Absci Corporation
| Public company | |
| Traded as | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Biotechnology |
| Founded 📆 | 2011 in Portland, Oregon, U.S. |
| Founder 👔 | Sean McClain |
| Headquarters 🏙️ | , , U.S. |
Area served 🗺️ | |
Key people | Sean McClain (CEO), Greg Schiffman (CFO), Andreas Busch (Chief Innovation Officer), Sarah Korman (Chief Legal Officer), Jack Gold (Chief Marketing Officer), Karin Wiernick (Chief People Officer), Joshua Meier (Chief AI Officer) |
| Members | |
Number of employees | 193 (December 2022) |
| 🌐 Website | absci |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
| Footnotes / references .[1] | |
Absci Corporation is an AI drug creation company aiming to design biologics drugs for patients in a quicker and more efficient manner. Their approach involves a shift from traditional drug discovery, which has a high failure rate[2], to a potentially more efficient drug creation process. Absci's platform combines generative AI with synthetic biology, enabling them to build and test millions of AI-designed antibodies every week. The wet lab data resulting from this process is used as training data in its AI models to further refine and validate new biologic-based therapeutic candidates.[citation needed]
Absci was founded in 2011 by Sean McClain in Portland, Oregon, in a small basement lab[3]. Absci’s initial focus was on cell line development, specifically using genetically modified E. coli bacteria to produce useful proteins such as antibodies. Absci became a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ stock exchange in July 2021[4][5] and moved to its current 80,000 sf headquarters in October 2021[6]. Absci’s AI Research Lab is in New York City[7][8], and its Innovation Center is in Zug, Switzerland[9][10].
Absci has had key partnerships with Merck & Co.[11][12], Nvidia[13], and Sanofi[14].
History
On 7 January 2022, Absci and Merck announced a research collaboration for up to three targets in a deal worth up to $610 million in upfront fees and milestone payments.[11][15]
On 20 October 2021, Absci announced the opening of its new 85,000 sf campus located in Vancouver, Washington.[16]
On 22 July 2021, Absci went public on the Nasdaq exchange (ABSI), with proceeds of approximately $200 million.[17]
On 14 June 2021, Absci announced the acquisition of drug target discovery company Totient.[18]
On 23 March 2021, Absci announced a $125 million Series F in a round led by Casdin Capital and Redmile Group.[19]
On 12 January 2021, Absci announced the acquisition of deep learning company Denovium.[20]
In February 2021, Absci announced a strategic equity investment from Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (Merck GHI), which was noted as a recognition of Absci’s potential to disrupt the biopharmaceutical industry. [21]
On 20 October 2020, AbSci announced a $65 million Series E financing, which helped enable their relocation to their current headquarters in the Columbia Tech Center.[22]
On 14 January 2020, Absci announced it had closed a $15.4M Series D financing. The round was led by KBI Biopharma and JSR Life Sciences with participation from existing investors Phoenix Venture Partners, Oregon Venture Fund, WRF Capital, and Columbia Ventures Corporation.[23]
On 30 May 2018, Absci announced it had raised $12 million in an oversubscribed Series C to commercialize its protein expression platform.[24]
On 14 August 2017, Absci announced it had raised $12 million in an oversubscribed Series B, led by Phoenix Venture Partners.[25]
In 2016, Gov. Jay Inslee invested $200,000 into the company from his Strategic Reserve Fund, helping Absci to move from Portland to Vancouver.[26]
On 2 February 2016, Absci secured $5.1M in Series A financing led by Phoenix Venture Partners to accelerate the commercialization of its SoluPro™ protein expression platform for use in biopharmaceutical manufacturing.[27]
De novo antibodies
One of Absci's notable achievements is the design of de novo antibodies "from scratch" using their zero-shot AI approach[28][29]. In January 2023, the company claimed to be the first to design and validate de novo therapeutic antibodies with zero-shot generative AI[30]. This approach was experimentally validated to design antibodies against three distinct targets, including the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor-binding domain and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)[31].
Absci was perhaps the first company to produce full-length monoclonal antibodies in E. coli. This was achieved by engineering E. coli to have a semi-oxidized cytoplasm compatible with the production of complex, disulfide-bonded proteins. The method offers shorter production cycles and higher titers compared to CHO mammalian systems[32]
References
- ↑ Absci Corporation 2022 Annual Report (Form 10-K), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 30 May 2023 Invalid
|mode=Lua error in Module:Citation_mode at line 14: attempt to index field 'global_cs1_config_t' (a nil value).(help) - ↑ Hingorani, A.D. (11 December 2019). "Improving the odds of drug development success through human genomics: modelling study". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 18911. Bibcode:2019NatSR...918911H. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-54849-w. PMC 6906499 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 31827124. - ↑ DeFeudis, Nicole (1 July 2021). "From basement lab to Wall Street: Absci looks to bring its 'protein printing' platform public". Endpoints News. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ "Absci Corporation S-1". United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ Schubert, Charlotte (22 July 2021). "Absci shares spike 30% in IPO debut, valuing Washington state biotech company at nearly $2B". GeekWire. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ Schubert, Charlotte (3 November 2021). "Biotech company Absci, which recently went public, cuts ribbon on new HQ in Vancouver, Wash". GeekWire. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ Bowder, Mark (21 April 2022). "Absci announces new AI lab in New York City". The Columbian. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ Kaufman, Maya (25 April 2022). "Biotech company Absci opens AI research lab in Midtown". Crain's New York Business. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ Hayes, Elizabeth (28 February 2023). "Absci expands its footprint in Europe with Switzerland facility". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ Cumbers, John (28 February 2023). "Absci Takes Its Generative AI Antibody Design Platform To Europe". Forbes. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Armstrong, Annalee (7 January 2022). "Merck leans into AI with $610M in biobucks for Absci drug discovery pact". Fierce Biotech. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ "Absci Forms Research Collaboration with Merck". Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News. 11 January 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ "Absci Develops Groundbreaking Machine Learning Models for In-Silico Antibody Design, Powered by NVIDIA". GlobeNewswire. 22 March 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ "Sanofi turns to high titer E. Coli platform in AbSci deal". Phoenix Venture Partners. 14 January 2019. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ "Absci Forms Research Collaboration with Merck". Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News. 11 January 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ "Absci Opens Door to New Biotechnology Campus". Absci. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ Schubert, Charlotte (22 July 2021). "Absci shares spike 30% in IPO debut, valuing Washington state biotech company at nearly $2B". GeekWire. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ "AbSci Announces Acquisition of Target Discovery Company Totient". PR Newswire. 14 June 2021. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ Soper, Taylor (23 March 2021). "Biotech startup AbSci raises $125M for 'Protein Printing' tech; total funding up to $230M". GeekWire. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ "AbSci Announces Acquisition of Deep Learning Company Denovium". PR Newswire. 12 January 2021. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ "AbSci Announces Strategic Investment by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund". PR Newswire. 22 February 2021. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ Soper, Taylor (20 October 2020). "Synthetic biology startup AbSci raises $65M to expand 'Protein Printing' tech". GeekWire. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ "AbSci Raises $15.4M in Series D Funding". FinSMEs. 14 January 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ "AbSci Raises Oversubscribed $12M Series C to Fuel Commercialization of Its Groundbreaking Protein Expression Platform". PR Newswire. 30 May 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ Hayes, Elizabeth (30 May 2018). "Portland area biotech company nabs $12M". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ Campbell, Will (20 February 2020). "Inslee: State's investment in Vancouver's AbSci is money well-spent". The Columbian. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ "AbSci Secures $5.1 Million in Series A Funding by Phoenix Venture Partners". PR Newswire. 25 April 2016. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ Philippidis, Alex (27 January 2023). "Zero-Shot Moonshot: Absci Uses AI Platform to Create and Validate de novo Antibodies". Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ Cumbers, John (10 January 2023). "This Company Is Using Generative AI To Design New Antibodies". Forbes. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ "Absci achieves a breakthrough in AI drug creation". Absci. 11 January 2023. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ↑ Shanehsazzadeh, Amir (29 March 2023). "Unlocking de novo antibody design with generative artificial intelligence". bioRxiv. doi:10.1101/2023.01.08.523187. Retrieved 15 June 2023. Unknown parameter
|s2cid=ignored (help) - ↑ Ortolano, Natalya (14 September 2021). "E. coli may hold the key to manufacturing hard-to-make drugs". Drug Discovery News. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
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