Tierra Biosciences secures $11.4M in Series A funding to revolutionize protein synthesis

Tierra Biosciences has successfully secured an $11.4 million Series A funding round, spearheaded by Material Impact. This significant financial boost, with contributions from Prosus Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Hillspire, Freeflow Ventures, Creative Ventures, and Social Capital, will enable the company to expand its innovative cell-free protein synthesis platform.

As the creator of the world’s first predictive AI-guided technology for high-throughput, on-demand protein production, Tierra Biosciences is poised to extend its reach within the pharmaceutical, industrial, and agricultural sectors. The investment will be instrumental in enhancing Tierra’s predictive AI capabilities, utilizing a vast data lake generated from the centralized production of thousands of proteins.

Michael Nemzek, CEO of Tierra, emphasized the inefficiencies of traditional protein engineering, which relies on living cells. He expressed confidence that Tierra’s cell-free platform will revolutionize the industry by providing rapid access to a multitude of custom proteins for research and development purposes.

Tierra’s innovative approach combines high-throughput cell-free platforms with the latest AI language models, optimizing the manufacturing of novel proteins. This method transcends natural limitations, fostering creativity and broadening the scope of scientific possibilities.

Corinna Chen, a partner at Material Impact, expressed enthusiasm for the collaboration, highlighting Tierra’s potential to eliminate existing hurdles in protein discovery and manufacturing. The integration of high-throughput manufacturing with artificial intelligence is expected to transform not only protein synthesis but also various industries at large.

Proteins, vital to all life forms, are incredibly diverse in structure and function, derived from a simple array of amino acids. Their crucial role in almost every biological process highlights their importance in maintaining life and their significant therapeutic potential.

Chenny Zhang, Principal of Investments at IQT, praised Tierra’s state-of-the-art platform, which is set to play a pivotal role in constructing essential bio-infrastructure. The anticipated outcome is a rapid acceleration of the protein design-build-test-learn cycles, marking a transformative era in the industry.

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