Vilya, Inc. broke onto the BioForest biotech scene Monday with $50 million in Series A proceeds. The company will use cutting-edge computational techniques to develop innovative drugs for difficult-to-treat diseases.
Vilya’s proprietary platform leverages sophisticated machine learning algorithms to design therapeutic peptides that can cross the cell membrane. The Series A round was led by ARCH Venture Partners, which co-founded Vilya alongside a team of research scientists from the University of Washington’s Institute of Protein Design (IPD), led by David Baker, Ph.D.
Compared with small-molecule medicines, peptide drugs can often seek out their targets more precisely, address more complex conditions and cause fewer side effects. However, one major drawback to peptides is that they are often too bulky to enter cells, making them unable to reach many high-value drug targets.
In a paper published in the journal Cell, Baker and his team demonstrated that their computational methods can design membrane-permeable peptides. In particular, by tweaking the peptide’s structure so that it is less likely to accrue water molecules, the IPD team was able to synthesize compounds that could easily pass through the cell’s lipid membrane.
In their experiments, the researchers used machine learning algorithms to design more than 180 peptides, of which 84 successfully crossed lab-based membranes. The IPD scientists showed that not only could their peptides cross gut epithelial cells into the bloodstream but also that these compounds could reach their destination cells even when given as oral treatments in mice.
