Foresite Labs

The question everyone’s been asking: How will AI impact drug development? We ask venture capitalist Vik Bajaj about the new biotech unicorn, Xaira Therapeutics. https://lnkd.in/gh4-TJam

BREAKING NEWS The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with one half to David Baker “for computational protein design” and the other half jointly to Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper “for protein structure prediction.”   The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 is about proteins, life’s ingenious chemical tools. David Baker has succeeded with the almost impossible feat of building entirely new kinds of proteins. Demis Hassabis and John Jumper have developed an AI model to solve a 50-year-old problem: predicting proteins’ complex structures. These discoveries hold enormous potential.   The diversity of life testifies to proteins’ amazing capacity as chemical tools. They control and drive all the chemical reactions that together are the basis of life. Proteins also function as hormones, signal substances, antibodies and the building blocks of different tissues.   Proteins generally consist of 20 different amino acids, which can be described as life’s building blocks. In 2003, David Baker succeeded in using these blocks to design a new protein that was unlike any other protein. Since then, his research group has produced one imaginative protein creation after another, including proteins that can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors.   The second discovery concerns the prediction of protein structures. In proteins, amino acids are linked together in long strings that fold up to make a three-dimensional structure, which is decisive for the protein’s function. Since the 1970s, researchers had tried to predict protein structures from amino acid sequences, but this was notoriously difficult. However, four years ago, there was a stunning breakthrough.   In 2020, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper presented an AI model called AlphaFold2. With its help, they have been able to predict the structure of virtually all the 200 million proteins that researchers have identified. Since their breakthrough, AlphaFold2 has been used by more than two million people from 190 countries. Among a myriad of scientific applications, researchers can now better understand antibiotic resistance and create images of enzymes that can decompose plastic.   Life could not exist without proteins. That we can now predict protein structures and design our own proteins confers the greatest benefit to humankind. Learn more Press release: https://bit.ly/3TM8oVs Popular information: https://bit.ly/3XYHZGp Advanced information: https://bit.ly/4ewMBta

Still having a warm glow from last week's Endpoints 11 awards ceremony in Boston! Here is Xaira Therapeutics CEO Marc Tessier-Lavigne with Vik Bajaj, CEO of Foresite Labs, at the gala dinner. Xaira is a joint incubation of ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Labs. A lot of people have been hard at work building our foundation - shout out to our employees 🚀 for helping us get this recognition! Have a safe and happy weekend from Xaira HQ.

We are so pleased to announce that Debbie Law has joined Xaira as our chief scientific officer! This is a big moment for our company. Debbie's background is uniquely suited for this challenge, and to say we are thrilled that she chose to join us is quite an understatement!  Debbie most recently served as senior vice president and head of Bristol Myers Squibb’s Non-clinical Research and Discovery Biotherapeutics organizations. Prior to BMS, she spent time at life science companies including Janssen and Merck, and served as CSO at Jounce Therapeutics and Ablynx NV. Debbie completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Glasgow and earned her Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in immunology from the University of Oxford. She will be reporting to our CEO, Marc Tessier-Lavigne. Debbie lives in Hillsborough, and in her free time enjoys walking and watching zombie movies 🧟♂️ 🧟♀️  

Last night in Boston, the Endpoints News team unveiled the Endpoints 11 — our picks for the most exciting biotech startups of 2024. This year’s list includes several artificial intelligence startups trying to reinvent drug R&D, though doing so with very different approaches. It highlights the growth of China’s biotech industry, despite the country’s tensions with the US. Four of the winners are taking new approaches to huge disease categories including inflammation and immunology, obesity and neuroscience. And others are working on advanced technologies for rare ailments, operating at the forefront of editing biology. Congratulations to: Lifordi Immunotherapeutics, Inc., Mirador Therapeutics, Formation Bio, Xaira Therapeutics, Medilink International, Iambic Therapeutics, Ascidian Therapeutics, Capstan Therapeutics, Seaport Therapeutics, Metsera, Cardurion Pharmaceuticals Read our profiles of this year’s winners here.