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June 18, 2024
Ability Biologics Announces the Closing of its US $18 Million Seed Funding Extension toward the Generation of Novel, Highly Targeted Immunomodulators

Antibodies with unparalleled specificity and selectivity

Our AbiLeap™ discovery engine allows us to produce libraries of fully human therapeutic ready antibodies.

About Ability

Our mission

Develop innovative, targeted, immune modulating biotherapeutics to address unmet medical needs in patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases.


The premier biotherapeutic targeting company

Our powerful AbiLeap™ discovery engine combines massively parallel, continuously learning artificial intelligence (AI) with an extensive database of antigen-antibody interactions to generate fully human, IgG-based multispecific antibodies of exquisite selectivity and affinity.

The antibodies respond to environmental signals within the cellular microenvironment, generating logic-gated therapeutics. We are dedicated to developing the most potent and selective antibody therapeutics for areas of great unmet need. To learn more, contact us at .

Approach

Technology: Contextually-gated antibodies as next generation targeted biotherapeutics

Ability utilizes its proprietary AbiLeap™ discovery platform to generate logic-enabled antibodies that harbour contextual abilities to engage with key immune pathways. Ability is developing several preclinical antibody candidates with an exquisite selectivity for specific immune subpopulations and oncology targets, providing greater specificity and a broadened therapeutic window across a range of indications.

The AbiLeap™ platform layers generative AI over one of the largest, ML-ready antibody therapeutics discovery databases. The resulting discovery engine allows Ability to produce libraries of fully human therapeutic ready antibodies specifically designed to achieve contextual binding, enabling the generation of highly specific and selective antibodies.

Applications: Immune Modulators

We are focused on developing best-in-class and first-in-class immune modulators against targets with broad therapeutic applicability. Therapeutic assets are selected based on unique efficacy for rapid manufacturing and deployment in the clinical setting and for broad relevance across cancer and auto-immune applications where safer and more effective treatments are lacking. Ability will develop its drug candidates through human proof of concept clinical trials.

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Management Team

Our executive team has an extensive experience in antibody discovery and development programs and successfully taken multiple products through clinical development.


Giles Day
M.Sc.
Chief Executive Officer

Co-founder and CEO of Distributed Bio, Giles is an expert at building high performing capital efficient teams. He organically built Distributed Bio from 2 employees in 2010 to 30 in 2020, by structuring over 50 partnerships and licensing deals. He led the acquisition of Distributed Bio by Charles River Laboratories for over $100M up front with milestones and royalties. Prior to Distributed Bio Giles spent 15 years at Pfizer, where he held the position of Head of Informatics for the Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation division. Giles holds a MSc in Computational Biology from the University of Manchester.

Jean-Philippe Bürckert
M.Sc., Ph.D.
Vice-President
Technology

Jean-Philippe oversees the design strategies for the discovery and engineering programs as well as establishing the IP portfolio. Previously, JP was the Director of Bioinformatics at Charles River laboratories in South San Francisco, heading the scientific steering committee and R&D efforts at the site. Before that, he established the first US department of the international Bioinformatics, statistics and ML consulting firm BISC Global. He holds a PhD in computational immunology from the Luxembourg Institute of Health as well as a MSc in Biochemistry from the Technical University of Kaiserslautern. JP has accumulated over a decade of experience in immunoinformatics with a focus on antibody discovery and engineering.

Patrick Tremblay
Ph.D.
Chief Operating Officer

Patrick is an executive with broad expertise in R&D and corporate development. He supports operations as well as strategic initiatives. Patrick was the Chief Corporate Development Officer at CellCarta where he led M&A activities completing 6 global acquisitions (for more than US$ 250M), diversifying services and growing the company across 10 sites and 3 continents. Prior to that, Patrick worked with Pappas Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in North American life sciences. He also held positions as Vice-President of R&D at BioAxone and as Director of Pharmacology at Neurochem where he worked on the development of drugs for systemic amyloidosis, Alzheimer’s disease and spinal cord injury. He also held a position of Assistant Professor in Neurology at the UCSF where he was part of the Nobel Team of Stanley Prusiner (1997). Patrick holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Montreal University and completed postdoctoral studies at the Max Planck Institute in Goettingen (Germany).

Patricia Giblin
Ph.D.
Senior Vice-President
R&D

Patti is an experienced leader in drug discovery and development with strong track record for delivering biologic and small molecule candidates into the clinic in immune oncology and immunology. With a focus on understanding mechanism of action and clinical translation, Patti has held leadership positions in two early stage biotechs: Revitope Oncology, a company with a novel T cell engager platform where she led Biology and Northern Biologics where she established the translational sciences and bioanalytical teams while leading the company’s first clinical program. Patti began her career at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceutical where she laid down a strong foundation in R&D, with experience from target identification through Phase I. She obtained her Ph.D. in Immunology from Yale University and conducted her postdoctoral studies at UCSF in the laboratory of Dr. Steven D. Rosen.

Matthew Clark
Ph.D.
Vice-President
Data Sciences

Most recently, Matt was Sr. Director and Global Head of Data Analytics at Charles River Labs, where he introduced virtual control groups to in-vivo tests, replace control animals in preclinical studies using data science. Before that he led a global team of data scientists at Elsevier using AI, NLP, GAN and Bayesian statistics to address diverse problems in global drug development. Matt’s pharma experience includes Sr. Director of Computation at Locus Pharma, an AI-based pharma where the computational technology brought two programs to clinical trials as well as at AstraZeneca in safety sciences. He holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of Alabama.

Aldo Rozzo
DVM, Ph.D.
Director
Lab Operations

With over 30 years of experience in biomedical labs, Aldo has built a distinguished career as both a researcher and lab manager, spanning two continents and diverse fields, including Biochemistry, Neuroscience, Endocrinology, Genetics, Molecular, and Cell Biology. Aldo holds a DVM from the Veterinary School at the University of Parma and earned his Ph.D. in Biophysics from the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste. After several years in public and academic labs, including Boston’s Children Hospital and Harvard School, Aldo has been instrumental in supporting the establishment, operation, and expansion of R&D teams and infrastructure at Kerubin and Abcuro. In this capacity, Aldo has been instrumental in supporting the establishment, operation, and expansion of R&D teams and infrastructure. His expertise extends to developing new tools for the research community and advancing novel molecules into clinics.

Our Investors

  • Logo https://amplitudevc.com
  • Logo https://fondsftq.com
  • Logo https://investquebec.com
  • Logo https://criver.com
  • Logo https://theodorus.be
  • Logo https://are.com/venture-investments.html
  • Logo https://pageone.vc
“Ability’s proprietary platform stands out as it provides an unrivalled way of creating uniquely differentiated, potent, ultra-targeted biotherapeutics with markedly increased specificity and selectivity.”
– Dion Madsen, CFA, Amplitude Ventures

Careers

Ability is frequently looking for talented, skilled professionals to contribute to the company’s development and fulfill its vision.

hiring@ability.bio


News and Events

In this section, you will find our most recent press releases, as well as the events our team will be part of.

Ability Biologics Announces the Closing of its US $18 Million Seed Funding Extension toward the Generation of Novel, Highly Targeted Immunomodulators
Read more
Ability Biologics Unveils Discovery Platform that Generates Antibodies with Unparalleled Specificity and Selectivity
Read more

Contact Us

Ability Biologics

Headquarters
3 Place Ville Marie
Suite #400
Montreal, QC H3B 2E3
Canada

Ability @ Espace LABz

Laboratories
2650 Maximillien-Chagnon St.
Sherbrooke, QC J1E 0M8
Canada

Ability Biologics Team