US-based gene therapy developer Dyno Therapeutics completed a $100m series A round yesterday that included GV, a corporate venturing subsidiary of internet and technology group Alphabet.
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz led the round, which also featured life sciences investment firm Casdin Capital and VC firms Obvious Ventures, Lux Capital, CRV and KdT Ventures as well as investment firm Polaris Partners.
Dyno’s CapsidMap platform optimises adeno-associated virus capsid vectors, applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to the development of gene therapies.
The funding will go to platform development and expanding Dyno’s vectors from liver, muscle, eye and central nervous system diseases to lung, heart and kidney disease.
The company’s technology is based on intellectual property from the laboratory of George Church, Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School (HMS). It launched in 2018 with a $9m round co-led by Polaris Partners and CRV.
Eric Kelsic, Dyno’s founder and CEO, said: “This series A financing accelerates our AI-powered discovery of best-in-class capsids targeting all major organs and cell types, enabling Dyno to grow our business infrastructure and establish more partnerships to become the premier developer of gene therapy vectors.
“Dyno was the first to combine machine learning with data from high-throughput in vivo experiments to optimise and accelerate the design of improved capsids for gene therapy.
“Our CapsidMap platform brings unprecedented scale and technical sophistication to solving in vivo delivery, the key challenge for gene therapy, making therapies more effective, safe, manufacturable and capable of benefiting more patients.”
