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AI Model COMET Accelerates RNA Medicine Development, Cutting Timelines from Months to Weeks

  • Researchers from NTU and MIT developed COMET, an AI model that predicts optimal lipid nanoparticle formulations for RNA medicine delivery, published in Nature Nanotechnology.
  • The transformer-based neural network can identify the best nanoparticle designs among millions of possibilities without extensive laboratory testing, reducing development timelines from months to weeks.
  • COMET-designed lipid nanoparticles outperformed clinically approved benchmarks in both laboratory and animal studies, demonstrating superior delivery performance.
  • The technology extends beyond pandemic preparedness to enable RNA therapies targeting specific organs and cell types for treating cancers and metabolic disorders.

Duke-NUS Receives $1.5M to Advance AI-Powered Antifibrotic Drug Discovery Platform

  • 65LAB has awarded $1.5 million to Professor Enrico Petretto at Duke-NUS Medical School to advance a breakthrough Systems Genetics platform for developing first-in-class antifibrotic therapies.
  • The platform integrates computational biology with AI algorithms and quantum computing to target lung and kidney diseases that currently lack effective treatments.
  • Pre-clinical studies demonstrate at least 50% reduction in fibrosis using newly discovered molecules that block the WWP2 gene, a key driver of tissue scarring.
  • The funding aims to accelerate commercialization and foster new therapeutic companies in Singapore's growing biotech ecosystem.

Southern Research Opens $98 Million Biotechnology Center in Birmingham to Accelerate Drug Discovery

  • Southern Research opened a new $98 million biotechnology center in downtown Birmingham, expanding its 150,000 square foot facility to advance drug discovery and combat chronic illnesses, cancer, and infectious diseases.
  • The facility is expected to create 100 direct jobs and generate $80 million in economic growth over the next 3-5 years while serving clients including the U.S. Department of Defense and pharmaceutical companies.
  • Alabama officials positioned Birmingham as "the biotech valley of this country," with the Alabama Legislature contributing $45 million to the project alongside funding from local governments and federal economic development programs.
  • The nonprofit research organization, operating in Birmingham since 1941, will focus on discovering new molecules and medicines while assisting pharmaceutical clients in therapeutic development for high-impact diseases.

Sareum Partners with Receptor.AI to Accelerate AI-Driven Discovery of Brain-Penetrating TYK2/JAK1 Inhibitors for Neuroinflammatory Diseases

  • Sareum Holdings has entered a strategic collaboration with AI drug discovery firm Receptor.AI to accelerate development of blood-brain barrier-permeable TYK2/JAK1 inhibitors for neuroinflammatory conditions including multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease.
  • The partnership builds on Sareum's previous preclinical work that identified three TYK2/JAK1 compounds with meaningful brain penetration, including one showing particularly strong levels of free drug in the brain.
  • Receptor.AI will apply its proprietary AI platform for compound discovery and optimization using virtual screening and molecular design tools, while Sareum will handle synthesis, testing, and ADMET profiling.
  • The four-month project is expected to begin imminently, with Sareum retaining ownership of all intellectual property and compounds arising from the collaboration.

Garden Launches BLOOM AI Engine to Accelerate IP-Aware Drug Discovery

  • Garden has launched BLOOM, a Markush structure search engine that provides AI drug-design teams with near-instant verification of small-molecule intellectual property landscapes during the discovery process.
  • The system delivers a 32.44× speed improvement over standard search methods, reducing verification time from 1.491 ms to 0.047 ms per comparison while eliminating false positives that plague legacy approaches.
  • BLOOM integrates graph-based reasoning with patent databases to enable real-time go/no-go decisions during ideation, addressing the bottleneck between AI molecule generation and IP diligence verification.

Tahoe Therapeutics Secures $30M to Create World's Largest Single-Cell Dataset for AI-Driven Drug Discovery

  • Tahoe Therapeutics raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Amplify Partners to build a one billion single-cell datapoint dataset for training Virtual Cell Models.
  • The company's previous Tahoe-100M dataset has been downloaded nearly 100,000 times and already led to discovery of promising therapeutic candidates for major cancer subtypes.
  • The new dataset will map one million drug-patient interactions and aims to reduce clinical trial failure rates while accelerating precision medicine development.
  • Tahoe plans to select a single strategic partner to access the dataset and collaborate on developing the first medicines powered by virtual cell models.

Almirall and Absci Expand AI Drug Discovery Partnership with Second Dermatology Target

  • Almirall and Absci have expanded their AI drug discovery collaboration to include a second dermatology target following successful delivery of AI-designed antibody leads against a difficult-to-drug target.
  • The collaboration combines Absci's Integrated Drug Creation™ platform with Almirall's dermatology expertise to develop novel therapeutics for chronic and debilitating skin diseases.
  • Under the expanded partnership terms, Absci is eligible to receive up to approximately $650 million in milestone payments across both programs, plus royalties on potential product sales.
  • The partnership demonstrates the potential of AI de novo drug design to unlock novel biology where traditional drug discovery approaches have previously failed.

Chai Discovery Raises $70M Series A to Revolutionize Antibody Design with AI Platform Achieving 20% Hit Rate

  • Chai Discovery secured $70 million in Series A funding led by Menlo Ventures, bringing total funding to $100 million to advance AI-driven drug discovery.
  • The company's breakthrough Chai-2 platform achieves a near-20% hit rate in fully de novo antibody design, dramatically outperforming traditional methods and previous computational approaches.
  • Former Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten joins the board, bringing experience from advancing 150 molecules into clinical trials and delivering 36 approved medicines.
  • The AI platform can generate successful antibody binders from scratch using only target antigen and epitope information, potentially transforming therapeutic development timelines.

Revvity Launches pHSense Reagents to Accelerate GPCR and ADC Drug Development

  • Revvity has launched pHSense™ reagents, a breakthrough technology designed to advance internalization studies for G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) in drug discovery.
  • The reagents combine pH-sensitive dye with time-resolved fluorescence readout to deliver robust kinetics and high signal-to-background ratios, even at low endogenous receptor expression levels.
  • pHSense reagents are designed for high-throughput, plate-based workflows and can help researchers accelerate preclinical development timelines while potentially reducing overall development costs.
  • The technology addresses critical limitations of current internalization assay technologies, including low throughput and suboptimal signal-to-noise ratios in drug development workflows.

Porosome Therapeutics Reports Breakthrough Alzheimer's Platform with FDA-Validated Organoid Studies and AI-Designed Therapeutics

  • Porosome Therapeutics announced key advancements in its first-in-class, disease-modifying neurological platform that targets the root causes of Alzheimer's disease rather than just symptom management.
  • The company demonstrated significant reduction of Tau protein levels, an FDA-approved biomarker, and rapid reversal of Alzheimer's pathology within two weeks using FDA-validated human brain organoid models.
  • Three distinct therapeutic classes have been identified including small molecules, biologics, and AI-designed decoy peptides that neutralize toxic beta amyloid peptides.
  • The company is actively exploring the FDA's accelerated approval pathway based on quantifiable, biomarker-driven improvements in their studies.

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