December 🌲❄️🌨️ TechBio News
Trends on TechBio ⛽: Parse & Vevo, Dimension Cap (Automata, Enveda, Kaleidoscope, Monte Rosa, Chai, Kimia and NewLimit), Algorae, Cradle, SoftServe and Aqemia
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
By Bernard M. Baruch
⚛️ Parse Biosciences Inc and Vevo Therapeutics Inc
On December 05, 2024, Parse Biosciences announced the generation of the world’s largest single cell dataset to date totaling 100 million cells, created in partnership with Vevo Therapeutics and by using Parse Biosciences’ GigaLab to advance their AI-based drug discovery efforts (Vevo Therapeutics Partners with the Parse Biosciences GigaLab to Generate 100M Cell Atlas for AI Powered Drug Discovery). The new dataset, named Tahoe-100, comprises 100 million cells and 60,000 conditions with 1,200 drug treatments across 50 different tumor models. In addition to the AI drug discovery dataset generated with Vevo, the Parse GigaLab is currently working on large-scale projects for a variety of applications including additional perturbation screens, data for generative AI models and atlasing for population studies.
Parse Biosciences is a global life sciences company empowering researchers to perform single cell sequencing (profiling from 1000 to 1 million cells or nuclei in a single experiment) with unprecedented scale and ease. Their technology Evercode™ split-pool combinatorial barcoding enables you to scale up your single cell projects to millions of cells or nuclei, by labeling 🏷️ molecules with cell-specific combinations of barcodes. Cells are first fixed and permeabilized and then the split-pool barcoding process labels cells with an exponentially large number of barcode combinations, making it possible to easily scale beyond other technologies and up to 1 million cells, also collected on different days and processed in parallel. Moreover, by leveraging Parse’s Evercode technology and expanded automation, the GigaLab enables groundbreaking research with single cell approaches by sequencing 10M cells per run.
🔔 On January 16, 2024, Parse Biosciences announced the acquisition of the data analysis software company Biomage, offering a suite of single cell data analysis tools through an intuitive interface. By pairing Biomage’s powerful data analysis tools with Parse’s Evercode combinatorial barcoding technology, researchers can now gain deeper insights with a dramatically reduced analysis time. Biomage hosts and supports Cellenics®, a cloud-based single cell RNA sequencing data analysis platform, that brings powerful analysis tools to researchers without the need for bioinformatics expertise. Since launching the platform in 2021, Biomage has reduced average analysis times from six months to two weeks.
Vevo Therapeutics established in 2021 in San Francisco is using its in vivo drug discovery platform and next generation AI models to uncover better drugs for more patients. Vevo is building the world's largest in vivo, single-cell atlas of how chemistry perturbs biology with Mosaic, that is the first platform to generate high-resolution in vivo data with single cell precision while capturing patient diversity in drug response. In a single in vivo experiment, Mosaic can measure how a drug impacts cells from tens to hundreds of patients, generating millions of datapoints on drug-induced changes in gene expression, by measuring both phenotypic and transcriptomic changes in cell states. By pooling cells from 10s to 100s of diverse patients in one tumor and single-cell RNA profiling, they can determine drug action across all of those patients in one experiment. With this mosaic of patient cells, they can better represent patient diversity in drug response earlier in the discovery process, something that the classical in vitro models usually overlook.
⚛️ Dimension Cap (Dimension Management L.P)
On December 9, 2024, VC Dimension closed its second round, this time a $500M fund for entrepreneurs that are pioneering at the vanguard of life sciences (The 2nd Dimension: VC raises $500M fund for entrepreneurs pioneering life sci, tech). Dimension is a first-of-its-kind firm partnering with founders at the interface of technology and life sciences to transform the trajectory of life on earth 🌎, and was founded in March 2022 by three VCs Zavain Dar, Adam Goulburn and Nan Li who previously worked at Lux Capital and Obvious Ventures.
Automata (Automata Technologies Ltd) is a next-generation lab automation and data management company. The Automata LINQ bench is the next-generation, automation-enabled laboratory bench system that can fully automate workflows end to end. It does this by robotically and digitally connecting instruments and automating the transfer of labware. In October 2023, Automata raised $40M and the round was led by Dimension.
Enveda Biosciences (Enveda Biosciences Inc) is unlocking the planet's chemistry to discover next-generation therapies, by using breakthroughs in ML, metabolomics and robotics, to index nature’s untapped chemical space for new drug discovery.
🔔 On November 13, 2024, Enveda announced that the FDA has cleared an investigational new drug (IND) application for its first asset targeting atopic dermatitis and other inflammatory conditions. The company also announced it has entered this candidate, named ENV-294, into a Phase I clinical trial, with the first patient dosed at the end of October.
🔔 On November 21, 2024, Enveda announced an oversubscribed $130M Series C funding round led by Kinnevik and FPV with participation from new and existing investors Baillie Gifford, Premji Invest, Lingotto Innovation, Lux Capital, Dimension Capital, True Ventures, Cresset Partners, The Nature Conservancy and Henry R. Kravis. This brings the company's total funding to $360M.
Kaleidoscope Bio (Kaleidoscope Technologies Inc) is a collaborative, cloud-based research platform for organizing and tracking scientific activities, to supercharge how scientific teams collaborate, manage experiments and track decision-making. On September 28, 2022, Kaleidoscope announced the completion of a $6M seed financing round, co-led by Hummingbird Ventures and Dimension.
Monte Rosa’s platform is centered around protein surfaces. By encoding geometric and physiochemical properties on a discrete set of canonical, and non canonical, surface patches of proteins, the company rationally designs molecular glues for a wide range of therapeutic targets. Monte Rosa’s QuEEN™ discovery engine combines AI-guided chemistry, diverse chemical libraries, structural biology and proteomics to identify degradable protein targets and rationally design molecular glue degrader (MGD)-based medicines with unprecedented selectivity.
🔔 On December 05, 2024, Monte Rosa (Nasdaq: GLUE) (Monte Rosa Therapeutics Inc) reported an update from its ongoing Phase 1/2 open-label, multicenter study of MRT-2359 in patients with MYC-driven solid tumors. MRT-2359 is an investigational, orally bioavailable, GSPT1-directed MGD discovered and developed by Monte Rosa Therapeutics.
Chai Discovery (also known as Chai Research) builds AI foundation models to predict and reprogram interactions between biochemical molecules, the fundamental building blocks of life, in order to accelerate drug discovery.
🔔 On September 9, 2024, Chai Discovery released Chai-1, a new multi-modal foundation model for molecular structure prediction that performs across a variety of tasks relevant to drug discovery. Chai-1 enables unified prediction of proteins, small molecules, DNA, RNA, covalent modifications and more. The model is available for free via a web interface, including for commercial applications such as drug discovery. For more about drug design: Transforming drug design with AI and computer modeling techniques.
Kimia Therapeutics (Kimia Therapeutics Inc) utilizes chemotype evolution to create extensive datasets that uncover molecular traits of active and inactive drugs. By automating and applying ML to target-specific datasets, the platform accelerates novel compound design, expediting drug discovery. Their ATLAS technology merges AcTive® Learning with Automated Synthesis and Screening, leveraging ML to accelerate the discovery of novel drugs. ATLAS allows them to uncover therapeutic targets and identify corresponding drug molecules, creating a chemical atlas of druggable space and fundamentally transforming the landscape of drug discovery. In 2023 Kimia raised a $55M series A.
NewLimit (NewLimit Inc) works across cell biology, genomics, ML and cellular reprogramming to treat diseases and cure aging, by reprogramming the epigenome. They leverage enabling technologies spanning single cell genomics, ML and high-throughput functional assays to reveal epigenetic features of aging and discover rejuvenating interventions. NewLimit was cofounded by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and in 2023 raised $40M to extend life.
⚛️ Algorae Pharmaceuticals Ltd
Algorae (previously Living Cell Technologies Ltd) just announced that its cardiovascular drug candidate AI-168 demonstrated strong cardio protective qualities (in preclinical studies), outperforming existing first line FDA-approved beta blockers in cardiovascular preclinical studies.
Moreover, Algorae decided to evaluate in preclinical studies 24 new drug targets predicted by the AlgoraeOS AI Drug Discovery Platform (for oncology medical indications). The new drug targets were generated by Version 1 of Algorae Operating System developed in conjunction with UNSW AI Institute, with grant funding support from CSIRO. The development of Version 2 of AlgoraeOS is underway to expand pharmaceutical databases, enhance AI models and increase predictive capacity in additional fields of medicine.
In particular, Algorae Pharmaceuticals (ASX: 1AI) launched (on September 25, 2024) the Version 1.0 of its biopharmaceutical platform AlgoraeOS after development 🏗️ 🚧 at the University of New South Wales. The AlgoraeOS platform aggregates medical and scientific data on over 5,000 known drugs and molecules in over 150 human cell types. The platform uses AI systems to predict fixed-dose combination (FDC) drugs that the company says it will either take to clinical trials itself or do so in collaboration with partners, potentially big pharma (Algorae Pharmaceuticals launched AI-powered platform to generate novel drug candidates).
AlgoraeOS or Algorae Operating System is a closed-loop platform, to evaluate drugs and molecules for repositioning and combining into novel drug candidates aimed at patient cohorts experiencing significant unmet medical need. Moreover, the platform will interpret pre-clinical, clinical, chemical and biological data sets at an enormous scale to provide predictive insights into Algorae’s pipeline of prospective drug candidates.
Algorae is currently working on:
AI-116 is a novel combination drug candidate made up of cannabidiol, CBD and an off-patent pharmaceutical ingredient, a potential treatment for dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
The project is in collaboration with Professor Garrie Arumugam’s laboratory at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. The next steps 🪜 include clinical trials, subject to pre-clinical success and regulatory approvals.
AI-168 is a novel combination drug candidate made up of a cannabinoid and an off-patent pharmaceutical ingredient, a potential treatment for cardiovascular disease, including hypertension, in collaboration with Dr Kristen Bubb at Department of Physiology, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute and the Victorian Heart Institute research labs.
The next steps 🪜 include clinical trials, subject to pre-clinical success and regulatory approvals.
NTCELL is an alginate coated capsule product containing clusters of neonatal porcine choroid plexus cells that are injected into the damaged site within the brain to target the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. NTCELL is developed from a unique herd of designated pathogen-free pigs bred from stock originally discovered in the remote sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands in New Zealand. Algorae has commenced a scientific review of the previous Phase 2 clinical trial data and the NTCELL clinical development plan, in order to assess and implement recommendations proposed by the NTCELL scientific advisory board. Moreover, Algorae has a dedicated pig herd facility and surgical facility managed and operated on its behalf in New Zealand, required for the manufacture of GMP grade NTCELL.
⚛️ Cradle Bio BV
Cradle Bio just raised $73M in a Series B funding led by IVP, with continued backing from Index Ventures and Kindred Capital, in order to sell pharma its protein-making AI software. This brings their total funding to over $100M, a major step towards their goal of bringing AI-powered protein engineering to every lab around the world. Moreover, Cradle proudly announced this month (December 2024) that its submission took the top place in Adaptyv Bio's second protein design competition, where they achieved a binding affinity of 1.21nM to EGFR, which is 4x better than the nearest competitor (5.18nM) and 8x better than an scFv-format of Cetuximab (9.94nM) (Erbitux®), a leading cancer therapeutic marketed by Merck (8x improvement in EGFR binding affinity: winning the Adaptyv Bio protein design competition).
Cradle Bio is a Dutch-Swiss startup that exited stealth in 2022 and is using generative AI for protein engineering—enzymes, vaccines, peptides and antibodies—and cell factories. Cradle’s design platform makes it easy for everyone to start building products with biology instead of oil or animals, leveraging generative ML models to transform how biologists design and optimize proteins.
In particular, synthetic biology can generate environmentally friendly alternatives to 60% of everything humans consume (including food, clothing, materials, medicines and chemicals), by adapting the genes of microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi to create ‘cell factories’ that use programmable proteins to produce a wide variety of everyday products: from milk and meat, grown without farming animals, to plastics created without petrochemicals, materials for clothing or electronic components, or even personalized medicines. The challenge of this process is that building these proteins is currently a costly and laborious iterative process based on trial and error.
Cradle solves this problem by giving scientists the ability to ‘reverse engineer’ proteins with the desired specific properties and has built a working platform that is already being used by a number of early stage design partners and, so far, by nine leading industry partners, including Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Novozymes and Twist Bioscience.
Cradle’s operations include a ‘wet lab’, which allows the company to generate data to train their ML models. It has offices in Delft, The Netherlands and Zurich, Switzerland and a team of ML and biotech research specialists with experience at many of the world’s leading technology and biotech companies, including Google, Google X, Zymergen, Uber and Perfect Day.
🔔 In February 2024, Stef van Grieken, CEO and co-founder of Cradle, announced that Cradle has partnered with Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA), the leading platform for cell programming and biosecurity, as part of the creation of the Ginkgo Technology Network. The other co-founders of Cradle are Elise de Reus and Jelle Prins (Jelle Prins, Cradle founder: ‘I thought my peak had passed after leaving Uber’).
🔔 Finally, in March 2024 they presented a Case study: design better P450s 4X faster by combining AI-generated mutations with human expertise, regarding their engineering goal to increase the activity of a key P450 enzyme.
⚛️ SoftServe Inc
On December 03, 2024, SoftServe, a premier IT consulting and digital services provider, announced the debut of its newest Generative AI solution, for Drug Discovery, alongside its partner NVIDIA at AWS re:Invent 2024. Built with NVIDIA BioNeMo Blueprints, the reference workflows that accelerate the development and deployment of AI, SoftServe’s new solution will streamline drug development, bringing life-changing treatments to the market faster and more affordably (SoftServe Unveils New Gen AI Solution ‘Drug Discovery,’ Built with NVIDIA Blueprints at AWS re:Invent 2024).
SoftServe Gen AI Drug Discovery solution helps researchers, application developers, pharmaceutical companies and drug discovery teams generate novel drug candidates through molecular screening. Integrating NVIDIA NIM microservices, virtual screening technologies and AI workflows with SoftServe’s proprietary molecular generator provides a digital environment to analyze more drug molecules and determine which molecules are best for wet lab testing. This leads to a cost and time reduction in early-stage development.
⚛️ Aqemia
Finally, just this week (December 10, 2024), Aqemia has achieved a significant funding milestone, raising a cumulative $100M in funding. The new $38M funding round was led by Cathay Innovation, followed by historical investors Wendel, Bpifrance Large Venture, Eurazeo and Elaia. This round, coming less than a year than the previous one, follows the successful validation of Aqemia’s drug discovery platform through positive results in internal preclinical programs and pharmaceutical partnerships, particularly in oncology, boosting Aqemia’s move towards clinical trials and global expansion, starting with a new office in London (AQEMIA Hits $100 Million Funding Milestone, Paving Way to Clinical Trials and Global Expansion Starting with London, UK).
Aqemia is an in silico drug discovery start-up using quantum physics and AI to transform the drug discovery process. The company started in France in 2019, as a deeptech spin-off from École normale supérieure and has built an innovation engine it calls the Aqemia’s Launchpad. The company was founded by Maximilien Levesque and Emmanuelle Rolland-Martiano and addresses drug discovery projects from their earliest stage by generating its own data using unique quantum physics algorithms from 12 years of research at Oxford, Cambridge and ENS/CNRS. The unprecedented pace, 10 000x faster, and accuracy of their physics algorithms enable them to guide efficiently their generative AI to discover innovative drug candidates more rapidly and scale drug discovery projects as tech projects.
🔔 In 2023, Servier and Aqemia announced the extension of their new-molecule discovery collaboration on an undruggable therapeutic target in immuno-oncology.
🔔 In December 2023, AQEMIA Announced a Major Multi-year Collaboration of $140M With Sanofi. As part of this agreement, Aqemia will design, working closely with Sanofi, novel drug molecules using its generative AI and deep physics algorithms and platform.
🔔 Finally, back in January 2024, Aqemia raised €30M in Series A funding (for a total of 60M at the time) and the round was led by Wendel Growth with participation from Bpifrance Large Venture, Eurazeo and Elaia.