SAN CARLOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Integrated Biosciences, a biotechnology company pioneering the use of synthetic biology and machine learning to develop next-generation therapeutics for age-related diseases, today announced they have joined Illumina Ventures Labs to integrate the company’s drug discovery engine with Illumina sequencing. This partnership provides monetary and scientific support, enabling Integrated Biosciences to discover and design new classes of small molecule therapeutics that act by shaping the transcriptomes and methylomes of cell populations. These drug candidates will be applicable to diverse diseases for which cell state and identity are important, including diseases related to aging and development.
“All drugs act by modifying cellular components, and nucleic acids are particularly important. This partnership is a nexus to using small molecules to systematically target RNA expression and DNA modifications across cell types, such that we can control exactly how cells behave,” said Felix Wong, Ph.D. co-founder of Integrated Biosciences. “We will generate unprecedented large-scale datasets that provide maps of cell states and how to alter them, charting the course for definitive cures for age-related diseases.”
“Illumina Ventures supports innovative companies that are pursuing breakthrough science, and our partnership with Integrated Biosciences, through our Illumina Ventures Labs, represents an investment in the intersection of healthcare, genomics, and sequencing,” said Ron Mazumder, Ph.D., Partner at Illumina Ventures. “Integrated Biosciences is an outlier early-stage company that has already pioneered breakthroughs in drug discovery. Illumina Ventures is convinced that, with our unique support and resources, Integrated Biosciences will unlock novel therapeutic candidates and modalities that bring next-generation sequencing to the forefront of drug discovery.”
Integrated Biosciences has previously published its drug discovery engine in leading journals, including Nature, Nature Aging, and Cell Systems. The company is currently developing a portfolio of preclinical-stage assets to treat multiple age-related diseases. The partnership with Illumina Ventures will generate additional therapeutic assets and new discovery platforms that hold the promise of reshaping drug discovery. Integrated Biosciences has a proven track record of doing so, having previously reported in the journal Nature on the discovery of one of the first novel structural classes of antibiotics in over 60 years.
About Integrated Biosciences
Integrated Biosciences is a biotechnology company pioneering synthetic biology and AI-driven small-molecule drug discovery to produce next-generation therapeutics targeting age-related diseases. The company was founded by MIT-, Harvard- and Princeton-trained scientists Felix Wong, Ph.D., and Max Wilson, Ph.D., in 2022. Its scientific advisors include James J. Collins, Ph.D., Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science at MIT, and Sir David W. C. MacMillan Ph.D., winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry at Princeton. Integrated Biosciences’ investors include Root Ventures, Mission BioCapital, Conscience VC, Reinforced Ventures, and Polymath Capital. For more information, visit www.integratedbiosciences.com.
About Illumina Ventures Labs
Illumina Ventures Labs provides a unique advantage to accelerate value creation for genomics start-ups, from company formation to Series A financings, via access to capital, sequencing, mentorship, and fully equipped genomics lab capabilities. Illumina Ventures Labs is affiliated with Illumina Ventures, an independently managed, healthcare-focused venture firm in a strategic partnership with Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN). As an early-stage, value-add investor, Illumina Ventures helps entrepreneurs develop breakthrough science and technologies into market-leading companies to transform healthcare. For more information, visit illuminaventures.com.