Turbine has announced the close of its pre-series A round, raising $6.85m.
The transatlantic round was led by Accel and included XTX Ventures and Boston Millenia Partners who joined the existing syndicate comprising Delin Ventures, Atlantic Labs and o2h Ventures.
Turbine has created the Simulated Cell comprising an digital model of human cell behaviour and cloud-based simulated experiments. The simulation can purportedly run an unlimited number of experiments in comparison to wet-lab methods.
The platform, guided by AI algorithms, provides granular insight into the molecular mechanism of target-disease interactions, supported by an enhanced biological understanding of the target intervention and the subset of cancer patients most likely to respond.
The team aims to tackle the highest unmet need in oncology diseases, following the launch of a PARP resistance-focused pipeline in 2019. PARP inhibition is the most established area for ground-breaking cancer therapies in DNA Damage Response. However, it poses challenges for drug development as around 40% of patients do not respond to PARP inhibitors, and the majority of those who do, acquire resistance after two years. Turbine claims it has uncovered three novel target candidates against multiple PARP resistance mechanisms with its lead asset in hit validation phase.
Szabolcs Nagy, CEO of Turbine said: “We are very excited to have attracted investors of this calibre to Turbine. The proceeds from the current financing will be used to tackle additional areas of high unmet need in oncology with novel simulation-first targets and progressing the PARP resistance portfolio towards later stages of development.”
Radhika Ananth, Vice President of Accel said: “We have been evaluating technology-enabled drug discovery companies with high potential to bring life-changing medicines to patients. Turbine stood out for the quality and level of biological insight its platform could unlock. The team’s genuine understanding of cell simulation technology coupled with translational medicine expertise provide a powerful combination to revolutionise the failure-prone drug discovery process.”
