After developing a tool that could one day bring woolly mammoths back to the Siberian Arctic tundra and watch Tasmanian tigers return to Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea, the Dallas-based startup is spinning out its technology to bring it back to a new era. is heralding the arrival of scientific discovery.

With $30 million in fresh funding, Form Bio is launching as an independent company from local extinction-avoidance startup Colossal Biosciences, with the aim of “helping scientists reach discoveries and breakthroughs in less time and less effort. We focus on making it possible.

Form Bio co-CEO Kent Wakeford told Dallas Innovates:

But when it comes to the industry’s technology tools, “there was no cohesive solution, especially across the operating system from discovery to validation, optimization, manufacturing, and any approvals that had to be obtained.” He said. “So we developed a solution.”

Streamline new discoveries and breakthroughs

Form Bio’s products “will be invaluable for life science breakthroughs across companies, laboratories and universities,” the company said.

The platform is designed for use cases such as drug discovery, gene and cell therapy, manufacturing efficiency, and academic research.

The Computational Life Sciences Platform uses “deep learning AI algorithms” and an “intuitive” user interface to manage large datasets, workflows and visualization of results. This will enable companies, labs, and universities to streamline new discoveries and breakthroughs in fields ranging from drug discovery to the ancient DNA analysis that Colossal is working on.

“Such a platform can be a huge commercial success because it can solve a big need and add a lot of value to an enterprise,” said Wakefield. But he sees added value in double bottom lines. It is equally important to help “scientists treat or cure diseases that affect people’s lives.”

Colossal launches Form Bio after raising $75 million

Colossal co-founder and CEO Ben Lamm said: [Image: Colossal]

Form Bio, the first offshoot of Colossal, emerged from stealth last September with plans to use CRISPR genetic engineering to bring the woolly mammoth back from extinction.

Colossal and Flow Bio co-founder Ben Lamm said in a statement: “When you do a large-scale scientific effort like species extinction, you need not only the smartest scientists in the world, but also powerful software.”

Colossal chose to create its own software solution “after considering everything available on the market.”

With the launch of Form Bio, the company will share a comprehensive platform to “impact other areas of scientific innovation, including human health,” he says.

The Form Bio platform enables scientists to collaborate, design lab experiments, optimize manufacturing processes, and more. [Image: Form Bio]

After raising an oversubscribed Series A of $60 million in March, bringing the total to $75 million, the company announced plans to work with the University of Melbourne to revive the Tasmanian Tiger. While aiming to advance multiplex genetic engineering, synthetic biology, and other emerging fields, Colossal’s efforts aim to help restore degraded ecosystems and combat climate change.

Other spin-off companies may be in the pipeline

Wakeford said Form Bio could spin out of Colossal to distinguish between the two companies’ different focuses, hire their own staff and raise their own capital.

Form Bio Chief Strategy Officer Claire Aldridge told Dallas Innovates:

FormBio Chief Strategy Officer Claire Aldridge said:

“The company’s focus is to work with scientists, biotech companies, de-extinction companies, and other synthetic biology companies to ensure they are solving real problems that will benefit the entire molecular revolution. said Aldridge.

Colossal’s first spinout probably won’t be the last. The company’s strategy includes commercializing scientific innovations through new independent operating companies, and Lam previously said Colossal is “aiming to create monetizable IP” along its journey. He said.

“Science enters a new era”

Form Bio’s launch was led by San Francisco-based JAZZ Venture Partners, a billionaire entrepreneur who founded investment holding company Tulco LLC, “The Dark Knight” and “Inception.”

“Science is entering a whole new era in which advances not only treat disease, but cure it,” said John Spinale, managing partner at JAZZ Venture Partners, in a statement.

Form Bio is responding to that “data deluge,” he says. It also meets the industry’s “critical need” for a user-friendly platform to replace “huge amounts of code, cumbersome data wrangling processes, and underdeveloped tools.”

The platform can serve as a foundation for advanced AI-based applications tailored to the needs of specific industries and disciplines, the company said.

“Software has caught up with science”

Form Bio software helps life scientists manage large datasets and visualize results. [Image: Form Bio]

George Church, co-founder of Colossal, believes that computer-aided design, manufacturing, test analysis and machine learning are the future of bioengineering, especially endangered and extinct genetics of keystone species in important ecosystems. important for the recovery of biodiversity.

“Form Bio is the essential software that paves the way,” he said.

“We need these pipelines as scientists and engineers, and we look forward to more rapid breakthroughs in scientific discovery and application now that software has caught up with science,” said Harvard Medical School and MIT. said Church, a professor at and director of synthetic biology. at the Wyeth Institute in Boston.

Driving the ‘whole molecular revolution’ from Texas

Kent Wakeford, Co-CEO, Form Bio

Co-CEO Wakeford said Form Bio’s Series A funding will help build the team, especially in core areas such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. It also helps in further development as the company’s software evolves and enters the market.

Form Bio now has a team of 35 employees, about 18 of whom are spread across the company’s “major hubs” of Dallas and Austin. Bringing together experts in fields from bioinformatics to machine learning, the company is led by Wakeford, who was his COO at Colossal, and co-CEO Andrew Busey, Colossal’s former chief product officer. Former Biolabs COO Adam Milne assumes Wakeford’s previous position at Colossal.

Going forward, Aldridge believes Foam Bio’s technology will not only help drive the “whole molecular revolution” happening in life sciences and biotechnology, but also strengthen its lone star status as an industry hub. I’m here.

“Given that biomanufacturing is taking off, especially in Texas, this is a core element and tool to accelerate. [those businesses]said Wakeford. “There’s an effort to make Texas as competitive as Boston, San Diego, Northern California, North Carolina. These are the kinds of tools that make that possible.”

Quincy Preston contributed to this report.

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