BERKELEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Profluent, an AI-first protein design company, today announced the close of additional funding to bring the total raised to $44M. The $35M financing was led by Spark Capital, with participation from existing investors Insight Partners and Air Street Capital along with a syndicate of angel investors from OpenAI, Salesforce, Octant Bio, and Google including Jeff Dean, Chief Scientist of Google DeepMind.

加利福尼亚州伯克利市（商业新闻短讯）--人工智能第一家蛋白质设计公司Profluent今天宣布关闭额外资金，使募集资金总额达到4400万美元。3500万美元的融资由Spark Capital牵头，现有投资者Insight Partners和Air Street Capital以及来自OpenAI、Salesforce、Octant Bio和谷歌（包括谷歌DeepMind首席科学家杰夫·迪恩）的天使投资者财团共同参与。

The company previously raised $9M from Insight Partners, Air Street Capital, AIX Ventures, and Convergent Ventures..

该公司之前从Insight Partners、Air Street Capital、AIX Ventures和Convergent Ventures筹集了900万美元。

“Our research at the forefront of AI has enabled Profluent to create large language models that begin to learn the blueprint of nature,” said Ali Madani, Profluent co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. “We are moving biology from being constrained by what can be discovered in nature to being able to design precisely according to our needs via AI.

Profluent联合创始人兼首席执行官阿里·马达尼（AliMadani）表示：“我们在人工智能前沿的研究使Profluent能够创建大型语言模型，开始学习大自然的蓝图。”。“我们正在将生物学从被自然界可以发现的东西所束缚，转变为能够通过人工智能精确地根据我们的需求进行设计。

The science is real and the time is now to proactively create breakthrough medicines that can transform society.”.

科学是真实的，现在是时候积极创造可以改变社会的突破性药物了。”

Profluent was founded on the principle of AI as an interpreter to decode the language of life and transcend the limits of traditional protein engineering. Previous approaches required inefficient searches within nature or brute-force mutagenesis, greatly hampering the resulting probability of success.

Profluent基于人工智能作为解释者的原理，可以解码生命语言并超越传统蛋白质工程的局限性。以前的方法需要在自然界或强力诱变中进行低效搜索，极大地阻碍了由此产生的成功概率。

In contrast, Profluent’s models can rapidly access an immense combinatorial space to optimize across multiple functional attributes, enabling a paradigm shift from accidental discovery to intentional design. By first applying its platform to gene editing, the company showcases AI as the ideal interface for engineering complex biological systems.

相比之下，Profluent的模型可以快速访问巨大的组合空间，以跨多个功能属性进行优化，从而实现从偶然发现到有意设计的范式转变。通过首次将其平台应用于基因编辑，该公司展示了人工智能作为工程复杂生物系统的理想界面。

The versatility of the platform allows for AI to precisely tune existing CRISPR scaffolds or create novel editing systems from scratch, with the ultimate goal of crafting the right tool for each patient..

该平台的多功能性允许AI精确调整现有的CRISPR支架或从头创建新颖的编辑系统，最终目标是为每位患者打造正确的工具。

'As they advance the frontier of AI research in the life sciences, Ali and Profluent are making biology programmable for the first time,” said Fraser Kelton, General Partner at Spark Capital and former Head of Product at OpenAI. “I joined OpenAI in 2020 when I realized the events of this past year were inevitable.

Spark Capital普通合伙人、OpenAI前产品负责人弗雷泽·凯尔顿（Fraser Kelton）表示：“随着Ali和Profluent在生命科学领域推进人工智能研究的前沿，他们首次将生物学编程化。”。“当我意识到过去一年的事件不可避免时，我于2020年加入了OpenAI。

We’re at the precipice of a similar change in biology. Just as ChatGPT can write compelling essays and emails, Profluent has developed AI that designs entirely new and functional proteins. Having seen firsthand what happens when the frontier of AI is advanced in a field, it was impossible to not be involved with Profluent and support their mission.'.

我们正处于生物学类似变化的边缘。正如ChatGPT可以撰写引人注目的文章和电子邮件一样，Profluent开发了一种设计全新功能蛋白质的人工智能。当人工智能的前沿在一个领域取得进展时，亲眼目睹了发生的事情，不可能不参与挥霍并支持他们的使命。”

Kelton joined OpenAI in 2020 when it was a research lab and helped lead its commercialization efforts. He wrote the first product roadmaps for the organization and helped build and lead teams that launched OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL-E. Kelton has been an investor at Spark Capital since 2023.

凯尔顿于2020年加入OpenAI，当时它是一个研究实验室，并帮助领导其商业化努力。他为该组织编写了第一份产品路线图，并帮助建立和领导了启动OpenAI的ChatGPT和DALL-E的团队。自2023年以来，凯尔顿一直是Spark Capital的投资者。

'Historically, true disruption has occurred when two cutting-edge technologies intersect. Profluent is bridging AI and CRISPR, leading to previously unseen innovation in the field. We view the transformation of natural enzymes like Cas9 into therapeutics as a significant leap forward, and we intend to build on this progress by custom-designing enzymes for entirely new editing modalities,' said Hilary Eaton, Chief Business Officer at Profluent.

“从历史上看，当两种尖端技术相交时，就会发生真正的中断。Profluent正在桥接AI和CRISPR，从而导致该领域以前看不见的创新。Profluent首席商务官希拉里·伊顿（HilaryEaton）说：“我们认为，将Cas9等天然酶转化为治疗药物是一个重大的飞跃，我们打算在这一进展的基础上，为全新的编辑方式定制设计酶。”

'The foundation of our business model is partnerships – we’re actively evaluating potential collaborations with companies that are correspondingly best-in-class or innovative within each therapeutic vertical, CRISPR and beyond.”.

“我们的商业模式的基础是合作伙伴关系-我们正在积极评估与各治疗垂直、CRISPR及其他领域相应最佳或创新的公司的潜在合作。”

As part of the financing, Kelton and Nabeel Hyatt, also a general partner at Spark Capital, will join the company’s Board of Directors. The capital will support Profluent's next stage of growth, focusing on the advancement of its proprietary LLMs and datasets, wet lab capabilities, and upleveling of CRISPR gene editing.

作为融资的一部分，Kelton和Nabeel Hyatt（也是Spark Capital的普通合伙人）将加入公司董事会。该资本将支持Profluent的下一阶段增长，重点是其专有LLM和数据集的进步，湿实验室能力以及CRISPR基因编辑的升级。

This investment will enable the creation and validation of innovative, functional proteins and move the company closer to significantly improving healthcare and disease treatment..

这项投资将有助于创建和验证创新的功能性蛋白质，并使公司更接近于显着改善医疗保健和疾病治疗。

Profluent was co-founded in 2022 by Madani, who previously led machine learning research initiatives at Salesforce Research, and Alexander Meeske, assistant professor of microbiology at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine. Joining CEO Madani on Profluent’s seasoned executive team are Chief Business Officer Hilary Eaton, who brings a decade of gene editing-focused business development experience at Tome, Vor and Editas; and VP and Head of Gene Editing Peter Cameron, who previously directed technology development at Spotlight and Caribou..

Profluent于2022年由马达尼（Madani）和华盛顿大学医学院（University of Washington's School of Medicine）微生物学助理教授亚历山大·米斯克（AlexanderMeeske）共同创立，马达尼曾领导Salesforce research的机器学习研究计划。首席商务官希拉里·伊顿（HilaryEaton）与首席执行官马达尼（Madani）一起加入Profluent经验丰富的高管团队，她在Tome、Vor和Editas拥有十年专注于基因编辑的业务开发经验；以及副总裁兼基因编辑主管彼得·卡梅隆（PeterCameron），他曾在Spotlight和Caribou指导技术开发。

The company’s technology has been validated by a peer-reviewed paper in Nature Biotechnology that detailed the first demonstration of LLMs generating entire de novo proteins that function as well as natural proteins evolved over millions of years.

该公司的技术已经在Nature Biotechnology上的一篇同行评审论文中得到了验证，该论文详细介绍了LLM产生的整个从头蛋白质的首次证明，这些蛋白质的功能与数百万年来进化的天然蛋白质一样。

About Profluent

关于Profluent

Profluent is an AI-first protein design company headquartered in Berkeley, CA. Founded in 2022, Profluent develops deep generative models to design and validate novel, functional proteins to revolutionize biomedicine. The company is backed by leading investors including Spark Capital, Insight Partners, Air Street Capital, AIX Ventures, and Convergent Ventures.

Profluent是一家AI首家蛋白质设计公司，总部位于加利福尼亚州伯克利。成立于2022年，Profluent开发了深度生成模型，以设计和验证新颖的功能性蛋白质，从而彻底改变生物医学。该公司由领先的投资者支持，包括Spark Capital、Insight Partners、Air Street Capital、AIX Ventures和Convergent Ventures。

To learn more about Profluent’s mission to decode the language of life with AI, visit profluent.bio..

要了解更多关于Profluent用人工智能解码生活语言的使命，请访问Profluent.bio。