Out to ‘re­think the drug de­sign process,’ AI star Daphne Koller is cre­at­ing a new ma­chine learn­ing ven­ture at in­sitro with some heavy­weight back­ers

Daphne Koller has been busy.

Just two months since the high pro­file AI ex­pert ex­it­ed Google’s an­ti-ag­ing biotech Cal­i­co Labs, where she was chief com­put­ing of­fi­cer, Koller has gath­ered a group of mar­quee in­vestors to back a tech up­start — in­sitro — with plans to de­vel­op a ma­chine learn­ing plat­form equipped with cus­tom-built datasets to cre­ate a new and far more ef­fi­cient ap­proach to drug dis­cov­ery and de­vel­op­ment.

AI cir­cles have been buzzing with spec­u­la­tion and queries about what the for­mer Stan­ford pro­fes­sor planned to do af­ter ex­it­ing Cal­i­co, where she had been de­vel­op­ing com­pu­ta­tion­al meth­ods for an­a­lyz­ing bi­o­log­i­cal da­ta sets. She an­swered at least some of those ques­tions with a blog post late Tues­day that spelled out her com­mit­ment to “in­vest heav­i­ly” in cre­at­ing new datasets that can ac­cel­er­ate the use of ma­chine learn­ing in bio­phar­ma.

Koller has some high rollers back­ing the start­up, in­clud­ing some ven­ture groups well known for block­buster fundrais­ing and a yen for trans­for­ma­tion­al ven­tures. They are: Arch Ven­ture Part­ners, Fore­site Cap­i­tal, a16z, GV (for­mer­ly Google Ven­tures) and Third Rock.

In­sitro, she says, will “col­lect and use a range of very large da­ta sets to train ML mod­els that will help ad­dress key prob­lems in the drug dis­cov­ery and de­vel­op­ment process. To en­able the ma­chine learn­ing, we will use high-qual­i­ty da­ta that has al­ready been col­lect­ed, but we will al­so in­vest heav­i­ly in the cre­ation of our own datasets us­ing high through­put ex­per­i­men­tal ap­proach­es, datasets that are de­signed ex­plic­it­ly with ma­chine learn­ing in mind from the very start. The ML mod­els that are de­vel­oped will then help guide sub­se­quent ex­per­i­ments, pro­vid­ing a tight, closed loop in­te­gra­tion of in sil­i­co and in vit­ro meth­ods (an in­sitro par­a­digm).”

Ac­cord­ing to Koller, the low hang­ing fruit in drug dis­cov­ery has been picked. Reach­ing high­er, go­ing for much bet­ter drugs, will re­quire “a dif­fer­ent ap­proach to drug de­vel­op­ment.” Spend­ing bil­lions to de­vel­op new drugs — and then pass­ing the cost to pa­tients — is not sus­tain­able.

In launch­ing in­sitro with a group of hy­per con­nect­ed back­ers, Koller is in­stant­ly mak­ing her­self a top play­er in a field that has Big Phar­ma’s rapt at­ten­tion. Stream­lin­ing R&D and im­prov­ing the odds of suc­cess find­ing high im­pact ther­a­pies are con­sid­ered keys to longterm prof­itabil­i­ty. But now the fo­cus is on which out­fits can ac­tu­al­ly de­liv­er.

There will be plen­ty of peo­ple watch­ing to see if Koller and the team she’s now re­cruit­ing can per­form. And she knows it won’t be easy. She writes:

There is a lot of hype to­day around ma­chine learn­ing, with hy­per­bol­ic promis­es that it will mag­i­cal­ly solve all of hu­mankind’s prob­lems (and dire warn­ings that it will lead to the de­struc­tion of hu­mankind). We at in­sitro don’t ex­pect ML to be the so­lu­tion to all of the prob­lems in drug de­vel­op­ment, nor to be the mag­ic bul­let that helps find a treat­ment for every dis­ease. How­ev­er, we do be­lieve that the time is right to re­think the drug de­sign process us­ing a dif­fer­ent and more mod­ern toolk­it, in the hope that a new par­a­digm may help us cure more peo­ple, soon­er, and at a much low­er cost.

I’d queried Koller re­cent­ly af­ter hear­ing word about in­sitro. For now, she tells me in a mes­sage, her blog post goes about as deep in­to this as she wants to go right now. But more is com­ing.


Im­age: Daphne Koller. STAN­FORD

Forge Bi­o­log­ics’ cGMP Com­pli­ant and Com­mer­cial­ly Vi­able Be­spoke Affin­i­ty Chro­matog­ra­phy Plat­form

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After leading R&D at one of the largest drugmakers in the world, taking the company through more than half a dozen drug approvals in the past few years, not to mention a Covid-19 vaccine race, Mammen departed J&J last month and will take the helm of a Cambridge, MA biotech attempting to go after what Verdine calls the “true emperor of all oncogenes” — beta-catenin.

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Cy­to­ki­net­ics’ ALS drug fails PhI­II, leav­ing the biotech with a sin­gle late-stage prospect

Cytokinetics’ candidate for the muscle disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, failed a Phase III trial, the Bay Area biotech announced Friday morning.

At a second interim analysis of the trial, an independent review committee recommended that Cytokinetics discontinue its COURAGE-ALS trial for reldesemtiv, as it “found no evidence of effect” compared to placebo on the primary or key secondary endpoints.

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CHMP gives thumbs-up for We­govy use in ado­les­cents, along with nine new drug rec­om­men­da­tions

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RNA biotech GreenLight Biosciences has been handed an offer for potential acquisition.

GreenLight said in a release that it has received a non-binding “indication of interest” from Fall Line Endurance Fund to acquire GreenLight’s capital stock for $0.60 per share in cash. The release said any potential agreement between the two parties would depend on certain conditions.

Through a special committee, the biotech will evaluate the offer but added there’s no certainty a deal will go forward. GreenLight will also not make any more announcements until a deal comes through or “otherwise determines” a statement is necessary.

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The German life science group Sartorius will be picking up French contract manufacturer Polyplus for the price of €2.4 billion, or $2.6 billion.

On Friday, Sartorius announced the acquisition through its French subgroup, Sartorius Stedim Biotech, which will be acquiring Polyplus from private investors ARCHIMED and WP GG Holdings IV. Polyplus has 270 employees and produces materials and components that go into making viral vectors that are used in cell and gene therapies. This includes DNA/RNA reagents as well as plasmid DNA. Polyplus has locations in France, Belgium, China and the US.

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TScan Therapeutics said Friday morning that CEO David Southwell stepped down earlier this week, leaving both his chief executive and board member roles. Filling in is Gavin MacBeath, the company’s CSO and COO. He became the acting CEO on Tuesday, and will continue to remain CSO and COO, TScan’s announcement read.

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That’s a little more than 100 employees, per an SEC filing. Molecular’s layoffs, approved by its board Wednesday, add to the dozens of pullbacks in the industry in the first three months of 2023.

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Sen­ate Fi­nance Com­mit­tee lobs more bi­par­ti­san pres­sure on­to PBMs

Congress is honing in on how it wants to overhaul the rules of the road for pharmacy benefit managers, with a Senate Finance Committee hearing Thursday serving as the latest example of the Hill’s readiness to make changes to how pharma middlemen operate.

While pledging to ensure patients and pharmacies “don’t get a raw deal,” Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) laid out the beginning of what looks like a major bipartisan effort — moves the PBM industry is likely to challenge vigorously.

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