Biodiesy, Inc. , a privately held developer of novel protein analysis systems for research and clinical applications in real-time, announced today that $15 has been closed. 0 million Series A round of 5AM Ventures, Pfizer Venture Investments and Roche Venture Fund financing In addition, Greg Yap has been appointed Chief Executive Officer and Director
The funding proceeds will be used to further develop and commercialize the first platform technology to allow for real-time measurement of protein conformational change. Protein structure, including sequence and three-dimensional shape or conformation, determines protein function-changes in conformation cause changes in function. Existing technologies are not capable of measuring these changes in high resolution and in real time Second-generation Biodesy (SHG) technology can identify and characterize structural changes with real-time sub-angstrom resolution and high throughput. Better understanding of changes in protein structure and function caused by potential drugs, normal molecular interactions, and disease processes will have a broad impact on drug discovery, structural biology, and clinical biomarkers.
‘Biodesy has the potential to help transform our understanding of how proteins work by delivering the first real-time, high-throughput system to measure changes in protein structure caused by molecular interactions,’ said Andrew Schwab, Managing Partner of 5AM Ventures and Director of Biodesy. ‘Greg Yap is a proven leader with a record of success in the development of entrepreneurial enterprises, and Josh Salafsky has achieved impressive technical results that demonstrate the transformative nature of the Biodesy approach. We’re excited to be leading this significant Series A funding ”
Most recently, Yap was the first healthcare entrepreneur to reside at GE prior to Biodesy. Previously, he was Lifecycle Leader, Advanced Staining Assays at Ventana Medical Systems, a member of the Roche Group, where he oversaw Ventana’s US$500 million global market-leading cancer test portfolio. He was also Chief Operating Officer at CELLective Dx, a venture-backed circulating tumor cell (CTC) company, and held a number of general management roles in microarray pioneering Affymetrix, including Vice President DNA Products and Vice President Molecular Diagnostics.
‘The routine and direct measurement of changes in protein structure in real time has never been practical before,’ said Yap. ‘We believe that our technology will provide unique value for multiple applications, including drug development, structural biology, and ultimately personalized medicine. We have seen significant and immediate interest from pharmaceutical companies and academic think tanks, and this funding will enable Biodesy to quickly launch a full suite of products and systems. We are beginning to demonstrate the value of our technology through revenue-enhancing collaborations and have recently signed our first pharmaceutical partnership. ”
Joshua Salafsky, Ph.D. D. D. The founder of Biodesy has been appointed Chief Scientific Officer and Director of Biodesy. Salafsky has been a pioneer in the application of SHG technology to molecular biology and has led research to develop the company’s core technology platform for the past 13 years. He was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Chemistry at Columbia University and the Department of Physics (Debye Institute) at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
In addition to Schwab, Yap and Salafsky, the Board of Directors of Biodesy consists of William Burkoth, Senior Director of Pfizer Ventures, and Joseph Victor, CEO of DVS Sciences.
About Biodessy
Biodesy is developing the first products and systems to measure protein structure and function quickly and cheaply in real time, with applications including drug discovery, structural biology, and clinical biomarkers. Biodesy has developed a unique and highly sensitive technology to detect conformational changes in proteins and other biological molecules. Its technology, based on a phenomenon called the second-harmonic generation (SHG), can monitor structural changes at any protein site in real time. Because protein function is determined by its structure, and changes in structure cause changes in function, characterizing these changes will provide important insights into how our bodies function and respond to treatments. Biodesy is based in Burlingame, California. For more information, please visit
