Weekly TechBio News (🆓 edition)
Verge Genomics to Auction AI and Genomics Drug Discovery Assets
Silicon Valley Disposition (SVD) will be conducting this week an online auction for the assets of Verge Genomics, a company that combined machine learning with human genomics for fast-track drug discovery (Verge Genomics to Auction AI and Genomics Drug Discovery Assets via Silicon Valley Disposition (SVD).
🟣 The Verge Genomics online auction opens October 21–23, 2025.
Verge Genomics (California, US)—founded by Alice Zhang and Jason Chen—has an end-to-end ConVERGE discovery platform, that is a closed-loop ML system combining industry-leading proprietary human genomics with advanced computational tools, to predict new drugs with a higher probability of clinical success. Verge Genomics is the first AI-enabled drug discovery company that discovered a novel target (for investigational amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/ALS treatment) and developed it into a clinical candidate entirely in-house, in just four years. In May 2025, San Francisco-based 🌉 Devano AI partnered with Verge Genomics, automating curation of gene expression and scientific literature data using AI agents (Announcing Our First Strategic Partnership).
Indivi and Clouds of Care Partnered 🤝 to Advance Deep Phenotyping in Early Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
On October 15, 2025, Indivi and Clouds of Care, two independent TechBio companies, announced a strategic partnership to advance the use of precision medicine tools in early-phase neuroscience drug development, targeting Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease (Indivi and Clouds of Care Partner to Advance Deep Phenotyping in Early Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Drug Development).
🟡 The synergistic forces of Indivi and CLOUDS OF CARE will advance MultiModal DeepPhenotyping of brain function and activity to accelerate the science of novel Proof-of-Biology (PoB) and Proof-of-Concept (PoC) readouts, seeking to produce more responsive and pathologically relevant pharmacodynamic markers of disease modification in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
🟡 The partnership will integrate world-class expertise in neuro-electrophysiology (resting-state EEG, event-related potentials, and polysomnography) with digital health technology tools. Together, they aim to establish a unified R&D framework for multimodal deep phenotyping, combining biological (electrophysiology-based) and functional (cognitive and motor behavior) measures to deliver earlier, more definitive PoB) and PoC signals in early drug development trials.
Indivi in Basel Switzerland 🇨🇭 is a TechBio company developing functional biomarkers as drug development tools for neurological diseases 🧠 in the form of sensor-derived measurements generated from smartphone-based assessments of cognition, motion, vision, and voice. Indivi is committed to developing future-proof and transformative digital endpoints as deep phenotyping instruments to accelerate and de-risk drug development in neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
Clouds of Care in Belgium 🇧🇪 is a dynamic and innovative ISO 13485:2016 and ISO 27001:2013 certified CNS platform offering a curated network of Digital Health solutions that accelerate CNS endpoint discovery and validation. Via their CNS platform, they drive multimodal insights to enable better CNS treatment development, starting from electrophysiology. Today, Clouds of Care already makes waves with its analytical technology in epilepsy and sleep disorders, and will continue to do so through internal developments and external partnerships.
6th Annual Drug Delivery Summit 2026
At the 6th DRUG DELIVERY SUMMIT USA 2026 in San Diego, California, USA, February 23 - 24, 2026 (🔗 www.usa.drug-delivery-summit.com/agenda), they are looking for speakers 🎙️ on formulation and delivery innovation across areas like
🔵 insoluble compounds,
🔵 bioavailability,
🔵 controlled-release, and
🔵 new biotherapeutics.
Would you or someone from your team like to speak at the DRUG DELIVERY SUMMIT 2026 in San Diego, California?
All they need is a proposed title and 2–3 bullet points for review, follow the link 👉www.usa.drug-delivery-summit.com
Key topics on the agenda include:
🟡 Formulation design solutions for insoluble drug compounds,
🟡 Innovative drug delivery technologies to enhance bioavailability,
🟡 Advancements in controlled-release drug delivery technologies,
🟡 Optimizing drug formulations to enable seamless continuous manufacturing,
🟡 Overcoming the blood-brain barrier and re-engineering biologics,
🟡 Developing new drug modalities and biotherapeutic approaches,
Phase Advance and QNova Capital Forged Alliance to Usher in AI-Driven, Non-Animal 🚫🐁 Drug Development Era
On October 16, 2025, Phase Advance, a pioneering AI company capable of predicting drug performance through Phase 3 clinical outcomes for new therapeutics with only their discovery details, entered a strategic alliance with QNova Capital, the new venture fund of QNova LifeSciences. Together, they aim to transform how therapies are selected, evaluated, and advanced, marking a turning point for an industry seeking to reduce dependence on animal models and dramatically lower regulatory risk (Phase Advance and QNova Capital Forge Alliance to Usher in AI-Driven, Non-Animal Drug Development Era).
🔘 For QNova Capital and QNova LifeSciences, which has experience with more than 500 drugs and biologics over the past three decades, this alliance represents both continuity and transformation.
🔘 The partnership’s goal goes beyond investment returns, it represents a shared mission to modernize the regulatory model for how therapies reach patients, to make drug development faster, safer, and more predictive.
🔘 The partnership will leverage Phase Advance’s AI to identify the most promising drug candidates earlier, while reducing cost, uncertainty, and risk throughout the regulatory journey.
🔘 Phase Advance’s technology is already demonstrating 👉 > 9️⃣9️⃣% accuracy in predicting Phase 3 outcomes based on minimal inputs, a milestone that positions it as one of the most credible and powerful tools in the new field of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs).
Phase Advance is a Dallas, Texas-based company co-founded by physician-scientist Dr. Tawanda Gumbo after several years developing and testing predictive models of lifetime disease progression. The company’s platform predicts patient-level clinical response rates, optimal doses, biomarker performance, and overall therapeutic success — all before the preclinical stage. Clients include pharma companies, CROs, venture investors, and AI-driven drug discovery firms.
Their proprietary Phase Advance™ AI technology powered by their complex mathematical models of disease progression in silico can accurately exact day-to-day responses at individual patient levels in future phase III trials. They predict clinical endpoints, even for drugs that have never entered a single animal or patient study.
QNova Capital is a biotechnology-focused venture fund backed by QNova LifeSciences, a leading clinical research and regulatory organization with 30 years’ experience on over 500 drug and biologic development programs. QNova Capital invests in breakthrough life science technologies that reduce regulatory risk, accelerate development timelines, and improve patient outcomes.
Genomics launched Mystra 🛰️
On October 16, 2025, Genomics, a science-led techbio company using large-scale genetic information to develop innovative precision healthcare tools and to accelerate drug discovery and development, announced the launch of Mystra, the world’s original AI-enabled human genetics platform designed to supercharge drug target discovery and validation (Genomics launches Mystra: the world’s first and original AI-enabled human genetics platform, now available to transform drug target discovery and clinical development). The platform was officially announced during a Genomics presentation at the American Society of Human Genetics 2025 in Boston.
🔵 Genomics has one the world’s largest and most diverse human genotype-phenotype database. Enabled by proprietary AI and advanced algorithms, Genomics’ Foundational Data Collection encompasses over 20,000 genome-wide associated studies (GWAS) (and 500+ transcriptomics studies) and trillions of rows of data. The 🆕 platform builds on and augments these datasets.
🔵 Mystra augmented with cutting-edge machine learning tools, delivers rapid, deep analyses necessary for drug development. Human genetics teams currently spend excessive time managing fragmented, siloed datasets and running manual analyses.
🔵 But Mystra turns human genetics from a slow, fragmented, specialist-driven process into a high-speed, integrated capability that informs drug discovery and development. By unifying genomic data, analysis tools, and collaboration capabilities in one platform, it makes genetics teams dramatically more productive. It enables earlier, stronger decision-making in target identification, validation, and clinical trial design, and it connects cross-functional teams with a shared source of truth for genetic evidence.
Pharmaceutical and biotech partners can access Mystra’s unmatched scale and analytical power through flexible engagement models:
Self-service (SaaS): Enroll teams for direct access to Mystra, leveraging the platform’s proprietary datasets and analysis tools.
Partly Managed: Bring proprietary internal data to securely combine it with Genomics’ world-leading datasets for bespoke analysis.
Fully Managed: Collaborate with Genomics’ team of over 60 statistical genetic scientists – one of the largest in Europe – to supercharge pipelines and accelerate breakthroughs.
Genomics Ltd is a pioneering science-led techbio company that uses large-scale genetic information to develop innovative precision healthcare tools and bring new understanding to drug discovery. Founded in 2014 by four world-leading statistical and human geneticists at the University of Oxford, Genomics is collaborating with some of the world’s leading healthcare organizations, helping them to predict, prevent, treat, and cure - dramatically reducing the human and financial cost of common diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
CircNova Inc
CircNova (US) is a biotechnology company that leverages its unique AI NovaEngine to generate, analyze and identify circular RNA for therapeutic development. AI NovaEngine™ is the first in the world to predict circular RNA structures using deep-learning, allowing unprecedented capability in therapeutic design for “undruggable” diseases, such as Triple-negative Breast Cancer.
CircNova, a Michigan-based biotech startup, has completed in 2025 a 💲3️⃣.3️⃣M seed 🌱 round to advance its technology. Crystal Brown co-founded CircNova in May 2023 with scientist Joe Deangelo. Brown told TechCrunch that it has since developed a “proprietary AI engine that allows us to identify, design, and then produce novel, non-coding, circular RNAs” (Crystal Brown Didn’t Study Biology, But She Co-Founded An AI Drug Discovery Biotech Company That’s Raised Over $3M).
ProtaiBio
On October 15, 2025, Protai announced the addition of 3️⃣ leading scientists to its advisory board. This move is set to accelerate the company’s drug discovery programs and reinforce its expansion into the field of immunology and inflammation (I&I) diseases, supporting Protai’s development and scale up (Protai Strengthens Advisory Board with Top Scientific Talent to Drive Drug Discovery and Support Expansion to Immunology & Inflammation). 👉
🟠 Dr. Philip Jones - Drug Discovery Expert
Dr. Jones brings decades of experience in pharmaceutical R&D and leadership roles. He has been instrumental in progressing multiple therapeutic programs from discovery into clinical development, and will advise Protai on strategic target selection and development paths.🟠 Dr. Ian Churcher - PROTAC & Targeted Degradation Expert
A pioneer in the field of targeted protein degradation, Dr. Churcher has led discovery teams at leading biopharma organizations, shaping the early development of PROTAC and induced-proximity modalities. His expertise will help Protai design and optimize degrader molecules with improved selectivity and efficacy.🟠 Dr. Annalisa D’Andrea - Immunology & Inflammation Expert
Dr. D’Andrea is a seasoned immunologist with over 25 years of research experience, spanning immune biology, translational research, and therapeutic development. Her insights will be critical as Protai advances into I&I diseases and aligns discovery with clinical relevance.
Protai, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based 🇮🇱 proteomics and AI-powered drug discovery startup founded by Eran Seger and Kirill Pevzner (that served the army together developing AI), has created the largest and most robust proteomic atlas (Protai Atlas) that is available today, by harmonizing large clinical datasets (over 50K clinical samples) as well as healthy samples from various organs and indications providing a baseline for downstream pattern recognition of specific causal targets to modulate.
In particular, by leveraging mass spectrometry proteomics and other protein-oriented large scale datasets, Protai is building ML models to identify up to 1,000,000 proteo-forms including 👉post-translational-modifications, 👉protein-protein-interactions, 👉protein quantification and 👉different structural populations of proteins. Once they have identified the proteome of both healthy and diseased samples, Protai prioritizes the higher value targets for in-vitro and in-vivo validation (deep proteomics and ML for target identification). In particular,
👉 AIMS™ maps disease specific protein state & function to maximize therapy
by integrating proteomics and structural AI to identify innovative target strategies and design novel drugs.
👉 Protai’s AIMS™ platform maps cell type protein states to define a precise, context-specific mechanism-of-action. This allows selective inhibition of disease-relevant activity while preserving beneficial functions, leading to smarter targeting and better outcomes.
👉 AIMS™ utilizes structural proteomics (XL-MS, HDX-MS) to determine the disease-specific protein state conformation. The conformation is then modeled using structural AI and simulations to pinpoint pockets that achieve the desired mechanism-of-action.
On February 19, 2025, Drug Discovery Startup Protai Advances Complex Structure Prediction with AlphaFold, Proteomics, and NVIDIA NIM.
This post dives into how Protai integrated NVIDIA NIM to power accurate and scalable protein structure predictions, transforming how they approach drug discovery.
To accelerate AI inferencing on their platform, Protai adopted NVIDIA NIM microservices for drug discovery, a set of optimized generative AI biology models. With NIM microservices, Protai achieved significantly higher throughput and lower latency for their protein structure predictions without compromising accuracy.
Protai, a member of the NVIDIA Inception program for startups, aimed to capture the structural changes between different protein states to determine the most precise protein structure for a specific mechanism of action (MOA), rather than settling for one conformation that might not be the most therapeutically relevant.
Protai pushed the boundaries of drug discovery by leveraging Mass Spectrometry Proteomics and AI to develop precision medicine solutions that make a real difference for human health and society. At the core of Protai’s platform is a protein structure prediction pipeline, which integrates Nobel-winning protein structure algorithms, physics-based tools, and proprietary proteomics data.
In 2023, Protai raised $12M in Seed funding (for a total raised of $20M 💰), in a round led by Grove Ventures, Pitango HealthTech, that was joined by Maj Invest Equity Fund (Protai Raises Additional $12M in Seed Funding).
Owkin announced the launch of K Pro 🛸
Owkin announced on October 16, 2025 the launch of K Pro, its co-pilot bringing advanced agentic AI to biomedical research and drug development (Owkin Launches K Pro: the First Agentic AI Co-Pilot for Biopharma Powered by Biological Reasoning Models). K Pro helps pharmaceutical companies and biotechs make smarter decisions across the discovery and development pipeline, increase clinical success rates, and deliver decision-grade, data-driven biological insights fast enough to change program trajectories.
🟠 K Pro is a scientist-first co-pilot, accessible to both researchers and executives. Through natural language interaction, users can ask complex biological questions and receive actionable, clinically relevant answers, unifying fragmented workflows into an insight-driven research experience.
🟠 At its core, K Pro integrates Owkin Zero, a fine-tuned biological LLM that performs biological reasoning with higher performance than other leading LLMs (read the full paper). Leveraging high-quality, multimodal biomedical datasets, K Pro gives researchers access to one of the deepest, curated, AI-ready multimodal oncology datasets available (including MOSAIC). Biopharma and academic clients can securely upload their proprietary datasets to leverage K Pro’s advanced AI reasoning and data analysis.
Moreover, Owkin partnered with STAT Brand Studio to survey pharmaceutical industry executives and scientific operations staff to understand their perspectives on agentic AI.
🟠 The report tests several 🔐 hypotheses including whether global pharma leaders recognize the value of agentic AI, how much they trust it with critical tasks, and how professionals at different levels of their organizations view its potential.
🟠 This report provides clear, data-driven insights to help pharma, biotech and AI companies understand how their peers are making sense of agentic AI.
🟠 Read the report here: Biopharma’s agentic AI moment.
Owkin (2016) is a French-American full-stack AI biotech 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).
On January 22, 2025 Owkin announced that the first 🥇 patient has been dosed in its Phase I clinical trial of OKN4395. OKN4395 builds upon well-characterized EP2/EP4 inhibition (prostaglandin, PGE receptors EP4 and EP2), through a newly identified and equipotent inhibition of DP1 (D-prostanoid receptor 1) (Owkin Announces First Patient Dosed in Phase I AI-optimized Clinical Trial of OKN4395, a First-in-Class EP2/EP4/DP1 Triple Inhibitor for Patients with Solid Tumors). The clinical significance of this first-in-class triple inhibition is being evaluated in this trial.
On July 3, 2025, Owkin and Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, one of the largest NHS trusts in the UK 🇬🇧, have entered a 5️⃣-year partnership to explore how agentic AI can help accelerate breakthroughs and advance drug discovery, development, and diagnostics (Owkin and Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust announce five-year AI partnership to accelerate medical discovery).
To kick off the partnership, Newcastle is supporting a 🆕 project to develop an AI-powered product to screen for gBRCA mutations (gBRCAm) in breast cancer directly from digitized pathology slides. The solution, called BRCAura®, aims to significantly enhance the efficiency of BRCA mutation identification, through providing faster assessment by leveraging routinely generated H&E slides.
The partnership also sees Newcastle join Owkin’s ATLANTIS program, an international 🌍🌎🌏 initiative of 2️⃣0️⃣ leading hospitals across 7️⃣ countries to optimize and harmonize patient data for AI-driven research. By contributing to this multimodal data discovery effort, Newcastle will help build a stronger foundation for AI led products in oncology and other disease areas, supporting earlier intervention and more personalized care for patients.
BioXcel Therapeutics, Inc
BioXcel Therapeutics, Inc (Nasdaq: BTAI), a biopharmaceutical company pioneering the use of artificial intelligence to develop transformative medicines in neuroscience, announced that CEO Vimal Mehta, Ph.D., and members of the BioXcel team rang the Nasdaq Stock Market Closing Bell on Tuesday, October 14, 2025 (BioXcel Therapeutics to Ring Nasdaq Closing Bell on October). This honor 👑 marks a pivotal moment for the company — celebrating BioXcel’s breakthrough progress in addressing one of the most urgent unmet needs in psychiatry: the treatment of agitation associated with bipolar disorders and schizophrenia.
Exin Therapeutics is planning its expansion in the Philippines
Exin Therapeutics Inc is planning to invest over ₱1 billion (Philippine peso) within the next four years as part of its expansion in the Philippines 🇵🇭 (AI biotech Exin Therapeutics plans ₱1-billion Philippine expansion).
During the first phase of its expansion plan, Exin Therapeutics will invest ₱45 million to build the Philippines’ first state-of-the-art neurotherapeutics research facility in Bonifacio Global City (BGC). The investment will create 35 high-value jobs for Filipino scientists, technicians, and support staff, who will be trained in gene therapy, neuroscience, and AI-driven drug discovery. The BGC facility will use both AI and advanced gene therapy to design and validate 1️⃣0️⃣ new drug candidates every month. It is expected to generate 10,000 data points monthly from high-throughput neurophysiology studies and to process 180 drug candidates, producing over 180,000 data points by 2027.
From there, Exin Therapeutics will launch the second phase of its investment plan, which will run until 2029, with ₱1 billion earmarked (1 Philippine peso equals 0.017 United States Dollar) for the construction of a research complex in Clark, Pampanga. This facility will scale up the firm’s capacity to 100 drug candidates per month, generating 100,000 data points monthly. This is projected to create over 300 high-value jobs, along with more than 200 indirect employment opportunities.
Exin Therapeutics Chief Scientific Officer Ivan Lazarte said the company chose to invest in the Philippines because of its talented workforce, cost-efficient operations, and rapidly growing economy.
Exin Therapeutics (San Francisco, California) is a biotech company that is developing genetic 🧬 therapies that target neural activity for people suffering from neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders such as🔹epilepsy, and debilitating symptoms of🔹autism spectrum disorder, and🔹Parkinson’s disease.
Exin Therapeutics (backed by Y Combinator) is developing a target discovery platform for neurotherapeutics targeting neural circuits, the ✅ Multimodal AI, that predicts drug candidate’s potential on multiple neural disorders simultaneously. More specifically, Exin Therapeutics (How Exin Therapeutics is Opening a New Era in the Fight Against Brain Diseases) utilizes a game-changing AI drug discovery platform that significantly boosts the efficiency of drug development by conducting high-throughput mouse studies.
Tekedia Capital (that invests 💵💶💷 in technology-anchored early stage startups and companies) welcomed in June 2025 Exin Therapeutics to its community (Tekedia Capital welcomes Exin Therapeutics).
Nanyang Biologics plans to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange
Nanyang Biologics, the Singapore-based artificial intelligence drug discovery start-up, plans to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange in the first quarter of 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣6️⃣ via a merger with a US-listed special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), as US President Donald Trump vowed to impose hefty tariffs on pharmaceutical imports (Singapore’s Nanyang Biologics to list on Nasdaq amid Trump’s pharma tariffs).
BPGbio Inc
BPGbio Inc, a leading biology-first, AI-powered, clinical stage biopharma focused on mitochondrial biology and protein homeostasis, announced recently the following appointments 🪑:
BPGbio Welcomes Back NAi Interrogative Biology® Platform Co-Inventor Slava Akmaev, Ph.D., as Chief Operating Officer and Chief AI Officer,
Slava Akmaev, Ph.D., a seasoned AI-biotech leader and the co-inventor of BPGbio’s proprietary NAi® (Interrogative Biology®) platform has rejoined the company as Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief AI Officer. Akmaev and BPGbio CEO, Dr. Niven R. Narain developed the first fully integrated AI-based drug discovery platform in the industry dating back to 2012 which has fueled the current advanced stage pipeline.
BPGbio Welcomes Sheikh Dr. Khalid Bin Jabor Al Thani as Executive in Residence,
Sheikh Dr. Khalid Bin Jabor Al Thani is a globally respected leader in cancer care, prevention, and patient advocacy. As Founder and Chairman of the Qatar Cancer Society, he has spearheaded transformative initiatives to raise cancer awareness, advance early detection, and forge public–private partnerships that have improved patient outcomes across the Gulf region and beyond.
BPGbio Appoints Veteran Clinical and Commercial Leader Dr. Brian Berman as Interim Chief Medical Officer.
Dr. Berman is a renowned physician-scientist and clinical leader with a distinguished track record in translational and clinical research across oncology and mitochondrial disease. As interim Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Berman will oversee all clinical development and medical affairs activities at BPGbio, with a focus on progressing the company’s lead program, BPM31510, currently in planning stages for a registrational trial for Primary CoQ10 Deficiency (PCQD) and in Phase 2b trials for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).
BPGbio, Inc is a leading biology-first, AI-powered clinical-stage biopharma company focused on mitochondrial biology and protein homeostasis, offering the NAi platform to digitize patient biology by using clinically annotated unbiased patient samples and causal AI to identify biological signals within the noise of billions of patient data points; eventually revealing hidden cause and effect relationships that can fuel drug discovery and de-risk drug development.
The NAi platform consists of an industry leading and clinically annotated proprietary biobank, with purpose-built causal AI and is using the world’s fastest supercomputer, Frontier, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), making it a pioneer in fully-integrated high performance computing (HPC) platform in the biopharmaceutical industry for AI-driven target nomination, development, and molecule design.
BPGbio’s Interrogative Biology® platform has already advanced a robust pipeline of late-stage drug candidates and R&D assets in oncology, neurology and rare diseases, such as:
Mitochondrial Medicine
▶️ BPM31510-IV (acts by targeting the mitochondrial machinery and tumor microenvironment, TME, to create a metabolic shift in cancer cells) for
1️⃣ Glioblastoma, Radiation Sensitizer, Phase 2
On September 4, 2025, BPGbio Announced Completion of Enrollment for Phase 2b Trial of BPM31510 for Glioblastoma (GBM).
On October 16, 2025, BPGbio Presented Phase 2 Glioblastoma Data on BPM31510 at ESMO 2025.
2️⃣ Pancreatic Cancer, Chemotherapy Sensitizer, Phase 2
3️⃣ Primary Q10 Deficiency, Direct Replacement, Phase 2
▶️ BPM31510-Oral
Sarcopenia, Mitochondrial Respiration, Phase 2
The Phase 2 BPGbio’s BPM31510 sarcopenia trial will recruit 40 patients between the ages of 65-90 for this study.
Protein Homeostasis
Targeted Protein Degradation, Preclinical (IND enabled)
▶️ Oncology, E2-based TPD (Discovery). On October 7, 2024, BPGbio and the University of Oxford’s Centre for Medicines Discovery announced a 5-year research collaboration focused on advancing novel protein degradation technologies, particularly in oncology and central nervous system (CNS) diseases (for example Parkinson’s), with the goal of unlocking new therapeutic pathways.
Apart the drug candidates the company’s diagnostic pipeline includes:
A prostate diagnostic test pstateDx,
And tests being developed and validated for the detection of: Parkinson’s disease, ParkinsonDx, Pancreatic cancer, PancDx, Breast cancer and Liver disease.
SHIFTBIO INC: Making Innovation Accessible Through AI-Powered Natural Drug Delivery
SHIFTBIO (서울특별시, Seoul, South Korea) is a biotechnology company revolutionizing next-generation drug delivery systems (DDS) using natural nanoparticles (NNPs). Through a proprietary AI-driven NNP design platform, they have achieved precise payload delivery to specific cells and tissues. Moreover, they have established a large-scale manufacturing process applicable to diverse cell origins, ensuring high yield, quality, and batch-to-batch consistency for clinical applications. Its AI technology mitigates risks from drug discovery to clinical applications.
On October 17, 2025, ShiftBio announced a major momentum in its pipeline, driven by its proprietary Natural Drug Delivery Platform.
🔵 In oncology, they have successfully completed a Pre-IND meeting with the FDA for SBI-101, their novel candidate targeting PD-1 blockade resistant Cold Tumors.
🔵 Simultaneously, they are accelerating another program (SBI-102) toward clinical entry in Australia. They have partnered with a leading global CRO for their NNP-based candidate for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Building on its existing Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) from the FDA, their immediate next step is to submit their clinical trial application to the TGA.
Recently, SHIFTBIO’s CEO Gi-hoon Nam met with Pascal Daloz, CEO of Dassault Systèmes (Software Development, in France), and Woonsung Jung, Managing Director, Dassault Systèmes Korea, in Seoul to discuss deepening collaboration. Over the past three years, SHIFTBIO has actively applied Dassault’s 3DEXPERIENCE platform to accelerate the design and validation of its Natural Nanoparticle (NNP) drug delivery platform. This collaboration has reduced trial and error in discovery and strengthened its ability to translate science into real-world therapeutic opportunities.
At the meeting, both sides reaffirmed a shared vision of combining AI-powered design with digital platforms to de-risk the development of next-generation therapeutics. SHIFTBIO has also been invited to speak at Dassault’s upcoming Science in the Age of Experience event in Boston this October, engaging with global pharma leaders, regulators, and innovators.
Portrai Inc
Portrai’s breakthrough research, in collaboration with Seoul National University Hospital, has just been published in the leading journal, Theranostics (doi:10.7150/thno.123973). The study tackles the challenge of targeting the right cells within a complex tumor, demonstrating the power of Portrai’s spatial transcriptomics platform, PortraiDRUG, to validate and optimize nanomedicine. In particular,
🟠 They engineered albumin nanoparticles with specific sugar “zip codes” (like mannose and glucose) to guide them to different cells within the tumor microenvironment (TME).
🟠 Then by using spatial transcriptomics, Portrai’s platform acted like a GPS and “black box recorder.” It precisely mapped where the nanoparticles have accumulated in tumor tissue and revealed the underlying gene expression at that exact location.
🟠 Key Findings:
Mannose-tagged nanoparticles selectively targeted pro-tumor immune cells (TAMs, high in Mrc1),
Glucose-tagged nanoparticles homed in on energy-hungry cancer cells (high in Slc2a1/GLUT1).
Proven Therapeutic Impact: By loading the mannose-particle with a macrophage-depleting drug, they successfully eliminated specific pro-tumoral TAMs, showcasing true precision targeting.
🟠 The Value of PortraiDRUG:
The PortraiDRUG platform de-risks and accelerates the path to the clinic by providing clear, molecular-level proof of a drug’s mechanism of action. They can now see why a drug works, transforming how next-generation therapies are developed.
Portrai (Seoul, South Korea) leverages spatial transcriptomics to accelerate the drug discovery and biomarker discovery process. They co-develop the drugs with co-license and provide Platform-as-a-service to pharmaceuticals and biotechs. Radioligand therapy and Antibody-drug conjugate in oncology and brain diseases are therapeutic modalities of interest. AI pathology combined with spatial transcriptomics is their novel approach to make a scalable solution for companion diagnostics. For example they offer
🟣 PortraiTARGET: Find the target locations that show the best distribution in the tissue and prioritize the target to develop.
🟣 PortraiDRUG & PortraiMIX: Visualize and quantify the drug distribution within the tissue slide to investigate the drug really goes to the target location well. It can be used for drug optimization and drug licensing deals.
🟣 PortraiMOA: Shows the overall changes of RNA expression comparing the spatial transcriptomics data between control and treated group to find out whether the drug works well in that location.
🟣 PortraiTME: Show biomarker distribution in the patient tissues to select the right patients for the drug by integrating H&E slide image and spatial transcriptomics data. It can predict immune/stromal cell proportions and spatial distribution from H&E slide with decent correlation, and even more it could be scaled up to other various biomarkers.
STopover, is Portrai’s Novel Powerful Spatial Analysis Tool 🔬 (STopover captures spatial colocalization and interaction in the tumor microenvironment using topological analysis in spatial transcriptomics data)”. STopover harnesses spatial transcriptomics and advanced topological analysis to unravel the complex interactions within the tumor microenvironment (TME). This innovative approach helps reveal immune and stromal cell infiltration patterns, predicts critical cell–cell interactions, and identifies significant regions within tumor tissues. By progressively adjusting feature thresholds, STopover accurately maps cellular interactions based on spatial proximity and persistence, providing deeper insights into cancer biology and enhancing the potential for targeted immunotherapies.
Moreover, SuperST is a cutting-edge algorithm designed to enhance the resolution of barcode-based spatial transcriptomics data. By using Deep Image Prior, SuperST generates high-resolution gene expression matrices from low-resolution datasets (Generation of Super-Resolution Images from Barcode-Based Spatial Transcriptomics by Deep Image Prior).
✨ Why It Matters:
Produces images resembling immunofluorescence data for greater biological insight.
Addresses limitations like zero inflation and low resolution in spatial transcriptomics.
Enables the integration of spatial transcriptomics with computer vision for advanced applications, including gene clustering.
🏆 Key Outcomes:
SuperST outperforms existing methods, such as XFuse and TESLA, offering unmatched precision and usability for researchers studying complex biological systems.
A reminder that even the best platforms need durable funding models as much as breakthrough tech.
Where do you expect the first practical gains to show up - trial design, target picking, or portfolio pruning?