Synfini Inc., a leader in AI-driven drug discovery, and O2nix Bio, a pioneering biotech company advancing prooxidant therapies, announced a strategic collaboration to co-discover and develop novel drug candidates targeting FTSJ1, a tRNA-modifying enzyme implicated in metastatic cancer cell survival. This partnership represents O2nix Bio's first collaboration as an independent, privately funded commercial entity, building on extensive research into biochemical mechanisms that regulate metastasis.
The collaboration will combine O2nix Bio's proprietary biology platform and scientific leadership in tRNA methylation with Synfini's AI Cloud Foundry, an end-to-end automated system that accelerates the design-make-test-analyze (DMTA) drug discovery cycle.
Addressing a Critical Unmet Medical Need
"We are thrilled to collaborate with the Synfini team," said Elena Piskounova, Ph.D., founder and CEO of O2nix Bio. "Their chemistry automation platform, paired with our mechanistic insights into RNA modifications, will allow us to advance first-in-class therapies targeting cancer metastasis—which is responsible for over 90% of cancer-related deaths and still largely untreatable by current therapies."
The collaboration targets a significant clinical challenge, as cancer metastasis remains one of the most difficult aspects of cancer treatment to address with existing therapeutic approaches.
Scientific Foundation and Leadership
O2nix Bio was founded by Dr. Elena Piskounova, a renowned cancer biologist and principal investigator at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The company is advancing a pipeline of prooxidant targets based on years of foundational research in tRNA biology and cancer metastasis.
Dr. Piskounova's landmark studies, most recently published in Nature Cancer, have illuminated how RNA-modifying enzymes like FTSJ1 regulate cancer cell adaptation under oxidative stress, enabling the survival of metastatic cells in hostile environments. This collaboration marks the company's first commercial drug discovery initiative aimed at translating these insights into targeted therapeutics.
AI-Driven Drug Discovery Platform
Synfini's AI Cloud Foundry seamlessly integrates computational design and automated synthesis and testing to accelerate the DMTA cycle. By combining symbolic and neural AI with real-time experimental feedback, the platform enables discovery teams to achieve optimal molecular properties faster and more cost-effectively, enabling significantly greater productivity.
"We are very pleased to work with O2nix Bio on such a promising and clinically urgent target," said Doug Donzelli, CEO of Synfini Inc. "O2nix's world-class biology and focus on metastasis aligns perfectly with our mission to deliver high-impact therapeutics by dramatically reducing the time and cost of drug discovery. Through this collaboration, we hope to accelerate the development of important new cancer-fighting drugs to market more quickly, helping patients live longer, healthier lives."
Company Profiles
Synfini Inc. is a privately held company headquartered in Menlo Park, California, advancing agile chemistry through its AI-driven drug discovery platform. The Synfini AI Cloud Foundry empowers scientists with an integrated system for designing, synthesizing, and optimizing drug candidates using automation and AI. Synfini partners with leading biopharma companies and academic labs to accelerate discovery of breakthrough therapeutics.
O2nix Bio is a privately held company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, developing novel prooxidant therapeutics based on RNA epitranscriptomics mechanisms. Built on decades of pioneering research in tRNA biology by founder Dr. Elena Piskounova, O2nix Bio is advancing a new class of therapies targeting the RNA modifications that drive cancer adaptation under oxidative stress and metastasis. The company's mission is to turn RNA biology into transformative treatments for patients with hard-to-treat and metastatic cancers.
