
Drug discovery biotech looking into the ‘dark’ regions of the human genome picks up a $40M+ Series A
While the combo of machine learning and drug discovery has managed to rake in a lot of capital for companies this year, one biotech is looking to the dark side of the genome to stand out.
Nucleome Therapeutics, a UK-based company founded in 2019 and spun off from Oxford University, is seeking to create precision medicines by decoding “dark matter” from the human genome to find targets no one else has gone after. The company has now garnered a £37.5 million ($42.4 million) Series A to advance its disease programs and build out its platform.
In an interview with Endpoints News, Nucleome CEO and co-founder Danuta Jeziorska said when the human genome was sequenced, scientists found that around 98% of the DNA that we have did not contain genes. While they didn’t fully appreciate what it was, the scientific community has come to understand that within this space there is an “instruction manual of sorts.” The area essentially does not encode proteins but contains a large number of genetic changes associated with disease.
“So, if you think in each cell, you have the same DNA, you have two meters of DNA, but then you have hundreds of cell types,” she said. “So how the cell knows that from the 22,000 genes that are there, which ones to turn on and which ones to turn off, and also in which amounts? And this is the dark genome — it’s like the instruction manual.”
If this area is affected there could be either not enough or too much protein produced, or an oncogene can be turned on in the wrong place. Jeziorska offers the disease alpha thalassemia as an example of the role the dark genome can play when affected.
One of the reasons that others have not pursued the dark genome, Jeziorska said, is that previous tools were not present to understand its function and were not precise enough, but that using machine learning and the company’s 3D technology might get the job done.
The company utilizes “3D genome technology” in its platform along with machine learning to discover genes that are linked to diseases, with the eventual goal of finding druggable candidates. This technology was invented by the founding team at Nucleome and allows the team to look at how DNA is folded in the cell from a 3D perspective and help to unlock the genetic variants in the “dark” areas, which will help elucidate their function, Jeziorska explained.
By using this technology combined with machine learning, the company is currently looking at targets in the autoimmune disease space, however, the company does not have a candidate prepared yet.
So far, the company has raised £5.2 million ($5.8 million) in seed funding and currently has a team of around 20. This latest injection will give the company around three years of runway to build out its platform and get a candidate together. The company will also look to double its headcount and will look to build partnerships with larger pharma companies.
The round was led by M Ventures, the VC arm of Merck KGaA. Johnson and Johnson Innovation, Pfizer Ventures, British Patient Capital and Oxford Science Enterprises all participated in the round.