Here’s Automera. This Singapore-based startup builds technology that will make it easier, faster, and cheaper to develop more effective treatments. 

Their method leverages autophagy (the body’s process of using old and damaged cell parts) to target and eliminate disease-causing bacteria. 

• And they just raised a $16M Series A!

Investor check. Accelerator Life Science Partners (ALSP) and ClavystBio co-led the round, while EDBI, Xora Innovation, and some investors also joined in!

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🧑‍⚕️ The ABCs of Automera

Automera’s platform explores targeted protein degradation (TPD) as a mode of treatment. 

TPD triggers the degradation of disease-related proteins while retaining the benefits of small molecules.

• Not just disease-related proteins. Their platform is also designed to create new means to degrade protein aggregates, organelles, and pathogens. 

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⬇️ More on the process

Their approach involves autophagy ‘warheads’ that can trigger and engage in the autophagy process. 

Automera couples disease-targeting molecules with the warheads and selectively degrades specific targets. 

• The autophagy warhead, disease-targeting ligand, and a linker altogether make up their novel autophagy-targeting chimeric molecules (AUTAC).

TLDR, please. Automera’s tech can ‘break down’ diseases in targeted areas for better treatments of, for instance, cancer. 

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😷 What the future holds? 

They’ll focus their product development efforts to treat cancer.