Modulus Therapeutics
This company is dedicated to using machine learning to design cell therapies to treat more diseases and patients than ever before.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | investor investor | €0.0 | round |
| investor investor investor | €0.0 | round | |
* | N/A | Acquisition | |
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
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Modulus Therapeutics is a biotechnology firm focused on engineering next-generation cell therapies. The company was founded in 2020 by bioengineer Max Darnell, Ph.D., and bioinformatician Bryce Daines, Ph.D. The two met as Entrepreneurs-in-Residence at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2), a research institute established by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Their goal was to create a platform for the methodical and repeatable discovery of advanced cell therapies to combat solid tumors.
The company's core technology is its Convergent Design™ platform, which integrates gene editing, machine learning, multi-omics, and high-throughput in vivo screening. This platform aims to provide an intelligent and unbiased approach to designing immune cell therapies. Modulus has re-engineered the process of cell therapy discovery by significantly increasing the number of candidate cells that can be tested at once and using machine learning to analyze the outcomes. This allows the company to understand how entire networks of genes affect a cell's function, moving beyond the limitation of studying one gene at a time. Initially, the company's focus was on developing therapies based on natural killer (NK) cells for treating metastatic breast cancer.
In July 2021, Modulus Therapeutics announced the completion of an oversubscribed $3.5 million Seed funding round. The round was led by Madrona Venture Group and included participation from KdT Ventures and the Allen Institute for AI (AI2). This capital was intended to expand the development of its Convergent Design™ platform. A significant milestone occurred in April 2024 when Ginkgo Bioworks acquired Modulus' cell therapy platform assets, including its Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) and switch receptor libraries. This strategic acquisition was aimed at strengthening Ginkgo's capabilities in developing T-cell and NK-cell based CAR therapies for solid tumors and autoimmune diseases. Following the asset sale, Modulus continues to operate and will pursue work on its internal drug pipeline.
Keywords: cell therapy, immunotherapy, oncology, gene editing, machine learning in biotech, natural killer cells, CAR-T, CAR-NK, solid tumors, autoimmune diseases, Convergent Design platform, Bryce Daines, Max Darnell, Allen Institute for AI, Ginkgo Bioworks, Madrona Venture Group, cell engineering, switch receptors, high-throughput screening, computational biology