Xaira Therapeutics Launches to Deliver Transformative Medicines by Advancing and Harnessing AI for Drug Discovery and Development
23 Abril 2024 - 6:00PM
Business Wire
- Xaira is an integrated biotechnology company built to deliver
on the promise of emerging AI tools to help transform the drug
discovery and development process, providing more effective
therapies to patients faster.
- To realize that transformation, Xaira will combine robust
product development, cutting-edge biological and clinical data
generation, and AI methods research, both translational and
fundamental, applied to all steps of the drug discovery and
development process.
- Founded and jointly incubated by ARCH Venture Partners and
Foresite Labs, and co-founded by Dr. David Baker of the UW Medicine
Institute for Protein Design, Xaira launches with more than $1
billion in committed capital in support of its mission.
- Xaira is led by founding CEO, Dr. Marc Tessier-Lavigne, former
Chief Scientific Officer of Genentech and former President of
Rockefeller and Stanford Universities. The executive team also
includes co-founder Dr. Hetu Kamisetty, formerly of Meta and the
Institute for Protein Design; Dr. Arvind Rajpal, formerly of
Genentech; and Dr. Don Kirkpatrick, formerly of Interline and
Genentech.
Xaira Therapeutics launched today on a mission to help
re-engineer the way we discover and develop medicines through the
end-to-end application of emerging AI technologies. A joint
incubation by ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Labs, Xaira
launched with more than $1 billion of committed capital from lead
investors ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Capital, joined by
F-Prime, NEA, Sequoia Capital, Lux Capital, Lightspeed Venture
Partners, Menlo Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, the Parker Institute
for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI), Byers Capital, Rsquared, and SV
Angel, among others.
Xaira brings together three core elements: advanced machine
learning research, expansive data generation to power new models,
and robust therapeutic product development. With leading talent and
capabilities in each area, Xaira is building a platform for drug
discovery and development that will advance multiple drug programs
and unlock biological understanding to inform future discovery.
Xaira is building significant AI research capabilities spanning
fundamental computational methods development and their application
to biological discovery, the design of drug-like matter, and
clinical development. Xaira was co-founded by Dr. David Baker,
Professor of Biochemistry and Director of the Institute for Protein
Design at the University of Washington School of Medicine. The
company now employs a group of researchers who developed the
leading models for protein and antibody design, RFdiffusion and
RFantibody, while in Dr. Baker’s lab. Xaira’s broader team will
advance these models and develop new methods that can connect the
world of biological targets and engineered molecules to the human
experience of disease.
Xaira’s advances in biological machine learning are underpinned
by the company’s ability to generate, integrate, and learn from
vast multidimensional data sets that comprehensively characterize
disease-relevant biology at all scales, from molecules to people.
Xaira’s internal platforms incorporate leading technologies and
personnel which were spun out into Xaira at inception from
Illumina’s long-standing functional genomics R&D effort. The
company has also integrated a leading proteomics group from
Interline Therapeutics.
In the hands of an experienced team of drug developers, Xaira’s
platform forms the basis of a robust therapeutic product
development capability across multiple modalities. Its design
capabilities, applied to previously difficult to drug targets, are
the foundation for a pipeline of differentiated therapeutics. The
platform is also being built to transform every laboratory and
clinical experiment into a vehicle for rich data generation. The
product development process itself fuels the development of
improved AI models and biological foundation models.
“We have reached the point where AI finally allows us to see
biology in new ways, and translate those discoveries to better
treatments for disease,” said Robert Nelsen, Managing Director and
Co-Founder of ARCH Venture Partners. “This creates an enormous
opportunity for us to rethink drug discovery entirely. For this
reason, Xaira is the largest initial funding commitment in ARCH
history.”
“Driven by growing data sets and new methods, there has been
accelerating progress in artificial intelligence and its
applications to medicine, biology and chemistry, including seminal
work from David Baker’s lab at the Institute for Protein Design,”
said Dr. Vikram Bajaj, CEO of Foresite Labs and Managing Director
of Foresite Capital. “In starting Xaira, we have brought together
incredible multidisciplinary talent and capabilities at the right
time to reimagine our entire approach, from drug discovery to
clinical development.”
Xaira is led by renowned scientist Dr. Marc Tessier-Lavigne,
former Chief Scientific Officer of Genentech and former President
of Rockefeller and Stanford Universities. Other executives include
co-founder Dr. Hetu Kamisetty, formerly of Meta and the Institute
for Protein Design; Dr. Arvind Rajpal, formerly of Genentech; and
Dr. Don Kirkpatrick, formerly of Interline and Genentech.
“In my previous roles, I witnessed an earlier generation of
technologies fundamentally change drug discovery, delivering new
medicines that alleviate the burden of disease for many patients,”
said Dr. Marc Tessier-Lavigne, CEO. “Now, witnessing how AI is
impacting other industries and the considerable progress in
applications of AI in biology, I believe we are poised for a
revolution. Xaira is in a strong position to both advance
fundamental AI research and translate these advances into
transformative new medicines, and I am excited to have the
opportunity to lead the team.”
The company’s board comprises eminent scientists and seasoned
company builders, as well as executives from successful drug
development enterprises and technology companies. “The board looks
forward to supporting the team in building a transformative company
under the visionary leadership of Marc Tessier-Lavigne,” said
director Scott Gottlieb, former Food and Drug Administration
commissioner and current NEA partner. “Xaira promises to be a
magnet for the best talent in AI and drug development,” added
director Kaye Foster, Senior Advisor, The Boston Consulting Group
and former SVP, Global Human Resources, Onyx Pharmaceuticals.
The board of directors currently includes:
- Vikram Bajaj, Ph.D, Co-Founder and CEO, Foresite Labs; Managing
Director, Foresite Capital
- Carolyn Bertozzi, Ph.D., Baker Family Director of Sarafan
ChEM-H; Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor; Professor (by
courtesy) of Chemical and Systems Biology and of Radiology,
Stanford University; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute;
Nobel Prize (2022)
- Kaye Foster, M.B.A., Senior Advisor, The Boston Consulting
Group, and former SVP, Global Human Resources, Onyx
Pharmaceuticals, former CHRO, Johnson & Johnson
- Alex Gorsky, M.B.A., Former Chairman and CEO, Johnson &
Johnson
- Scott Gottlieb, M.D., Former FDA Commissioner, Partner,
NEA
- Stephen Knight, M.D., President & Managing Partner,
F-Prime
- Mathai Mammen, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of FogPharma and
Former EVP, Pharmaceuticals R&D, Johnson & Johnson
- Robert Nelsen, M.B.A., Co-Founder and Managing Director, ARCH
Venture Partners
- Richard Scheller, Ph.D., Chairman of R&D, BridgeBio; former
Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Therapeutics at 23andMe, and
the former Executive Vice President of Research and Early
Development at Genentech; Lasker Award (2013)
- Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Ph.D., CEO Xaira; former President,
Stanford University & Rockefeller University; former Chief
Scientific Officer, Genentech
- Bryan White, M.B.A. Chair, Advisory Board, the Institute for
Protein Design; Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer, Sahsen
Ventures; former CIO Quadra/Quellos and Blackrock Alternative
Advisors
About Xaira Therapeutics
Xaira Therapeutics is an integrated biotechnology company
driving advances in artificial intelligence to learn the language
of life and transform how we treat disease. The company seeks to
rethink the drug discovery and development process from end-to-end
by bringing together leading talent across three core areas:
machine learning research to better understand biology, expansive
data generation to power new models, and robust therapeutic product
development to treat disease. Xaira is headquartered in the San
Francisco Bay Area.
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