Fauna Bio’s Post

We’re excited to announce a strategic collaboration agreement with Eli Lilly and Company to apply Fauna's Convergence™ artificial intelligence (AI) platform to support preclinical drug discovery efforts in #obesity. The two teams will collaborate to identify multiple drug targets. 🧬🧬🧬 "We are very excited to enter into this collaboration with Lilly, which showcases the power of our Convergence™ AI platform to rapidly identify novel targets for complex disease areas of high unmet need," said Ashley Zehnder, CEO & Co-Founder, Fauna Bio. "Lilly is a leader in obesity treatment, and our approach enables and accelerates discovery across different disease areas and modalities for our partners, who bring deep expertise in drug development." Ruth Gimeno, Ph.D., group vice president, diabetes, obesity and cardiometabolic research at Lilly, added: "Fauna Bio brings a unique approach to the discovery of novel targets for obesity. We look forward to working with the Fauna Bio team to realize the value of their platform and discover more effective treatments for patients with obesity." Read the release: 👇👇👇 https://lnkd.in/e8CtkrBb #drugdiscovery #biotech #AI #obesity

Our CEO Ashley Zehnder was on a panel today at LSX World Congress in Boston on “Fast-Tracking Biotech Growth” - moderated by Jenny Holt, Chief Development Officer at Ray Therapeutics, Inc. Great discussion and thanks everyone for joining us! See you all at the next event.

Our CEO Ashley Zehnder will be speaking today at the LSX World Congress in Boston on the panel: What is required to scale? Fast tracking biotech growth. Hope you will join us. Sharing more info: https://lnkd.in/eu7VgYU7

Our CEO Ashley Zehnder will be speaking at the LSX USA Congress in Boston this Thursday, September 12, 11:00am - 11:50am at the Hynes Convention Center. What is Required to Scale? Fast-Tracking Biotech Growth When transitioning into a growth-stage biotech, it’s important to consider your strategy top succeed. Biotech companies needing to address unmet medical needs, without careful evaluation of market potential, there is a risk of failure. Staying virtual and outsourcing work to CROs vs building and carrying out in-house research Most important factors to remember when scaling up The people factor in building and growing business The panel will be moderated by Jenny Holt, Chief Development Officer, Ray Therapeutics, Inc. and include speakers: Vik Chawla, Managing Director, Portfolio Strategy & Transactions, Syneos Health Samta Kundu, COO, Strand Therapeutics Wyatt McDonnell, CEO, Infinimmune, Inc. Ashley Zehnder, Ph.D., CEO, Fauna Bio Minji Kim, CBO, Mineralys Therapeutics, Inc. More info here: https://lnkd.in/eQjBmQCb

Nature Medicine speaks with our CEO Ashley Zehnder about what we’re working on at Fauna Bio. “With the obesity market booming, the next generation of weight loss drugs might come from unlocking the secrets of hibernation, when animals gain (and then lose) up to 40% of their weight, with hopes that hibernation-powered drugs can modify metabolism and boost health. When the thirteen-lined ground squirrels emerge in spring, they do not show any negative consequences, such as wasted muscles, brittle bones or bedsores. Similarly, their blood vessels lack clots, and they show no signs of ischemia or reperfusion injuries. From a biomedical perspective, hibernation is a near-miraculous feat, aspects of which could potentially be mimicked in humans through new therapeutics. This is the goal of a team of scientists at Bay Area’s Fauna Bio, who have been working to crack the code of hibernation in thirteen-lined ground squirrels and other species. Their goal is to understand the molecular and genetic underpinnings not just of hibernation but also the myriad adaptations that underpin an animal’s ability to survive a range of extreme conditions. Work at Fauna caught the eye of execs at pharma giant eli Lilly, who paid US$494 million for access to Fauna’s Convergence database in december 2023. This database of comparative physiology overlays maps of human genes and disease pathways with the equivalent physi- ological pathways in animals with extreme phenotypes. “We’re bringing fully new data- sets to drug discovery,” says Ashley Zehnder, co-founder and chief executive officer of Fauna Bio.” Sharing the article: 👇👇 https://lnkd.in/gnHGxWU7