Biotechnology company Imperagen on Thursday announced a £5 million ($6.7 million) seed round led by PXN Ventures with participation from IQ Capital and Northern Gritstone. The company was founded in 2021 by Manchester Institute of Biotechnology scientists Dr Andrew Currin, Dr Tim Eyes and Dr Andy Almond and was spun out from the university.
The startup aims to improve enzyme engineering by making it faster, more efficient, and less expensive than the slow, physical, trial-and-error-based processes currently used.
Imperagen uses three core technologies to redefine enzyme engineering. Specifically, instead of trying to mutate enzymes in the lab by trial and error, we use simulations based on quantum physics. Imperagen uses advanced quantum physical modeling that can examine millions of mutations to predict the behavior of enzyme variants on computers, the company says. This information is then transformed into a custom AI model trained on the enzyme problem Imperagen is investigating. Finally, to preserve the AI model, Imperagen uses robots and automation to generate experimental data that is fed back into the AI model in a process called closed-loop simulation.
Enzymes are essential to drug development and are therefore of great importance in many industries, especially the pharmaceutical industry. Startups like Imperagen want to speed up enzyme engineering because it has the potential to have a domino effect, making drug discovery faster and more efficient, for example. Enzymes are also used in food, biofuels, agriculture, and other fields. Sustainability experts are also looking to enzymes and the AI technology surrounding them to make industrial production and manufacturing more sustainable.
Others in this space include Biomatter, Cradle Bio, and Absci.
On Thursday, Imperagen also announced that Guy Levy-Yurista will become CEO. In an interview with TechCrunch, he said that enzyme engineering processes are currently inadequate and that even many new AI-based technologies, even after trial and error, may fail when commercialized on an industrial scale.
Imperagen hopes its technology will make enzyme development “faster, more reliable, and more commercially available, allowing companies to bring better bio-based products to market without the long timelines and uncertainties that have traditionally held this field back,” he told TechCrunch.
Levy-Yurista has a background in AI, life sciences, and enterprise technology. The founders will remain with the company, but Levy-Yurista was brought on to help build out new technologies, such as a vertical AI infrastructure for biocatalysis (a process that uses natural catalysts such as enzymes to accelerate chemical reactions), while expanding the startup's AI strategy, commercial model, and industrial partnerships.
The company has raised £8.5 million ($11.42 million) in funding to date, and the new funding will be used over the next two years to hire more AI experts, fund research and development, expand laboratory capacity and build go-to-market capabilities.
“Ultimately, Impellagen hopes that broader use of engineered enzymes will help ensure that industry produces products that are cleaner, safer and better for people and the planet, while also making commercial sense for the companies that adopt them,” Levi Yulista said.
If you buy through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect editorial independence.