News 🆕 and Trends on TechBio
News 🆕 and Trends on TechBio
A newsletter about Science, Technology and AI Drug Discovery
Happy new year to everyone!
“Kindness, kindness, kindness.
I want to make a New year's prayer, not a resolution. I'm praying for courage.”―Susan Sontag
Searching for the “holy grail” of AI Drug Discovery
According to the textbooks of biology, large molecules (for example proteins) were initially formed on the primordial earth 👶 randomly; a theory that nowadays has its limitations.
In fact, when scientists calculated the probability of success of the formation of a protein made up of 150 amino acids exclusively to the blind interactions of chemistry, it came out that the probability of success on ancient earth of getting a properly folded protein chain of 150 amino acids joined by peptide bonds was one chance in 10exp164. This means that, on average, you would need to construct 10exp164 chains of amino acids to expect to find one that is useful.
Considering now that the age of the earth is estimated to be 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years in this time frame only 10exp58 failed attempts could have taken place: 👉 from the film Origin: Probability of a Single Protein Forming by Chance produced by Illustra Media.
More specifically, in order to run the simulation from the film 📽️ “Origin” (Unlocking The Mystery Of Life) it has been hypothesized that the entire supply of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen was available to form all the complete sets of amino acids used to build proteins. Moreover, for this simulation it has been hypothesized that the amino acids in the primordial earth were protected from UV rays 😎 and chemical contamination (highly unlikely back then), and that each protein will self assemble in one second.
Furthermore, for this simulation they took for granted that they knew in advance that a “correct” sequence of a protein had to be found during the simulation, and that somehow implies determinism or super-determinism, the exact opposite of randomness.
Moreover, to make us understand how long it takes to wait for 10exp164 failed attempts for only one correct protein to form, the scientists of this simulation built a hypothetical bridge that spans the diameter of the observable universe 🌌, that is a distance of 90.000.000.000 years. Then they placed an amoeba🦠— a single-celled organism carrying one atom on its back— on one end of the bridge traveling at the breakneck speed of one foot per year.
So, according to this simulation while we are waiting for one protein to form “correctly” by chance in the prebiotic soup 🍲, the amoeba moving at just one foot per year and carrying one atom per trip, will transport the entire universe atom by atom more than 56 millions times!!!!
That’s how long it takes to build one functional protein randomly.
Of course, proteins are only a part of this story, so the probability that the right “correct” molecules were formed just randomly is next to impossible.
In fact, we have no idea 🤔 how the basic set of molecules (carbohydrates, nucleic acids, lipids and proteins) were made and how they could have coupled into the proper sequences, and then transformed into the ordered assemblies until there was the construction of complex biological systems, and eventually the first cells.
“The probability of life originating at random is so utterly minuscule as to make it absurd.”
Sir Fred Hoyle
Physicist
But, if randomness is excluded from this scenario, does determinism play a role?
Was the first “correct” protein or the first cell or the first organism predetermined or pre-designed to happen? Apparently, no.
In actual fact, the idea of determinism in our physical world has been ruled out by the famous double-slit experiment—the cornerstone of modern physics expressing the central puzzles of quantum mechanics demonstrating the fundamental limitation of the ability of the observer to predict experimental results — that is initiating the era of the free will .
Ergo, what is really going on?
Emergence.
Emergence is a process where apparent randomness can give rise to complex and deeply attractive, orderly structures and events that can’t be predicted or explained on the basis of previous terms.
In philosophy, systems theory, science and art, emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own. These properties or behaviors emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole.
In particular, according to the “Quantum Gravity Research” center—the home of Emergence Theory working on The Theory of Everything (Quantum Gravity Research, Youtube, Facebook)—at the root of Emergence Theory there is a concept that all of reality is made of information.
Information is meaning in the form of symbolism, where a language or a code provides this information conveying symbolism. In fact, these scientists at Quantum Gravity Research believe that a geometric 🔺🔹◾ language exists in the form of geometric symbolism, literally everywhere—and the tetrahedron is the smallest indivisible possible 3D shape (or 3D pixel of reality) that can exist.
This geometric “something” or language existing everywhere around us is what Demis Hassabis and his new AI Drug Discovery company Isomorphic Labs—launched in UK from Alphabet’s DeepMind to build on the success of AlphaFold2—are actually searching for 🔎🖥️ right now. They believe there may be a common underlying structure between biology and information science—namely an isomorphism—a structure-preserving mapping between two structures that can be reversed by an inverse mapping.
In other words, they are searching for a “shadow code”.
Basically, there is something that unifies biology and information science (and everything else)—something like a complicated mathematical formula, or as it is known since the biblical times in the Christian world 👉 as the Transubstantiation—that transforms the DNA code in the mRNA pool of information that eventually will give rise to all our proteins, and this “something” obeys to the same scientific rules and laws of information science.
The word transubstantiation literally means to change substance, implying the belief that some sort of change has taken place (in particular for the Christians during communion).
In our case in the biology realm, the “correct” sequence of DNA 🧬 through the biological process of “transubstantiation” is transformed—a process known in biology as transcription—in RNA, and then the mRNA always through the process of biological “transubstantiation”—a process known as translation in biology—is transformed in proteins, namely the building blocks of everything.
So, this “something” behind the biological “transubstantiation” that some companies are searching for, is like a “shadow code”—think of it more like the “theater of shadows 👤👥” where a beam of light behind the actors (for example the genes or the mRNAs or the proteins) will place them in silhouette so the audience will only see their outline—and connects the genetic code with the mRNA and the proteins in the realm of mathematics, physics and information science, beyond chemistry and beyond biology.
Going back to Demis Hassabis and his new company Isomorphic Labs—or any other company out there searching for the holy grail of biology—the eventual discovery of “the isomorphism” is going to unleash a new era of drug discovery, where AI/ML and quantum computers will eventually reshape medicine and biology for good.
For more:
Let’s move now to some random news, whatever randomness is.
“From where we stand the rain seems random. If we could stand somewhere else, we would see the order in it.”
Tony Hillerman, Coyote Waits
Random news and trends on TechBio
⚙️ Simons Foundation
Simons Foundation is an American private foundation established in 1994 by Jim and Marilyn Simons with offices in New York City. As one of the largest charitable organizations in the US with assets of over $5 billion in 2022, the foundation's mission is to advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences by making grants in four areas (Funding Opportunities): Mathematics & Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, Autism & Neuroscience and Science, Society & Culture. Additionally, their Flatiron Institute was opened in 2016 and conducts scientific research in-house, supporting teams of top computational scientists. Some initiatives of the Simons Foundation include:
On September 14, 2023, the Northwestern University was awarded $50M over five years from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Simons Foundation to establish the National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology (NITMB), to be based in downtown Chicago. The University of Chicago (UChicago) is Northwestern’s key partner in this initiative.
Together, the two universities will create a nationwide collaborative research community that will generate new mathematical results and uncover the “rules of life” through theories, data-informed mathematical models and computational and statistical tools. The institute also will foster international collaborations at the interface of the mathematical and biological sciences, helping establish a vibrant worldwide research network for decades to come.
On October 10, 2023, the Simons foundation announced that is currently accepting applications for independence awards offered through the
Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI),
Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain (SCGB) and
Simons Collaboration on Plasticity and the Aging Brain (SCPAB).
Applications for the three programs are due on January 10, 2024, with the final selection of fellows expected in July 2024.
On December 5, 2023, Simons Foundation announced that it joins more than 50 leading organizations across industry, startups, academia, research and government to launch the AI Alliance 🤝 to support open science and open innovation in AI.
The AI Alliance is designed to create opportunities everywhere through a diverse range of institutions that can shape the evolution of AI in ways that better reflect the needs and the complexity of our societies.
On January 31, 2024, Lisa Manning, PhD—that uses theoretical and computational tools to study the mechanical properties of biological tissues and other disordered materials—will highlight in Presidential Lectures in New York the universal features that emerge from models developed to predict collective cell behavior and will discuss how the origin of rigidity in tissues is similar to that in mechanical metamaterials, like origami, and different from those in standard materials like glasses or granular matter. Manning will also discuss recent progress in ‘bottom-up’ approaches that identify cell- and molecular-scale rules resulting in complex emergent behavior, as well as ‘top-down’ approaches that use new physical learning paradigms to predict how tissues should tune cell-scale properties to optimize their collective response.
⚙️ Serendipity Capital
Serendipity Capital founded in late 2019 in Singapore 🇸🇬 is a permanent capital vehicle focused on disruptive thematics including AI & ML, climate & sustainability, quantum technologies and security. With a long-term investment approach and managed by entrepreneurs, investors and industry leaders (team), Serendipity has invested so far in the following quantum companies relevant to life science:
QuantrolOx is an Anglo-Finnish company with a software platform that automates control of quantum computers by leveraging AI and ML. QuantrolOx’s software is expected to increase the performance of quantum computers while reducing the need for manual calibration of the machine by scientists and technicians. QuantrolOx is headquartered in Espoo, Finland and the founders are Prof. Andrew Briggs, Vishal Chatrath, Dr. Natalia Ares and Dominic Lennon.
Their product Quantum Edge automates the tuning and optimization of superconducting quantum computers. It reduces the time for fundamental experiments such as resonator and qubit spectroscopy to mere seconds, and complex operations like randomized benchmarking become a breeze. It offers a fast and convenient way of viewing key metrics mapped to qubits on the QPU. It tracks the progress of automation and provides workflow status updates. And gives insight and analysis of measurements allowing ease of use and the ability to deep dive into the results.
On March 7, 2023, QuantrolOx received €3.5M (for a total $15.9M) in a seed round led by Nordic deep tech VC fund Voima Ventures. The round saw participation from existing investors such as Nielsen Ventures and Hoxton Ventures as well as new investors including 2xN Ventures, Serendipity Capital and Oxford Science Enterprise.
Quantinuum is the leading independent full-stack quantum computing company that unites best-in-class software and high-fidelity hardware to accelerate quantum computing. With its technology and a team of world-class scientists and engineers, it offers the world’s leading corporations a broad suite of quantum solutions spanning cybersecurity, chemistry, ML and natural language processing.
Quantinuum is based in the US and the UK and the founder is Ilyas Khan. Ilyas founded Cambridge Quantum in 2014 and was the founding CEO of Quantinuum that was created as a result of the merger of Honeywell Quantum Solutions and Cambridge Quantum. He is currently the Chief Product Officer of Quantinuum and part of the executive leadership team of the company.
InQuanto v3.0, the latest version of their quantum platform for Computational Chemistry for complex molecular and materials simulations, can be used for example for Quantum Computational Quantification of Protein-Ligand Interactions. The head of Quantum Chemistry is David Muñoz Ramo.
Quantinuum has raised a total of $325M and has just announced a next generation 32 Qubit H2 Processor along with application research results from using It.
⚙️ GIC
GIC is a global long-term investor established in 1981 to manage Singapore’s foreign reserves. GIC is one of the three investment entities in Singapore that manage Singapore's reserves, alongside the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Temasek, investing in technology, infrastructure and sustainability. So far, they have invested in more than 40 countries worldwide and some examples of life science 🧪 companies are:
In 2021, GIC invested $57M in the biotech Engine Biosciences. Engine Biosciences is a venture-backed San Francisco- and Asia-based technology company pioneering network biomedicine. Based in Singapore integrates ML and high-throughput biology to identify key genetic interactions within complex disease networks, pinpointing targets and therapeutics for biomarker-defined patient populations. In particular, Jeff Lu is the CEO and co-Founder of Engine Biosciences which discovers and develops new precision medicines based on novel biology uncovered by its platform integrating next-generation CRISPR screening, ML and drug discovery chemistry. Engine’s proprietary platforms, NetMAPPR (ML-enabled network biology) and CombiGEM (combinatorial genetics experimentation), are engineered for drug hunters and clinical developers to discover and optimize precision medicines.
Just two months ago, Engine Biosciences announced the completion of a $27M Series A extension, led by Polaris Partners, with participation from both new and existing investors, bringing the total funds raised since inception to $86M.
On February 3, 2023, GIC invested approximately $131M in the drug research company Syngene International Ltd in India, a contract research, development and manufacturing organization offering integrated scientific services from early discovery to commercial supply. Regarding AI Drug Discovery, Syngene is offering:
SarchitectTM is an informatics platform that integrates data and enables analytics and visualization, enabling informed decisions in R&D. The platform facilitates deployment of computational models to the scientists, enabling real-time “what if” analysis and ideation.
Syn.AITM is a platform for outcome-driven drug discovery that enables deeper understanding of disease and network biology to identify and prioritize targets. It evaluates targets on multiple parameters pertaining to relevancy, druggability and safety, thereby decreasing the later stage attrition. The platform uses multiparameter optimization to explore chemical space and design molecules with the optimal balance of properties to meet the program objective faster.
On September 02, 2023, GIC announced it is expanding its biotech portfolio by teaming up with BlackRock Alternatives Real Estate and British Airways’ New Airways Pension Scheme (NAPS) to invest in a life sciences project in London’s 🎡 King’s Cross district. The 830,000 square foot (77,110 square meter) purpose-built complex dubbed Tribeca King’s Cross will feature laboratory workspace along with retail, restaurants and 69 flats across five buildings. GIC, whose total assets under management are estimated to run in the vicinity of $690 billion, previously invested in a life sciences park near the University of Oxford and partnered with New York-listed healthcare REIT Ventas to develop life sciences projects in the US.
⚙️ Index Ventures
Index Ventures is a European venture capital firm with dual headquarters in San Francisco and London, investing in technology-enabled companies with a focus on e-commerce, fintech, mobility, gaming, infrastructure/AI and security. Since its founding in 1996, the firm has invested in a number of companies and raised approximately $5.6 billion. Index backs companies from Seed to IPO, like the following healthcare companies:
Alan is the leading digital health insurance provider in France 🥐, making health experience simple and modern. It is a primary insurer that distributes its own health plans directly to companies and individuals. Alan has raised a total funding of $554M over 6 rounds. Its latest funding round was a Series E round on May 04, 2022 for $193M.
Founders/CEOs: Jean-Charles Samuelian and Charles Gorintin.
Big Health uses tracked data to create highly personalized behavioral medicine programmes, all delivered via the web and mobile to the highest standards of clinical evidence. Its first product, Sleepio, is a digital sleep improvement programme which uses clinically proven Cognitive Behavioural Therapy techniques to help patients overcome even long term poor sleep 😴. Big Health has raised a total of $129.3M. Their latest funding ($75M) was raised on Jan 19, 2022 from a Series C round.
Founders/CEOs: Peter Hames and Colin Espie.
Cradle is a generative AI company (trained on billions of protein sequences as well as data generated in their own wet laboratory 🧫🔬) helping biologists design improved proteins. Since exiting stealth in 2022, Cradle has signed multiple partnerships with industry leaders in pharmaceuticals (including Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Novozymes and Twist Bioscience), chemicals, food and materials. On November 28, 2023, Cradle raised $24M (total 33M) in Series A funding, led by Index Ventures with participation from Kindred Capital.
Founders/CEOs: Stef van Grieken and Elise de Reus.
Birdie is a complete homecare software solution designed to give you better visibility over your care and support older adults 👴👵 to live happily at home. Birdie has raised a total of $52.6M in funding over 5 rounds. Their latest funding ($30M) was raised on Jun 28, 2022 from a Series B round.
Founders/CEOs: Max Parmentier, Gwen Lecalvez, Abeed Mohamed and Rajiv Tanna.
Causaly is an operating system for biomedical and health data. By using a hybrid approach that combines a best-in-class knowledge graph 📉 with the latest advances in generative AI, Causaly enables researchers to conduct deep, unbiased scientific exploration from target identification to biomarker discovery during preclinical discovery, with customers including Gilead, Novo Nordisk, the FDA and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The company has now raised $93M in total and it closed a $60M Series B round in July 2023. Founders/CEOs: Yiannis Kiachopoulos and Artur Saudabayev.
KRY | LIVI connects patients with healthcare professionals for consultations via video 🤳. It aims to provide around the clock healthcare for patients all over the world, reducing the pressure put on traditional healthcare providers. The company has raised a significant amount of funding, totaling $753M.
Founders/CEOs: Johannes Schildt, Fredrik Jung Abbou and Joachim Hedenius.
Science Exchange is a marketplace 🛒 for scientific collaboration, where researchers can order experiments from the world's best labs, from a qualified network of 3,500+ suppliers. Science Exchange has a post-money valuation in the range of $100M to $500M as of Oct 17, 2019.
Founders/CEOs: Elizabeth Iorns and Dan Knox.
Sofía is a Mexican 🌮 healthtech company that aims to change how people approach healthcare through extraordinary experiences, products and services, impacting the health of millions. Sofia has raised a total funding of $25.3M over 2 rounds from 6 investors.
Founders/CEOs: Manuel Andere, Sebastián Jiménez Bonnet and Arturo Sanchez Correa.
Until next time ⛄☕🍫,