May 23rd, 2022
The Shift, by Lisa Suennen
Lisa Suennen, is the managing founder of Venture Valkyrie, LLC, Chairperson of the Investment Advisory committee for AND Health, and Chairperson of the Scientific advisory board for the NASA-funded Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH).
Highlights from the article:
Sachi, a word which means “miracle” in Japanese, is itself focused on creating a paradigm shift for the field of drug discovery. Their product, which has gone from concept to full manufacturing line in two years’ time – a reflection of the change of clock speed required in industry as compared to academia – makes a product called NanoligomersTM. For those of us who are not chemical engineers, as Anushree and Prashant are, NanoligomersTM are polymer molecules made up of a group of monomers (naturally!), which are themselves molecules that can be bonded to other identical molecules.
By creating these NanoligomersTM Sachi aims to transform drug discovery with accelerated synthesis, validation, and production of specific nucleic acid therapies. The robotic system system they designed and built has already been used to create a cloning-free approach to quickly and confidently:
Target any gene in any organism, to selectively upregulate or downregulate the gene of interest.
Provide a rapid and high-throughput build platform that leads to massively parallel synthesis, purification, and delivery of proprietary NanoligomerTM molecules, leading to design and synthesis of hundreds to thousands of high-purity agents per day
Rapidly target discovery and validation through proprietary multiplexed, multidimensional testing approach
Use machine learning algorithms, our platform analyzes targeting of different gene expression outputs, to learn and inform design, to optimize applications in different impact areas.