Protein Design Archives - Medical Design Sourcing

[Adobe Stock]

As the year draws to a close, it is clear that molecular science and diagnostics is the hottest funding area in the biotech industry. In an analysis of 50 of the best-funded biotechs of 2023 focused on human health, molecular and science and diagnostics startups collectively attracting roughly $945 million, dwarfing the figures in other segments. The next popular two niches, gene therapies and oncology, had average funding levels of approximately $245 million and $170 million, respectively. While AI has received a significant amount of attention this year, biotechs specializing in that field garnered an average funding of only about $66 million. Outside of the life sciences, startups with a broader focus on AI raised a cumulative average of $202.47 million, based on an analysis of close to 1000 companies.

Caris Life Sciences has raised nearly $1.7B to date

In terms of best-funded companies overall,…

3D illustration of an antibody [peterschreiber.media/Adobe Stock]

A central hurdle in computational protein design is the mismatch between proteins designed in silico and their actual behavior after synthesis. “You can design millions of proteins on a computer over the course of a week or a month, but computational approaches are just not good enough,” explained David Younger, co-founder and CEO of A-Alpha Bio, in a recent interview. That is, after synthesis, the proteins often do not behave as desired.

Furthermore, the throughput for manual protein experiments is typically low. “You might be able to design millions of proteins, but you might only be able to test 10,” Younger said. The company thus built a platform designed to mitigate this bottleneck by focusing on protein binding — a crucial aspect of protein function.

Established in 2017 as a spinoff from the Institute for Protein Design at the Univers…