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        Hungary-based predictive biology simulation firm Turbine has secured an investment from Accenture Ventures, the investment arm of Accenture. The financial terms of the funding were not disclosed. Turbine was the latest company to join Accenture's Project Spotlight, an investment program launched to provide financial and technical support to tech startups.
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        Turbine plans to use the acquired funds to expand its services to global biopharma companies to help expedite their drug development processes through Turbine&rsquo;s biological insights.
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    <a href="https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/2024/accenture-invests-in-turbine-to-accelerate-use-of-ai-powered-cell-simulations-for-biopharma-research-and-development">
      <b>Company press release</b>
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    <a href="https://www.finsmes.com/2024/05/turbine-receives-investment-from-accenture.html">
      <b>FinSMEs</b>
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AI Drug Discovery

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 <p>The Hungary-based predictive biology simulation company, Turbine, has received an investment from Accenture Ventures. The financial details of the deal were not revealed. Turbine is part of Accenture's Project Spotlight, a program designed to offer financial and technical support to tech-based startups.</p>
 <p>Turbine aims to use this funding to broaden its services to international biopharma industries. The objective is to speed up their drug development processes by leveraging Turbine’s biological knowledge. </p>
 
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Turbine secures investment from Accenture Ventures

INCUMBENTS_PRESENT

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

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 <p>The collaboration between BenevolentAI and AstraZeneca has led to the addition of a new heart failure target in BenevolentAI's discovery portfolio. This target was found using BenevolentAI's AI-powered drug discovery platform and subsequently confirmed by AstraZeneca. </p>
 <p>Started in 2019, the partnership involves an exchange of technology and biomedical knowledge from BenevolentAI and scientific expertise from AstraZeneca, aimed for effective target identification. Initially, the research focused on idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and chronic kidney disease (CKD), later expanding to include heart failure and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE).</p>
 
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BenevolentAI and AstraZeneca collaborate on novel target for heart failure

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 <p>Boston-based biotechnology company FogPharma and radiopharmaceuticals company ARTBIO have entered into a collaboration to develop novel cancer therapies. With financial terms remaining undisclosed, both firms agreed to have equal contributions in all stages from research to commercialization.&nbsp;</p>
 <p>This partnership will exploit the peptide capabilities of FogPharma’s Helicon platform and the AlphaDirect platform of ARTBIO for radioligand therapies. Together, they intend to develop Helicon-Enhanced Alpha Radioligand Therapeutics (HEARTs) for various forms of cancer.&nbsp;</p>
 <p>FogPharma, located in Massachusetts, is on a mission to discover and develop a new class of precision medicines, Helicon Therapeutics. These peptides have the potential to infiltrate cells and regulate protein/DNA interactions. Through this capability, FogPharma aims to target intracellular mechanisms known to play crucial roles in disease progression.</p>
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FogPharma and ARTBIO partner to co-develop novel therapies for multiple cancer types

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<p>Massachusetts-based antibody drug developer Nabla Bio has secured USD 26 million in a Series A funding round led by Radical Ventures, with further participation from all existing investors. The company also revealed partnerships with AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb Company, and Takeda, promising potential earnings more than USD 550 million in upfront and milestone payments as well as royalties.</p>

<p>The funds raised will be utilized by Nabla Bio to expedite its drug development projects, mainly concentrating on antibodies that target multipass membrane proteins. The investment will be used in advancing the company’s research for formulating solutions to tackle difficult-to-drug targets and intricate cellular processes.</p>

<p>Nabla Bio is a biotechnology firm that uses AI to develop antibodies for treating tough diseases. The company's AI platform merges AI with massively parallel experimentation to design antibody therapeutics, mainly committing to complex multipass membrane proteins like G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and ion channels.</p>
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Nabla Bio raises USD 26 million in Series A funding; signs three Big Pharma deals

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 <p>Certara, a pharmaceutical company based in Pennsylvania, has partnered with Cloudscientific to offer AI-powered drug discovery tools to Chinese healthcare research communities. This collaboration will enable Certara's D360 discovery informatics platform and Certara.AI software to be distributed in China through Cloudscientific. This will help advance discovery research for small biological candidates and molecules by providing access to data and integrated scientific intelligence via the D360 platform.</p>
 <p>As a company, Certara specialises in providing software products and technology-enabled services, including AI-powered solutions, to the pharmaceutical sector. Certara's primary focus lies in model-informed drug development, offering solutions that can predict pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. This is done through software services like the Simcyp Simulator, which can predict drug behavior in the human body, and Phoenix WinNonlin IVIV for conducting in vitro-in vivo correlation (IVIVC) studies.</p>
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Certara collaborates with Cloudscientific to expedite drug research in China

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 <p>Google DeepMind, in collaboration with Isomorphic Labs, has launched an updated version of its AlphaFold AI tool known as AlphaFold3. This technology is designed to help scientists understand the behaviors of microscopic mechanisms within human body cells. The original AlphaFold was launched in 2018 and then released for protein studies in 2023.</p>
 <p>AlphaFold's main purpose is to examine the processes of protein twisting and folding, as well as their communication with other human cells. The updated version, AlphaFold3, can also predict the behaviors of other microscopic biological features such as DNA and RNA.</p>
 <p>Isomorphic Labs, a subsidiary of Alphabet based in the UK, is dedicated to improving traditional drug discovery techniques through the use of AI. Employing Google DeepMind’s AI research, the company is also partnering with pharmaceutical firms like Eli Lilly and Novartis to bolster their AI-led drug discovery efforts.</p>
 
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Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs unveil updated AlphaFold technology

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 <p>Lantern Pharma and Oregon Therapeutics are collaborating to harness AI and ML technologies to enhance the development of a new inhibitor drug candidate, XCE853, for various cancer types.</p>
 <p>This collaboration will employ Lantern Pharma's proprietary Response Algorithm for Drug Positioning &amp; Rescue (RADR) AI platform to identify biomarkers and efficiency-related signatures of XCE853, a protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) inhibitor that functions in the endoplasmic reticulum of cells responsible for protein folding.</p>
 <p>The target of this treatment includes a range of cancer types such as ovarian and pancreatic that are drug-resistant, specific types of blood cancers, and certain childhood diseases, including CNS (central nervous system) cancers.</p>
 
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Lantern Pharma and Oregon Therapeutics partner to enhance development of novel cancer drug

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 <p>Yoneda Labs, specializing in AI-driven software to optimize chemical reactions for pharma and materials science industries, has secured USD 4 million in seed funding from Khosla Ventures, 500 Emerging Europe, 468 Capital, Fellows Fund, and Y Combinator.</p>
 <p>The investment will enhance the development of Yoneda’s AI model. The company has identified 20,000 chemical reactions to generate proprietary data for the initial model, which has demonstrated a 95% success rate in trials. Yoneda Labs aims to use the newly raised funds to establish a robotics lab. The firm is also planning to further train the AI model by running tests on additional 20,000 chemical reactions, aiming to conduct and examine 200 chemical experiments a day.</p>
 <p>The company has two main products: Yoneda Optimize and Yoneda Predict. These solutions aim to aid the process of defining optimal reaction conditions, such as temperature, concentration, and catalyst, which can speed up the R&amp;D stages of drug discovery.</p>
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Yoneda Labs raises USD 4 million in seed funding to create AI model for drug discovery

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 <p>Pfizer has disclosed its <a href="https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/cemm-enters-research-collaboration-expanding-druggable">three-year collaborative study with the Austrian Academy of Sciences' Research Center for Molecular Medicine (CeMM)</a>. The research focused on cellular proteins and led to the establishment of an AI/ML-driven process for pinpointing small molecules with potential therapeutic properties.</p>
 <p>The collaboration's results were shared in a Science article, which detailed the construction of an AI/ML platform designed to evaluate the connections between small molecules and various human proteins. The research has resulted in a catalog that can act as a basis for the creation of new drugs. To promote further research, the models and data derived from them have been made openly accessible to other scientists through a web-based application.</p>
 
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Pfizer’s collaboration with Austrian Academy's CeMM leads to development of new AI-driven drug discovery model

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 <p>BigHat Biosciences and Janssen Biotech have entered a joint venture to develop novel therapeutic solutions. The two companies plan to combine their respective proficiency in drug discovery and artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) for this project. The specifics and financial conditions surrounding the partnership have yet to be revealed.</p>
 <p>Dedicated to spotting and confirming potential proteins, the collaboration seeks to simplify the creation of antibodies and other forms of treatment for various health ailments. The scope of these conditions range from chronic diseases to those that are life-threatening. BigHat's distinctive AI/ML-fueled platform, known as Milliner, and Janssen's proficiency in drug development and data science will be instrumental in achieving these objectives.</p>
 
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All Updates

Turbine secures investment from Accenture Ventures

BenevolentAI and AstraZeneca collaborate on novel target for heart failure

FogPharma and ARTBIO partner to co-develop novel therapies for multiple cancer types

Nabla Bio raises USD 26 million in Series A funding; signs three Big Pharma deals

Certara collaborates with Cloudscientific to expedite drug research in China

Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs unveil updated AlphaFold technology

Lantern Pharma and Oregon Therapeutics partner to enhance development of novel cancer drug

Yoneda Labs raises USD 4 million in seed funding to create AI model for drug discovery

Pfizer’s collaboration with Austrian Academy's CeMM leads to development of new AI-driven drug discovery model

BigHat Biosciences collaborates with Janssen Biotech for next-gen protein therapeutics design

AI Drug Discovery

Turbine secures investment from Accenture Ventures

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