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SEATTLE, WA, USA I October 30, 2024 I Archon Biosciences , a biotechnology company pioneering computationally designed Antibody Cages (AbCs) to unlock powerful therapeutic targets beyond the reach of existing modalities, today announced its emergence from stealth with $20 million in seed financing. The financing was led by Madrona Ventures with participation from DUMAC Inc., Sahsen Ventures, WRF Capital, Pack Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments and Cornucopian Capital. AbCs are a completely novel class of biologic composed of antibodies combined with a boundless set of AI-generated protein structures that have never existed in nature. Precise control over AbC structure provides the ability to tune both how they distribute in the body and engage their cellular targets with high specificity and potency to establish a new gold standard in drug development. “There are many high-profile cases where we understand not only a target’s biology but also why past attempts to drug the target have failed in the clinic. These key disease levers are at our fingertips, but we lack the tools to safely and effectively engage them,” said James Lazarovits, Ph.D., co-founder and chief executive officer. “Our transformational Antibody Cage technology is designed to drug many of these challenging targets underlying diseases of paramount urgency and create better treatment options for patients. With the support of our investors, we have developed a proprietary protein design platform coupled with rapid in-house manufacturing and testing to revolutionize how biologics are developed.” Archon’s platform leverages AI-driven advances in computational protein design that were recognized earlier this month by the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their ability to create novel proteins with desired functions. One of this year’s three laureates, University of Washington (UW) Professor of Biochemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Dr. David Baker, Ph.D., leads the Institute for Protein Design (IPD), where he co-invented the Archon platform alongside co-founders and former UW Research Faculty and IPD Translational Investigators Dr. Lazarovits and Dr. George Ueda, Ph.D. Archon directly applies generative protein design to drug development by not only conceiving but readily manufacturing new molecular entities for preclinical investigation. AbC design combines off-the-shelf antibodies and computationally designed binding proteins that self-assemble into exquisitely precise and geometrically defined nanostructures. Based on their unique geometries, AbCs behave in the body and interact with their targets differently than conventional biologics, with much greater control over functional properties such as target engagement and biodistribution. During manufacturing, antibodies are incorporated into AbCs without the need to modify sequence or alter established production processes. As a result, AbC assembly is massively parallelizable, easily automated and retains the industry-proven binding affinity and specificity of antibodies while enabling rapid exploration of a new geometric design and application space. The Archon team has more than a decade of experience creating designed proteins for therapeutic applications. Dr. Ueda, chief technology officer, spent over 10 years at the IPD under the directorship of Dr. Baker and was one of the first scientists to show the therapeutic utility of designed proteins through his work with computationally designed vaccines and signaling proteins. The translational academic group of Drs. Ueda and Lazarovits received initial grants totaling over $7 million from IPD’s Translational Program, Washington Research Foundation, The National Institutes of Health, The Department of Defense and the Washington Entrepreneurial Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (WE-REACH) to develop the AbC platform and early preclinical candidates. The group later licensed the AbC technology from UW. “AbCs are a revolutionary approach to antibody therapeutics that creates immediately actionable engineering solutions to intractable drug development challenges,” said Chris Picardo, Partner at Madrona Ventures, and Board Member of Archon Biosciences. “James and George have assembled a team of world-class scientists and pharmaceutical industry veterans that is able to create new preclinical molecules with extraordinary speed and accuracy. We’re excited to partner with them at the forefront of generative protein design and realize the myriad of possibilities to engage currently undruggable targets and pathways to improve human health.” About Archon Biosciences Archon is a biotechnology company developing computationally designed proteins to unlock powerful therapeutic targets that lie beyond the reach of existing modalities and to better treat disease. Archon directly applies generative protein design to rapidly manufacture Antibody Cages (AbCs), a new class of biologics with unique potency and differentiated biodistribution. AbCs integrate the unparalleled binding affinity and specificity of antibodies into novel self-assembling nanostructures designed to overcome the most difficult challenges in drug development. For more information visit www.archon.bio SOURCE: Archon Biosciences

The newest David Baker biotech startup launched Wednesday, as Archon Biosciences has raised a $20 million seed round to develop what it believes could be a new class of antibody-based drugs. The Seattle-based startup refers to its therapeutic modality as “antibody cages,” where they attach AI-designed proteins to standard antibodies to give them new properties. Archon’s leaders, CEO James Lazarovits and technical chief George Ueda, began researching this idea years ago in the lab of Baker, the protein design pioneer who recently won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry . Lazarovits believes AI-made attachments can boost the power of antibodies. “Antibodies didn’t evolve to be drugs,” he told Endpoints News in an interview. “We’ve co-opted them to be really fantastic, really exceptional therapeutics, but at the end of the day, they didn’t evolve to be drugs.” Lazarovits and Ueda incorporated Archon last January. It is now emerging from stealth with a seed round led by Madrona Ventures, and with 17 employees at a 6,500-square-foot lab in Seattle. Archon’s emphasis on making drugs stands in contrast to many AI-focused startups developing large AI models with sweeping aims to upend the entire drug R&D process. Instead, Archon’s technology “gives [antibodies] features they’ve never had before,” Lazarovits said, such as changing how antibodies are distributed and engage in the human body. Lazarovits and Ueda were part of the Baker-led team that published in Science on antibody cages in 2021. Like most early-stage startups, specifics are scarce. But Lazarovits said they have shown differentiated efficacy in lower species animal models, although those results haven’t been published or presented in detail. He also declined to disclose details or a timeline to the clinic on Archon’s lead programs, beyond saying there aren’t approved therapies for Archon’s first targets. Lazarovits said its technology could also be used to extend the reign of some of the industry’s biggest blockbuster antibodies with expiring patent protection. He added Archon’s approach could help large drugmakers outcompete the biosimilar market by improving on the original antibody. Archon’s board members are Lazarovits, Ueda, and Madrona Ventures partner Chris Picardo. Baker, a co-founder of Archon, is one of several non-voting board observers.

Archon Biosciences came about as most startups do, the result of happenstance and good timing. Unlike many, the biotechnology company also had a Nobel Prize winner to help it along.In 2019, James Lazarovits was researching nanotechnology at a University of Toronto lab when he fell upon computational protein design, a fast-evolving field preoccupied by decades-old problems of how to predict the shapes of life's building blocks.He moved to Seattle to pursue it, joining one of the field's preeminent hubs, the University of Washington's Institute for Protein Design. At a dinner party there, he met George Ueda, who was also working at the institute in the lab of David Baker, a protein design pioneer who this year won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work.Baker happened to be leaving his old office at the university's health sciences building and asked Lazarovits and Ueda whether they wanted to take it over. Together, the three co-invented the technology that would become the foundation of Archon, which launched publicly Wednesday with $20 million in seed funding and another $7 million in grants.Founded last year, Archon remains secretive about which diseases it plans to target and how exactly its technology works. But broadly, it aims to build better biologic drugs via what it calls “antibody cages.“Antibodies are fantastic molecules,“ said Lazarovits, who is Archons CEO. “They didn't evolve to be drugs, but we've co-opted them to do pretty incredible, extraordinary things inside of the body.“Archon is using antibody cages to tune the proteins into specific configurations that are well-suited to reach drug targets.Permission granted by Archon BiosciencesArchons approach is to use computationally designed proteins to coerce an antibody into a precise nanostructure, giving it different distribution and binding properties without tinkering with its underlying amino acid sequence.According to Lazarovits, this simplifies the process of designing and manufacturing antibody drugs. Often when we make changes to antibodies, what made them a really good drug in the first place can sometimes be lost, he said. We view this as a bolt-on solution. How can we improve the properties of an antibody while minimizing the amount of change?Archon has hired 17 full-time employees to develop its technology, he said. With its financial runway stretching into 2026, Archon plans to select a lead program and, eventually, raise another round of private investment to fund the start of a clinical trial.The seed financing was led by Madrona Ventures and included six other investors, among them Alexandria Venture Investments.For Baker, Archon adds to a list of more than 20 companies he has helped found, including Sana Biotechnology, Lyell Immunopharmaand Xaira Therapeutics. '