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Inside the Seattle Labs of Xaira, the AI-Powered Startup Launched with $1B from Investors https://lnkd.in/gw4ykt92 Xaira Therapeutics – a spinout from the University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design (IPD) – merges AI with science to create generative models for developing new therapeutics, revolutionizing traditional approaches to treating diseases. Founded by IPD alumni, Xaira is rapidly making strides in the biotech space, as evidenced by their launch in April with over $1 billion in committed funding. Unlike traditional methods that rely on natural templates, Xaira utilizes AI models to design proteins that surpass nature’s designs, including novel antibodies that can bind to human receptors. “There’s very few places that marry tech and biotech in the way that Seattle is set up to do,” said Hetu Kamisetty, head of Xaira’s Seattle location. “For protein design, this is the place to be.” The post Inside the Seattle Labs of Xaira, the AI-Powered Startup Launched with $1B from Investors appeared first on Life Science Washington . Click here to view original post Click Here to Publish/Feature Your Company or Product News with Biotech Networks

The next generation of AI biotechs is here. Can they deliver on the hype? https://lnkd.in/gWkWYJDZ “We’re in a frothy time,” acknowledges Alexandra Snyder, the head of R&D at Generate:Biomedicines. Generate is one of the AI-driven biotechs that make up a new generation of companies with huge funding, A-list science and tech stars and computing horsepower. On Tuesday, the $1 billion-plus launch of Xaira Therapeutics — the second-biggest initial biotech startup funding ever — took a field that’s already described by some as overhyped and whipped it into a frenzy. Alexandra Snyder “Just as when you serve a frothy drink, you enjoy the froth and then it takes a little while for you to realize how much liquid is actually in the cup,” Snyder said in an interview this month, before Xaira’s debut. “We’re kind of in that stage right now — enjoying the froth.” Over the next few years, the biotech industry will find out how valid… Click here to view original post Click Here to Publish/Feature Your Company or Product News with Biotech Networks

Just a couple of months after Xaira Therapeutics came out of stealth with over $1 Billion in funding, EvolutionaryScale have announced a $142M seed round! As a quick intro into EvolutionaryScale, they call themselves an “AI research lab for biology” and have a model called ESM3 that has been trained with 1 trillion teraflops on a dataset of 2.8 billion naturally occurring proteins to create a generative AI model for biology that simultaneously reasons over the sequence, structure and function of proteins…pretty impressive stuff! It’s clear that the upward trend in AI drug discovery funding isn’t slowing down and it can’t be denied that it is and will continue to be the future of biotech. This has been echoed by multiple VCs that I’ve spoken to, although with the AI buzzword being stuck on everything, it’s important to remember that AI is a tool to solve specific problems and not a solution to be applied to everything – companies will miss out on funding if they take the latter approach without meaningful purpose and direction. That being said, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you’re not looking at how AI can integrate into your drug discovery process or at the very least considering it, you’re going to be left behind before you know it!

Xaira Launches with a Massive $1 Billion, Says It’s ‘Ready’ to Start Developing Drugs Advances in generative AI have taken the tech world by storm. Biotech investors are making a big bet that similar computational methods could revolutionize drug discovery. This week, ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Labs, an affiliate of Foresite Capital, announced that they incubated Xaira Therapeutics and funded the AI biotech with $1 billion. Other investors in the new company, which has been operating in stealth mode for about six months, include F-Prime, NEA, Sequoia Capital, Lux Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures and SV Angel. Xaira’s CEO Marc Tessier-Lavigne, a former Stanford president and chief scientific officer at Genentech, says the company is ready to start developing drugs that were impossible to make without recent breakthroughs in AI. https://lnkd.in/d-5chWZ8 #aspenalert #biotech #bioprocess

My son and I had an interesting conversation today about his passion to work in the Pharma/Biotech industry. It's exciting to think about how much the industry will change as a result of #ai by the time he enters the workforce in 8 years. I can't wait to see what the future holds for him! #ai #pharma #biotech #technology #bigdata

ZipBio, a New Seattle Biotech Startup Aiming to Compress Proteins, Raises $4M https://lnkd.in/gWdSUDsj Seattle-based biotech startup ZipBio announced its official launch and revealed $4 million in a seed funding round led by NFX. ZipBio, founded in 2023, is developing a platform that “compresses complex biological structures into smaller, more efficient de novo-designed proteins that retain full functionality, optimizing delivery and therapeutic effectiveness,” according to the company. The company uses generative AI to transform the development of new therapeutics that address some of the most critical unmet needs in healthcare. By creating de novo genes and proteins, ZipBio distills multiple complex functions into compact highly effective therapeutic molecules. The post ZipBio, a New Seattle Biotech Startup Aiming to Compress Proteins, Raises $4M appeared first on Life Science Washington . Click here to view original post Click Here to Publish/Feature Your Company or Product News with Biotech Networks

As numerous trends are currently shaping what is an eventful year for the biotech industry, we have compiled a list of the top European biotech companies that have received sizable seed funding in the past year and are directing those funds toward research and development (R&D) programs in a range of therapeutic areas. One such trend in the industry is the increase in artificial intelligence-enabled drug discovery startups. The global artificial intelligence in drug discovery market size was estimated to be $1.5 billion in 2023 and is expected to expand by nearly 30% annually from 2024 to 2030, according to a report by Grand View Research. Here’s a list of 10 European biotech companies likely to make a big splash in the biotech sector

Soooooo.... 👀 Great report from McKinsey & Company here on the current state of BioTech investment globally. Generally very informative, but there's a few things that really stand out. Most importantly, the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the global state of BioTech. I'll paraphrase the bright minds at McKinsey for you here: 🚀 AI is not going to be a bolt on, or a niche within BioTech. It's being adopted across the entire industry, in Drug Discovery, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Diagnostics, Imaging, Therapeutics, you name it. 🚀 Machine Learning focused Biotech's are capturing more and more of the total BioTech funding. 🚀 Funding is STILL above pre-pandemic levels. A return to norms may be on the way as a whole, but when we are talking about AI, it is significantly above that of 2019 (as you'd hope!) Last year was tough. This year will be tough. However, we are on the up, things are looking good and there is evidence for optimism. Go forth and innovate, my friends! #machinelearning #biotech #machinelearning #deeplearning #chatgpt #venturecapital #startup #investing https://lnkd.in/eTH_Ar5F

#MachineLearning and platform technologies like #genetherapy now dominate the biotech investment landscape. With Baltimore stakeholders focused on a phase 2 #techhub bid around AI & Biotech for precision health, the data shows that this is the direction investors are interested in as well. https://lnkd.in/eHxatcqe

On October 16, Andrew Dunn of Endpoints News will moderate the panel “Insurgents vs. Incumbents — Approaches to AI at Tiny Startups and Big Pharmas” at Endpoints AI Day 2024. Our EVP of Research & Development, Alexandra Snyder, MD, will join Jakob Uszkoreit of Inceptive and Sean Bruich (he/him) of Amgen to explore how #AI is reshaping biopharma—from drug discovery to Phase III—and whether the future belongs to legacy drugmakers or new tech-driven startups. The future of AI in pharma is here. Don’t miss out. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gF48qYZ9 #ProgrammingBiology | #GenerativeAI