Pragma Bio utilizes an AI-enabled, biology-first platform to discover novel small molecules targeting the gut-immune axis for therapeutic development. The platform, PIKASO, mines clinically-relevant Biosynthetic Gene Clusters (BGCs) using multi-omics data to identify de-risked starting points for new medicines. This approach leverages naturally evolved molecules to uncover disease-modifying pathways and accelerate small molecule drug discovery.
Funding
$14.5M raised to dateRaised to date based on public sources. This may differ from the amount the company actually raised and is based only on what is publicly available on the internet.
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Founders
Product
Problem
Traditional drug discovery methods often rely on target-first approaches and synthetic molecule libraries, leading to high clinical trial failure rates due to a lack of efficacy. Current methods may not fully leverage the potential of naturally evolved molecules and the complex interactions within the gut-immune axis.
Solution
Pragma Bio employs a biology-first, AI-enabled platform called PIKASO to discover novel small molecule therapeutics derived from the gut microbiome. The platform mines clinically-relevant Biosynthetic Gene Clusters (BGCs) using real-world evidence and multi-omics datasets to identify molecules that modulate the gut-immune axis. Pragma Bio leverages synthetic biology and chemistry tools to synthesize, analyze, and derivatize these BGCs and their small molecule products. The company then tests these molecules in models of disease biology to select candidates for further optimization and characterization, ultimately deciphering their molecular target and mechanism of action.
Target Audience
Pragma Bio's primary target audience includes pharmaceutical companies and research organizations focused on developing novel therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune diseases by targeting the gut-immune axis.
Features
- AI-driven bioinformatics platform for mining clinically-relevant BGCs from multi-omics datasets
- End-to-end data-to-molecule discovery pipeline powered by a BGC database
- Expertise in synthesizing novel small molecules for New Chemical Entity (NCE) optimization
- Phenotypic screening to uncover new disease-modifying pathways and targets
- Pharmacology testing in disease models to select and characterize drug candidates
- Focus on mining naturally evolved molecules enriched with immune system modulators