DoD gives $1.1M to Seattle startup that will help find new antibodies against COVID-19 variants
A-Alpha Bio, a Seattle-based biotech company, is collaborating with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, to support research into new therapies for COVID-19 variants. The research is supported by a $1.1 million sub-contract by the U.S. Department of Defense.
A-Alpha Bio’s technology brings a systematic approach through machine learning to enable the discovery of new antibodies. The research will include the assessment of interactions between antibodies and panels of coronavirus variants to refine models for predicting which antibody sequences will bind to current and future variants.
“We look forward to working together to build ML (machine learning) models, powered by AlphaSeq, that accelerate the discovery and optimization of therapies against emerging viral variants,” said David Younger, co-founder and CEO of A-Alpha Bio.