Latest TechBio 👾 News to Transform Biology
Latest TechBio 👾 News to Transform Biology
📇 Parabilis, Dash Bio, Rakovina, IPA, Bioptimus & Proscia, Shift Bioscience, NVIDIA & Novo Nordisk, Tevogen, Tempus, Dewpoint, Iambic, ProPhet, Recursion, Aignostics, Sapio, Owkin, Ginkgo & many more
Life (...) is a relationship between molecules.
💠 Parabilis Medicines™ – Formerly FogPharma
On October 28, 2024, FogPharma announced a corporate name change to Parabilis Medicines™ (pronounced puh-RAH-buh-liss), from Greek and Latin etymologies to mean both ‘beyond what’s possible’ and ‘obtainable,’ reflecting the company’s drive to expand what is therapeutically possible for the treatment of serious diseases, and its commitment to ensuring its medicines reach and benefit patients globally (Parabilis Medicines™ – Formerly FogPharma – Announces New Company Name and Unveils AI- and Physics-Based Discovery Platform).
Parabilis ex FogPharma (2015), that spun out of Harvard University by pioneering academic scientist and successful biotech company builder Dr. Gregory Verdine, is developing Helicons™, a novel therapeutic modality, designed to combine the cell-permeability and broad tissue distribution of traditional small molecule drugs with the high specificity, broad target accessibility and rapid discovery of monoclonal antibody drugs.
Parabilis developed the Helicons based on the privileged α-helix (critically important for mediating interactions with other proteins, and with the ability to embed themselves in cellular membranes) and used their innovative discovery engine to discover novel therapeutics against some of the most relevant and historically difficult-to-target disease proteins.
Their discovery platform integrates technologies such as directed evolution, proprietary α-helix conformational hyperstabilization chemistry, highly multiplexed drug optimization technology, analytical and predictive data science including ML and DL, structure-based drug discovery and multiscale manufacturing.
Some Helicons developed so far are:
🔸FOG-001 is a first-in-class, TCF-blocking β-catenin inhibitor that directly blocks the key oncogenic driver of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, unlike any previously reported Wnt/β-catenin pathway modulators.
FOG-001 is currently being evaluated in a first-in-human Phase 1/2 clinical trial in patients with Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway-activated advanced or metastatic solid tumors.
In March 2024, the company Announced a $145M Financing to Support Ongoing Clinical Development of FOG-001 and Accelerate Helicon Peptide Portfolio.
🔸Parabilis’s ERG program is designed to block or destroy ERG function in ERG-fusion-positive prostate cancers. Preclinical/Discovery.
🔸The β-catenin degrader uses the Helicon technology to bind to soluble β-catenin and target it to the proteasome for degradation using a bifunctional degrader approach. Preclinical/Discovery.
And
🔸In May 2024, Parabilis and ARTBIO announced a collaboration to co-develop Helicon-enabled alpha radioligand therapies (HEARTs) for the treatment of multiple types of cancer. The collaboration will leverage Parabilis’s Helicon platform of tunable stabilized α-helical peptides and ARTBIO’s AlphaDirectTM platform for the development of ARTs using isotope 212Pb (FogPharma and ARTBIO Announce Collaboration to Co-Develop Multiple Helicon™-Enabled Alpha-Particle Radioligand Therapies for the Treatment of Cancer). Preclinical/Hit Identification.
💠 Dash Bio Inc
On October 25, 2024, Dash Bio announced that it has raised $6.5M in seed financing (Dash Bio: Drug Development Company Secures $6.5 Million (Seed)). Freestyle Capital led the round, which also included Swift Ventures, LifeX Ventures and other private investors.
Dash Bio is revolutionizing clinical bioanalysis to expedite drug development by leveraging AI and robotics. They deliver higher-quality assays with turnaround times up to 10x faster than the industry average for clinical trials and GLP studies. Their tech-first products automate critical steps, reducing costs and time to market without compromising on quality.
Their initial product line focuses on clinical bioanalysis, testing of samples from clinical trial subjects. With a fresh perspective, they have built a modern platform where quality, automation and regulation work seamlessly together.
The company founders (2024) include: Dave Johnson, CEO and Former Chief Data and AI Officer at Moderna, Ander Tallett, COO and Led Enterprise Systems at Moderna and Resilience and Ely Porter, CSO, Co-founder and CTO of Rootpath.
(Dash Bio, to not confuse with Dash Bio Inc, also refers to a suite of bioinformatics components that make it simpler to analyze and visualize bioinformatics data and interact with them in a Dash application.)
💠 Rakovina Therapeutics Inc
On October 23, 2024, Rakovina Therapeutics announced that it has received initial results from the proprietary Deep Docking AI platform (Rakovina Therapeutics Announces Initial Drug Candidates from Deep Docking AI Molecule Discovery Platform), that were achieved in less than five months. The selected drug candidates will be synthesized for validation in Rakovina’s laboratories at the University of British Columbia with the goal of advancing a best-in-class DDR drug candidate.
DDR is a collection of processes that identify and correct DNA damage in our cells millions of times every day, and many cancers harbor a defect in natural DDR mechanisms. DDR targeted therapy, such as PARP inhibitors, can exploit Homologous Recombination Deficiency (HRD) in cancer cells by blocking PARP1 enzyme activity, preventing DNA single-strand break repair and trapping PARP1 onto the DNA.
On October 25, 2024, Rakovina announced the presentation of its research on novel small-molecule bifunctional inhibitors of PARP1/2 and HDAC enzymes at the 36th EORTC-NCI-AARC Symposium in Barcelona, Spain (Rakovina Therapeutics to Present Research Highlighting Small-Molecule Bifunctional Inhibitors of PARP1/2 and HDAC Enzymes at the 36th EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium in Barcelona Spain). Rakovina’s novel class of bifunctional small molecule compounds, known as the kt-3000 series, has demonstrated potent dual inhibition of PARP1/2 and HDAC enzymes in preclinical studies.
When compared to single-function inhibitors such as olaparib (PARP) and vorinostat (HDAC), the dual-function kt-3000 compounds demonstrated greater potency against both HR-deficient and proficient cancer cells. As a consequence, Rakovina intends to explore formulations of the lead compound, kt-3283, to support potential advancement to human clinical trials.
Rakovina Therapeutics (TSX.V: RKV) in Canada, Vancouver is using the cutting edge Deep Docking™ AI that is a novel DL platform suitable for docking billions of molecular structures in a rapid and accurate way by utilizing quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) deep models, trained on docking scores of subsets of a chemical library, to approximate the docking outcome for yet unprocessed entries and therefore to remove unfavorable molecules in an iterative manner. The use of the DD methodology, in conjunction with the FRED docking program, allow for rapid and accurate calculation of docking scores for 1.36 billion molecules from the ZINC15 library against 12 prominent target proteins and demonstrate up to 100-fold data reduction and 6000-fold enrichment of high scoring molecules, without notable loss of favorably docked entities (Deep Docking: A Deep Learning Platform for Augmentation of Structure Based Drug Discovery).
Rakovina Therapeutics was founded in 2021 by Jeffrey Bacha, a serial entrepreneur with startups and companies operating in the biotechnology and life sciences fields.
💠 ImmunoPrecise Antibodies Ltd (IPA)
On October 28, 2024, ImmunoPrecise Antibodies Ltd (IPA) (NASDAQ: IPA) announced its significant contribution to a groundbreaking study. The research, led by top scientists at the Mayo Clinic, was initially published in bioRxiv and subsequently peer-reviewed and published in the prestigious journal Autophagy, and is titled "Development and Characterization of Phospho-Ubiquitin Antibodies to Monitor PINK1-PRKN Signaling in Cells and Tissue". This study advances the understanding of how aging impacts mitochondrial health, a crucial factor in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's (ImmunoPrecise Advances Anti-Aging Research with Mayo Clinic Study, Poised to Tap into $81 Billion Market with AI Technology).
ImmunoPrecise played a crucial role in this project by applying its proprietary rabbit B Cell Select™ platform to isolate and generate highly specific antibodies that target phosphorylated ubiquitin (p-S65-Ub), a marker of mitochondrial damage.
IPA (1983, Canada) is a progressive, scientific Contract Research Organization (CRO) that represents a HUB of biotherapeutic intelligence that includes a hybrid of experts and technologies, in the science and business of bioplatform-based discovery, and provides 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.
🖇️ 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:
🖇️ For more about IPA:
Opinion by
Marco Schmidt Chief Scientific Officer - biotx.ai
💠 Bioptimus SAS and Proscia Inc
On October 24, 2024, Bioptimus announced that its H-optimus-0 foundation model is now integrated into Proscia’s Concentriq Embeddings, enabling data scientists and researchers in pathology and life sciences to achieve breakthroughs in AI development (Bioptimus and Proscia to accelerate AI innovation in drug development). H-optimus-0 is an AI foundation model tailored specifically for pathology, delivering high performance in critical tasks advancing model development for AI-driven research, drug development and diagnostics. Trained on a vast dataset of over 500,000 pathology slides, H-optimus-0 has been exposed to a diverse array of cases, enabling it to generalize effectively across different scenarios.
The French-American full-stack AI biotech Owkin launched Bioptimus on February 20, 2024, in order to develop a large-language model (LLM) for biology to fuel breakthrough discoveries and accelerate innovations in biomedicine and beyond. The French startup was launched with a seed funding of $35M, led by Sofinnova Partners, with Bpifrance Large Venture and additional funding from top global technology VCs. The world-class team at Bioptimus is led by Professor Jean-Philippe Vert together with Eric Durand (SVP Data Science at Owkin), Rodolphe Jenatton, Felipe Llinares-López and David C. (Chief Solutions Officer at Owkin).
🐋 The Bioptimus team released H-optimus-0 on July 29, 2024.
Few words about Proscia and it's toolkit.
On October 3, 2024, Proscia launched digital pathology toolkits for building AI models (Concentriq Embeddings and the Proscia AI Toolkit). In particular, Proscia launched an AI toolkit for life science researchers alongside a program that translates biopsy slide images into quantitative data for easier number-crunching by AI models. The new offerings under its Concentriq platform are aimed at healthcare organizations and research institutions that are looking to wield their own massive, proprietary data repositories, tapping them to train new foundation models that could then help identify biomarkers and support the development of new tests and treatments.
Proscia makes digital pathology software and AI applications for cancer diagnosis and is considered a leader in digital and computational pathology solutions. Proscia’s Concentriq® digital pathology platform works with every leading WSI scanner on the market today and its open API centralizes all your pathology data in one place making it more accessible and driving insight into your routine practice. Finally, users can launch any AI application from the Concentriq platform and power computational pathology at every organization.
The Concentriq Embeddings program relies on AI models to deliver numerical representations of whole-slide images, simplifying the process of feeding them into algorithms for computing cancer risk scores and image classifiers. The company said this could help eliminate the steps of data migration, processing and image standardization in AI development.
💠 Shift Bioscience
On October 15, 2024, Shift Bioscience raised $16M to advance cell simulation AI platform. The seed funding, led by BGF, with existing investors F-Prime Capital, Kindred Capital and Jonathan Milner participating will be used for the continued development of Shift Bioscience’s AI cell simulation platform, for the identification of genes that can safely rejuvenate cells to combat the effects of age-related illnesses.
Shift Bioscience in the UK has identified drug targets for safe cellular rejuvenation and treatment of age-linked diseases by the application of ML 'driver' clocks to cellular reprogramming.
In particular, Shift's platform has discovered 6 gene-based interventions that reverse epigenetic age without inducing stem cell colonies, including a single-gene intervention. They are continuously improving cell aging clocks, cell simulations and active learning cycles to accelerate future discovery. Shift can screen up to 2000 molecules in vitro and over a billion cocktails in silico to test for a cell-rejuvenation mechanism of action, with potential to bring forward a first-in-class therapeutic
The company was founded in 2017 by Daniel Ives and Brendan Swain. Leonard Wossnig, CTO in LabGenius and an AI expert, is an Advisor at Shift Bioscience.
💠 NVIDIA and Novo Nordisk
On Oct. 23, 2024, Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang, Danish Centre for AI Innovation CEO Nadia Carlsten and King Frederik X of Denmark symbolically switched on the new AI supercomputer Gefion at an event in Kastrup, Denmark (Nvidia Launches Danish Sovereign AI Supercomputer That Novo Nordisk Will Use).
Novo Nordisk (NVO) plans to use Denmark's first sovereign AI supercomputer—powered by Nvidia (NVDA) technology—for drug discovery. Gefion, a supercomputer named after a goddess in Danish mythology, is equipped with 1,528 Nvidia GPUs. The Novo Nordisk Foundation owns the supercomputer, and Novo Nordisk will be among the first to use it.
💠 Tevogen Bio Holdings Inc
On October 23, 2024, Tevogen Bio (TVGN) announced its AI effort by joining Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSF) for Startups. The partnership is set to accelerate and streamline the development of Tevogen’s proprietary algorithms (Tevogen Bio’s Effort in Artificial Intelligence, Tevogen).
Tevogen is a clinical-stage specialty immunotherapy company leveraging their ExacTcellTM technology platform to harness the power of CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes, one of nature’s most powerful immunological weapons, to develop off-the-shelf, precision T cell therapies for the treatment of infectious diseases, cancers and neurological disorders (pipeline) with the aim of addressing the significant unmet needs of large patient populations.
💠 Tempus AI Inc
On October 28, 2024, Tempus announced a collaboration with JW Pharmaceutical (KRX: 001060), one of the most established pharmaceutical companies in Korea, to leverage both real-world data (RWD) and biological modeling to support efficient hypothesis generation and rapid validation in early therapeutic research in oncology (Tempus Announces Collaboration With JW Pharmaceutical to Apply Real-World Data and Biological Modeling to Enhance Early Research and Development). JW Pharma is an early adopter of integrating RWD into drug research and development programs, and it is now tapping into Tempus’ rich multimodal dataset and extensive repository of organoid models to accelerate its efforts in multiple indications.
The Chicago-based Tempus—that specializes in AI and precision medicine and has one of the world’s largest libraries of clinical and molecular data—provides integrated solutions such as sequencing, companion diagnostics, clinical trial solutions, data collaborations and biological modeling etc by applying AI.
Tempus received FDA Approval for xT CDx, a companion diagnostic test that is a 648-gene next-generation sequencing test for solid tumor profiling, which includes microsatellite instability status and companion diagnostic claims for colorectal cancer patients. Additionally, FDA has granted Tempus Breakthrough Device Designation for its HLA-LOH assay as a companion diagnostic (CDx) test, that uses ML to analyze sequence data produced by Tempus’ FDA-approved next generation sequencing-based xT CDx assay, in order to identify cancer patients with solid tumors who may benefit from treatment with specific targeted therapies.
In 2023, Tempus introduced its standalone RNA next-generation sequencing assay—Tempus xR—a whole transcriptome panel for solid tumors, reporting clinically relevant fusions for more than 100 targeted genes, as well as altered splicing for MET Exon 14 and EGFRvIII (potential for regulatory submissions with updated version of assay). Moreover, Tempus introduced xF a 105 gene liquid biopsy circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) seq panel that detects oncogenic drivers and resistance mutations, and identifies single nucleotide variants (SNVs), insertions and deletions (INDELs), copy number gains (CNGs) and gene rearrangements, all of which help inform precision medicine decisions. Tempus xF+ is an expanded liquid biopsy panel consisting of 523 genes that detects pathogenic alterations in ctDNA and identifies SNVs, INDELs, CNGs and gene rearrangements. Additionally, xF+ identifies variants that are potentially associated with clonal hematopoiesis (CH).
Apart the three companion diagnostic solutions (xT, xR, xF ), Tempus is offering
omics solutions: a wide range of disease-agnostic technologies, including NGS, methylation testing, genotyping, proteomics and single-cell sequencing, all designed to support all phases from biomarker discovery to clinical development.
biological modeling: predefined or custom organoid screening models, single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics. PanKRAS: 40 TOs featuring diverse KRAS mutations and wild-type controls, suitable for assets targeting the KRAS pathway. PanCRC: 40 colorectal cancer (CRC) TOs enriched for pre-treated models, suitable for assets intended as 2L/3L therapies.
sequencing: Tempus xT CDx*, Tempus xT, Tempus xR, Tempus xF+, Tempus xE, Tempus xG/xG+, Tempus xM Monitor and Tempus xM MRD. And
💠 Dewpoint Therapeutics Inc
On October 28, 2024, Dewpoint Therapeutics announced the nomination of its first development candidate, DPTX3186, an orally administered small molecule condensate modulator (c-mod) inhibiting the oncogenic function of beta catenin, as a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of Wnt-driven cancers. The development candidate was discovered using Dewpoint's fully automated, AI/ML-enabled state-of-the-art platform and proprietary chemical library (Dewpoint Therapeutics Announces Nomination of First C-Mod Development Candidate DPTX3186 for Treatment of Wnt-Driven Cancers). IND is anticipated in mid-2025 followed by Phase 1 initiation in 2H 2025.
Dewpoint Therapeutics is the first company to apply the emerging understanding of biomolecular condensates to drug discovery, by developing drugs for the vast range of conditions that are regulated by condensates or arise from the dysfunction of condensates. Condensates are the membrane-less organelles formed by a process called phase separation. The condensates form and dissolve dynamically and this behavior is formed and governed by multivalent interactions between proteins and nucleic acids. Their role is to compartmentalize and concentrate molecules enabling key biomolecular processes. Condensate modifying drugs (c-mods) are uniquely designed to hit condensate drugs when something goes wrong (condensatopathies).
Dewpoint currently has multiple programs across an ambitious pipeline spanning oncology, neurodegeneration, cardiopulmonary and virology indications, and collaborations with leading global academic and pharmaceutical partners, including Evotec (November 7, 2023), Novo Nordisk (June 25, 2024), Bayer, Merck and Pfizer. In particular, on October 24, 2024 Bayer entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Dewpoint Therapeutics for a heart disease program to treat dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) patients.
On September 13, 2023, Dewpoint Therapeutics announced a collaboration with Chemify to expedite the discovery of molecules that target cancer and neurodegeneration. Chemify spun out of 15 years of research at the University of Glasgow UK is a new company that aims to digitize chemistry and produce solutions to run chemical code for drug discovery, chemical synthesis and materials discovery. They have an extendable chemical execution architecture for chemical synthesis that can automatically read the literature, leading to a universal autonomous workflow. The robotic synthesis code can be corrected in natural language without any programming knowledge and is hardware independent. This chemical code can then be combined with a graph describing the hardware modules and compiled into platform-specific, low-level robotic instructions for execution (A universal system for digitization and automatic execution of the chemical synthesis literature).
Finally, Dewpoint’s integrated platform consists of 1) Ↄ•Target: using human genetics to identify novel condensate targets, 2) Ↄ•Tech: characterizing the condensate and validating the disease link, 3) Ↄ•Discover: identifying, optimizing and advancing C•Mods to the clinic (screening and chemistry) and 4) ERSAI: a digital platform exploring and codifying relationships between condensates, human disease and chemistry to accelerate discovery of next generation medicine.
💠 Iambic.AI (Iambic Therapeutics formerly known as Entos LLC)
On October 29, 2024, Iambic Therapeutics announced Enchant™, a multi-modal transformer model designed to provide predictive insights into clinical properties of potential medicines from the earliest stages of drug discovery (Iambic Therapeutics Announces “Enchant,” an AI Platform that Predicts Clinical Outcomes from the Earliest Stages of Drug Discovery).
Enchant™ is a breakthrough multi-modal transformer model that breaks down the “data wall” between preclinical and clinical research and development,
Trained at scale across dozens of data sources and modalities, Enchant leverages abundant discovery-stage data with small amounts of human data to better predict key clinical properties of drug candidates, and
Enchant enables Iambic to eliminate years of preclinical R&D and improve clinical success.
Iambic Therapeutics combines physics and AI to create a differentiated drug discovery platform that achieves a step-change in the speed and success rate for delivering best-in-class and first-in-class development candidates with NeuralPlexer (a protein-ligand structure prediction 3D physics-based equivariant generative diffusion tool), OrbNet (an AI-accelerated quantum chemistry Graph neural network architecture based on quantum features), ProPANE (a multi-endpoint property prediction tool) and Magnet (a generative molecular design tool). The development of Iambic’s suite of AI-driven drug discovery platforms, including NeuralPLexer and ProPANE, was facilitated in part through a multi-year research collaboration with NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) (Iambic and NVIDIA: Using AI to chart a faster course for drug discovery). Iambic has discovered so far two candidates to advance into the clinic: IAM-H1 (Iambic Therapeutics Announced the First Patient Dosed in Phase 1 Clinical Study of IAM1363, a Highly Selective HER2 Inhibitor for the Treatment of Solid Tumors) and IAM-C1 (IND-enabling).
Insilico Medicine just released DORA 1.3.0 offering:
1. Enhanced Transparency in Document Generation
2. Web Search Tool for Seamless Information Integration
3. Editable Research Plans
4. Custom Bibliography Fixes
5. Template Filtering for Easier Navigation
6. Document Titles and Export Updates
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
On October 29, 2024, Insilico Medicine Appointed Carol Satler as VP of Clinical Development to Advance Non-Oncology Programs.
💠 ProPhet
On October 29, 2024, AION Labs, the first-of-its-kind venture studio spearheading the adoption of AI technologies and computational science to solve therapeutic challenges, announced the launch of ProPhet, a new startup leveraging AI to identify active small molecules for drug discovery (AION Labs Launches New AI Startup to Accelerate Identification of Active Small Molecules for Drug Discovery).
ProPhet (website coming soon) is an AI-driven company transforming small molecule drug discovery, with a focus on proteins that are hard to target using competitive methods. By leveraging AI and ML to speed up and enhance the early stages of drug discovery they predict protein dynamics and how they interact with drug candidates and they can rapidly identify promising molecules. This allows them to tackle proteins with limited structural information, opening new possibilities for treating diseases previously considered “undruggable.”
💠 Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc
After the exciting announcement (October 3, 2024) about REC-1245, a selective degrader of RBM39 for treating cancer, Recursion (RXRX) has just announced (October 22, 2024) another milestone with REC-3964: their first-in-class, non-antibiotic small molecule that targets recurrent Clostridioides Difficile (C. diff.) infections by selectively inhibiting the bacterial toxin while sparing healthy tissues (Recursion announces first patient dosed in Phase 2 clinical study of REC-3964, a potential first-in-class, oral, non-antibiotic small molecule for recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection). 🫴
REC-3964 was developed using the RecursionOS.
REC-3964 represents a novel, non-antibiotic approach with a unique mechanism of action that binds and blocks catalytic activity of the toxin's innate glucosyltransferase in order to inhibit the toxin produced by C. diff. in the gastrointestinal tract.
There are up to 175,000 cases of recurrent C. diff. each year and more than 29,000 patients die in the U.S. from C. diff. annually. Rates of recurrent C. diff. have increased significantly in recent years, representing a major public health challenge.
In preclinical studies, REC-3964 was found to be superior to bezlotoxumab in a human disease relevant to C. diff. hamster model, with significant difference in probability of survival versus bezlotoxumab alone at the end of treatment.
REC-3964 was also well tolerated in Phase 1 healthy volunteer studies, demonstrating potential safety and tolerability with no serious adverse events (SAEs).
The Phase 2 ALDER clinical trial is a multi-center, open-label study to investigate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and efficacy of REC-3964.
Approximately 80 individuals will be enrolled in this open-label Phase 2 study, randomized 1:2:1 to receive oral doses of REC-3964, 250 mg, 500 mg or observation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics (PK) and efficacy of REC-3964 for the reduction of recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI) after initial cure with vancomycin. Participants will receive treatment with REC-3964 for 28 days.
Artificial Intelligence in Genomics Market to Reach USD
According to SNS Insider, The Artificial Intelligence in Genomics Market valued at USD 699.7 million in 2023 is estimated to reach USD 19,018.4 million by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 44.3% over the forecast period from 2024 to 2032.
💠 Aignostics GmbH
On October 29, 2024, Aignostics announced that it has raised $34M in a Series B financing, to build new product offerings for pharmaceutical clients, fuel growth within the US and develop leading foundation models for pathology in collaboration with Mayo Clinic (Aignostics Secures $34 Million Series B to Enhance Precision Medicine with AI).
The oversubscribed funding round was led by ATHOS, with investments from Mayo Clinic and growth financing from HTGF, alongside support from existing investors Wellington Partners, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, CARMA Fund, and VC Fonds Technologie managed by IBB Ventures. In total, Aignostics has now raised over $55M, reflecting investors' confidence in its differentiated AI models and clear commercial strategy.
Aignostics is a spin-off from Berlin-based hospital Charité Universitätsmedizin that uses computational pathology to turn biomedical data into “biology insights.” Their AI models (for Tissue segmentation, Cell detection & Classification, “End-to-end” prediction models) are trained with clinical-grade data from leading international institutes and are developed side-by-side with experienced pathologists.
All of their AI models run in their own proprietary platform, the Aignostics Portal, but can also be deployed into third party platforms. The platform is available as a SaaS solution and supports a wide range of scanners and image modalities, including H&E, IHC and multiplex IF.
On March 15, 2024, Bayer partnered with the German AI company Aignostics GmbH to conduct precision oncology drug research and eventual development. The partners will co-create a novel target identification platform that leverages Aignostics’ technology and proprietary multimodal patient cohorts, and Bayer’s deep expertise in discovering and developing novel oncology therapies. In addition, the collaboration will include the development of computational pathology algorithms powered by AI and ML that connect baseline pathology data, such as molecular tumor profiles, with clinical data, such as patient outcomes, to enable better patient identification, stratification, and selection for clinical trials.
In 2023, Aignostics underscored its commitment to regulatory and operational excellence by announcing its successful ISO 13485:2016 certification (for the design, development, manufacturing, and distribution of software as a medical device) and announced also the launch of a joint collaboration with Virchow Laboratories, a leading Chinese pathology lab chain, to advance the use of AI-powered pathology in China in both research and clinical routine. In 2022, Ultivue, Inc, an industry leader in multiplexing tools and novel image analysis solutions for tissue biomarker studies, and Aignostics announced a partnership to collaborate on the co-development of AI-powered spatial multiplexed immunophenotype solutions for translational research groups and biopharma.
💠 Sapio Sciences LLC
On October 29, 2024, Sapio Sciences announced it has strengthened its long-term relationship with Amazon Web Services, Inc (AWS) through the integration of AWS Bedrock with the Sapio Platform (Sapio Sciences Expands Collaboration With AWS to Advance Science-Aware AI Vision). This integration makes advanced generative AI models readily accessible to scientists and researchers within the same secure AWS environment that already powers Sapio’s Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) and Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN).
Sapio Sciences delivers the leading AI-powered lab informatics platform, uniting LIMS, ELN and SDMS on a shared foundation with purpose-built solutions for scientific research, discovery, manufacturing and clinical diagnostics: 🫴
Sapio LIMS®: A no-code, fully configurable LIMS that automates workflows from start to finish.
Sapio ELN®: Adapts to all your research needs, no matter how complex.
Sapio Jarvis®: A scientific data cloud that integrates and unifies research data across your entire enterprise.
On October 8, 2024, Sapio Sciences Expanded Lab Informatics with Immunogenicity Features. Immunogenicity bioanalysis is critical in evaluating the safety and efficacy of biological drugs, employing a standard tiered-testing approach including assay screening, testing and neutralizing antibody assays. On July 18, 2024, Sapio Sciences launched partner program to accelerate research and diagnostics. The program provides a growing partner ecosystem of technology vendors, services companies and resellers with the tools, training, support and marketing services to deliver solutions that empower scientists.
💠 Owkin Inc
On October 29, 2024, Owkin announced MSIntuit® CRC v2, a next-generation AI solution aimed at transforming the detection and treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC), and will initially launch as a Research Use Only (RUO) version in the US on Roche’s navify® Digital Pathology enterprise software (Owkin Announces MSIntuit® CRC v2, a Next-Generation AI Diagnostic Aimed at Transforming the Detection and Treatment of Colorectal Cancer). MSIntuit® CRC v2 builds upon the success of the CE-IVD-certified MSIntuit® CRC, integrating cutting-edge ML models developed by Owkin with Roche's unparalleled expertise in oncology diagnostics. MSIntuit® CRC v2 will incorporate analysis from resections, and now biopsies, addressing a critical need within pathologists’ workflows.
Owkin (2016) is a French-American full-stack AI biotech that identifies novel treatments, optimizes clinical trials and develops diagnostics using histology slides and omics. Owkin is offering solutions for Multimodal patient data, Subgroup discovery, AI drug discovery (BiomarkerPLUS, TargetMATCH and DrugMATCH), AI drug development and AI diagnostics such as: Abstra, Substra, MOSAIC (this is the largest spatial omics atlas to date), MSIntuit™ CRC (a CE-marked AI diagnostic that provides a prescreen approach with digital pathology) and RlapsRisk™ BC (an AI diagnostic to help pathologists and oncologists determine the right treatment pathway for early breast cancer patients). On May 23, 2024, Owkin unveiled an innovative drug pipeline in oncology and immunology following an exclusive global licensing agreement with Idorsia (SIX: IDIA) to develop and commercialize OKN4395, a clinic-ready best-in-class dual inhibitor of prostanoid receptors EP2 and EP4 (Owkin Unveils AI-Driven Oncology and Immunology Pipeline, In-Licenses Best-in-Class Asset OKN4395).
Moving past gen AI’s honeymoon phase: Seven hard truths for CIOs to get from pilot to scale By McKinsey & Company
Eliminate the noise, and focus on the signal.
It’s about how the pieces fit together, not the pieces themselves.
Get a handle on costs before they sink you.
Tame the proliferation of tools and tech.
Create teams that can build value, not just models.
Go for the right data, not the perfect data.
Reuse it or lose it.
Finally, some latest news are:
💠 Bullfrog AI Holdings, Inc. (BFRG) to Showcase Breakthrough AI-Driven Drug Discovery Innovations at Google’s Inaugural Cancer AI Symposium,
💠 Pathos AI Closes $62M Oversubscribed Series C Round of Financing to Accelerate its Platform Approach to Drug Development,
💠 ATLATL Hong Kong Innovation Center Officially Opens, Providing One-Stop Support for Early-Stage Drug Discovery,
💠 SandboxAQ Collaborates with The Michael J. Fox Foundation to Speed Identification of New Therapies,
💠 Ginkgo Bioworks Inc: Launch of their Antibody Developability product, an offering that pushes the envelope of biological data generation, designed to accelerate biologics development by providing high-quality, AI-ready data at an unprecedented scale,
💠 Kapoose Creek Bio Acquires Exclusive License to Adapsyn Bioscience's World-Leading AI Technology for Drug Development,
💠 Aitia Expand Collaboration with Servier to Discover and Develop New Drugs for Brain Cancer Using AI-Driven Digital Twins