Scala Biodesign exits stealth with $5.5 million in Seed to engineer future proteins
Scala Biodesign exits stealth with $5.5 million in Seed to engineer future proteins
By fusing physics-based modeling, AI, and biological data analysis, Scala helps companies develop new medicines and foods faster and cheaper than before
Scala Biodesign, a company working on a solution to improve and accelerate the development of proteins in biotech products, has announced that it has excited stealth and raised $5.5 million in Seed, led by TLV Partners. The company is an alumnus of the seventh batch of the Intel Ignite acceleration program.
Proteins can be used across multiple industries, such as custom antibody therapies, vaccines, food products, and clean production of chemicals. However, developing and mass-producing custom proteins is a long, expensive, and uncertain process due to the fact that natural proteins are rarely suitable for industry and are considered unstable or too expensive to manufacture.
While protein engineering can modify proteins into an industrial-grade product, current methods rely on trial-and-error testing which can take years and cost millions. By fusing physics-based modeling, AI, and biological data analysis, Scala helps companies develop new medicines and foods faster and cheaper than before. This could even allow the creation of entirely new applications of biotechnology that weren’t possible using traditional methods.
“The answers to some of the greatest challenges that modern society faces are out there in nature, but until now it was extremely difficult to apply these answers at global, industrial scales,” said Dr. Ravit Netzer, co-founder and CEO of Scala. “Scala makes the impossible easy, and will lead to the next wave of innovation in biotech.” CTO and co-founder Dr. Adi Goldenzweig added: “We realized that there was a huge need. Quickly optimizing vaccine immunogens, enzymes, antibodies, and more, opens so many doors for advancing technology and the wellbeing of humanity and the environment.”
Dr. Netzer and Dr. Goldenzweig founded Scala with Prof. Sarel Fleishman as Chief Scientist to address the demand from pharma and biotech companies after conducting research together at a laboratory at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Its mission is to provide a one-stop shop for protein engineering and the team developed algorithms for protein design that became the state-of-the-art among academic protein engineers, with over 100 peer-reviewed papers based on the team’s technology.
