Singapore-based biotechnology startup Automera has secured US$16 million in a Series A round of investment co-led by early-stage life science accelerator and investment firm Accelerator Life Science Partners (ALSP) and Temasek-backed venture builder ClavystBio.
EDBI, Xora Innovation, and other undisclosed investors also participated.
Automera was established by Associate Professor Michael Lazarou, Loong Wang, and Taiyang Zhang at Talo Labs in collaboration with ALSP.
It is an early-stage company focused on developing a novel therapeutic approach via autophagy-based targeted protein degradation. The biotech startup aims to leverage its understanding of autophagy, drug development capabilities, access to quantum chemistry, and generative Al-enabled insights to enhance its drug development programmes. Automera’s autophagy-targeting chimaera small molecules (AUTAC) platform has broad potential across cancer and other disease areas, with oncology being the initial lead programme.
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The AUTAC platform is a next-generation approach to realising the potential of targeted protein degradation (TPD) as a therapeutic modality. TPD, an emerging field of novel therapeutics, catalyses the degradation of disease-related proteins while retaining the benefits of small molecules.
“Automera was founded on the premise that improving health outcomes for people with serious diseases requires new technologies that make it easier, faster, and less expensive to develop safe and effective medicines,” said Loong Wang, Co-Founder of Automera. “We believe that our AUTAC platform is one such technology, with broad potential across multiple disease indications that are difficult to treat with current therapeutic approaches.”
Alice Chen, Executive VP at ALSP and Automera board member, said: “We plan to leverage ALSP’s unique company-building capabilities in Singapore, and we look forward to working with the broader Singapore community to enhance the platform technologies and early-stage therapeutic programmes that Automera will develop.”
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