Constructive Bio raises $58m as Sir Greg Winter joins board
Constructive Bio has closed a $58million Series A round – one of the largest UK biotech Series A rounds in recent years – and welcomed Nobel prize winner Sir Greg Winter to its board of directors.
The raise brings the total investment in the pioneer of genome writing and genetic code reprogramming to $75m since it was spun out from the laboratory of Prof Jason Chin at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge in 2022.
In 2019 Prof Chin synthesised the entire genome of the bacterium E. coli – the first synthetic strain created for industrial use. With this research as the cornerstone of its approach, Constructive Bio is uniquely able to expand the genetic code of cells to incorporate multiple non-canonical amino acids into a single molecule.
Based at The Recodery in Whittlesford, Constructive Bio is exploring unchartered chemical space to build programmable biomolecules “beyond what nature can do, with applications across industries”.
The Series A round was led by Ahren, OMX Ventures and Paladin Capital Group with participation from Fine Structure Ventures, +ND Capital and Abcam founder Jonathan Milner. The investment will be used to further develop Constructive Bio’s groundbreaking technology that writes genomes from scratch and creates entirely new biomolecules.
Uniquely, Constructive Bio has the capacity to produce fully programmable molecules with unprecedented fidelity, specificity, and scalability. Through genome synthesis, the company is able to write entire custom genomes with full control of the genetic sequence and code. By engineering protein translation, it can create and biomanufacture entirely new molecules with novel properties and functions.
The immediate applications include treatments for diabetics involving the use of semaglutide analogs and incretin mimetics.
Sir Greg Winter, Ahren science partner and board member of Constructive Bio, said: “With this investment, we aim to develop Constructive Bio’s technology to deliver biomanufacturing at scale.
“By providing a biological, cost-effective production process, we can help overcome shortfalls in global supplies of therapeutic peptides and proteins such as semaglutide.”
Prof Chin said: “We’ve shown that we can, at Constructive, make semaglutide analogs and incretin mimetics.
“Two things that we’ll use this fundraise for: to further explore the incretin mimetics that we can make using our technology, and to look at the scalable production of incretin mimetics, because there’s a lot of challenges about the ways they’re currently made — using lots of solvents. There’s a real inability to meet the projected global supply.”
The company is rapidly advancing its technologies to develop new therapeutics and synthesise these and existing pharmaceuticals at scale.
“Synthetic genomics is redefining how we harness biology. Our suite of proprietary technologies and incomparable team allows us to build novel materials and products that will revolutionise drug manufacturing and discovery,” said Ola Wlodek, CEO at Constructive Bio.
“This financing will enable us to accelerate bringing breakthrough products and platforms to market, which will grow our revenue through existing and new paths, ranging from exciting therapeutics to sustainable biomaterials.
“We see the future of biology, and we're leading the charge.”