nabla bio Raises $11M for Antibody Design Platform

Nabla Bio Secures $11 Million in Seed Funding

Nabla Bio, a startup headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, has announced the successful completion of an $11 million seed funding round on Monday. Established in May 2020, the company is poised to compete within the rapidly evolving field of antibody design and manufacturing.

A Novel Antibody Design Platform

At its core, Nabla Bio functions as an innovative antibody design platform. The underlying technology stems from research conducted by Nabla Bio co-founder Surge Biswas during his graduate studies at Harvard University’s lab led by George Church, who also serves as a company co-founder.

Frances Anastassacos, another co-founder, brings expertise gained from her PhD in biological engineering and prior experience at Flagship Pioneering, the venture capital firm instrumental in the creation of Moderna.

Notably, Anastassacos and Biswas are also married, representing a strong core leadership team.

Leveraging AI and Natural Language Processing

Nabla Bio’s artificial intelligence capabilities are built upon the application of natural language processing algorithms to amino acids. This approach treats amino acids as words, and proteins as analogous to sentences.

The platform is capable of delivering a comprehensive understanding of antibody characteristics, including crucial biophysical properties. The scientific basis of this technology has been validated through multiple peer-reviewed publications.

“We’ve developed a method for expressing thousands, or even a million, antibodies within a single tube,” explained Biswas to TechCrunch. “This allows us to subject them to various biophysical tests and identify those that perform optimally under specific conditions.”

Funding Details and Investment

This $11 million investment marks Nabla Bio’s initial priced fundraising event, following a previously undisclosed seed round spearheaded by Fifty Years. The round was co-led by Khosla Ventures and Zetta Venture Partners, with additional participation from Fifty Years and Cantos Ventures.

Shifting Focus to Antibody Design and Developability

The company’s core philosophy reflects a growing trend away from traditional antibody discovery and towards a more focused approach on antibody design. This shift addresses a critical question in bringing antibodies to market: identifying which candidates warrant the substantial investment of costly clinical trials.

Traditionally, antibody selection has relied on functional or therapeutic potential. However, essential biophysical properties – such as stability and manufacturability – are often overlooked, as highlighted in recent research.

This often-overlooked aspect is known as “developability.” “We are witnessing the early stages of recognizing developability as a primary cause of antibody failures in clinical trials,” stated Anastassacos. “Currently, there is a lack of dedicated platforms to address this challenge.”

Addressing the Developability Challenge

Nabla Bio’s platform is specifically designed to tackle the developability question, enabling the identification of antibodies that meet defined biophysical requirements.

The company maintains a singular focus on the design of antibodies. This strategic decision is supported by broader market trends, with global sales of monoclonal antibodies exhibiting faster growth than other biopharmaceuticals over the past five years, according to a 2020 report from Bioprocess International Magazine.

Biswas explained that this focus was informed by insights gained through partnerships with five pharmaceutical companies (the identities of which remain confidential). Antibodies, he noted, represented the area of greatest unmet need.

Collaborations and Future Growth

Anastassacos indicated that one of these collaborations has progressed to a “multi-target collaboration,” demonstrating the value that partners are finding in the platform.

However, Nabla Bio is not alone in the protein and antibody design space. Generate Biosciences, backed by Flagship Pioneering, recently secured a $370 million Series B round for its own protein design platform, with several drugs already in preclinical development.

Biswas and Anastassacos believe there is ample opportunity for multiple players in this field, and that their company’s balanced approach – combining both computational and experimental aspects of protein design – will be a key differentiator.

“We possess a deep understanding of how AI can drive biological advancements, and vice versa,” Biswas asserted.

Expanding Capabilities and Building the Team

While initially conceived as an antibody design platform, Nabla Bio is now expanding its capabilities to encompass end-to-end antibody creation. The majority of the new funding will be allocated to building out this manufacturing capability, with the remainder supporting platform improvements and team expansion, currently at seven employees.

*Note: This article has been updated to include information regarding Nabla Bio’s previously unannounced seed round led by Fifty Years.