Roman Kasianov
Covers AI in drug discovery, digital pathology, and translational R&D, editor of "Where Tech Meets Bio"; oversees company profiles, partnerships, and core operations at BiopharmaTrend.
Recent articles from Roman
T.Rx Capital Raises $77.5M to Back Early-Stage Biotech and Digital Health
T.Rx Capital closed a $77.5 million inaugural fund to back early-stage companies at the interface of technology and biology, targeting biotechnology "techbio" and tech-enabled services. The firm plans a concentrated portfolio of roughly 10-15 companies, writing $5–$10 million checks from …
Google-Backed BenchSci Reports New System to Extract Experimental Context From Biomedical Papers Into a Traceable Evidence Graph
BenchSci reports a method to convert biomedical papers into structured, evidence-linked data intended to support a Biological Evidence Knowledge Graph and neuro-symbolic reasoning across disease biology. The system is described as operating across domains and at throughput measured in thousands …
AI Drug Developer Insilico Medicine Readies Brain-Penetrant Therapy For Parkinson’s Trials
Insilico Medicine reports it has finished IND-enabling work for ISM8969, an oral, blood-brain-barrier-penetrant NLRP3 inhibitor and aims to file an IND in Q4 2025 to start clinical evaluation in Parkinson’s disease. In preclinical MPTP models, the candidate reportedly produced dose-dependent …
Modi Ventures Closes $88M Second Fund for AI–Biology Convergence Investments
Modi Ventures has raised $88 million for its second fund, bringing total committed capital to over $134 million. The Houston-based venture firm, launched in 2022, invests in companies and funds operating at the intersection of artificial intelligence, biology, and …
Latent Labs Launches Web-Based AI Tool for Custom Protein Generation
Five months after emerging from stealth with $50 million in funding, Latent Labs has launched a web-based AI model Latent-X for programmable protein design. The release marks a shift from closed, proprietary pipelines to accessible tools aimed at academic and …
Japan’s Elix Launches AI Drug Discovery Platform Trained on Confidential Pharma Data via Federated Learning
Tokyo-based Elix (founded 2016) has launched Elix Discovery, an AI drug discovery platform powered by federated learning models trained on proprietary compound data from 16 pharmaceutical companies. The platform is the first commercial deployment to result from Japan’s AMED-backed …
Xaira Therapeutics Appoints Biotech Exec Behind Belharra and Ambys as President and COO to Scale AI-Driven Drug Discovery Platform
Xaira Therapeutics, the AI-native biotech launched in 2024 with over $1 billion in funding, has appointed biotech executive Jeff Jonker as President and Chief Operating Officer. Jonker will report to CEO Marc Tessier-Lavigne and oversee operational functions as Xaira …
AbbVie Acquires Capstan Therapeutics for $2.1B, Gaining In Vivo CAR-T Platform Targeting Autoimmune Diseases
AbbVie announced a definitive agreement to acquire Capstan Therapeutics for up to $2.1 billion in cash, gaining access to its targeted lipid nanoparticle (tLNP) platform for in vivo cell engineering and its lead candidate, CPTX2309. The platform enables mRNA delivery …
Chai Discovery Releases All-Atom Foundation Model for Zero-Shot Antibody Design with 16–20% Hit Rates
Chai Discovery has released Chai-2, a generative molecular design model for zero-shot antibody and binder discovery. The model is capable of designing fully de novo CDRs based solely on a given epitope and target structure, without reliance on existing …
Arc Institute Opens Virtual Cell Challenge With $175K in AI Benchmarking Prizes
The Arc Institute has launched the Virtual Cell Challenge, a new open competition to benchmark computational models that predict how human cells respond to genetic perturbations. Announced today and published in Cell (Vol. 188, Issue 13), the …