The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has agreed to invest up to $7.3 million in Ride Therapeutics to support identification of potential delivery vehicles for inhaled genetic therapies for CF. According to the CFF, Ride plans to test millions of nanoparticles and use the data to train an AI to find nanoparticles that could be used as carrier for delivery of genetic therapies to the lung.
Ride, which describes itself as “an engineering and machine learning powered biotechnology company,” says that it plans to ” build on and accelerate Ride’s existing progress using systemic (IV) delivery, and support expansion of the technology for inhaled delivery.” The company, which notes that it is a spin off from Harvard and Cambridge universities, calls its “ultra-high-throughput nano-engineering system” the Molecular Logistics platform.
Ride Therapeutics CEO Sam Cohen commented, “The promise of genetic medicines has never been greater but can only be realized by solving the delivery challenge. Ride has built a unique platform that learns the rules of delivery by measuring it directly in the body, not in a dish or a simulation. Our vision is to decode the biological language of delivery through data generation on a scale no one has reached before. Ride has already screened millions of diverse carriers, discovering hits in many traditionally hard-to-reach tissues. We are excited to join the mission to deliver a cure for all cystic fibrosis patients in collaboration with the CF Foundation, an organization whose leadership, expertise, and commitment to patients are recognized around the world.”
CFF Executive VP and Chief Scientific Officer Steven M. Rowe said, “The Foundation is committed to supporting multiple approaches to deliver transformative genetic therapies to all people with CF. This investment is part of our overall strategy to identify the best delivery method to reach target lung cells.”
Read the Ride Therapeutics press release
Read the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation announcement
