Weekly TechBio News (II)
MetaphysicalCells: A newsletter about Science, Technology and AI Drug Discovery
For the first part of this week’s update: Weekly TechBio News (I) (🆓 edition).
Below is a synthesis of key trends and insights from the latest TechBio updates for
Weekly TechBio News (II) (paid 🔐 edition): 🔹Aqemia, 🔹Dotmatics, 🔹Compugen, 🔹Xtalks, 🔹Receptor.AI, 🔹Valo Health, 🔹Flagship Pioneering, 🔹Nurix, 🔹Certara, 🔹and many more
💈 Aqemia
Aqemia just secured a $7.4M grant from France 2030, to expand its programs to develop small-molecule drugs targeting RNA for treating diseases, including cancers that remain difficult to cure (Biotech Aqemia secures €7M grant for drug discovery using deep physics). By combining generative AI with fundamental atomistic physics, Aqemia plans to design drugs specifically adapted to RNA and predict which molecules will be most effective, advancing epitranscriptomics (targeting proteins that modify the RNA) programs against cancers and expand into small-molecule RNA indirect and direct targeting.
Aqemia is an in silico drug discovery start-up using quantum physics and AI to transform the drug discovery process that was founded in France in 2019, as a deeptech spin-off from École normale supérieure, developing an innovation engine it calls the Aqemia’s Launchpad. The company addresses drug discovery projects from their earliest stage by generating its own data using unique quantum physics algorithms from 12 years of research at Oxford, Cambridge and ENS/CNRS. The unprecedented pace, 10000x faster, and accuracy of their physics algorithms enable them to guide efficiently their generative AI to discover innovative drug candidates more rapidly and scale drug discovery projects as tech projects.
Aqemia has so far the following TechBio collaborations:
🔔 In 2023, Servier and Aqemia announced the extension of their new-molecule discovery collaboration on an undruggable therapeutic target in immuno-oncology.
🔔 In December 2023, AQEMIA Announced a Major Multi-year Collaboration of $140M With Sanofi. As part of this agreement, Aqemia will design, working closely with Sanofi, novel drug molecules using its generative AI and deep physics algorithms and platform.
In January 2024, Aqemia raised €30M in Series A funding (for a total of 60M at the time) and the round was led by Wendel Growth with participation from Bpifrance Large Venture, Eurazeo and Elaia. On December 10, 2024, Aqemia has achieved a significant funding milestone, raising a cumulative $100M in funding. The new $38M funding round was led by Cathay Innovation, followed by historical investors Wendel, Bpifrance Large Venture, Eurazeo and Elaia. This round, coming less than a year than the previous one, follows the successful validation of Aqemia’s drug discovery platform through positive results in internal preclinical programs and pharmaceutical partnerships, particularly in oncology, boosting Aqemia’s move towards clinical trials and global expansion, starting with a new office 🏢 in London (AQEMIA Hits $100 Million Funding Milestone, Paving Way to Clinical Trials and Global Expansion Starting with London, UK).
💈 Dotmatics Ltd
Siemens announced on April 4, 2025 its acquisition of US software firm Dotmatics for $5.1 billion, aiming to enhance its AI capabilities for drug discovery (Siemens buys Dotmatics to boost AI drug research). Siemens expects Dotmatics to generate $100M annually in the mid-term, rising to $500M in the long run. The transaction is set to be completed in the first half of next year.
Dotmatics (US, founded in 2005 in the UK) is the global leader in R&D scientific software that connects science, data and decision-making. Combining a workflow and data platform with best-of-breed applications, they offer true end-to-end solutions for biology, chemistry, formulations, data management, flow cytometry and more. Dotmatics is trusted by more than 2 million researchers from the world’s leading biopharma, chemicals and materials enterprises and academic institutions.
Their platform Luma—a Data Management Cloud—connects all your R&D data in one place and connects all your instrument data. Recently (Boston, April 11, 2024), they announced the launch of Luma Lab Connect, which unlocks the untapped value of Lab Instrument Data to accelerate scientific R&D decision-making.
Subsequently on October 22, 2024, Dotmatics launched Geneious Luma, a powerful new bioinformatics solution for antibody discovery, built on its Luma Scientific Intelligence Platform (Dotmatics debuts antibody engineering R&D software platform), that will grow to become a multimodal suite 🛠️ for biopharma researchers spanning antibody-drug conjugates, CRISPR-based treatments, CAR-T cell therapies and siRNA drugs as well as vaccines.