Camena Bioscience raises fresh growth capital
Based at The Science Village at Chesterford Research Park, the company has already made significant strides with its proposition. The company's gSynth® platform consists of four core pillars of innovation. Together they address the challenges of accuracy, length, scale, and speed; bringing a complete solution to the production of synthetic DNA.
Born out of ideas from Cambridge UK and Pasadena in California, the company has raised fresh capital from largely unspecified sources. Harvey announced the news in a post on LinkedIn citing contributions from existing investor Mercia Ventures and some ‘new friends’, including antibody pioneer John McCafferty who co-founded Cambridge Antibody Technology. McCafferty also spearheaded Maxion Therapeutics in Cambridge.
Harvey writes: “Over time, we've found that our technology has become increasingly utilised by pharmaceutical companies working to engineer new antibodies. So it’s great to get John’s vote of confidence.
“We’re also living in a time where AI is transforming drug discovery pipelines. It's an unprecedented time in medicine development – and Camena Bioscience's time to shine.
“A challenge for us, is ensuring that we're building exactly what our partners need as AI becomes central to their pipelines. So, I'm super happy to announce that we are also adding Philip Nelson to our board. Phil heads up Google's Accelerated Science team and has a deep understanding of AI.
“He immediately understood why combining our DNA synthesis technology with AI has the potential to transform the discovery and development of novel therapeutics.
“And it wasn't that long ago that I was sitting in an empty office, in a foldout camping chair. I'm eternally grateful to everyone who has supported us on this journey. I'm also excited about what's ahead of us."
Camena Bioscience and another Cambridge enterprise – Constructive Bio recently joined a collaborative project led by the Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Germany for a research initiative to develop synthetic chloroplast genomes. In July 2023, Camena raised $10m in a Series A round led by Mercia Ventures.