Life sciences venture capital firm Flagship Pioneering is bringing a new preclinical startup focused on use of machine learning to discover new drugs out of stealth mode.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based firm said Thursday that it had unveiled Generate Biomedicines, which it touts as being able to rapidly invent new drugs ranging from antibodies, peptides, enzymes, cytokines and what it called “heretofore undiscoverable protein therapeutics.” The company was launched out of its in-house Flagship Labs and includes scientists who have previously launched several other companies.

The process is described as starting with Generate’s machine learning system learning from all known proteins, encoding and applying principles of how genetic sequences lead to protein structure and function. It then creates new protein sequences.

“Breakthroughs in machine learning algorithms, the exponential growth in computing power and the acceleration and democratization of DNA sequencing and DNA synthesis are allowing us to learn from biology at unprecedented scale,” Flagship CEO Noubar Afeyan said in a statement. “Protein design is not a new idea, but it has been frustrated by the limitations of previous technologies.”

The company said it has used its system to build a portfolio of therapeutic candidates, including multiple ones for neutralization of the virus that causes Covid-19, SARS-CoV-2, including antibodies and peptides that target multiple epitopes of the virus’ spike protein. Moreover, the company said its effort took less than 17 days.

“In the history of modern medicine, nearly every drug has been discovered or identified from a lengthy, cumbersome and costly process of trial and error,” Generate CEO Avak Kahvejian said in a statement. “Machine learning has evolved to a point where it can unlock the underlying principles of biology. With our proprietary computational platform, we believe we can move from chance drug discovery to intentional drug generation, not only accelerating the development of existing therapeutic modalities but also creating previously impossible ones.”

Several other companies have also sprung up in recent years with the goal of using artificial intelligence and machine learning to aid drug discovery and development. On Wednesday, Recursion Pharmaceuticals announced that it had secured a $239 million Series D funding round while also partnering with Bayer, whose venture capital arm had led the round.

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VentureBeat’s AI event of the year for enterprise decision-makers, Transform 2020, is shifting to an online-only event to protect our community amid concerns around the coronavirus.

Transform 2020 will be held online July 15-17, expanding to three days from two. Each day is dedicated to a big theme in AI, including the Conversational AI Summit, and the Technology & Automation Summit. The third day will focus on IoT & AI at the Edge, and Computer Vision.

VentureBeat is providing a way for the AI business community to experience virtually the same engaging experiences of in-person events. For example, we’re adding digital equivalents for networking, one-to-one meetings, match-making, and live Q&A with speakers.

VentureBeat is the leading publisher of AI content coverage, and brings its AI expertise, reach and network to bear at Transform. VB’s AI channel receives 20 million page views a year, and has a social reach of 1.5 million. News coverage from Transform alone generates more than a million page views. Transform gathers together 750 executives who are director and above to discuss the best practices in applied enterprise AI. Transform also offers invite-only experiences for the VP level-and-above executives who come every year.

The event features keynote speakers from companies like Google, Intuit, Walmart, Pinterest, Salesforce, Adobe, AWS, Chase, Goldman Sachs, PayPal, Doordash, Visa, and Disney — plus from a growing list of sponsors, including Intel, Dataiku, Capital One, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Two Hat Security. Other speakers include leading AI professors from academia, including Stanford and Berkeley. Transform will also host its popular Women-in-AI breakfast, sponsored by Intel and Capital One. Transform will include a focus on diversity and inclusion topics, reflecting how ethics has become an important part of smart AI practice, and host its 2nd annual AI Innovation Awards.

VentureBeat’s virtual event will allow AI innovators and leading executives from around the world to partake despite ongoing challenges surrounding the outbreak. We expect the digital options we’re planning may allow even more people to participate than had it been offline — expanding the experience to an even wider group of businesses and executives.

As part of our digital offering, attendees will be able to view live sessions with AI leaders, join networking sessions, engage in digital roundtables, take part in our AI expo and Tech Showcase online, and participate in 1:1 meetings with world-class AI providers.

“With Transform being the only significant digital AI event for business executives on the map for 2020, it’s important we take leadership in the community, and support dialogue and networking for decision-making around AI,” said Matt Marshall, founder and CEO of VentureBeat. “We’ve created a virtual event platform for networking and 1:1 meetings to happen — so that we can bring thought leaders in AI together.”

Interested investors, vendors, and business executives can register here to join the event online. For companies interested in partnerships, we have innovative and high impact custom solutions in place for all the components for our strategic sponsors.

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