A-Alpha Bio, a biotech startup that measures and predicts protein interactions, raises $22.4M
A-Alpha Bio, a Seattle-based biotech company, raised $22.4 million to fund a machine learning project that will fuel its work to create therapeutic proteins.
The startup began in University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design and has since partnered with many prominent organizations, including Bristol Myers Squibb and Gilead Sciences.
A-Alpha Bio’s incorporation of AI into its biotechnology is not unique; several startups are looking for ways to streamline scientific processes with the help of AI tools. A-Alpha Bio intends to “fundamentally improve” efficiency and quality of therapeutics by utilizing AI in the industry.
“Machine learning successes across the industry … are valuable proof-points for the power of machine learning applied to biological problems and drive considerable interest into companies like ours,” A-Alpha Bio CEO David Younger said. “Additionally, we benefit from advances in machine learning – as many of the techniques used by others (large language models, etc.) can also be applied to biological data.”