Key Highlights
- Zafrens raises $23 million in financing, led by Prime Movers Lab and supported by various investors including BlueYard Capital and KOFA Healthcare.
- The funding will enhance the Z-Screen™ platform, a revolutionary technology in drug discovery offering 50,000 – 200,000 wells with integrated imaging and multi-omic capabilities.
- Key applications include large CRISPR, CAR-T, mRNA libraries, and exploration of molecular heterogeneity in drug discovery, aiming to streamline traditional drug-discovery processes.
Source: Business Wire
Notable Quotes
- “The Z-Screen approach is a fundamental change in how experiments are done. Iterative drug discovery can now be replaced with exhaustive combinatorial profiling at extremely high resolution,” – Swamy Vijayan, CEO at Zafrens
- “The cohesive merging of engineering, chemistry, and biology breakthroughs at Zafrens democratizes therapeutics discovery by driving down costs of experimentation,” – Justin Briggs, Biologist & Partner at Prime Movers Lab
- “The volume and resolution of data Zafrens generates is revolutionary in the machine learning possibilities it enables,” – Jason Whitmire, Managing Partner at BlueYard Capital
SoH's Take
Zafrens’ latest funding round represents a significant milestone in the evolution of drug discovery. By integrating exhaustive combinatorial profiling with high-resolution analysis, Zafrens is poised to drastically reduce the time and cost of drug development. The Z-Screen™ platform’s ability to handle large libraries of CRISPR, CAR-T, and mRNA, along with its innovative approach to molecular and functional profiling, positions it as a game-changer in the industry. This development not only accelerates drug discovery but also promises to enhance the precision and effectiveness of therapeutics. As the company seeks to expand its partnerships, the impact of its high-resolution biology could be transformative for healthcare and pharmaceutical research.
