OutSee, a genomics and drug discovery company pioneering a unique AI-based predictive genomics approach to target discovery, has announced it has secured £1.8M in seed funding, led by Ahren Innovation Capital and with additional investment from Kadmos Capital, Empirical Ventures and Panacea Ventures.
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The funds will support OutSee through the next phase of its growth strategy, with a focus on expanding the Company’s in-house target discovery program and establishing new strategic partnerships with leading pharma and biotech companies.
Invented by Dr Julian Gough, CEO and Founder, OutSee’s proprietary Nomaly technology predicts disease and phenotype ab initio directly from a single genome. The AI-powered engine uses hypothesis-free, predictive modelling to draw conclusions from the fundamental molecular and cellular biology of the genome, rather than by pattern-matching known genetic associations.
“OutSee’s Nomaly technology is a truly next-generation genomic analysis tool with potential to transform drug discovery using powerful data-driven insights. It allows us to interrogate smaller datasets, and even data that has already been analysed, to uncover unique target insights that until now would have remained undetected.” commented Dr Julian Gough, CEO and Founder, OutSee. “I would like to thank our investors, whose support in this endeavour will be crucial in allowing us to build out our in-house target identification program and establish new collaborative partnerships, and to our team for their continued hard work and dedication.”
This unique ‘genomics first’ approach enables Nomaly to complement existing target discovery pipelines, uncovering underlying biological mechanisms that drive and modulate disease. Nomaly can be applied to small datasets, or to unlock new, actionable insights from data that has already been analysed, helping to advance therapeutic discovery and development. The technology has been developed for use across a broad range of application areas, with OutSee’s in-house program initially focussed on CNS, rare and metabolic disease.
OutSee has previously received over £500k in precision medicine grants from Innovate UK to support technology extensions and to test their application on dementia case studies.
Dr Paul Wallace, chair, OutSee, said: “I would like to thank our investors and partners for their support, and for their confidence in our mission to drive therapeutic discovery through our pioneering, genetics first predictive genomics approach. This funding will enable us to leverage the full potential of Nomaly to uncover new therapeutic targets and bolster our in-house pipeline. We remain open to additional investment opportunities, and welcome enquiries from interested pharma and biotech industry partners.”