Atomic AI, a biotechnology company fusing cutting-edge machine learning with state-of-the-art structural biology to unlock RNA drug discovery, launched today with a $35 million Series A round led by Playground Global, with participation from 8VC, Factory HQ, Greylock, NotBoring, AME Cloud Ventures, and renowned angel investors including GitHub ex-CEO Nat Friedman, Doug Mohr, Curai CEO Neal Khosla, and UC Berkeley professor and Arc Institute Co-founder Patrick Hsu.
Previously, the company raised $7 million in seed funding led by 8VC and co-led by Greylock, Factory HQ, AME Cloud Ventures, AIX Ventures, Xu Ventures, Doug Mohr, Antheia, Inc. CEO Dr. Christina Smolke, and Stanford Bioengineering professor Drew Endy.
According to Businesswire, Raphael Townshend, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Atomic AI said-
“To create effective and safer small molecules against undruggable diseases, there is a significant need to develop tools that can accurately predict 3D RNA structures. Atomic AI is oriented at the cutting edge of AI, RNA, and structural biology. We are creating an entirely new field of drug discovery.”
Atomic AI’s proprietary AI-driven 3D RNA structure engine, featured prominently in Science, generates RNA structural datasets by integrating machine learning foundation models with large-scale in-house experimental wet-lab biology to enable the world of RNA drug discovery. Atomic AI’s technology, in particular, can discover structured, ligandable RNA motifs at unprecedented speed and accuracy, overcoming a critical barrier in current approaches to small molecule drug discovery against RNA. Aside from RNA-targeted molecules, the integrated platform will allow the development of RNA-based medicines and RNA tools.
