insitro

Big thanks to Brunswick Group’s Ben Hirschler who recently spoke with insitro CFO/CBO Mary Rozenman on the potential of #AI and machine learning in #drugdiscovery. This piece also shows how UK Biobank (and insitro partner) contributes to the success in developing therapeutics against novel genetic intervention points in disease faster and more effectively than ever before. Read more from Mary and the Brunswick Review 📖: https://lnkd.in/epn7_xXQ

Exclusive: From the start, insitro's research strategy has diverged from most AI-focused biotechs. Many startups have started with lead programs targeting well-known biology, like HER2, TSLP and TYK2. Insitro focused on discovering new drug targets instead. That's taken more time to play out, but is a strategy that CEO Daphne Koller sees as worthwhile: “When you go after a target everyone and their cousin is going after, and you’re fifth in line to the clinic, then what value have you brought to patients? What value will subsequently accrue to you?” Koller told me. “This lemming-like approach of, ‘Here’s a target that others have de-risked, so we’re going to be third in line, fifth in line, 10th in line, to make a molecule and hope we can be best-in-class so we can eke out a small percentage of the market’ — sure, you could do that. There’s a business in that, but it’s not going to transform the industry.” My latest for Endpoints News is the first progress update to a collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb started in 2020. Koller says they have discovered a new genetic target against ALS — one of the hardest and most brutal diseases in the industry — and are now beginning work on developing a small molecule to drug it. My latest on insitro taking the hard road in drug discovery:

Today insitro announces the discovery and selection of a first novel target for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or #ALS, that was identified and validated by insitro as part of our collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb. We have received $25 million in milestone payments for the target selection and the achievement of discovery milestones. Check out the video below that takes you behind the scenes with Ajamete Kaykas, Chief eXploration Officer and Head of Neuroscience, and Samuel Sances, Associate Director, Neuroscience. They share how the team built our proprietary CellML platform to disentangle the complexity of ALS biology. It establishes a new approach for advancing #drugdiscovery using high-content, multi-modal data and machine learning and includes: - A collection of 200+ engineered and patient ALS cell lines to make motor neurons; - High-content imaging capabilities – designed for machine learning –  to identify disease mechanisms; and - A novel, #ML-enabled technology (POSH) to identify genes that modify ALS by exploring genetic space at massive scale For more on the collaboration, you can also read the press release here:  https://lnkd.in/eMhTm5uV

Big thanks to World Economic Forum for having our CEO and Founder Daphne Koller on the #MeetTheLeader podcast this year to discuss leadership insights, including the special gratitude round-up edition on best advice.

Proud to be named an LGBTQ+ Executive Outstanding Role Model for another year. The team at insitro cares deeply about making our company a great place for our people to do their best work, and inspires me every day to do my part in that to the fullest that I can. ❤️ 🏳️🌈

Celebrating big today! 🎉 insitro has been named to BioSpace’s 2025 Best Places to Work in the Small Employer category! While our insitrocytes know firsthand how much pride we take in building a culture that’s greater than the sum of its parts, this recognition speaks volumes about our collective efforts. We’re proud of who we are, how we get it done, and our mission to transform drug discovery using #MachineLearning and #AI. 🚀 https://lnkd.in/eVW6vt-2

For Colm O'Dushlaine, the journey to #drugdiscovery from genetics was a classic case of a “follow the data”: he started working on smaller GWAS studies in psychiatric genetics that were often underpowered, to larger datasets that helped to discover the first batch of strong associations for schizophrenia. Looking to understand the link to therapeutics with the best datasets available, he joined R&D organizations that were investing in genomics at scale. When he joined insitro, it was “the icing on the cake”, bringing together both #genomics and machine learning at scale, and using both great data and great models to power drug discovery. 🧬 Now Head of Statistical Genetics at insitro, Colm and colleagues recently put this approach on display at #ASHG24 in Denver (Nov. 5-9). They presented 5 posters showing how genetics and machine learning can uncover new paths to treating #ALS and MASLD, such as: ⭐ Novel uses of Mendelian Randomization to find promising drug targets ⭐ Guidance on the best approaches to avoid issues when working with machine learning-derived phenotypes ⭐ An extension of a method previously developed at insitro to run allelic series burden tests, now extended to run with summary statistics  ⭐ Genetic studies revealing new insights into ALS ⭐ Genome-wide analyses revealing mechanistic insights into the genetics of liver fat "Statistical genetics is a mature field," Colm notes, "but what ML does is beautifully augment our ability to derive novel phenotypes and insights from clinical data available at scale." What energizes Colm most is the collaboration at insitro. "I can work with world-class #ML colleagues to derive novel phenotypes from clinical images, then with statistical geneticists to perform rigorous analysis, then with therapeutic area colleagues to interpret the results and understand the biology through their domain expertise and experiments. That multidisciplinary interplay makes insitro so exciting." When not analyzing genetic data, Colm explores new countries with his family or pushes his limits through running, hiking and rucking, with the same spirit of discovery that drives his science.

insitro leverages both #machinelearning and statistical genetics at scale to power #drugdiscovery. This week, at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Annual Meeting, insitro is presenting 5 posters, including one preprint now available online on BioRxiv. Learn more in the article below. 🔽

What’s better than good food, great scenery, creative activities and even better company? insitrocytes had a blast at our annual company picnic 🧺, complete with swag and team spirit. 🌟 We met each other’s kids, puppies, partners and friends. We tie-dyed, played frisbee and put several bouncy houses to the test. It was the perfect way to connect and celebrate everything that makes our team special. ✨ Huge thanks to our People team for bringing us all together!

Nothing says "spooky" more than a good ol' fashioned costume contest! 👻 Check out a few of our best dressed insitrocytes, including a few that opted to go "all in" as our values taking them literally to represent our value blocks (left) and our legal eagles, aka TG pilots (right). From all of us at insitro, Happy Halloween. 🎃