DIGITAL BIOLOGY
Features
insitro and AstraZeneca sign a worldwide exclusive AI research collaboration in MASH and cardiomyopathies
insitro will receive $40 million upfront and is eligible for up to approximately $1.46 billion in potential milestones, plus single-digit royalties on potential global commercial sales. It will apply its Virtual Human platform to identify causal disease biology and advance AstraZeneca-nominated targets through to development candidate. AstraZeneca will lead all clinical development, regulatory work and commercialization. insitro says both diseases have been hard to treat because one diagnostic label spans patients whose underlying biology differs.
Zealand Pharma and Generate sign a deal to design multispecific proteins with AI for obesity
The companies intend to design multispecific protein therapeutics for obesity and other metabolic diseases using Generate's AI platform. For two initial programs, with an option to add a third, Generate will receive $30 million upfront and up to $35 million in early preclinical milestones, and is eligible for total milestones of nearly $1.2 billion. Generate will lead research through lead-candidate selection; Zealand Pharma will then take on clinical development and commercialization.
Iambic prices its IPO at $16 a share, raising $150 million
Iambic sold 9,375,000 shares and trades on Nasdaq as IAM. In the prospectus, about $75.0 million goes to advancing IAM1363 through its ongoing Phase 1, into Phase 2 trials aimed at accelerated approval and a Phase 3. About $15.0 million each goes to taking IAM217 and IAM-C1 through Phase 1 dose escalation, and about $20.0 million to its AI platform.
Illumina launches BioInsight Platform, its first unified software environment for genomic and multiomic data
The platform puts Illumina's analysis applications, AI models and curated datasets in one environment. Illumina says its usage-based BioInsight Credits model replaces traditional annual subscriptions. DRAGEN v4.6, included in the platform, adds a software mode that runs across supported cloud and standard CPU environments, and Illumina says DRAGEN is supporting approximately 170 active research projects at the Global Parkinson's Genetics Program.
Benchling launches Science Foundries, teams of agents and scientists that run scientific processes end-to-end
Users pick a process or goal, then set which steps agents run and when scientists must approve. In Benchling's example for a pharma antibody team, design, cloning, lab and analysis agents connect models, CROs and lab automation. Benchling says Parabilis Medicines is now deploying Foundries across protein production, screening and lead optimization. Benchling's Model Hub now also offers Lilly's TuneLab developability models alongside AlphaFold 2, Boltz-2 and OpenFold 3. Benchling also says starting each experiment a day sooner can speed an R&D program up by months.