Just as a map shows you how to reach a destination in the real world, Ampersand Biomedicines’ map of tissues of the human body shows where a drug should go in the biological one. Now the startup has $65 million to continue its journey with programs progressing in cancer and inflammation.

就像地图为您展示如何在现实世界中到达目的地一样，Ampersand Biomedicines的人体组织图谱显示了药物应在生物环境中到达的位置。现在，这家初创公司已获得6500万美元，以继续其在癌症和炎症领域不断推进的项目旅程。

The Series B financing announced Wednesday comes two years after

周三宣布的 B 轮融资发生在两年后

the Boston-based biotech launched from the labs of Flagship Pioneering

总部位于波士顿的生物技术公司从Flagship Pioneering的实验室中诞生。

. Joining Flagship in the latest round is new investor Eli Lilly along with other financial backers that were not named.

加入旗舰公司最新一轮投资的是新投资者礼来公司（Eli Lilly）以及其他未具名的金融支持者。

Ampersand is part of a growing number of startups applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to drug research. The company is trying to solve what CEO Jason Gardner says is one of the biggest problems in pharmaceuticals: medicines that hit their targets but cause side effects because those targets are also found on healthy tissue.

Ampersand 是越来越多的将人工智能和机器学习应用于药物研究的初创公司之一。该公司正试图解决首席执行官贾森·加德纳所说的制药领域最大的问题之一：那些击中目标但会引起副作用的药物，因为这些目标也存在于健康组织中。

This on-target, off-tissue toxicity can be a significant dose-limiting factor for therapies..

这种靶向准确但脱靶毒性可能成为治疗的显著剂量限制因素。

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向PDPM模式的过渡显著改变了医疗保健行业。通过取代RUG系统，医疗保健提供者减少了浪费，并更准确地反映了每位患者所接受的护理。

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Ampersand created its map of human tissues with a platform technology called Address, Navigate, and Design (AND). Its map identifies and validates “addresses,” identifying markers found on disease targets but not on healthy tissue. Ampersand’s drugs are biologics. Targeted delivery of a therapy comes from linking the drug to a “localizer,” a molecule with an affinity to the particular biologic address.

Ampersand 使用一种名为“定位、导航和设计”（AND）的平台技术创建了其人体组织图谱。该图谱识别并验证“地址”，即在疾病靶点上发现但不在健康组织上的标记物。Ampersand 的药物属于生物制品。通过将药物与“定位器”（一种对该特定生物地址具有亲和力的分子）连接，实现治疗的靶向递送。

Ampersand bolstered its technology with the .

Ampersand通过技术增强了其能力。

2024 acquisition of AbCheck

2024年收购AbCheck

, a company that brought new antibody discovery capabilities. Gardner, who is also a CEO-partner at Flagship, said AND enables scientists to test various hypotheses, quickly yielding data about a drug’s potency and activity. These results inform future research.

，一家带来新型抗体发现能力的公司。加德纳也是Flagship的首席执行官合伙人，他表示，AND使科学家能够测试各种假设，快速产生有关药物效力和活性的数据。这些结果为未来的研究提供了信息。

“Those data, those results, become training datasets for the algorithms,” Gardner said. “So positive or negative data — super powerful for Ampersand because we can feed back our predictive algorithms.”

“这些数据、这些结果，成为了算法的训练数据集，”加德纳说。“所以无论是正面还是负面的数据——对Ampersand来说都非常有价值，因为我们可以将这些反馈给我们的预测算法。”

Ampersand isn’t disclosing specific diseases or targets of interest just yet. But as an example, Gardner pointed to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Of the more than 60 approved medicines for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, none of them addresses targets specific to the gut, he said. That lack of selectivity leads to side effects beyond the gastrointestinal system.

Ampersand 尚未披露具体的疾病或感兴趣的目标。但作为例子，Gardner 提到了炎症性肠病 (IBD)。在超过60种获批用于克罗恩病和溃疡性结肠炎的药物中，没有任何一种针对肠道特异性靶点，他表示。这种选择性的缺乏会导致超出胃肠系统的副作用。

Ampersand can explore gastrointestinal drug research because AND has great addresses in the gut as well as other tissues in the body, Gardner explained..

加德纳解释说，Ampersand可以探索胃肠道药物研究，因为AND在肠道以及其他身体组织中都有很好的作用靶点。

The two lead Ampersand programs are in development for immuno-oncology and immuno-inflammation. With the new capital, the company plans to advance both to the preclinical research that could support investigational new drug applications (INDs). Like other Flagship companies, developing Ampersand around a platform technology positions the startup to pursue partnerships with large pharmaceutical companies.

两个主要的Ampersand项目正在免疫肿瘤学和免疫炎症领域开发中。利用新的资金，该公司计划将这两个项目推进到可能支持研究性新药申请（IND）的临床前研究阶段。像其他Flagship公司一样，围绕平台技术开发Ampersand使这家初创公司能够寻求与大型制药公司的合作。

Gardner said Ampersand talks to potential partners about their programs and targets, discussing ways the AND technology can help..

加德纳说，Ampersand 与潜在合作伙伴就其项目和目标进行交流，探讨 AND 技术如何提供帮助。

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选择合适的软件可以直接转化为更好的客户管理、运营效率以及您的水疗连锁店的增长。找出哪种工具最适合您的业务。

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So far, Ampersand has two discovery-stage collaborations, one with Pioneering Medicines, which is Flagship’s in-house drug discovery and development unit, and

迄今为止，Ampersand 已经与 Pioneering Medicines（Flagship 旗下的药物发现和开发部门）建立了两个处于探索阶段的合作关系，并且

the other with Pfizer

另一个与辉瑞

, part of a

，部分是

broader alliance with Flagship that started in 2023

始于2023年与旗舰更广泛的合作关系

. Both discovery collaborations are focused on obesity. Gardner acknowledged the flurry of research and dealmaking activity in metabolic medicines, but he said Ampersand will not become an obesity drug company. That said, many of the patients eligible for GLP-1 drugs are not taking them. This drug class comes with gastrointestinal side effects that lead many patients to stop treatment.

两家发现合作都集中在肥胖症上。加德纳承认代谢药物领域的研究和交易活动非常活跃，但他表示Ampersand不会成为一家肥胖症药物公司。也就是说，许多符合GLP-1药物使用条件的患者并没有服用这些药物。这类药物有胃肠道副作用，导致许多患者停止治疗。

Gardner said a goal of these collaborations is to develop new obesity medicines that offer better potency and an improved side effect profile..

加德纳说，这些合作的目标是开发出效果更好、副作用更小的新型肥胖症药物。

Eli Lilly has become a juggernaut in metabolic drugs with Mounjaro and Zepbound, each a blockbuster product. While Lilly is a new investor in Ampersand, Gardner declined to say whether there have also been discussions about a potential partnership. Nevertheless, the investment represents a vote of confidence in Ampersand.

礼来公司凭借Mounjaro和Zepbound这两款重磅产品，已成为代谢药物领域的巨头。尽管礼来是Ampersand的新投资者，加德纳拒绝透露是否也讨论过潜在的合作关系。然而，这项投资代表了对Ampersand的信心投票。

Gardner said Lilly made its investment decision after looking at the AND platform..

加德纳说，礼来公司在研究了AND平台后做出了投资决定。

The new financing allows Ampersand to advance the startup’s wholly owned assets into IND-enabling studies later this year. Gardner declined to discuss plans beyond that. Decisions about the programs and future financing will depend on how the preclinical research pans out.

新的融资使 Ampersand 能够在今年晚些时候将其全资拥有的资产推进到支持 IND 申请的研究。加德纳拒绝讨论除此之外的计划。关于这些项目和未来融资的决定将取决于临床前研究的结果。

“Together with the two discovery partnerships in obesity, the platform, and our pipeline, I think this [financing] puts us in a strong position,” Gardner said. “For advancing, a lot of it will be data dependent.”

“结合我们在肥胖领域的两个发现合作伙伴关系、平台以及我们的研发管线，我认为这次[融资]使我们处于一个非常有利的位置，”加德纳说。“对于未来发展，很多将取决于数据。”

Photo: Larry Washburn, Getty Images

照片来源：拉里·沃什伯恩，盖蒂图片社