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MetaphysicalCells: A newsletter about Science, Technology and AI Drug Discovery
Welcome back to a free edition of MetaphysicalCells 🪐🛸
10 Top 🔝 AI Drug Discovery Companies and Startups to Watch in 2025 by startUs
These drug discovery AI companies work on solutions ranging from computational discovery and bio-foundation models to therapeutic protein and molecule analysis.
🎩 Helical – Bio-Foundation Models Platform (2023)
🎩 AVAYL – Medical Information-based Response Matching (2023)
🎩 Aevai Health – Intelligent and Personalized Chatbot for Biobanks (2023)
🎩 9Bio Therapeutics – AI-guided Structural Biology Platform (2023)
🎩 chAIron – AI-driven Molecules Analysis (2023)
🎩 Aureka Biotechnologies – Generative AI-based Therapeutic Design (2023)
Latest TechBio News
🪩 Achira Secures €31.54M with NVIDIA’s Support: Achira, co-founded by a Greek 🏺entrepreneur, has raised €31.54M in funding, with backing from NVentures (NVIDIA’s VC arm) to build atomistic foundation simulation models to power drug discovery (neural network potentials, NNPs). Backers included also Dimension, Compound and Amplify Partners. This investment underscores the growing importance of AI and computational technologies in advancing drug discovery and life sciences (Greek Co-Founded Achira Secures €31.54M with NVIDIA’s Backing).
🪩 Sudden Ascent: Is Recursion Pharmaceuticals NVIDIA’s AI Favorite?: Recursion Pharmaceuticals (RXRX NASDAQ) has gained attention as a rising star ✨ in NVIDIA’s AI ecosystem. The company's innovative use of AI to model biological systems and predict drug efficacy has positioned it as a leader in the field, drawing significant interest from tech giants like NVIDIA (Sudden Ascent: Is Recursion Pharmaceuticals NVIDIA’s AI Favorite?).
🪩 iDOMO: Predicting Synergistic Drug Combinations: A new 🆕 AI tool called iDOMO has been developed to predict synergistic drug combinations. iDOMO is an effective method for the in silico screening of synergistic drug combinations and will be a valuable tool for the development of novel therapeutics for complex diseases (iDOMO: New AI tool predicts synergistic drug combinations).
🪩 Renovaro and BioSymetrics Merge: Renovaro and BioSymetrics have announced a definitive merger. The combined 🪢entity aims to leverage advanced analytics and AI capabilities to accelerate drug discovery and development, offering more robust solutions for pharmaceutical companies (Renovaro and BioSymetrics Announce Definitive Merger).
🪩 Ignota Labs Raises $6.9M to Revive 'Dead' Drugs: Ignota Labs has secured $6.9M in funding to utilize AI in re-evaluating and repurposing 🤹 drugs that were previously shelved due to inefficacy or safety concerns. This approach holds promise for breathing new life into abandoned drug candidates and potentially reducing R&D costs (Ignota Labs Secures $6.9M to Bring ‘Dead’ Drugs Back to Life with AI).
🪩 Enamine, Chemspace, and PharmAI Discovery Collaborate: Enamine, Chemspace, and PharmAI Discovery are partnering 🤝 to integrate AI-driven platforms into drug discovery efforts focused on novel theranostics. This collaboration aims to streamline the identification of promising compounds and accelerate the development of innovative treatments (Enamine, Chemspace, and PharmAI Discovery Join Forces to Advance AI-Driven Drug Discovery for Novel Theranostics).
🪩 Algorae Pharmaceuticals Reports Reduced Losses and Advances AI Drug Discovery: Algorae Pharmaceuticals has reported a reduction ⏬ in operational losses while making significant strides in its AI-driven drug discovery initiatives. The company is leveraging ML to optimize drug development pipelines, potentially leading to more cost-effective and efficient outcomes (Algorae Pharmaceuticals Reports Reduced Losses and Advances AI Drug Discovery).
🪩 Owkin Fuels Breakthroughs with ATLANTIS AI Initiative: Owkin has launched 🚀 its ATLANTIS AI initiative, aimed at unifying fragmented biomedical data to drive research breakthroughs. By integrating diverse datasets, Owkin seeks to enhance the accuracy and scope of predictive models in drug discovery and clinical trials (Owkin is 'fueling breakthroughs' with ATLANTIS AI initiative to unify biomedical data).
🪩 Chimera: Accurate Synthesis Prediction with Diverse Models: Researchers (Microsoft Research AI for Science) have developed "Chimera", an ensemble of AI models with diverse induction biases, to improve the accuracy of chemical ⚗️ synthesis predictions. This innovation could streamline the drug design process by providing more reliable forecasts for synthesizing complex molecules (Chimera: Accurate synthesis prediction by ensembling models with diverse induction biases).
🪩 Incyte Corporation Partners with Genesis AI: Incyte Corporation (INCY) has partnered with GenesisAI to accelerate drug discovery efforts. By combining 🪢 Incyte's deep expertise in oncology and immunology with Genesis AI's cutting-edge computational tools, the collaboration aims to identify novel drug candidates faster and more efficiently (Incyte Corporation, INCY, Partners with Genesis AI to Accelerate Drug Discovery).
🪩 Computer Model Visualizes RNA Structures to Advance Drug Discovery: A new computational model has been developed to visualize 🔎 RNA structures, offering insights into their functional roles and potential as drug targets. Researchers at Purdue University have developed a computational solution to this problem named NuFold, which will model 3D RNA structures that could expedite medical discovery decades ahead of schedule (Computer Model “Visualizes” RNA Structures To Advance Drug Discovery).
🪩 AI Screens 10 Sextillion Molecules for New Medicines: Using advanced AI algorithms, researchers have screened an unprecedented number of molecules—10 sextillion 🌌—to identify promising candidates for drug development. This massive computational effort highlights the transformative potential of AI in expanding the chemical space explored during early-stage drug discovery (AI Sifts Through a Mind-Boggling 10 Sextillion Molecules to Find New Medicines).
🪩 Healx Doses First Rare Cancer Patient with AI-Created Drug: Healx has reached a historic milestone by dosing the first patient with a rare cancer treatment designed using AI. This achievement underscores the growing role of AI in addressing unmet medical needs, particularly in the challenging area of cancer (History beckons as Healx doses first rare cancer patient with AI-created drug).
🪩 Crystal Brown's Journey: Founding CircNova: Crystal Brown, an automotive industry veteran, transitioned into biotech by founding 🐣 CircNova, an AI-driven drug discovery company. Her experience in leveraging data analytics and automation in automotive manufacturing has been instrumental in applying similar principles to accelerate drug development (How automotive exec Crystal Brown founded CircNova, an AI drug discovery biotech).
🪩 Harbour BioMed Partners with Insilico for Antibody Discovery: Harbour BioMed has partnered with Insilico Medicine to harness AI-powered technologies for antibody discovery. This collaboration 🪢 aims to identify novel therapeutic candidates more efficiently, leveraging Insilico’s expertise in generative AI and ML (Harbour BioMed partners with Insilico to accelerate AI-powered antibody discovery).
🪩 Insilico Medicine Achieves Preclinical Milestone in MASH Drug Discovery: Insilico Medicine has reached a key preclinical milestone 🏆 in its MASH (Molecular Assemblies for Synthetic Humanization) drug discovery program. This achievement highlights the company’s progress in using AI to design and optimize complex molecular structures (Insilico Medicine reaches preclinical milestone in MASH drug discovery).
🪩 Rakovina Therapeutics and Variational AI Strengthen Partnership: Rakovina Therapeutics and Variational AI have expanded their collaboration 🤝 to enhance AI-driven drug discovery efforts. The strengthened partnership focuses on advancing oncology research and developing innovative treatments for cancer (Rakovina Therapeutics and Variational AI Strengthen Partnership).
🪩 Variational AI Raises $5.5 Million in Seed Extension Funding: Variational AI has secured an additional $5.5M in seed extension funding 👛 to bolster its AI-driven drug discovery efforts. The capital will be used to expand its team and refine its proprietary algorithms (Variational AI Raises $5.5M in Seed Extension Funding).
🪩 Enveda Gains Backing from Sanofi: Enveda Biosciences has secured significant funding 👛 from Sanofi, bringing its total Series C financing to $150M. The investment will support the advancement of Enveda’s AI-driven drug discovery programs into clinical trials, focusing on precision medicine and novel therapeutics (Enveda Gains Backing from Sanofi to Advance AI-Driven Drug Discovery to Clinical Trials Bringing Total Series C Financing to $150M).
🪩 InVirtuoLabs Secures €2.85 Million: InVirtuoLabs has raised €2.85M to accelerate its drug discovery initiatives. The funding 💰 will be used to expand its AI-driven platforms and enhance capabilities for predicting drug efficacy and safety (InVirtuoLabs secures €2.85M to accelerate drug discovery).
🪩 Amazon Collaborates with Memorial Sloan Kettering: Amazon has joined forces 🪢with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to advance AI-powered drug discovery. The collaboration leverages Amazon’s computational expertise and MSK’s deep biological insights to develop innovative cancer therapies (Amazon joins forces with Memorial Sloan Kettering for AI-powered drug discovery).
🪩 Predictive Oncology Reports Positive AI Results: Predictive Oncology has reported positive 📈 results using AI for drug repurposing. The company’s platform successfully identified potential new uses for existing drugs, offering cost-effective solutions for treating various cancers (Predictive Oncology Reports Positive Results Utilizing Artificial Intelligence for Drug Repurposing).
🪩 BluMaiden Biosciences Expands Leadership: BluMaiden has appointed new US-based leadership 🎯 to drive global expansion. The company is focused on leveraging AI and ML to develop transformative therapies for unmet medical needs (BluMaiden Biosciences Appoints New US-based Leadership to Accelerate Global Expansion).
🪩 Meet AI Co-Scientist, A Multi-Agent System Powered by Gemini 2.0: Cresset’s "AI Co-Scientist" is a cutting-edge multi-agent system powered by Google’s Gemini 2.0 AI model. Designed to collaborate with human researchers, this system automates 🤖📇 routine tasks, generates hypotheses, designs experiments, and analyzes data. By combining the strengths of AI and human expertise, AI Co-Scientist accelerates scientific discovery and enhances productivity in pharmaceutical R&D (Meet AI Co-Scientist: A Multi-Agent System Powered by Gemini 2.0 for Accelerating Scientific Discovery).
🪩 Oxford-Based Nucleome Therapeutics Forms Advisory Board: Nucleome Therapeutics, an Oxford-based company specializing in non-coding DNA research, has formed an advisory board 👩🏫👨🏫 comprising leading experts in genomics and AI. The board will guide the company in prioritizing research areas, developing strategic plans, and fostering partnerships. This move underscores the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in unlocking the potential of "genomic dark matter" (Oxford dark matter company Nucleome Therapeutics forms advisory board).
🪩 Xtalpi Raises $267 Million Amid Tech Rally: XtalPi, a leader in AI-driven pharmaceutical research, has raised $267M during a tech market rally. The funding will support the expansion of its cloud-based drug discovery platform, accelerating the development of novel therapeutics (NEWS WRAP: Surging Xtalpi seizes on tech rally to raise $267M).
🪩 Fosun Pharmaceutical Develops PharmAID Platform: Fosun Pharma has developed PharmAID, a decision 🆕 intelligence platform that leverages AI to enhance drug discovery and development. The platform supports efficient innovation by optimizing R&D workflows (Fosun Pharmaceutical Deeply Embraces AI, Self-developed PharmAID Decision Intelligence Platform Boosts Efficient Innovation).
🪩 COTA Healthcare Announces AI Milestone in Real-World Oncology Data: COTA Healthcare has achieved a significant milestone 🏆 by leveraging AI to analyze real-world oncology data at scale. Their platform uses natural language processing (NLP) and ML to extract actionable insights from clinical records, enhancing treatment decisions and improving patient outcomes (COTA Healthcare announces AI milestone in real-world oncology data).
AI’s High-Volume Heroes: 7 Stocks 🎩 Riding the Wave of Machine Learning & Cloud Power
🎩 Super Micro Computer (SMCI) is a critical player in the infrastructure that supports AI. The company specializes in high-performance server and storage solutions, essential for the data-intensive demands of AI applications. With a modular and open architecture, SMCI caters to the growing need for robust and scalable data center solutions.
🎩 Salesforce (CRM) has long been a leader in customer relationship management (CRM), and it continues to innovate by integrating AI into its platform. AI-powered features enhance sales forecasting, customer insights, and workflow automation, enabling businesses to optimize their customer interactions.
🎩 Snowflake (SNOW) provides a cloud-based data platform that consolidates data and applies AI to improve business decision-making. In the age of big data, Snowflake’s platform is essential for companies looking to extract valuable insights from their data.
🎩 Tempus AI (TEM) is at the forefront of precision medicine, using AI to personalize patient care and accelerate drug development. By analyzing vast amounts of medical data, Tempus AI is helping to transform healthcare.
🎩 ServiceNow (NOW) offers intelligent workflow automation for enterprises, enhancing digital transformation across various industries. By leveraging AI, ServiceNow helps businesses streamline processes and improve efficiency.
🎩 Arista Networks (ANET) provides AI-driven cloud networking solutions for data centers and enterprise IT infrastructure. With the increasing adoption of cloud computing, Arista Networks is well-positioned to capitalize on this trend.
🎩 Accenture (ACN) is a leading provider of AI-based business consulting, digital transformation, and automation services. The company helps businesses across industries adopt and implement AI solutions.
🪩 Spore.Bio Raises €22 Million for AI-Based Microbiology Testing: Spore.Bio secured significant capital to develop advanced AI tools for microbiology diagnostics, and improve accuracy and speed of pathogen identification, antibiotic resistance profiling, and infection monitoring. With its AI-powered handheld pathogen scanner, which uses UV-Infrared light and DL, Spore.Bio can detect bacterial 🦠 contamination instantly (Spore.Bio raises €22 million to deploy a new generation of AI-based microbiology testing).
🪩 Cellino Launched U.S.’s First Nebula-Powered iPSC Foundry: Cellino Bio, in collaboration with Mass General Brigham, launched the U.S.'s first hospital-based autologous iPSC Foundry, powered by its AI-driven Nebula technology, to enable decentralized, patient-specific cell therapy 🧫 manufacturing 🔩. This enables personalized medicine through autologous biomanufacturing, where patient-specific cells are used for therapies, and paves the way for cost-effective, large-scale production of iPSCs for regenerative medicine (Cellino Launches U.S.’s First Nebula-Powered iPSC Foundry for Scalable Autologous Biomanufacturing).
🪩 Automated Hypothesis Validation via Agentic Sequential Falsifications: A novel 🆕 approach to automate hypothesis testing using iterative falsification processes combines AI-driven predictions with experimental validation to refine scientific hypotheses more efficiently. Researchers from Stanford introduced POPPER, an AI agent that automates hypothesis validation through falsification experiments, achieving PhD-level performance in biology while being 9.7x faster than human experts (Automated Hypothesis Validation with Agentic Sequential Falsifications).
🪩 Benchmarking AI-Powered Docking Methods for Virtual Screening: Researchers from Zhejiang University 👩🎓 benchmarked AI-powered docking methods for virtual screening, finding that AI tools outperform traditional methods in large-scale screening but struggle with structural accuracy (Benchmarking AI-powered docking methods from the perspective of virtual screening).
🪩 Recursion CEO Launches Pre-Seed Fund Amid NIH Cuts: In response to reduced funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Recursion Pharmaceuticals' CEO is establishing a pre-seed fund 👛 to support early-stage biotech startups that leverage AI and computational biology in drug discovery. This move highlights the growing importance of private investment in advancing life sciences innovation amidst government budget constraints (Recursion CEO launches pre-seed fund in response to NIH cuts).
I loved this newsletter, Marina. I am particularly interested in the Amazon partnership with Sloan and the "Co-Scientist" by Cresset. I'll be interested in reading more of your future writing.