Biotech Startup A-Alpha Bio Integrates Machine Learning into Therapeutic Protein Development

Mornin’ miners⛏️,

Happy Friday!

Welcome to "Digger Insights" - your daily 5-minute enlightenment on the most recent tech updates! In our enjoyable and easily digestible dispatches, we break down the latest tech trends, giving you a quick and comprehensive view.

Join us, and in just a few minutes each day, you'll gain an advantageous perspective on the ever-evolving tech landscape. Ready to dive in?

Let’s get to it!

Today’s Highlights:

• 🧪Biotech Startup A-Alpha Bio Integrates Machine Learning into Therapeutic Protein Development🧬

• 👨‍⚕️Oral Health Startup Proclaim Goes Beyond Brushing with 3D-Printed Custom-Jet🪥

A-Alpha Bio Builds a Healthier Future with Machine Learning for Therapeutic Protein Development

Machine learning has become sort of a staple in our modern tech-heavy world, a technique widely used in various industries. We see chatbots in customer service, automation algorithms in financial trading, and administrative assistance in healthcare, and more often than not, we’re witnessing machine learning being utilized in the biotech industry.

Scientists have been making use of machine learning in genetics and genome research, one reason being that the human genome is one of the largest data sets ever studied, with humans containing over 20,000 different genes, each various. Machine learning allows scientists to better analyze genetic data sets, essentially leading to a better understanding of disorders and abnormalities the human body faces.

Hoping to better understand the human body through one specific aspect of it, with the goal of improving human health, is Seattle-based biotech startup A-Alpha Bio, a startup developing a machine learning platform for protein-protein interactions.

Therapeutic Proteins

Originating as a spinout from the University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design, A-Alpha Bio integrates computational tools into yeast-based experiments to identify therapeutic proteins. With this integration, scientists at A-Alpha Bio are trying to discover proteins that can be forged into drugs, industrial enzymes, biosensors, and food products, to refine and heal the human body.

The company maintains an extensive database of nearly 500 million protein-protein interaction measurements, relying on single-celled yeast engineered to express various proteins or protein fragments. The yeast fuses into two interacting proteins, which are then identified using A-Alpha Bio’s computational tools, AlphaSeq and AlphaBind.

AlphaSeq employs generic engineering and performs DNA sequencing to generate an extensive protein dataset, and feeds said information to AlphaBind. AlphaBind then utilizes machine learning to predict new protein sequences based on desired binding properties.

The company has been working with other laboratories and institutions that share similar goals, such as Bristol Myers Squibb for protein interaction research, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for antibody development in biothreats, and Gilead Silences for HIV therapeutic exploration.

Machine Learning on Biological Problems

A-Alpha Bio CEO David Younger believes that AI can greatly improve the development of therapeutics, in both speed and quality. The 45-people company also trusts that the advancement of machine learning, which has led to its power and adeptness, should most definitely be applied to biological data more, as it would greatly benefit companies in the field.

The startup has recently raised $22.4 million to further boost its machine learning platform, with the support of investors Perceptive Xontogeny Ventures, Madrona Venture Group, Breakout Ventures.

A-Alpha Bio’s previous funding was raised by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, National Science Foundation, and the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense. As of this moment, the company has raised a total of $51 million in funding, striving to further refine human health.

Proclaim's Innovative Approach Takes on the Plaque, Fighting Bacteria for Oral Health

As difficult as it is to admit, living in a world with competitive hustle culture has made us forget about our health at times. With the desire to play as hard as we work, health has become something that at least some of us overlook, because who has the time for everything?

This is what oral-care startup Proclaim tries to address with its Custom-Jet Oral Health System pressure washer. Although focusing mainly on oral hygiene, Proclaim aims to help people live healthier by reducing harmful bacteria throughout the body, starting with gum disease, the underlying source behind many major public health problems.

3D-Printed Health System

This Mountain View, California-based startup was founded in 2017 by Board Director Mike Hanuschik and has recently raised $15 million in series B funding. The startup’s CEO, Heberto Calves, stated that oral care has been staying in its basic course, not stepping beyond brushes, picks, and manual flossing, and this is what Proclaim is trying to change.

Proclaim’s Custom-Jet Oral Health System is a 3D-printed mouthpiece, adjusted to an individual’s mouth, that can pulse 60 jets of pressurized water over the course of seven seconds. This technology is hoped to aim the plaque and bacteria-shifting fluid directly to where each person requires it, depending on their anatomy.

The startup claims that utilizing this technology whilst still maintaining our regular day-to-day brushing can reduce gum bleeding 10 times more effectively, reduce gum inflammation nearly 13 times more effectively, and reduce plaque buildup by almost eight times more effectively compared to simple daily brushing and string flossing.

Public Health Solution

Calves is confident that maintaining oral hygiene is the key to solving bigger, more expensive everyday health problems, including but not limited to heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, and dementia. Proclaim hopes that the system they have developed can provide an effective, easy-to-use, and enjoyable solution to protecting overall human health.

Proclaim is currently looking to raise funds for initial commercialization so to scale the business whilst driving awareness and education among dental professionals and consumers.

Meme & AI-Generated Picture

Job Posting

• CloudFlare - Software Engineer, Durable Objects - United States (Remote)

• Chainalysis - Application Security Engineer - New York City, NY (Remote)

• Veritone - Oracle ERP Manager - United States (Remote)

• Tulip - Security Engineer - Somerville (Remote/Hybrid)

Promote your product/service to Digger Insights’ Community

Advertise with Digger Insights. Digger Insights’ Miners are professionals and business owners with diverse Industry backgrounds who are looking for interesting and helpful tools, products, services, jobs, events, apps, and books. Email us [email protected]

Your feedback would be greatly appreciated, send it to [email protected]