Startup Develops Drug-Improving Solution, Raises $19.5M

An Israeli biotech company has unveiled an AI platform to help accelerate the development of new vaccines and therapeutics that target specific tissues in the body. 

Mana.bio uses machine learning models to predict desirable properties for the nanoparticles used in these new drugs. It then uses robots to synthesize these formulations, and uses artificial intelligence to screen them for their efficacy and safety. 

All experimental results are transferred into the AI platform, which helps the machine learning models improve on a weekly basis.

The announcement of the new Lipid Nanoparticle (LNP) platform comes on the heels of the startup’s recently closed $19.5 million seed financing round, which will help it develop the solution further. 

The startup’s technology is based on academic research from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. 

“We believe that artificial intelligence methods provide a unique way to learn from the world’s previously generated LNP data, novel data that we generate every day in our own lab, and even the design principles of adjacent non-LNP delivery systems,” said Yogev Debbi, co-founder and CEO of Mana.bio.

“Mana.bio’s integrated experimental and machine learning platform enables the discovery of smarter, faster, more precise delivery formulations to unlock the field of nucleic acid-based and genetic medicines,” he said.

“We are encouraged by our platform’s early in vivo success and for its potential to deliver breakthrough therapies for a broad range of diseases.”