-Track Designation in Glioblastoma from the FDA).
Lantern has a very active oncology pipeline with lead programs (LP-300, LP-284, LP-184, ADC), with collaborations (Elraglusib/Actuate Therapeutics, TTC-352/TTC Oncology, XCE853/Oregon Therapeutics, ADC/Bielefeld University) and the subsidiary of Lantern Pharma Starlight Therapeutics focused on CNS & Brain Cancers (STAR-001). Let’s take a look:
⚓ LP-300, Harmonic™ Clinical Trial (Phase 2 for LP-300, in combination with carboplatin and pemetrexed in never smoker patients with relapsed advanced primary adenocarcinoma of the lung after treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors): LP-300 is a dithio-containing drug candidate that interferes with the activity of cancer promoting proteins by modifying cysteine residues and creating adducts and is intended to work together with chemotherapy to strongly interact with cancer-promoting proteins including TRX/GRX and tyrosine kinases. LP-300 was advanced with the use of AI by Lantern Pharma after they acquired the rights from BioNumerik Pharmaceuticals, Inc and paid in 2018 for $25,000 upfront plus royalty commitments (Lantern files for IPO to study 5-time phase 3 cancer failure). On April 22, 2024, Lantern Received Regulatory Approval to Expand Harmonic™ Clinical Trial into Japan and Taiwan. On August 05, 2024, Lantern Pharma Announced Positive Clinical Update from Ongoing Phase 2 HARMONIC™ Clinical Trial for Never Smokers with Advanced NSCLC, Including an 86% Clinical Benefit Rate in the Initial Patient Cohort.
⚓ On March 15, 2024, Lantern announced the dosing of the first two patients in the Phase 1 clinical trial evaluating Lantern’s investigational new drug LP-284 (a potent DNA alkylating agent that kills solid tumors) in patients with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and other high-grade B-cell lymphomas as well as other selected solid tumors and sarcomas. On June 12, 2024, Lantern announced that the Japan Patent Office has issued a Certificate of Patent for patent application no. 2021-513267 / registration no. 7489966 directed to Lantern Pharma’s drug candidate LP-284 ((+)N-hydroxy-N-(methylacylfulvene)urea).
⚓ On February 15, 2024, Lantern announced an important milestone in its antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) program. In collaboration with Bielefeld University, Lantern has generated a new class of highly specific and highly potent ADCs with a cryptophycin drug-payload (Lantern Pharma Advances Unique ADC (Antibody Drug Conjugate) Program Across Multiple Solid Tumor Cancers).
⚓ On May 6, 2024, Lantern Pharma has entered into a partnership with Oregon Therapeutics for optimizing the development of the cancer drug candidate, XCE853 through an AI-driven approach. XCE853 is a novel protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) inhibitor. In general, PDIs are protein chaperones and are central to maintaining cancer cell metabolism, additionally PDI inhibitors can cause cancer cell death through the accumulation of impaired proteins and dysregulated cellular stress responses.
⚓ On September 23, 2024, Lantern Pharma was granted the rare pediatric disease designation (RPDD) for drug-candidate, LP-184, in three cancer indications: Malignant Rhabdoid Tumors, Rhabdomyosarcoma and Hepatoblastoma. This brings the total number of RPDDs for LP-184 to 4, including one previously granted for ATRT (Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumors). LP-184 is currently in a multi-center Phase 1A clinical trial that is expected to enroll approximately 50 to 60 patients across a wide range of solid tumors.
⚓ In February 2023, Lantern and TTC oncology—an emerging biotechnology company founded in 2015—Established an AI Collaboration to Expand the Clinical Development of Drug Candidate TTC-352. Phase 2 ready candidate, TTC-352, is a 🆕 selective human estrogen receptor partial agonist for the treatment of patients with metastatic estrogen receptor positive breast cancer.
Finally, on October 30, 2024 during Lantern’s webinar Andrew Mazar, PhD, Chief Operating Officer at Actuate Therapeutics, Inc and computational biologist Joseph McDermott at Lantern, will be discussing “Actuate Therapeutics, Inc. & Lantern Pharma Inc AI Collaboration - Using Lantern’s AI Platform to Accelerate & Advance The Development of a Novel Cancer Drug - The Elraglusib Story”.
Lantern Pharma entered into a research and development collaboration with Actuate Therapeutics back in 2021, focused on leveraging the RADR ML technology, large-scale oncology datasets and the A.I. platform to accelerate key aspects of Actuate's 9-ING-41 (Elraglusib) drug candidate, a best-in-class GSK-3β inhibitor in active development in multiple Phase 2 clinical trials (pancreatic cancer, sarcoma, melanoma, colorectal). On September 12, 2024, the FDA granted orphan drug designation for elraglusib, a novel drug for treating advanced soft tissue sarcoma.
Register now 👉 https://bit.ly/3YmYxIq to join the free webinar and learn more about Elraglusib.
Asimov Inc
On September 18, 2024, Asimov launched the AAV Edge System, a suite of AI models, host cells and genetic tools for end-to-end gene therapy development (payload design and gene therapy production). Asimov Intelligent Design, that is integrating genetic engineering with computer-aided design to advance mammalian synthetic biology, offers an integrated suite of cells, genes and software to power advanced genetic design. In particular, the AAV Edge System offers a comprehensive suite of tools for both payload design and production:
🫧 Payload design: The system includes AI-designed, animal-validated tissue-specific promoters to enhance safety and efficacy; advanced DNA sequence optimization capabilities to boost expression levels in vivo; and tools to silence the gene of interest (GOI) during production to improve manufacturing performance by minimizing GOI toxicity. These proprietary genetic parts and design algorithms are accessible via Kernel, Asimov’s computer-aided genetic design software.
🫧 Production system: Asimov’s transient transfection-based AAV manufacturing system—is the first in a planned series of releases for AAV Edge. This platform features a clonal, suspension-adapted, GMP-banked HEK293 host cell line; an optimized two-plasmid system compatible across capsid serotypes; and model-guided process development to improve bioreactor performance, achieving unconcentrated titers up to E12 viral genomes per milliliter (vg/mL).
Moreover, Asimov is enabling the design and manufacture of advanced therapies such as:
🫧 Biologics, Protein therapeutics production: CHO Edge integrates genetic tools and data-driven models to routinely achieve titers of 5-11 g/L across modalities. Expression can vary significantly between different molecules using the same vector. Asimov’s CHO Edge System incorporates a GS knock-out CHO host, a hyperactive transposase, a library of >1000 characterized genetic elements and advanced computational tools, enabling exploration of vector design space.
On July 30, 2024, Asimov introduces its AI-driven 4th generation CHO Edge System with increased titer guarantee, that enables unique vector and process optimizations for different molecules to increase the likelihood of high titer clonal cell lines and guarantees titers of 5 g/L for IgG monoclonal antibodies, as part of its Cell Line Development (CLD) Service.
🫧 Viral vectors, Gene therapy production: Scalable production of lentiviral (LV) and adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors in clonal suspension HEK cell lines.
The LV Edge System consists of three components: (1) A clonal, suspension-adapted engineered cell line with stably-integrated lentiviral genes under inducible control, (2) Model-guided DNA design to optimize expression of your Gene of Interest (GOI) - powered by Kernel, Asimov's computer-aided design (CAD) software, and (3) Robust, ready-to-transfer processes and protocols across multiple scales. On April 29, 2024, Asimov announced the expansion of its LV Edge System with the launch of a fully stable cell line development service. Stable lentiviral (LV) cell line development service achieved unconcentrated titers >1E9 TU/mL for therapeutic transgenes. The fully stable cell lines have all viral genes and transgene stably integrated, enabling biomanufacturing scalability and a more robust production process. And transfection-free lentiviral manufacturing eliminates GMP plasmid cost and reduces supply chain risk for cell and gene therapy developers.
The AAV Edge System is the first comprehensive platform to enable end-to-end optimization, allowing developers to choose the modules that best address their design and production needs from a singular access point. Choose from payload design tools that enable precise and tissue-specific control of gene expression, improve manufacturability, and increase potency, and an AAV production system that includes a clonal suspension-adapted GMP-banked HEK293 cell line, flexible plasmid design, and model-guided processes to achieve up to E12 vg/mL titers.
🫧 Programmable medicines, RNA and cell/gene therapy payload design:
Precise tuning and tissue-specific control of transgene expression in vivo.
Their platform, as a fully integrated suite of cells, genes and software, includes:
🫧 Host cells: Engineered, highly characterized GMP host cells for therapeutics production with supporting regulatory documentation.
🫧 Genetic parts library: >1000 experimentally validated genetic parts to control cell biology, including transposase integration, expression vectors, inducible systems, tissue specific promoters and more.
🫧 Design software: Cloud-based software to design, simulate and optimize genetic systems in different cell types for your application of interest.
🫧 Analysis: Multi-omics analysis to enable advanced QC of cell lines, deepen biological understanding, and distill actionable insight for genetic designs.
🫧 Technical guides: Optimized and validated protocols for working with all aspects of our platform. Developed by our team of scientists and synthetic biologists.
Additionally, they are building a software for genetic design, called Kernel, that comes pre-loaded with 600,000+ searchable sequences that can be dragged and dropped to design plasmids. You can also filter sequences based on "type," such as promoters, terminators and so on.
Back in 2023, Asimov (MIT Spinout) announced $200M in new funding. The financing includes a $175M Series B led by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), with participation from Fidelity Management & Research Company, KDT, Casdin Capital, Pillar, and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), who led Asimov’s seed round. Paul McCracken, Ph.D., Managing Director in Growth Equity at CPP Investments, joins Asimov’s board of directors. The round follows a $25M Series A led by Horizons Ventures, who also participated in the Series B round.
Scriptome AI
Scriptome AI evaluates your business as an information system, then provides a roadmap to leverage that information to accelerate your business success. They empower biotech companies to leverage the immense power that AI tools provide. Whether you're just beginning to explore the possibilities of using AI or seeking advanced tools for your research, their consulting services are tailored to your unique needs.
They specialize in guiding biotech companies and chief experience offices (CXOs) through every stage of adopting AI—from identifying opportunities where AI can make the biggest impact, to selecting the right tools, and supporting seamless implementation. They offer: AI Strategy Development, Tool Selection and Implementation & Integration.
Scriptome.AI was born out of the vibrant biotech ecosystem in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
With so many tools for genomics, proteomics, generative AI, collaboration, data management and more, CXOs and biotech leaders just don't have the time to make a fully informed choice on what combination of tools/platforms is right for their business.
That's where Scriptome comes in.
Their AI/ML Solutions are identifying the most appropriate AI/ML tools and platforms for a specific business for: Consulting on basic digitalization. Identifying Opportunities and Use-Cases. AI System Design. Implementation & Monitoring. And Ethical Guidance. Accordingly, they design a "scriptome" for each of their clients, a blueprint for each company where AI-driven tools lead to faster, safer, development of therapies. The scriptome (similarly to transcriptome, the complete set of information or RNA transcripts that provide the blueprint for cellular function) encompasses the full spectrum of strategies, tools, and insights needed to establish an AI-blueprint for the future.
Transcripta Bio is speeding drug discovery across all therapeutic areas by applying machine learning to its Drug–Gene Atlas. Transcripta Bio Inc, a biotechnology company based in Palo Alto, California, is harnessing the power of AI to revolutionize the drug discovery process by screening thousands of compounds across numerous root-cause genes simultaneously, drastically reducing both time and cost.
Transcripta Bio has built a unique database with the results from more than 200 million experiments. By collating the effects of FDA-approved drugs and small molecules that have reached phase 2/3 clinical trials on gene expression in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived glutamatergic neurons, the company has generated a Drug–Gene Atlas.
The Drug–Gene Atlas is used to train ML models and carry out virtual screens to find new structures that modulate the transcriptome for therapeutic benefit. Transcripta’s rapid-screening Discovery platform performs high-throughput RNA-Seq assays to screen thousands of unique molecules and quantify their individual effects on a variety of cell types. The resulting millions of perturbations then become training data for their proprietary Conductor AI suite, which predicts gene expression directly from the molecular structure of novel uncharacterized compounds.
The company is partnering with biopharma and tech companies, research centers and patient foundations seeking innovative and efficient drug discovery solutions.
Insitro Inc
On October 9, 2024, Insitro announced that has teamed up with Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) to help power programs into the clinic, tapping the Big Pharma for an option on technology to deliver siRNA molecules it discovered using its ML platform (AI-powered Insitro taps Lilly to clear path to clinic for siRNA). In particular, the new strategic agreements with Lilly are focused on advancing potential new medicines for metabolic diseases, including metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), based on targets identified by Insitro using the company’s AI/ML-based platform.
🖇️ Under the first two agreements, Insitro has an option to in-license proprietary, clinical stage, ternary N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) delivery technology from Lilly that it will combine with two different small interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA) molecules discovered and developed by Insitro, each specifically directed toward a different target in the liver.
🖇️ Under the third agreement, Insitro and Lilly will collaborate to discover and develop an antibody for a third novel target for metabolic disease. As part of the collaboration, the companies will work together on the early preclinical development activities until development candidate nomination, when insitro will be responsible for all remaining development and commercialization.
Insitro (2018, South San Francisco, California) is a drug discovery company that operates an automated lab equipment running on algorithms and its own in vitro disease models. In particular, Insitro’s predictive models are grounded in human data (genetic, phenotypic and clinical data) using ML. Moreover, they combine patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), genome editing, high content cellular phenotyping and ML to build in vitro models of disease. The outcome is an integrated model of disease spanning in vitro cellular systems and in silico ML models, namely an insitro model that allows them to differentiate between cell states at much finer granularity and predict disease-relevant clinical traits.
So far, they have found ML-derived imaging and transcriptional phenotypes in genetic epilepsies; they have revealed distinct phenotypes from the world’s largest collection of familial, sporadic and isogenically engineered cell lines derived from patients with ALS; they have built an ML-native datastore containing significant amounts of multimodal high-content human primary data from a wide variety of solid tumors and discovered underexplored pathways that are active in a variety of solid tumors; and their ML-driven genetic analysis has enabled the identification of multiple genes with strong human evidence of causality for MASLD that are potentially independent of overall adiposity.
Xtalpi (QuantumPharm Inc) and Ailux Biologics
On October 11, 2024, Ailux Biologics (XtalPi’s subsidiary) has entered into a licensing agreement with Janssen Biotech, a Johnson & Johnson company (NYSE: JNJ), to utilize its proprietary AI biologics discovery platform, XtalFold (XtalPi’s AI biologics discovery platform licensed to Janssen Biotech). XtalFold is an AI-based software suite that uses sequence information to model biomolecule interactions (3D space in real-time), which are crucial for biotherapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies. XtalFold has demonstrated robust performance, especially in the overall success rate and modeling of complex regions such as the antibody-antigen interface.
Ailux Biologics is a division of XtalPi dedicated to the innovation in large molecule drug discovery, is offering:
🧩 XtalFold: An Industry-leading protein complex prediction algorithm:
Bridging the 1D and 3D protein space. Unraveling antibody-antigen interaction with high accuracy at scale. And unlocking numerous downstream applications
🧩 XenProt: The generative biologics design from a massive sequence space: Proprietary generative LLM for proteins. Generating highly-developable protein/antibody sequence. Conditional generation to desired profile.
🧩 XenTient: Predictive AI suite for multi-parametric evaluation: Comprehensive computational suite dedicated to biologics. Larger sequence space explored, less lab work. Trained on proprietary dataset 10x larger than what’s publicly available.
Xtalpi (QuantumPharm, HKG: 2228), an AI-powered drug discovery company based in China, is offering a closed loop of AI and quantum physics algorithms working in sync with the data factory of large-scale robotics experiments. In particular, XtalPi’s superior AI algorithms (and so far more than 200+) combined with physics-based methods and XtalPi’s advanced automation robotics can accelerate small molecule discovery, macro-molecular discovery, amplified chemical synthesis and solid state formulation. Founded by a group of quantum physicists at MIT, XtalPi is a quantum physics-based, AI-powered drug discovery company. Through its Intelligent Digital Drug Discovery and Development (ID4) platform—incorporating QM, AI and high-performance cloud computing algorithms—at XtalPi they can predict with high precision physiochemical and pharmaceutical properties of small-molecule drug candidates, as well as their crystal structures, enabling successful drug discovery.
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA)
Nvidia, Pfizer push AI-driven drug discovery in SE Asia
Accelerating Drug Discovery with AWS HealthOmics and NVIDIA Blueprints | Amazon Web Services
Eurofins Discovery Services North America LLC
Eurofins Discovery, an industry-leading provider of products and services for drug discovery research, just announced (October 10, 2024) the renewal of its collaboration with the Italy-based Dompé farmaceutici S.p.A., which is applying their internal AI platform to accelerate the identification of novel therapeutics (Eurofins Discovery Extends AI-powered Integrated Drug Discovery Collaboration). The collaboration is a result of the combined strengths of Eurofins Discovery’s DiscoveryOne (a comprehensive Integrated Drug Discovery platform of products and services) with Dompé’s powerful supercomputing AI platform.
Eurofins’ DiscoveryOne has a portfolio of over 12,000 off-the-shelf assays, and extensive experience in areas such as protein production, high-throughput screening (HTS), custom assay design, biophysics, translational biology, ADME, pharmacokinetics and synthetic and automated chemistry. With greater than 1 million experimental datapoints composed of time-tested, currently available assays, the EMERALD database is unrivaled in quality and depth. EMERALD is a gateway to predicting the vast chemical landscape and licensing this elite data set can provide clients with rich and relevant data to support internal model development.
Moreover, Eurofins DiscoveryOne launched this year the Discovery AI SAFIRE namely a new AI platform for drug discovery: A Suite of ADMET Predictions For In Silico Refinement and Evaluation.
Basecamp Research Ltd
On October 9, 2024, the London-based Basecamp Research announced that it will work with the lab of David Liu at the Broad Institute, a prominent gene editing researcher and biotech entrepreneur, to advance new types of “programmable” genetic medicines (novel fusion proteins and other large molecules) and also secured $60M in funding from a group of life sciences and tech investors to build a ‘GPT for biology’ (AI startup Basecamp allies with the Broad to dream up ‘programmable’ genetic medicines).
Basecamp Research (2019, UK) is a biotechnology company that partners with R&D teams to develop proteins that meet their most challenging requirements in applications as food, pharma and bioremediation. Having sampled from most extreme and extraordinary biomes on the planet, their knowledge graph of natural biodiversity is the most comprehensive and diverse in existence. This data advantage allows them to rapidly develop AI models. The company was founded by Oliver Vince and Glen Gowers.
Basecamp Research launched BaseFold, its new DL model that predicts 3D structures of large, complex proteins more accurately than other AI-powered tools, including the industry gold standard, AlphaFold2 (IMPROVING ALPHAFOLD2 PERFORMANCE WITH A GLOBAL METAGENOMIC & BIOLOGICAL DATA SUPPLY CHAIN).
BaseFold was created by augmenting the AlphaFold2 model, which predicts the 3D structure of a protein based on its amino acid sequence, with BaseGraph, that is Basecamp Research's purpose-built foundational dataset for biological AI, collected via access and benefit-sharing partnerships with over 25 biodiversity-rich countries. Furthermore, Basecamp Research will be working with NVIDIA to optimize and productionize BaseFold for NVIDIA BioNeMo.
Furthermore this summer (June 18, 2024), Basecamp Research partnered with the Ferruz Laboratory at the Institute of Molecular Biology of Barcelona to unveil ZymCTRL ("enzyme control"). Modeled after large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, ZymCTRL allows users to generate new enzyme sequences simply by inputting an enzyme identification code, specifying the desired activity (Basecamp Research and Ferruz Laboratory Announce ZymCTRL: A Revolutionary AI Tool for Enzyme Design). ZymCTRL represents a significant leap forward, offering an end-to-end solution that bypasses the need for a seed sequence, thus providing users with unparalleled control over the design process.
Basecamp Research is a member of the NVIDIA Inception program for cutting-edge startups.
Ionopath Inc, a pioneer in high-plex spatial proteomics, launched a new service and data analysis tools for immuno-oncology applications in basic, translational and clinical research.
Ionpath’s single-cell, spatial proteomics service utilizes its multiplexed ion beam imaging (MIBI™) technology, which uses mass spectrometry to query dozens of proteins with unmatched sensitivity and true subcellular resolution. The service offering, known as MIBIplus, launches with a human immuno-oncology panel that enables the detection of more than 40 relevant cell types in a single scan for a more complete view of the biological mechanisms in the tissue microenvironment affecting drug response, cancer progression, and more.
Tissue samples are processed and run at Ionpath, and data is analyzed and returned to clients through a standardized report of actionable information. Ionpath’s new user-friendly analysis tool, MIBIsight, allows for iteration and customization of the standardized report by the customer to answer specific research questions.
X-Chem Inc
Tonix Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: TNXP) has just announced (October 8, 2024) an AI and ML research collaboration with X-Chem to accelerate the development of oral broad-spectrum antivirals and focused on Tonix's TNX-4200 antiviral program (IND submission and a Phase 1 clinical study), which aims to develop oral CD45 phosphatase inhibitors with broad-spectrum activity against various viral families. The collaboration with X-Chem is expected to optimize the physicochemical properties, pharmacokinetics, and safety attributes of Tonix's drug candidates (Tonix Pharmaceuticals Announces AI Collaboration with X-Chem to Develop Broad-Spectrum Antivirals).
X-Chem, Inc, a leader in small molecule drug discovery services, is offering a DNA-encoded chemical library (DEL) technology and its integration with proprietary AI technology and computational sciences, to accelerate all steps in the drug discovery process. The company leverages its unique AI/ML approach (ArtemisAI), market-leading DEL platform and computationally-driven medicinal chemistry expertise to discover novel small molecule leads against challenging, high-value therapeutic targets.
X-Chem also provides libraries, reagents, and informatic tools to allow DEL operators to get the most of their DEL platform. X-Chem empowers its partners to effectively build drug pipelines from target to clinical candidate, enhanced with AI and extensive data packages.
X-Chem also has collaborations with
🧵 Evotec and X‑Chem Collaborate to Accelerate Early-Stage Drug Discovery,
🧵 Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation: New research collaboration with X‑Chem,
🧵 Rumi Scientific Announces Partnership with X‑Chem for Development of Lead Candidate in Huntington’s Disease,
🧵 X‑Chem and Structural Genomics Consortium Enter Into Collaboration to Unlock the Human Proteome and Promote Open Science,
🧵 X‑Chem and Sironax Begin Neurodegenerative Disease Drug Discovery Research Partnership,
🧵 BioDuro-Sundia and X‑Chem Enter Partnership to Launch DEL Services in China for the Discovery of New Small Molecule Drugs,
🧵 X‑Chem and Excelra’s GOSTAR Join Forces to Advance Drug Discovery for Challenging Targets,
and many more.
Verseon International Corporation
On September 11, 2024, Verseon announced benchmark test results from VersAI™, demonstrating prediction accuracy superior to the current state-of-the-art. VersAI™ is the company's patent-pending AI technology designed for small, sparse datasets. This system has shown dramatically lower error rates in predictions for a diverse array of real-world data scenarios when compared to Google's state-of-the-art Deep Learning technology (Verseon Announces VersAI™, Raising the Bar for AI Accuracy).
Verseon’s newly developed technology elevates AI accuracy to a new level, ensuring AI accuracy when Data Is Sparse. In this video, Adityo Prakash, CEO of Verseon International, talks about the role of AI in the future of drug discovery and VersAI™ and some of the main topics in this interview include:
👉 VersAI™ has demonstrated significantly lower error rates compared to Google’s AutoML.
👉 Traditional AI models require massive datasets and often struggle with predicting properties of novel drug-like structures contrary to VersAI™ that ensures robust predictions with much smaller datasets
👉 Ongoing projects within Verseon’s pipeline that leverage VersAI™ to develop novel oncology therapies.
Verseon International Corporation is a clinical-stage, technology-driven pharmaceutical company transforming the delay, prevention and treatment of disease. Verseon is utilizing its Deep Quantum Modeling + AI platform for:
🏵️ Virtual exploration of chemical space spanning 1033 drug-like compounds,
🏵️ Ab initio quantum & semi-classical physics modeling of protein-drug interactions,
🏵️ Streamlined synthesis driven by computer-generated pathways, and
🏵️ Integrated biological characterization & AI-based optimization.
Why Empress Therapeutics is mining the human metagenome for novel therapies
Empress Therapeutics (a Flagship Pioneering startup), which exited stealth mode in 2023, has already discovered 15 drug leads across multiple diseases and target classes and is now driving towards filing multiple IND applications within the next 24 months.
Empress has developed a platform known as Chemilogics that combines patient data, DNA, AI and synthetic biology to help pinpoint small molecule, or chemistry-based, drug candidates.
They source metagenomic data from patients and use AI to identify, decode, and map these chemistries to health and disease. Because DNA holds the instructions for small molecule synthesis, they can leverage proprietary synthetic biology tools to program cells to generate novel small molecules of interest.
Top 10 AI in Healthcare startups in Switzerland
According to Tracxn.com the top 10 AI Healthcare startups in Switzerland (among the 141 AI Healthcare startups in Switzerland in total) are:
Sophia Genetics
Provider of an AI-based bioinformatics platform for genomic analysis. The platform uses ML algorithms to process and analyze genomic data (DNA sequence data generated from NGS). The company also validates genetic tests and caters to hospitals and laboratories. It offers: Radiomics that assists with precision medicine diagnosis and medical imaging for oncology disease detection and DDM that has features for data organization, drug development and domain modeling.
MindMaze
Digital neurotherapeutic platform for digital assessments and therapeutics. Its products include a transportable neurorehabilitation system for hospitals designed for early motor rehabilitation and a gamified neurorehabilitation system for both the hospital and home.
dacaddo
AI-based digital health engagement platform. It provides a solution to insurance companies and their clients for pricing management of health and life insurance and customer engagement with life and health insurers.
Scailyte
AI based single-cell data analysis for novel biomarker discovery. The company is developing AI software for single-cell data analysis to discover novel biomarkers for the early and precise detection of a wide range of complex diseases. This AI-based single-cell technology can also be used for the identification of relevant single-cell patterns from mass cytometry data.
Altoida
Offers an AI-based app for predicting the onset of Alzheimer's disease. The company has developed activities providing neuromotor biomarkers that they claim can diagnose Alzheimer’s disease.
Sleepiz
Offers an AI-based sleep monitoring device for patients and physicians that provides patient-centric disease management and sleep monitoring solutions through the seamless integration of contactless monitoring. The remote monitoring device assists with the measurement of vital signals and diagnoses sleeping disorders. The wireless millimeter wave technology, sensor fusion, and AI measure movements originating from heart contractions and breathing patterns.
Stalicla
Manufacturer of precision medicine for neurodevelopmental disorders. The company uses DEPI technology platform to develop pipeline candidate STP7 a multifaceted mGluR5 NAM for cocaine abuse and other neurological indications.
InterAx Biotech
They have a combination of proprietary arrestin-based biosensors and computational methods which allow for quantitative comparison of drug-induced GPCR signaling pathways. This helps the identification of not just the GPCR reaction with the drug, but also if the reaction is beneficial or adverse. The company develops and sells drug screening packages which help in selecting drug candidates, quantifying cellular responses and in predicting drug action. The company also offers image analysis services mainly for fluorescence microscopy images which help in detecting, delineating and quantifying subcellular structures.
Retinai Medical
AI-based solutions for the diagnosis of retinal diseases. Specifically, the company uses DL to analyze OCT, fundus and angiography images to detect the presence of pathological biomarkers. Ophthalmologists can use the tool to diagnose and monitor disease progression and response to therapy. Initial applications include diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.
Qumea
Developer of human motion sensing systems for the safety of the patients. The company offers a combined process of 3D sensor and radar technology for providing a safe environment for patients. It offers sensors, which continuously send and receive electromagnetic signals using radar data if the patient has gone out of the restricted area, cloud-based motion data and processes using AI to detect an event in real-time, and provides a mobile app for data analysis and live monitoring of the patients.