Dynamk Capital Invests in Envisagenics to Advance AI Drug Discovery

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., Nov. 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Dynamk Capital, a recently launched life sciences venture capital fund, today announced an exciting new investment in early drug discovery by adding Envisagenics, Inc. to its growing portfolio. Dynamk's portfolio companies provide technologies and services that enable biopharmaceutical companies around the world to develop therapeutics faster and produce them more economically.

Dynamk Capital invested $500,000 in Envisagenics, leading the $2.25 million seed round alongside other investors. Envisagenics, a life science company applies artificial intelligence to the genetic sequence of patients to discover new therapies. Its proprietary cloud-based discovery platform SpliceCore((TM)) uses machine learning to prioritize new drug target candidates from patients' RNA. Envisagenics focuses on RNA splicing, a cellular process occurring in every cell, that 'edits' RNA to produce functional proteins required for our body to work. Errors in this process can cause devastating diseases: at least 370 genetic diseases identified to date can be caused by splicing errors, such as Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a neurodegenerative disease that kills more children than any other genetic disease. Envisagenics launched their commercial product SpliceCore on October 19, 2017.

Daniella Kranjac, co-founder and managing director of Dynamk Capital, said, "Envisagenics is disrupting traditional drug discovery through applied machine learning and AI. We are excited to see the commercialization of SpliceCore enable biopharma leaders to accelerate critical discovery efforts for life-saving therapeutics."

Envisagenics' seed round was led and comprised by an impressive group of women investors who are well known and respected in the industry, complementing the female founder of Envisagenics. "It is great to have the support of established female investors with the experience to scale companies and accelerate drug discovery. It's exciting to be part of changing the landscape of venture investments in female founders," said Dr. Maria Luisa Pineda, co-founder and CEO of Envisagenics.

About Dynamk Capital
Dynamk Capital LLC is a venture capital firm investing in early stage life sciences companies. Dynamk's investment strategy is centered on identifying companies developing disruptive technologies, tools and services that enable the full biopharma continuum across discovery, development and manufacturing of therapeutics. The Dynamk team includes experienced life science entrepreneurs, investors, advisors and subject matter experts. Please visit www.dynamk.vc for more information.

About Envisagenics
Envisagenics was founded in 2014 as a spinout of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The company's mission is to boost the creation of new therapies for human diseases by reducing the complexity of biomedical big data into plausible solutions. Envisagenics focuses on the discovery of RNA therapeutics. Over 30 million people in the US suffer from genetic diseases or cancer that could be caused by mutations affecting RNA splicing. 370 human diseases are known to be caused by splicing errors and more remain to be discovered.

Envisagenics' breakthrough technology, SpliceCore, is a cloud-based platform that is experimentally validated to predict drug targets and biomarkers through splicing discovery from RNA-seq data, using Artificial Intelligence. The company will use its software to identify new splicing errors causative of the disease, identify the right drug-targets and develop RNA therapeutics through partnerships and collaborations with Biopharma. Envisagenics' in-silico RNA therapeutics discovery platform replaces expensive drug-target selection and lead design with efficient computer simulations, decreasing time, cost, and failure risk of drug development programs.

Contacts

Media and Investors:
Dynamk Capital LLC
info@dynamkcapital.com

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SOURCE Dynamk Capital