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Nabla Bio

Company Overview

Nabla Bio is a biotechnology company founded in 2021 and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company develops AI and wet-lab technologies to enable the rational design of developable, selective, and functional drugs against previously undruggable targets. Nabla Bio’s mission is to expand the universe of druggable targets by advancing AI and experimental technologies for drug design.

The company was founded by pioneers of protein language modeling who developed the first protein language models in George Church’s Lab at Harvard. Nabla Bio’s technical team is fully in-person and based at the Riverside Technology Center in Cambridge, MA.

Products Overview

Nabla Bio is developing an integrated AI and wet-lab platform to enable precise drug design and high-throughput measurement of drug properties. Their initial focus is on designing biologics targeting multipass membrane proteins, such as G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), ion channels, and transporters.

The company’s approach involves:

  1. Generative modeling to directly generate drug candidates with desired epitope, conformation, and target specificities.

  2. Micron-scale containerization technologies that enable multiplex evaluation of human-relevant properties for thousands to millions of drug candidates within 3-4 weeks.

  3. Using the rich data from multiplex screening to inform the next round of modeling and design decisions.

Nabla Bio aims to design drugs with superior manufacturability, safety, and efficacy for diseases that have eluded treatment so far. Their technology could potentially double the number of disease-relevant drug targets the industry advances for drug development.

Founding Team

The co-founders of Nabla Bio are:

  • Surge Biswas - Co-founder & CEO
  • Frances Anastassacos - Co-founder & President

Problem and Market Fit

Nabla Bio is addressing the challenge of designing drugs for multipass membrane proteins, which make up two-thirds of all cell surface proteins but are the focus of less than 10% of drug development today. These proteins are exceptionally difficult to drug due to limited surface areas above the cell membrane and the need for precise discrimination between targets and similar off-targets.

The company’s integrated AI and wet-lab approach aims to overcome the limitations of traditional search-based methods (e.g., large library screens) in developing drugs for these challenging targets. By combining generative AI models with high-throughput experimental validation, Nabla Bio seeks to expand the universe of druggable targets and create new therapeutic opportunities.

Business Model

Nabla Bio collaborates with leading pharmaceutical companies to maximize the impact of their platform. They partner with these companies to design drugs and bring them to patients. Current collaborations include partnerships with AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Takeda.

Funding and Runway

Nabla Bio has raised a total of $37 million in funding:

  • May 2024: $26 million Series A financing
  • December 2021: $11 million Seed financing led by Khosla Ventures and Zetta Venture Partners

Other investors include Radical Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Zetta Venture Partners, DCVC, and Fifty Years.

Competitive Landscape

While specific competitors are not mentioned in the provided information, Nabla Bio operates in the competitive field of AI-driven drug discovery. Their focus on multipass membrane proteins and integrated AI/wet-lab approach appears to be a differentiating factor.

Customers

Nabla Bio has established collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies, including:

  1. AstraZeneca
  2. Bristol Myers Squibb
  3. Takeda

These partnerships aim to expand the pipelines of these companies with high-quality drug candidates.

Relevant News

  1. May 14, 2024: Nabla Bio secured $26 million in Series A financing and announced collaborations with AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Takeda for generative protein design.

  2. December 7, 2021: Nabla Bio raised $11 million in seed funding for AI-driven antibody design.

  3. December 6, 2021: The company closed an $11 million Seed financing round led by Khosla Ventures and Zetta Venture Partners.

Nabla Bio has published research in prestigious scientific journals, including Nature Methods and Nature Biotechnology, demonstrating their expertise in protein engineering and deep learning approaches for drug design.

Classification: AI Tier 2

  1. Core AI: Create fundamental AI technologies/base models
  2. AI-Enabled: Core offerings rely on recent AI advances
  3. AI Adopters: Use AI to enhance existing products/services
  4. Non-AI: No AI in products/services

Nabla Bio’s core offerings depend on recent AI advances for precise drug design and high-throughput measurement of drug properties, making them an AI-Enabled company.