New Collaborations Further Extend Autobahn Labs’ Transformative Biotech Incubator Model
December 2, 2021, Palo Alto, CA – Autobahn Labs, an early-stage drug discovery incubator, announced today the establishment of two separate collaborations, one with Boston Children’s Hospital and the other with University of Pennsylvania. The objective of these collaborations is to identify and further support the advancement of academic research programs for important unmet medical needs, by supporting promising early results through the important development milestone of preclinical candidate selection in the drug discovery process.
The two collaborations are intended to combine cutting-edge life sciences research being performed by scientists at these two leading research institutions, with Autobahn Lab’s innovative approach to effectively applying the most relevant drug discovery and development resources to advance these programs to the clinic. This combination of expertise is designed to accelerate translation of early research findings into therapies that can positively impact the health of patients. Specifically, Autobahn Labs, which is a unique life sciences incubator, will facilitate the translation of this science into therapies and will form companies foundationally derived from early-stage discovery programs in close partnership with these leading academic centers.
“These two collaborations provide an exciting opportunity for the research being conducted by scientists at Boston Children’s Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania, to make a greater impact in the lives of patients,” said Thomas Novak, Chief Scientific Officer of Autobahn Labs. “The quality and diversity of research at Boston Children’s Hospital provides a compelling opportunity for us to identify tomorrow’s breakthrough drug discoveries, and Penn’s innovative and game-changing research allows us together to effectively span the continuum from promising early research to life-changing treatments,” he continued.
“We are looking forward to working with the Autobahn Labs team in support of the Penn Center for Innovation’s mission of helping to translate discoveries and ideas created at the University of Pennsylvania into new products and businesses for societal benefit,” said Benjamin Dibling, Deputy Managing Director of the Penn Center for Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania. “The drug development expertise and resources that Autobahn brings are complementary to the outstanding research, technologies and scientific leadership of our faculty,” he added.
“This exciting collaboration with the Autobahn team will expand the reach of Boston Children’s Hospital research and will enable the transformation of more scientific discoveries into therapies for children and adults,” said Irene Abrams Boston Children’s Hospital Vice President, Technology Development and New Business Ventures. “We’re looking forward to working together with Autobahn Labs to drive new and exciting drug discovery programs forward.”
Autobahn Labs will provide capital to fill the funding gap that often exists between academic funding and sources of institutional capital to advance and de-risk individual early-stage drug discovery programs that require access to state-of-the-art drug development capabilities. Autobahn Labs’ partners, Samsara BioCapital, which is a leading life sciences investment firm, and Evotec SE, which is a global multimodality drug discovery and development company, are key to the successful resourcing of these programs. Autobahn’s executive and advisory team of experienced drug discovery and development professionals will provide necessary intellectual capital.
Backed by Samsara BioCapital, Evotec SE, and KCK Ltd, Autobahn Labs invests earlier than traditional venture financing models, providing intellectual, financial and physical capital to efficiently and effectively advance new scientific discoveries from novel concept to preclinical drug candidate. Institutions benefit from Autobahn’s strategy and operational support, as well as the industry-leading drug discovery and development capabilities of Evotec, which provide a combination of innovative technologies, data and science. Autobahn creates jointly owned companies with their academic partners and invests up to $5M per project, provides operational and scientific expertise to guide drug development, and provides projects with access to Evotec’s powerful integrated multimodality platform, which can accelerate the translation of scientific ideas to novel therapeutics. Autobahn Labs has existing collaborations with the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), University of California San Francisco (UCSF), University of California San Diego (UCSD) and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in addition to the University of Pennsylvania and Boston Children’s Hospital.
SOURCE Autobahn Labs
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