BOSTON– Superluminal Medicines Inc., a generative biology and chemistry company developing a differentiated pipeline and revolutionizing the speed and accuracy of how medicine is created, today announced the closing of a $33 million funding round. The investment was led by RA Capital Management with significant participation from Insight Partners and NVIDIA. Gaingels also joined in the financing.
The funding will be used to progress Superluminal’s pipeline of small molecule drug discovery programs initially focused on high-value G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) targets. The company’s pipeline stems from its platform, which creates candidate-ready compounds with differentiated TPPs in just months by utilizing a unique combination of human understanding, generative biology and chemistry, machine learning, and proprietary big data infrastructure.
“We are grateful to have the support of prominent investors as we set new expectations for the speed, accuracy and cost-effectiveness of drug discovery and development,” said Cony D’Cruz, CEO of Superluminal Medicines. “Our deep understanding of biology and our ability to employ the technology and tools necessary to effectively explore and manipulate that biology are critical differentiators that we believe will ultimately enable us to develop therapeutics.”
“The speed at which Superluminal has gone from prediction to structure validation and first biological hits is unprecedented,” said Andrew Levin, MD, PhD, Partner and Managing Director at RA Capital Management. “Superluminal’s ingenuity in combining biology, chemistry and technology holds immense potential to accelerate drug discovery and increase the probability of success in small molecule drug development. We are excited to support the Superluminal team as it advances its differentiated approach toward lead program candidate selection.”
GPCRs are a large family of integral membrane proteins that act as key regulators of cellular signaling. Out of 850 GPCRs, 70% are undrugged and only 138 have experimental active-state protein structures.
“The decision to focus on GPCRs was driven by our desire to study proteins in their natural state. Our approach allows us to interrogate proteins in a dynamic sense, exploring the multitude of conformations a protein can adopt,” said Mr. D’Cruz. “By understanding and leveraging these dynamic properties, we can intervene in a positive manner within the natural context of the cell and the body.”
Superluminal is building a world-class team comprised of experienced biologists, chemists, drug developers and AI/ML experts. The company’s leadership includes: Cony D’Cruz, Co-Founder & CEO; Ajay Yekkirala, Co-Founder & SVP, Head of Discovery; Yang-Ming Zhu, SVP, Head of Engineering; Yamina A. Berchiche, Senior Director, Biology; Marek Orzechowski, Director, Computational Chemistry; and Murco Ringnalda, SVP, Head of Operations.
The company’s board of directors offers a wealth of industry expertise to guide Superluminal. The board includes: Andrew Levin, MD, PhD, Partner and Managing Director at RA Capital Management; Dylan Morris, Managing Director at Insight Partners; and Cony D’Cruz, Chief Executive Officer of Superluminal Medicines.
