[[To comply with academic institution
guidelines, the founders' academic affiliations and roles are
listed only at the end of the statement.]]
BOSTON and AUSTIN,
Texas, April 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/
-- Somite, a venture-backed company aiming to become the
OpenAI of stem cell biology, announces that it has raised
$5.3M in pre-seed funding. The round
was led by Israel's preeminent
Venture fund TechAviv, and joined by renowned Austin-based VCs Next Coast Ventures, Trust
Ventures and Texas Venture Partners as well as NY-based Lerer
Hippeau and others. The funds will be used to continue development
of Somite's proprietary AlphaStem AI platform, building Somite labs
and bringing the first therapeutic asset to phase 1 clinical
trials.
Somite Raises $5.3M in Pre-seed Round to Transform Cell Therapy
with Al
Founded in October 2023, Somite is
building AI foundation models to produce human tissue at scale for
cell therapies. These therapies have the potential to cure a wide
range of diseases that involve the loss or deficiency of cell
populations, such as Diabetes, Obesity, and Muscular
Dystrophies.
The founding team comprises five distinguished experts in their
respective fields: Dr. Micha Breakstone, a seasoned AI entrepreneur
who successfully sold Chorus.ai for $575
million, serves as the CEO. Joining him are the
CTO, Dr. Jonathan Rosenfeld,
who pioneered AI scaling laws at MIT, along with Boston-based scientists Dr. Olivier
Pourquie, Dr. Allon Klein, and Dr.
Cliff Tabin, who bring expertise in
developmental biology, stem cells and computational biology.
Cell therapy, a revolutionary approach to treating medical
conditions, involves replacing missing, damaged, or diseased cells.
While recent strides in stem cell research have opened new avenues
for producing various human cell types, challenges persist in terms
of efficiency, scalability, and robustness across existing
protocols. Somite.ai stands out as the premier company excelling in
the efficient production of cells derived from somites, crucial
embryonic structures giving rise to musculoskeletal cells. These
include muscle, brown adipose, cartilage, bone, tendon, and dermis.
Leveraging its expertise, Somite is pioneering the development of a
digital twin of the embryo—a computational model mirroring real
embryo development and behavior. Drawing from data-rich sources
such as scRNA-Seq, scATAC-seq, and gene expression databases, the
digital twin empowers Artificial Intelligence to swiftly uncover
innovative protocols, identify regulators of cell differentiation,
and conduct rapid optimization cycles.
Somite's proprietary digital twin not only surfaces actionable
insights but also expedites protocol iterations. Somite also builds
on work performed in the Pourquie laboratory where production of
somite-derived lineages such as human satellite and brown adipose
cells in vitro was optimized using computational analysis and
AI, allowing a critical increase in purity without the need for
sorting procedures.
Since its inception, Somite has rapidly achieved noteworthy
milestones, including gaining acceptance to the esteemed Blavatnik
Harvard Life Labs and securing intellectual property for
groundbreaking patents.
"The future of medicine lies at the intersection of AI and
biology," says Micha Breakstone, CEO and Co-Founder of Somite.
"With Somite's AlphaStem platform we have the unique opportunity to
both unlock the governing principles of cell differentiation and
introduce therapies to cure tens of millions of people. This
funding round is only one of many first steps in our exciting
journey."
"We are proud to partner with Somite and have high conviction in
the exceptional team and transformative solution for stem cell
therapy," says Yaron Samid, Founder
and Managing Partner at TechAviv. "I am captivated by Somite's
potential to redefine the boundaries of medical innovation. They
are committed to advancing their groundbreaking stem cell therapy
technology and have the power to transform the lives of millions
of people by leveraging AI to produce human tissue for cell
therapies."
About Somite
Somite.ai is a
venture-backed company aiming to become the OpenAI of stem cell
biology, developing AI foundation models to produce human
tissue for cell therapies at scale for diseases such as diabetes,
obesity, and muscular dystrophies. Somite's AI platform,
AlphaStem, fuels a virtuous cycle: It enables new cell
therapies, generating massive data that further improve the
platform, empowering even faster therapy creation with broader
applications.
Incorporated in Oct. 2023,
Somite.ai has raised $5.3m
to date.
Somite Management Team:
- Micha Breakstone, PhD: CEO and Co-founder - Repeat AI
entrepreneur (Chorus.ai acq. for $575m)
- Jonathan Rosenfeld, PhD: CTO
and Co-founder - Head of the Fundamental AI group at MIT
FutureTech
- Carl Morris, PhD: Chief
Scientific Officer
- Kristy Brown, PhD: SVP
Translational Development
Scientific Co-founders:
- Olivier Pourquie, PhD: Professor of Genetics and Pathology,
Harvard Medical School and Brigham and
Women's Hospital
- Allon Klein, PhD: Associate
Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard
Medical School
- Cliff Tabin, PhD: Chair of
the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical
School
Media Contact: hello@somite.ai
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/somite-raises-5-3m-as-five-leading-scientists-join-forces-to-incorporate-ai-in-stem-cell-therapy-302117737.html
SOURCE Somite Therapeutics