I: Weekly TechBio News
Latest Trends on TechBio: ⚛️ Terray Therapeutics, ⚛️ DeepLife, ⚛️ Enable Medicine, ⚛️ IPA, ⚛️ Xaira Therapeutics and ⚛️ Congruence Therapeutics
I: Weekly TechBio News
Latest Trends on TechBio: ⚛️ Terray Therapeutics, ⚛️ DeepLife, ⚛️ Enable Medicine, ⚛️ IPA, ⚛️ Xaira Therapeutics and ⚛️ Congruence Therapeutics
Latest Trends on TechBio: 🔮 Absci Corp., 🔮 Evariste, 🔮 Phenome Health, 🔮 SandboxAQ, 🔮 Certis Oncology Solutions and 🔮 Orakl Oncology
“Not all those who wander are lost.”
By J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
I: Weekly TechBio News
⚛️ Terray Therapeutics Inc
On December 17, 2024, Terray Therapeutics and Gilead Sciences, Inc (Nasdaq: GILD) announced that they have entered into a strategic collaboration to discover and develop novel, small molecule therapies across multiple targets (Gilead and Terray Therapeutics Announce Multi-Target Research Collaboration to Discover and Develop Novel Small Molecule Therapies). More specifically, Terray will utilize its tNova platform to discover and develop small molecule compounds against a set of targets selected by Gilead.
Terray Therapeutics (US, 2018) is developing a small molecule screening and optimization platform for generative AI-driven drug discovery, integrating chemical experimentation and computation on an unprecedented scale. In particular, they explore molecules and targets more broadly and deeply with a sophisticated combination of ultra-high throughput experimentation, generative AI, biology, medicinal chemistry, automation and nanotechnology (for more about screening: Weekly TechBio News: Drug Screening). They can screen 2M molecules against a target in four minutes and convert 25 TB of image data into binding affinities daily, allowing them to rapidly identify potent and selective molecules. Their experimental dataset includes more than two billion unique target-ligand binding measurements, growing by 150 million new measurements every month.
Back on December 14, 2023, Terray announced a multi-target collaboration agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) to discover and develop small molecule therapeutics in certain disease areas; on November 9, 2023, Terray announced an equity investment by NVentures, NVIDIA’s venture capital arm; and on October 12, 2022, Terray and Calico Life Sciences, a biotechnology organization focused on age-related interventions and founded by Alphabet and Arthur D. Levinson, announced a research collaboration to discover and develop small molecule therapeutics for diseases of aging, including cancer.
On October 17, 2024, Terray raised $120M in a Series B fundraise (for a total of more than $200M) to enhance its AI platform (Terray Therapeutics rakes in $120M for AI-powered small-molecule drug development) and new investor Bedford Ridge Capital and existing investor NVentures, Nvidia Corp.’s venture capital arm, led the funding round. The round also attracted investments from Maverick Capital, Goldcrest Capital, Madrona Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, XTX Ventures, Digitalis Ventures and Alexandria Ventures (Terray Therapeutics).
Regarding Gilead Sciences and TechBio, on June 27, 2024 Gilead's Kite signed on with Cellares for a cell therapy manufacturing test. Kite Pharma, that is Gilead’s (NASDAQ: GILD) subsidiary, agreed to a proof-of-concept evaluation of Cellares’ Cell Shuttle platform, to determine the viability of the platform as a future manufacturing option for Kite. Cellares (2019, US) is the first Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO) and takes an Industry 4.0 approach to mass manufacturing the living drugs of the 21st century. The company is both developing and operating integrated technologies for cell therapy manufacturing to accelerate access to life-saving cell therapies, by offering: Cell Shuttleᵀᴹ, a modular cGMP platform for industrial scale cell therapy manufacturing and Cell Qᵀᴹ, an automated, high-throughput QC platform for cell therapies.
⚛️ DeepLife SAS
On December 11, 2024, the GenAI drug discovery startup DeepLife raised a $10M Series A as it prepares to expand to the US. The round was led by YZR Capital and the VC arm of French insurer Relyens. Beiersdorf Venture Capital and Prunay Group also participated (French GenAI drug discovery startup DeepLife raises $10m as it mulls US relocation).
DeepLife is an early stage startup founded in 2019 in France and is developing the first SaaS platform for Digital Twin of cells, combining state-of-the-art DL algorithms on multi-omics sequencing data, public and private cell atlases and proprietary DL-based cell engineering tools. Their platform is an all-in-one solution offering: DeepLife Datastore™, DeepLife Analysis™ and DeepLife Virtual Cell™. Beyond using single cell RNA sequencing data, the DeepLife’s Digital Twin is set to expand and encapsulate additional data modalities, including genomics, proteomics and metabolomics, enabling unparalleled simulation of cellular states with each omics layer processed using their advanced LLM.
Their final goal is to supplement in vitro testing with in silico simulations and rapidly discover molecular triggers for drug discovery. For that reason they are working closely with biotech and pharmaceutical companies and they are collaborating actively with the academic community by publishing papers and providing open access to their platform’s features and data. They offer OmicStore (the largest curated and harmonized single cell omics database: 15000+ publications, 100M+ cells and 1,5M+ experiments) and Cell BluePrint (a digital platform to uncover cellular mechanisms and discover best therapeutic strategies) (DeepLife).
⚛️ Enable Medicine Inc
On December 12, 2024, General Inception, a global biotech company igniter, and Enable Medicine announced an equity and strategic partnership which will amplify their joint drug discovery capabilities. As part of this partnership, General Inception is acquiring Enable for an undisclosed amount (General Inception acquires Enable Medicine and announces strategic partnership to accelerate drug discovery with AI-led generative biological sea) and the acquisition comes after the two companies first collaborated back in 2023, when they established Ennovate Pharma, which develops precision therapeutics for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases by leveraging biological atlases to identify, stratify and understand why certain patients do not respond to current therapies.
Ennovate Pharma combines standard of care data with cutting-edge single cell spatial biology data to develop therapeutic antibodies quickly and efficiently. By integrating high parameter data to discover novel insights using their proprietary AI/ML algorithms they focus to analyze multiple indications to identify therapeutically tractable cell types and targets. Their initial pipeline includes three lead programs targeting a key inflammatory cytokine junction (ENNO-001), eosinophils and mast cells (ENNO-002) and innate immunity (ENNO-003) with next-generation monovalent and bifunctional/bispecific biologics.
Few words about Enable Medicine.
Enable Medicine is indexing biological data into highly detailed maps of human disease. This atlas is then utilized to guide novel drug target discovery, identify biomarkers of therapeutic response and develop optimal treatment strategies. Their lab in Menlo Park, California, generates high-parameter biological datasets, and their cloud-based operating system allows researchers to organize, process, query and analyze this data at scale. In particular, they offer (Enable Medicine):
Enable Atlas: A vast array of structured biological data at your fingertips,
Enable Insights: Best-in-class AI/ML methods and scientific expertise and
Enable Search: The future-proof engine for biological discovery.
Back on November 10, 2022, Enable Medicine unveiled a new tool that identifies spatial-cellular signatures associated with cancer outcomes (published in Nature Biomedical Engineering) detailing how spatial cellular graphical modeling (SPACE-GM) substantially outperforms other state-of-the-art approaches at predicting cancer treatment outcomes. On April 12, 2023, Canopy Biosciences, a Bruker company, and Enable Medicine announced a partnership to combine Enable Medicine’s advanced analysis pipelines for spatial omics data with the Canopy CellScape™ system for quantitative high-plex spatial biology. This partnership added to the analytic capabilities of the CellScape system by providing options to use Enable Medicine’s advanced spatial analyses, including cluster analysis, neighborhood analysis and advanced data visualization, as well as efficient cloud-based computing, sharing and data storage. On April 12, 2023, Akoya Biosciences, Inc (Nasdaq: AKYA), a spatial biology company, announced they are partnering with Enable Medicine to introduce a cloud platform capable of significantly accelerating the analysis of high plex spatial image datasets generated by Akoya’s PhenoCycler-Fusion system.
⚛️ ImmunoPrecise Antibodies Ltd (IPA)
IPA (ImmunoPrecise Antibodies) just announced (December 23, 2024) significant insider activity, with key members of its executive team and subsidiary co-founders demonstrating confidence in the company’s strategic direction and long-term potential through substantial share purchases (ImmunoPrecise Antibodies (IPA) Demonstrates Strong Market Confidence with Insider Share Purchases). Over the past week, IPA’s CEO Dr. Jennifer Bath and BioStrand’s co-founders Dirk Van Hyfte and Ingrid Brands collectively acquired a total of 763,120 shares of IPA on the open market for an aggregate amount of USD $306,000.
Moreover on December 10, 2024, IPA reported financial results for the second quarter (“Q2”) of its 2025 fiscal year, which ended October 31, 2024 (ImmunoPrecise Antibodies (IPA) Reports Financial Results and Recent Business Highlights for Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2025). The report highlights are (all numbers are expressed in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise noted):
Corporate headquarters is relocating to Austin, Texas,
LENSai Platform was showcased at AI-Driven Drug Discovery Summit USA 2024,
First public demonstration of five AI-driven LENSai analytical tools for use in drug discovery, development and optimization,
Achieved Breakthrough in ADC Cancer Research: Progressed TATX-112 program with antibodies targeting TrkB-expressing cells for next-generation ADC therapies ($20 Billion Market Breakthrough: IPA Pioneers High-Impact Antibody Development for Next-Generation ADC Cancer Therapies),
Entered into Material Transfer and Evaluation Agreement with Biotheus, now part of BioNTech, for the transfer of AI-enhanced bispecific antibody candidates for hypoxic solid tumors (ImmunoPrecise Subsidiary Signs Material Transfer Agreement with Biotheus),
Partnered with Mayo Clinic on anti-aging research (ImmunoPrecise Advances Anti-Aging Research with Mayo Clinic Study, Poised to Tap into $81 Billion Market with AI Technology),
Announced clinical progress with IPA-generated rabbit monoclonal antibodies,
Achieved revenues of $6.1M.
Total revenue was $6.1M, compared to revenue of $6.1M in fiscal year 2024 Q2. Project revenue generated $5.4M, including projects using IPA’s proprietary B Cell Select® platform and IPA’s proprietary LENSai platform, compared to $5.5M in FY24 Q2. Product sales and cryostorage revenue were $0.7M, compared to $0.6M in FY24 Q2.
IPA (1983, Canada) (ImmunoPrecise Antibodies Ltd) is a Contract Research Organization (CRO) providing highly specialized full-continuum therapeutic antibody discovery, development and out-licensing services (Talem)—with advanced omics and complex intelligence technology (LENSᵃⁱ) that provide greater efficiency and accuracy than ever before.
LENSai™ Integrated Intelligence Technology powered by HYFTs® (Universal FingerprintsTM)—that seamlessly integrates massive data from diverse data sources to enhance LLMs and accelerate antibody discovery—was developed by BioStrand, founded in Belgium in 2019, and is an independently operating subsidiary of IPA at the intersection of biotech discovery, biotherapeutics and AI: BioStrand: The Ultimate Convenience in Multi-Omics Data Search and Analysis 🔝.
Talem Therapeutics LLC is also a subsidiary of IPA and is focused on the discovery and development of next-generation, human, monoclonal, therapeutic antibodies. For more about Talem’s pipeline: AI-powered drug discovery: update (X).
⚛️ Xaira Therapeutics Inc
On December 11, 2024, Xaira Therapeutics announced a planned relocation to the Gateway of Pacific III campus in South San Francisco (Xaira Therapeutics bolsters leadership team and relocates headquarters to fuel AI-powered drug discovery).
Xaira Therapeutics is an integrated biotechnology bringing together leading talent across three core areas: ML research to better understand biology, expansive data generation to power new models and robust therapeutic product development to treat disease. Xaira is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, incubated by ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Labs, and emerged from stealth in April 2024 with $1 billion in committed capital led by ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Capital, with additional investment from F-Prime Capital, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Sequoia Capital, LUX Speed Capital, Lightspeed, Menlo Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, SV Angel and others.
On September 23, 2024, Xaira Therapeutics selected OCI to accelerate its AI drug discovery and development initiatives. Xaira Therapeutics is now using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to accelerate its mission to reimagine the way medicines are discovered and developed through the end-to-end application of emerging AI technologies. Xaira is already operational with industry-leading GPU capacity, powered by OCI.
⚛️ Congruence Therapeutics Inc
On December 6, 2024, the Japanese drugmaker Ono Pharmaceutical entered into a drug discovery collaboration in oncology with the Canada-based Congruence Therapeutics (Ono Pharmaceutical, Congruence Therapeutics partner on oncology drug discovery). The partnership aims to develop novel small molecule correctors against multiple protein targets, by utilizing Congruence’s proprietary drug discovery platform, Revenir.
Congruence Therapeutics—a biotechnology company in Montreal, Canada harnessing the power of protein dynamics, biophysics, ML and computational chemistry to design novel small molecules for diseases of protein misfolding—deploys its platform Revenir to capture the biophysical features of functional proteins and their pathogenic counterparts in order to discover functional allosteric and cryptic pockets which can lead to small molecule hits at unprecedented speed.
On August 13, 2024, Congruence Therapeutics (as well as Astex Pharmaceuticals, Biogen, Polaris Quantum Biotech, Psivant Therapeutics and SandboxAQ) joined OpenFold, a leading non-profit AI research consortium focused on developing free and open source software tools for biology and drug discovery (OpenFold AI Research Consortium Welcomes Six New Members: Astex, Biogen, Congruence, Polaris Quantum, Psivant, and SandboxAQ).
OpenFold, a consortium of academic and industry partners founded in February 2022, is a project of the Open Molecular Software Foundation advancing molecular sciences by building communities for open source research software development. The new members join OpenFold’s founders and existing members: Mohammed AlQuraishi’s Laboratory, Arzeda, Basecamp Research, Bayer, CHARMM Therapeutics, Cyrus Biotechnology, Dassault Systemes, Gabriel Rocklin’s Laboratory, NVIDIA, Outpace, Puxano, UCB and Valence Labs. For more about drug design:
Apart the recent collaboration with Congruence, Ono Pharmaceutical Co Ltd (TYO: 4528) (one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Japan) also has the following TechBio collaborations:
On September 12, 2024, Turbine announced that Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (Osaka, Japan) has selected multiple targets identified using Turbine’s in silico Simulated Cell™ platform for further development. Turbine will lead the in vitro validation of the identified targets in one of Ono’s priority cancer biology domains, in consultation with Ono (Turbine Achieves Key Milestone in Collaboration with Ono Pharmaceutical). Turbine’s in silico experiments can test an almost infinite number of interventions on a simulated cell that accurately reflects the molecular diversity of cancer cells. More precisely, Turbine’s core technology, the Simulated Cell™ platform, utilizes ML to understand how human cells make decisions, by mapping and modeling how thousands of signaling proteins interact and by characterizing cellular level cancer behavior and response or resistance to treatment. In other words, Turbine takes laboratory trial and error out of drug discovery and tackles it with scalable power on its servers, all by leveraging AI in an evolving, predictive platform to understand cancer mechanisms and unlock novel therapies with Simulated Cells.
On March 14, 2024, Sibylla Biotech announced a drug discovery collaboration with Ono Pharmaceutical that will access Sibylla’s cutting-edge PPI-FIT technology to identify and develop candidates for multiple therapeutic targets in the field of Central Nervous System (CNS) disorders. Sibylla Biotech (Milan, Italy, 2017) is a preclinical stage company focused on developing small molecule degraders with a novel MoA to find new therapeutics for unmet medical needs. Their platform is powered by computer simulations and AI methods, which enables the discovery and development of compounds that induce the degradation of a target protein by interfering with its folding pathway. By exploiting this new paradigm that they named “Pharmacological Protein Inactivation by Folding Intermediates Targeting” (PPI-FIT), Sibylla can identify and develop small molecules acting on targets involved in different types of diseases. Indeed, PPI-FIT is applicable to any therapeutic area. Oneiros, their AI platform, is employing state-of-the-art ML algorithms to improve and accelerate their processes, from binding site identification to hit discovery and optimization.
On February 20, 2024, Ono announced that it has entered into a research collaboration agreement with InveniAI® LLC (Guilford, Connecticut, USA), to identify novel therapeutic targets by leveraging AI and ML. InveniAI was launched by the parent company BioXcel Therapeutics, to accelerate innovation and commercial growth of their proprietary AI platforms —EvolverAI and PharmGPS , which are the tools that BioXcel Therapeutics is using. EvolverAI is a research and development engine and PharmGPS is a first-in-class cloud based pharma big data analytics platform. Moreover InveniAI’s AlphaMeld, is an AI/ML platform primed with data sets that have been curated and connected for over a decade. AlphaMeld generates testable hypotheses based on an ideal mode of pharmacotherapy (antibody, protein replacement, siRNA, mRNA, small molecule, cell and gene therapy and gene-editing modalities), disease severity, gene ontology, disease pathways, proteinopathies, standard of care, emerging innovation, and enabling technologies while factoring in medical, scientific, strategic, and commercial considerations.
On September 27, 2023, Ono Pharmaceutical and Adimab signed a drug discovery collaboration agreement for the development of antibody drugs in the oncology segment. Adimab is the industry leader in translating your target hypotheses into therapeutically relevant antibody drugs. They have a traditional discovery process that starts with AI mining their large synthetic human IgG repertoire, which ensures every antibody delivered is unique. More recently, they have added their first-generation heavy chain-only antibody (HCAb) libraries to meet the growing demand for single-domain antibodies. These HCAb libraries—that aim to minimize the risk of development while ensuring high sequence diversity and broad epitope coverage—were designed with the aid of novel ML methodology trained on extensive internal data from their commercially validated IgG libraries as well as natural VHH repertoires (a VHH antibody or nanobody is the antigen binding fragment of heavy chain only antibodies).
Iktos also started a collaboration agreement with Ono back on March 30, 2022 focused on oncology, immunology and neurology research. During this collaboration agreement, Iktos will apply its de novo ligand and structure-based generative modeling technologies and software Makya and its AI-based retrosynthesis analysis and planning tool Spaya to complement Ono’s drug discovery capabilities.
On August 5, 2021, it was announced that Healx will work with Ono to find multiple new therapeutic indications for Ono’s proprietary assets. Healx (Cambridge UK, 2014) uses AI to match existing drugs with rare diseases. Their AI platform uses NL processing to extract disease knowledge from published sources and to complement biomedical databases and proprietary curated data. Healx’s data is integrated in the form of the largest, rare disease-focused Knowledge Graph, that shows prioritized hidden and novel connections between drugs and diseases. Apart from Ono, Healx also has a collaboration with Sanofi, which was announced a month ago (November 13, 2024) (Healx announces agreement with Sanofi to seek new rare disease indications for compound using AI drug discovery platform) in order to identify new disease indications using Healnet, Healx’s AI-driven drug discovery platform. For more about Healx’s collaborations and pipeline news:
