Seismic Therapeutic Announces Presentation of Preclinical Data for Advancing Novel Biologics Drug Programs at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies

Nine poster presentations support immunoglobin sculpting enzyme and dual-cell bidirectional antibody programs to control dysregulated adaptive immunity 

Cambridge, Mass., June 14, 2023 – Seismic Therapeutic, Inc., the machine learning immunology company, today announced nine poster presentations supporting the company’s emerging pipeline of novel biologics derived from its proprietary IMPACT platform to treat autoimmune diseases at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) taking place on June 20-23 in Boston, MA. Seismic’s immunoglobin (Ig) sculpting enzymes and dual-cell bidirectional (DcB) antibody programs will be highlighted in these presentations, demonstrating the design of therapeutics to address unmet medical needs for diseases involving dysregulation of humoral immunity and cell-mediated immunity, the two arms of the adaptive immune system. In particular, results from novel in vitro human assays to characterize inhibitory checkpoint receptor agonism will be presented along with activity readouts in in vivo humanized mouse models with Seismic’s lead DcB antibody program, in comparison to current benchmarks.

“We are thrilled to share preclinical data showing rapid advancement of our Ig sculpting enzymes and DcB antibody programs and highlighting the translational immunology capabilities within our IMPACT platform,” said Kevin Otipoby, PhD, Senior VP Immunology of Seismic Therapeutic. “There is a great need for optimized treatments of dysregulated adaptive immunity and our IMPACT platform enables us to efficiently design, optimize, and select novel biologics drug candidates to address acute and chronic autoantibody mediated diseases and cell-mediated autoimmune diseases.”

Details of the poster presentations at FOCIS 2023 are as follows:

DcB Antibody Programs

IMPACTing Autoimmunity Through Dual Targeting of Antigen Presenting Cells and T Cells via Inhibitory Receptor Agonism
Tuesday, June 20th 6:00 – 7:45 p.m.
Poster number: Tu139
Author: Stephanie Grebinoski, PhD

Identification and Characterization of Selective FcγRIIb Binders and their Potential of IMPACTing Immune-Mediated Diseases
Tuesday, June 20th 6:00 – 7:45 p.m.
Poster number: Tu133
Author: Stephen Lutz, BS

Identification and Characterization of Inhibitory Receptor Agonists for the Treatment of Autoimmune and Inflammatory Diseases
Tuesday, June 20th 6:00 – 7:45 p.m.
Poster number: Tu132
Author: Michael Cianci, MS

In vivo models supporting the identification of novel inhibitory receptor agonists for the treatment of immune-mediated diseases
Tuesday, June 20th 6:00 – 7:45 p.m.
Poster number: Tu130
Author: Minasri Borah, MS

Ig Sculpting Enzyme Programs

The Promise of Machine Learning: Using Seismic’s IMPACT Platform to Design IgG Cleaving Enzymes for Chronic Treatment of Autoimmune Diseases
Thursday, June 22nd 7:30 a.m. -.7:30 p.m.
Poster number: Th143
Author: Alex Pellerin, PhD

In Vitro Assay Development to Assess Successful Removal of T and B Cell Epitopes Through Seismic’s IMPACT Platform
Wednesday, June 21st 7:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Poster number: W138
Author: Andita Newton, MS

In Vivo PK/PD Assessment of Invisibilized IgG Cleaving Protease for Chronic Treatment of Autoimmune Diseases
Tuesday, June 20th 6:00 – 7:45 p.m.
Poster number: Tu142
Author: Liliana Sanmarco, PhD

Identifying Next Generation Ig Selective Cleaving Enzymes for Treatment of Autoimmune Diseases Using IMPACT Platform
Tuesday, June 20th 6:00 – 7:45 p.m.
Poster number: Tu134
Author: Purvi Mande, PhD

High-Throughput Western Blot for In Vitro and In Vivo Assessment of Human Ig Specific Cleaving Enzymes
Tuesday, June 20th 6:00 – 7:45 p.m.
Poster number: Tu126
Author: Nam Le, BS

In addition to the poster presentations, Ivan Mascanfroni, PhD, Senior Director of Immunology at Seismic, will chair the “Adaptive Immunity” session on Friday, June 23rd at 8 a.m.

About Dual-cell Bidirectional (DcB) Programs

Seismic’s DcB antibody approach targets dysregulated cell-mediated immunity by optimally engaging both T cells and antigen presenting cells, such as B cells, to restore homeostasis. Activating these pathways may control multiple diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. DcB antibodies simultaneously engage multiple inhibitory pathways in more than one immune cell type thereby targeting and regulating both sides of the immune synapse. 

About Immunoglobulin (Ig) Sculpting Programs

Seismic’s Ig sculpting enzymes address dysregulated humoral immunity by reducing both Ig levels and antibody effector functions, which contribute to the pathogenesis of a wide range of autoimmune diseases, such as myasthenia gravis, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and immune thrombocytopenia. Enzymes that specifically cleave antibodies may eliminate circulating and immune-complexed Ig, as well as cell surface B cell receptors, thereby modulating Ig-mediated autoimmunity and inflammation. 

About Seismic Therapeutic
Seismic Therapeutic is a biotechnology company integrating machine learning across the entire biologics discovery process to accelerate immunology drug development. Using its IMPACT™ platform, the company is addressing the central challenges of biologics discovery and development by fully integrating machine learning with the key elements of biologics drug discovery – structural biology, protein engineering and translational immunology – to create optimized therapies on an accelerated path to patients. Seismic Therapeutic has an emerging pipeline of novel biologics to address adaptive immune system dysregulation to treat autoimmune diseases. The company is backed by a strong syndicate of life sciences investors and is located in the Boston biotechnology hub. For more information, please visit www.seismictx.com and follow up on Twitter @Seismic_Tx and on LinkedIn. 

Media Contact
Kathryn Morris, The Yates Network
914-204-6412
kathryn@theyatesnetwork.com

Seismic Therapeutic Announces Presentation of Preclinical Data Demonstrating Advances in Novel Biologics Discovery at the PEGS Boston Summit

Application of IMPACT platform to optimize antibody and enzyme therapeutics through parallelization and invisibilization to develop novel protein therapeutics

Cambridge, Mass., May 11, 2023 – Seismic Therapeutic, Inc., the machine learning immunology company, today announced the presentation of preclinical data that describe the application of the company’s IMPACT platform at PEGS Boston 2023, taking place on May 15-19. The three poster presentations outline how Seismic’s IMPACT platform enables the parallel optimization of multiple parameters, including predicting and removing B and T cell epitopes, augmenting drug-like properties and retaining protein function, to create novel drug candidates across the immunoglobin (Ig) sculpting enzymes and dual-cell bidirectional (DcB) antibody product areas. Seismic is designing novel biologics derived from the IMPACT platform to address unmet medical needs for diseases involving humoral immunity and cell-mediated immunity, the two arms of the adaptive immune system.

“We are pleased to share the advancements of our efforts in biologics discovery uniquely enabled by our IMPACT platform,” said Nathan Higginson-Scott, PhD, Chief Technology Officer and Senior VP Drug Creation of Seismic Therapeutic. “With our parallelized processes we can bypass the trial and error methods of conventional biologics development, enabling simultaneous optimization for biologic function, reduced immunogenicity and augmented developability, resulting in the creation of novel enzyme and antibody therapeutics for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.”

Details of the poster presentations at PEGS Boston 2023 are as follows:

Development and deimmunization of protein therapeutics by machine learning
Session C1C: Machine Learning Approaches for Protein Engineering
Poster number: P212
Author: Nathan Rollins, PhD

Identifying Ig selective proteases for treatment of autoimmune disease using the IMPACT platform
Session C6C: Characterization for Novel Biotherapeutics
Poster number: P211
Author: Jung-Eun (June) Shin, PhD

Discovery and characterization of FcgRIIb specific mAbs
Session C1B: Engineering Antibodies
Poster number: P213
Author: Elliott Wittenberg, BS

About Immunoglobulin (Ig) Sculpting Programs
Seismic’s Ig sculpting enzymes address dysregulated humoral immunity by reducing both Ig levels and antibody effector functions, which contribute to the pathogenesis of a wide range of autoimmune diseases, such as myasthenia gravis, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and immune thrombocytopenia. Enzymes that specifically cleave antibodies may eliminate circulating and immune-complexed Ig, as well as cell surface B cell receptors, thereby modulating Ig-mediated autoimmunity and inflammation. 

About Dual-cell Bidirectional (DcB) Programs
Seismic’s DcB antibody approach targets dysregulated cell-mediated immunity by optimally engaging both T cells and antigen presenting cells, such as B cells, to restore homeostasis. Activating these pathways may control multiple diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. DcB antibodies simultaneously engage multiple inhibitory pathways in more than one immune cell type thereby targeting and regulating both sides of the immune synapse. 

About Seismic Therapeutic
Seismic Therapeutic is a biotechnology company integrating machine learning across the entire biologics discovery process to accelerate immunology drug development. Using its IMPACT platform, the company is addressing the central challenges of biologics discovery and development by fully integrating machine learning with the key elements of biologics drug discovery – structural biology, protein engineering and translational immunology – to create optimized therapies on an accelerated path to patients. Seismic Therapeutic has an emerging pipeline of novel biologics to address adaptive immune system dysregulation to treat autoimmune diseases. The company is backed by a strong syndicate of life sciences investors and is located in the Boston biotechnology hub. For more information, please visit www.seismictx.com and follow us on Twitter @Seismic_Tx and on LinkedIn. 

Media Contact
Kathryn Morris, The Yates Network
914-204-6412
kathryn@theyatesnetwork.com

 

Seismic Therapeutic Announces Presentation of Preclinical Data for Immunoglobin Sculpting Enzyme and Dual-Cell Bidirectional Antibody Programs at IMMUNOLOGY 2023

Demonstrates the application of the IMPACT platform to design novel protein therapeutics  

Seven poster presentations and two oral presentations support discovery, optimization, and characterization of Ig sculpting enzymes and dual-cell bidirectional antibody programs to control dysregulated adaptive immunity 

Cambridge, Mass., May 9, 2023 – Seismic Therapeutic, Inc., the machine learning immunology company, today announced seven poster presentations and two oral presentations supporting the company’s emerging pipeline of immunoglobin (Ig) sculpting enzymes and dual-cell bidirectional (DcB) antibody programs at IMMUNOLOGY 2023, the annual meeting of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) taking place on May 11-15 in Washington, D.C. Seismic is designing novel biologics derived from the company’s proprietary IMPACT platform to address unmet medical needs for diseases involving humoral immunity and cell-mediated immunity, the two arms of the adaptive immune system.

Seismic’s Ig sculpting enzymes address dysregulated humoral immunity by reducing both Ig levels and antibody effector functions, which contribute to the pathogenesis of a wide range of autoimmune diseases, such as myasthenia gravis, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and immune thrombocytopenia. Enzymes that specifically cleave antibodies may eliminate circulating and immune-complexed Ig, as well as cell surface B cell receptors, thereby modulating Ig-mediated autoimmunity and inflammation. The presentations demonstrate the application of the IMPACT platform to reduce immunogenicity while retaining the function of novel Ig sculpting enzymes for the acute and chronic treatment of autoantibody-driven diseases.

Seismic’s DcB antibody approach targets dysregulated cell-mediated immunity by optimally engaging both T cells and antigen presenting cells (APCs), such as B cells to restore homeostasis. Activating these pathways may control multiple diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. The presentations demonstrate the application of IMPACT platform to identify and optimize novel antibody molecules that simultaneously engage multiple inhibitory pathways in more than one immune cell type, thereby targeting and regulating both sides of the immune synapse.

“We are excited by the meaningful progress of our growing pipeline of novel biologics to treat humoral and cell-mediated autoimmune diseases,” said John Sundy, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer and Head of R&D of Seismic Therapeutic. “Our lead Ig sculpting program, a pan-IgG protease, is suitable for the treatment of acute and chronic autoantibody mediated diseases. We are also applying our insights to design additional Ig sculpting enzymes that are selective for IgG subclasses and other Ig isotypes. We are advancing our lead DcB antibody program which agonizes an inhibitory checkpoint receptor on T cells and selectively engages the inhibitory Fc receptor FcγRIIb on B cells/APCs to restore homeostasis in cell-mediated autoimmune diseases.”

Details of the poster presentations at IMMUNOLOGY 2023 are as follows:

Ig Sculpting Enzyme Programs

Identifying next generation Ig selective cleaving enzymes for treatment of autoimmune diseases using IMPACT platform

Sunday, May 14th 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Poster Board Number: P900
Author: Purvi Mande, PhD

The promise of machine learning: using Seismic’s IMPACT platform to design a class of IgG cleaving enzymes with drug like properties and reduced immunogenicity for the chronic treatment of autoimmune diseases

Friday, May 12th 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Poster Board Number: P969
Author: Alex Pellerin, PhD

In vitro assay development to assess successful removal of T and B cell epitopes through Seismic’s IMPACT platform

Friday, May 12th 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Poster Board Number: P972
Author: Andita Newton, B.S.

In vivo PK/PD assessment of invisibilized IgG cleaving protease for chronic treatment of autoimmune diseases

Sunday, May 14th 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Poster Board Number: P764
Author: Liliana Sanmarco, PhD

High-throughput Western Blot for in vitro and in vivo assessment of human Ig specific cleaving enzymes

Sunday, May 14th 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Poster Board Number: P767
Author: Nam Le, B.S.

DcB Antibody Programs

IMPACTing autoimmunity through dual targeting of antigen presenting cells and T cells via inhibitory receptor agonism

Saturday, May 13th 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Poster Board Number: P428
Author: Stephanie Grebinoski, PhD

Identification and characterization of selective FcγRIIb binders and their potential of IMPACTing immune-mediated diseases

Sunday, May 14th 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Poster Board Number: P769
Author: Stephen Lutz, B.S.

Details of the oral presentations at IMMUNOLOGY 2023 are as follows:

About the IMPACT Platform

The IMPACT platform “parallelizes” interdisciplinary components of drug discovery to generate drug molecules on an unprecedented scale that are engineered to be better therapeutics to treat autoimmune diseases. Comprehensive integration of machine learning with protein engineering, structural biology and translational immunology enables the accelerated design and analysis of vast numbers of proteins and protein modifications. This parallelized process bypasses the trial and error methods of conventional biologics development, enabling simultaneous optimization for biologic function, reduced immunogenicity and developability, resulting in the creation of novel biologics with superior properties.

About Seismic Therapeutic
Seismic Therapeutic is a biotechnology company integrating machine learning across the entire biologics discovery process to accelerate immunology drug development. Using its IMPACT platform, the company is addressing the central challenges of biologics discovery and development by fully integrating machine learning with the key elements of biologics drug discovery – structural biology, protein engineering and translational immunology – to create optimized therapies on an accelerated path to patients. Seismic Therapeutic has an emerging pipeline of novel biologics to address adaptive immune system dysregulation to treat autoimmune diseases. The company is backed by a strong syndicate of life sciences investors and is located in the Boston biotechnology hub. For more information, please visit www.seismictx.com and follow us on Twitter @Seismic_Tx and on LinkedIn.

Media Contact
Kathryn Morris, The Yates Network
914-204-6412
kathryn@theyatesnetwork.com

 

Founder Q&A with Jeff Ravetch, MD, PhD

Jeff Ravetch, MD, PhD

Theresa and Eugene Lang Professor, Rockefeller University
Head, Leonard Wagner Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Immunology

 

 

 


Challenge: Autoimmune diseases driven by multiple immune cell types

The pathology of many autoimmune diseases derives from interactions of multiple cell types including T cells and B cells/antigen presenting cells (APCs). Clinical evidence has shown that inhibitory checkpoint receptor antagonists can result in autoimmunity, suggesting that agonism may restore immune homeostasis.

New drug discovery approaches for autoimmune diseases

Seismic integrates machine learning with structural biology, protein engineering, and translational immunology to develop Dual Cell Bidirectional antibodies which simultaneously target multiple inhibitory pathways in more than one cell type to restore immune homeostasis in these diseases. These bidirectional antibodies agonize T cell checkpoint inhibitors, bind, and signal through, Fc receptors on APCs/B cells to prevent production of pro inflammatory cytokines and potentially inhibit pathogenic T cell, B cell and APC activity.

Expert perspective: Jeffrey V. Ravetch, MD, PhD

Dr. Jeffrey Ravetch is an academic founder of Seismic and a leading expert in the cell surface receptors that bind the Fc region of antibodies (FcR) and the mechanisms by which these receptors enable antibodies to mediate diverse biological activities. His work established the novel structural basis for Fc domain functional diversity and the pre-eminence of FcR pathways in host defense, inflammation and tolerance, describing novel signaling pathways to account for the paradoxical roles of antibodies as both promoting and suppressing inflammation. His work has been widely extended into clinical applications for the treatment of neoplastic, inflammatory, and infectious diseases.

In this installment of our Founders Q&A Series, Seismic’s Business Development Associate Rebecca Goydel, PhD, spoke with Dr. Ravetch about his work in immunology and Fc receptors, which offers expert insight into Seismic’s innovative approach to dysregulated cell-mediated immunity.

Rebecca Goydel:

Your work has changed the way we look at Fc receptors. How has the field evolved over the years to support the important role of Fc receptors in drug development? 

Jeff Ravetch:

We continue to broaden the way the field looks at the Fc region of antibodies in general. For many years, the biological activity of an antibody has been attributed primarily to the Fab portion which has specificity for binding, while the Fc region of the antibody confers pharmacokinetic properties such as half life.

Historically, there has been a lot of resistance to the notion that the Fc domain is an integral part of the biological activity of the antibody.

If we jump ahead to 2000, that’s when the first antibodies emerged as therapeutics, in particular for oncology. They were developed based on their in vitro activities to arrest tumor growth. The presumption was that they worked by binding to a target that had specific cellular responses. It turns out from my lab’s studies back in 2000, that the activity for those antibodies was actually driven by cytotoxic capacity through the Fc, and that was Fc receptor driven. This understanding was the genesis of our interest in how therapeutic antibodies depend on Fc engagement.

It wasn’t until 2013 that the first antibodies with modified Fc to engage individual Fc receptors with some specificity were approved. Today, there are about half dozen Fc engineered antibodies with selective Fc receptor binding for enhanced FcR activity, and another half dozen or so where Fc modifications are made to reduce Fc receptor binding to reduce toxicity. That’s a good start. Now there’s a momentum in drug development, where anyone starting an antibody program considers both ends of the molecule. It has taken us twenty years to get to the point where it’s established to some degree. There’s still a lot to do and a great deal of opportunity.

Now that the Fc region is recognized as a key component for the biological activity of therapeutic antibodies, how readily is it being incorporated in drug development?

Indeed, Fc modification is now recognized as important in antibody drug development. But, there are still many areas to further understand the complexity of the Fc and Fc receptors.  Throughout my career, I’ve focused on defining the role that the Fc region plays in biological processes that are antibody driven. It is complicated because there’s not one type of Fc region and Fc receptor, but multiple types of each.  The combinatorial possibilities of those two components leads to hundreds of different Fc structures. How many of them are biologically relevant? What do they do? How are they regulated? Generally, there have been a few limited sets of mutations used to manipulate Fc activity, but they broadly impact Fc receptors.  We still need to move the needle when it comes to stimulating Fc receptors selectively since they have different functions. This leaves a lot of room for improved therapies to be discovered and fill the large gap in this space.

Specifically, FcγRIIB is unique among Fcγ receptors, it has inhibitory activity and is the most abundantly expressed Fc receptor. It is present on almost all cell types that are involved in immune reactions and its level of expression is there to prevent inappropriate cellular activation, so it is well regulated. This makes it a useful target for therapies in the inflammation space. We know this balance of stimulating inhibitory receptor engagement is really key and if we can shift the equilibrium towards the inhibitory receptor, we have a chance at suppressing these inflammatory responses. Seismic’s Dual Cell Bidirectional program aims to address inhibitory receptor agonism by favoring FcγRIIB binding over its close relative FcγRIIA while agonizing inhibitory checkpoint receptors on T cells with the other end of the molecule to treat autoimmune diseases.

Checkpoint antagonists have emerged as an important class of immunotherapies in the last 10 years. What is your perspective of how the Fc and or Fc receptor binding fits in the landscape of current therapies? 

This is an area that my lab is actively involved in. We’ve developed a flow chart for how one goes about developing an antibody that’s targeting a checkpoint receptor. Most checkpoint targets have both inhibitory as well as activating activity. What becomes a more important component? Is it blocking an inhibitory signal or agonizing a stimulatory pathway?

It’s tricky because there are different Fc requirements for antibodies targeting those two pathways, and that’s where choosing the right clinical model and indication becomes critical. For agonist pathways, we’ve begun to realize that antibodies are not terrific when it comes to cross-linking receptors, which is key for almost all receptor agonists. You need to have some way of bringing together multiple receptors (multimerizing) for the desired activity, and that’s where the Fc can be very valuable. And that’s of course one of the facets of Seismic’s Dual Cell Bidirectional product area, whereby engaging an Fc receptor, it can act as a scaffold to allow for multimerization.

What excites you the most about the work being done at Seismic? 

Tim Springer called me and said he was starting a company that would be looking at pathways that impact the interaction of antibody Fc regions and Fc receptors, either to remove receptor engagement or optimize inhibitory receptor engagement. I thought that was a fabulous idea. When I was introduced to the team that was being assembled for this new company called Seismic, it was clear this was a group of people who knew what they were doing. I got the sense that this is a different model for a biotech company – one that’s built on the science, with an appreciation for the realities of getting across the finish line, so that was quite exciting.

The company’s work in engaging an inhibitory Fc receptor to act as a scaffold, allowing for multimerization, along with modulating the immune synapse between B and T cells, is really exciting and breaking new ground. For example, if you multimerize an inhibitory PD-1 antibody, you can create a stronger inhibitory signal. You can use an antibody with a modified Fc to accomplish this. The more exciting concept is that you can combine inhibitory activities from both the Fc receptor and checkpoint inhibitor pathways, and perhaps get an even greater inhibitory response with a bidirectional strategy, which is exactly what Seismic is working on.

Seismic is leveraging machine learning to accelerate drug discovery. From your perspective, how will machine learning contribute to and improve drug development in the area of immunology?

Historically, the way we used to do our optimization for Fc was basically trial and error. We had some receptors, we had some Fc variants, and we mixed and matched. We had no way of optimizing. When we hit upon something that worked, we said good enough, we’ll use it. But that’s obviously an older approach. Machine learning offers some very interesting possibilities and Seismic is leveraging this. We’ve started adopting machine learning in my own lab now too as we develop reagents that will specifically recognize various glycoforms of an IgG Fc and exploring how to take those glycoforms and manipulate them in ways that would be potentially therapeutic.

Machine learning is a powerful tool, and Seismic is deploying it strategically to move drug development in important new directions. The goal is to generate the correct immune synapse.  In the case of Seismic, this includes desired checkpoint inhibitor agonism on T cells with the right Fcs included to target FcγRIIB receptors on B cells. Machine learning can aid in this to avoid the traditional trial and error. It’s an area that is ripe for rethinking and machine learning can contribute to future innovation.

 

 

Seismic Therapeutic Appoints Melanie Manning as Chief People Officer

Cambridge, Mass., March 27, 2023 – Seismic Therapeutic, Inc., a biotechnology company using machine learning for immunology drug development, announced today that Melanie Manning has joined the company as Chief People Officer. She is an experienced and versatile human resources (HR) leader with more than 20 years of experience supporting business plans and developing programs to fully engage talent in multiple industries, including at biopharmaceutical companies Novartis and Biogen.

“Melanie joins us at a key time as Seismic plans for our transition from a discovery stage to a preclinical and eventual clinical organization, and I’m thrilled to welcome her to the team,” said Jo Viney, PhD, Co-Founder, President and CEO of Seismic Therapeutic. “She has an outstanding track record of enacting progressive HR programs, as well as the experience to implement additional creative strategies by which Seismic can continue to attract, retain, and develop talent. Moreover, her insights will be invaluable in further strengthening our culture as we fulfill our vision to build an exceptional organization that creates next generation immunology drugs for patients.”

“I’m excited to join Seismic and build on the company’s amazing workplace culture, commitment to community engagement, and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging,” Manning said. “I am dedicated and honored to help achieve the company’s strategic goals by building relationships, fostering trust and helping employees to be their best authentic selves. I look forward to working collaboratively with every Seismonaut to continue to cultivate what makes Seismic a special place to work, promoting innovation and creativity to develop new immunology biologics medicines enabled by machine learning.”

Before joining Seismic, Manning held leadership positions at Enspira HR Consulting, where she served as Vice President, Human Capital, acting as primary contact for HR advisory client engagements. Prior to Enspira, she was Chief Human Resources Officer for non-profit organization Upstream USA. Previously, she served as Head of Human Resources for the Infectious Diseases division of Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR).  Before her tenure at Novartis, Manning served as Associate Director, Human Resources at Biogen. Earlier in her career, she held several human resources positions for divisions of Fidelity Investments, which included HR business partner and Center of Excellence program office roles. She has a Masters degree in Human Relations and a BA from the University of Oklahoma and completed Intensive Studies in French Literature and Civilization at Université de Clermont-Ferrand, France.

About Seismic Therapeutic
Seismic Therapeutic is a biotechnology company integrating machine learning across the entire biologics discovery process to accelerate immunology drug development. Using its IMPACT™ platform, the company is addressing the central challenges of biologics discovery and development by fully integrating machine learning with the key elements of biologics drug discovery – structural biology, protein engineering and translational immunology – to create optimized therapies on an accelerated path to patients. Seismic Therapeutic has an emerging pipeline of novel biologics to treat adaptive immune system dysregulation to treat autoimmune diseases. The company is backed by a strong syndicate of life sciences investors and is located in the Boston biotechnology hub. For more information, please visit www.seismictx.com.

Media Contact
Kathryn Morris, The Yates Network
914-204-6412
kathryn@theyatesnetwork.com

Seismic Therapeutic Appoints Eric Larson as Senior Vice President of Finance and Heather Vital as Vice President of R&D Strategy

Biotech business leaders bring extensive financial and strategic planning experience across many stages of product development and company growth 

Watertown, Mass., April 13, 2022 – Seismic Therapeutic, Inc., a biotechnology company advancing machine learning for immunology drug development, today announced the appointment of Eric Larson as Senior Vice President of Finance and Heather Vital as Vice President of R&D Strategy. These experienced business leaders join Seismic at a pivotal time for the company as it approaches the next stage of growth to build a pipeline of novel biologics to treat autoimmune diseases.

“We are delighted to welcome these two outstanding and accomplished industry leaders to our leadership team, bringing a wealth of expertise in areas of finance and strategic planning to support our future growth,” said Jo Viney, PhD, Founder, President and CEO of Seismic Therapeutic. “Eric’s decades of experience in a range of financial leadership roles in the biopharma industry and his proven skills in building operations infrastructure will be invaluable as we evolve Seismic and grow as an immunology platform and pipeline company. Heather’s diverse expertise across R&D strategy and operations, program and alliance management, and commercialization for biopharma companies and her proven skills in developing strategies in new market areas are critical capabilities as Seismic takes on the enormous opportunities ahead of us.”

Eric Larson, Senior Vice President of Finance

“It is exciting to be part of such a talented team at Seismic focused on a new drug development paradigm,” said Mr. Larson. “I look forward to using my experience building and leading finance teams and my operations skills to help a growing organization execute on its strategy, goals and mission to impact the lives of patients.”

Eric Larson brings nearly 30 years of financial leadership experience with private and public companies across multiple industries. His expertise extends across accounting and controls, financial planning, tax and treasury. Prior to joining Seismic, Eric was Vice President of Finance at Pandion Therapeutics where he built the finance and accounting infrastructure in support of its transition to a Nasdaq-listed public company. Previously, he was the Corporate Controller for Proteostasis Therapeutics and the Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer for Northern Power Systems. Earlier in his career, he held financial leadership roles at Biogen Idec, CMGI, Inc., and Ernst & Young.  Eric is a CPA and earned his BA from Grove City College.

Heather Vital, Vice President of R&D Strategy

“This is an invigorating time to join Seismic as the company realizes the potential of integrating machine learning to develop novel treatments for autoimmune diseases,” said Ms. Vital.  “I am eager to leverage my experience to help the company achieve its aspirations as a drug innovator and to create a host of new medicines for patients.”

Heather Vital joins Seismic with more than 15 years of experience across strategic and operational functions, including program and alliance management, portfolio planning and R&D strategy and commercialization. She most recently was Senior Director, Portfolio Strategy and Operations for Relay Therapeutics where she contributed to portfolio strategies for pipeline programs and was responsible for alliance management with a large biopharma partnership and a research collaboration. She served as Senior Director of Program Leadership at Deciphera Pharmaceuticals where she was the program lead for two oncology drug programs including one through product approval. Previously, Heather had a tenure at Biogen, culminating in the role of Director, R&D Strategy and Portfolio Leadership and for several disease areas. Her earlier roles at Biogen included portfolio strategy for spinal muscular atrophy, launching SPINRAZA as part of the global brand team and new product commercialization for the immunology therapeutic area. Heather has a BS from Babson College, MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a Master of Science (SM) from the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program.

About Seismic Therapeutic
Seismic Therapeutic is a biotechnology company integrating machine learning across the entire biologics discovery process to accelerate immunology drug development. Using its IMPACT™ platform, the company is addressing the central challenges of biologics discovery and development by fully integrating machine learning with the key elements of biologics drug discovery – structural biology, protein engineering and translational immunology – to create optimized therapies on an accelerated path to patients. Seismic Therapeutic has an emerging pipeline of novel biologics to treat adaptive immune system dysregulation to treat autoimmune diseases. The company is backed by a strong syndicate of life sciences investors and is located in the Boston biotechnology hub. For more information, please visit www.seismictx.com.

Media Contact
Kathryn Morris, The Yates Network
914-204-6412
kathryn@theyatesnetwork.com

 

Seismic Therapeutic Launches with $101 Million Series A Financing to Usher in a New Era of Immunology Drug Development Integrating Machine Learning

Company’s IMPACT™ platform accelerates discovery and enables parallel optimization of superior therapeutic and manufacturability properties of novel biologics

Multiple drug programs take a new approach to targeting adaptive immunity to treat autoimmune diseases

Watertown, Mass., February 9, 2022 – Seismic Therapeutic, Inc., a biotechnology company advancing machine learning for immunology drug development, today announced its launch and financing of $101 million. The Series A was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from lead founding investors Timothy A. Springer and Polaris Partners, along with new investors GV, Boxer Capital, Samsara BioCapital, and management and founders. Seismic’s IMPACT™ platform systematically integrates machine learning, structural biology, protein engineering and translational immunology to invent novel biologics and optimize properties with significantly improved efficiency and scale over conventional therapeutics discovery. With this new approach, Seismic Therapeutic is accelerating a pipeline of biologics targeting dysregulated adaptive immunity to treat autoimmune diseases.

“The time is right to move the needle in immunology, as advances in technology now enable us to discover medicines to address complex immune system biology in dramatically improved ways,” said Jo Viney, PhD, Founder, President and CEO of Seismic Therapeutic. “We are leading the next generation of immunology drug development with Seismic’s platform. By integrating machine learning throughout the biologics drug discovery process, we are powered by a systematic and programmable approach to design superior biologics from initial discovery and therapeutic design through to manufacturability.”

The Series A financing will support Seismic Therapeutic’s further advancement toward the clinic of its first two lead drug programs, one targeting Ig (immunoglobulin)-mediated autoimmunity and the other targeting cell-mediated autoimmunity. In addition, the company will continue to build its proprietary IMPACT platform to make further advancements to machine learning technologies applied to immunology therapeutics. 

“This strong financing and syndicate enable Seismic to aggressively advance multiple product candidates to the clinic. Through its leading edge integration of machine learning into drug development, the company is well positioned to be an important innovator in immunology,” said Alan Crane, Founder and Chairman of Seismic Therapeutic and Entrepreneur Partner at Polaris Partners.

IMPACT™ Platform “parallelizes” interdisciplinary components of drug discovery 

The IMPACT platform enables the generation of drug molecules on an unprecedented scale in order to engineer better therapeutic solutions in immunology. The comprehensive integration of machine learning with protein engineering, structural biology and translational immunology enables the accelerated design and analysis of vast numbers of proteins and protein modifications in parallel. This parallelized process enables simultaneous optimization for biologic function and for developability, resulting in the creation of novel biologics with superior properties bypassing the trial and error methods of conventional biologics development with its challenges of balancing multiple factors of efficacy and manufacturability.

“Biologics drug development has undergone extraordinary advances in recent years, and the advent of machine learning working in concert with structural biology and protein engineering offers an entirely new trajectory for creating innovative biologics medicines,” said Timothy Springer, PhD, Founder of Seismic Therapeutic and Professor at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. “Seismic is taking a major leap forward by fully integrating machine learning throughout the biologics drug development process, whereas earlier efforts to date have generally used machine learning in a much less integrated way.” 

World-class team of drug developers, machine learning innovators, and immunology experts

“The Seismic team has made rapid progress in building a world-class platform for immunology drug innovation, incorporating the power of machine learning and guided by the team’s expert drug hunters, technology integrators and company builders. We look forward to the exciting future for this company and the immunology medicines it will advance for patients,” said Shelley Chu, MD, PhD, Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners.

The Seismic Therapeutic team brings together experienced biotechnology leaders with decades of industry expertise in company building and drug development. Company leadership includes:

Academic Founders of Seismic Therapeutic include world-renowned experts with track records that span decades of pioneering work in immunology mechanisms, structural biology of antibodies and proteins, and machine learning for protein engineering. 

About Seismic Therapeutic
Seismic Therapeutic is a biotechnology company integrating machine learning across the entire biologics discovery process to accelerate immunology drug development. Using its IMPACT™ platform, the company is addressing the central challenges of biologics discovery and development by fully integrating machine learning with the key elements of biologics drug discovery – structural biology, protein engineering and translational immunology – to create optimized therapies on an accelerated path to patients. Seismic Therapeutic has an emerging pipeline of novel biologics to address adaptive immune system dysregulation to treat autoimmune diseases. The company is backed by a strong syndicate of life sciences investors and is located in the Boston biotechnology hub. For more information, please visit www.seismictx.com and follow up on Twitter @Seismic_Tx and on LinkedIn.

Media Contact
Kathryn Morris, The Yates Network
914-204-6412
kathryn@theyatesnetwork.com

 
 

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