Seismic raises $101m to advance two drug programmes to clinic

Lead founding investors Polaris Partners and Timothy A. Springer participated in the funding round, in addition to new investors Samsara BioCapital, Boxer Capital, GV, and management and founders.

One of the two drug programmes targets cell-mediated autoimmunity and the other targets Ig (immunoglobulin)-mediated autoimmunity.

Seismic also intends to use the funds to expand its IMPACT platform for advancing machine learning technologies used in immunology treatments.

The platform integrates structural biology, machine learning, translational immunology, and protein engineering.

It helps to accelerate the discovery and optimises therapeutic and manufacturability properties of a pipeline of new biologics.

Seismic Therapeutic founder, president and CEO Jo Viney said: “The time is right to move the needle in immunology, as advances in technology now enable us to discover medicines to address complex immune system biology in dramatically improved ways.

“By integrating machine learning throughout the biologics drug discovery process, we are powered by a systematic and programmable approach to design superior biologics from initial discovery and therapeutic design through to manufacturability.”

The company stated that the machine learning integration with structural biology, protein engineering, and translational immunology helps to speed up the design and analysis of new proteins and protein modifications.

Simultaneously, it enables biologic function optimisation as well as creation of new biologics with properties that bypass the trial.