Interview with BluMaiden Biosciences

In this edition of Faces of Innovation, I speak to Damien Keogh , CEO of BluMaiden Biosciences, a Singapore headquartered biotech company that is transforming the approach to small molecule drug discovery.

Their innovative technology addresses a significant challenge in the pharmaceutical industry: the limited diversity of chemical compounds in traditional chemical libraries, which restricts the scope of potential drug candidates and hinders innovation in drug discovery.

BluMaiden’s solution involves probing the vastness of chemical space hidden within the human body, using advanced AI-guided computational genetics and chemistry. This cutting-edge technology illuminates new frontiers for new medicines, significantly enhancing the drug discovery process and opening up possibilities for groundbreaking treatments.

Quick facts:

📰 Website: www.blumaiden.com

📰 Founded: 2020

👩⚕️ Founders: Damien Keogh , Ph.D. and Rohan Williams , Ph.D.

❤️ Industry: Biotechnology (TechBio)

🚀 Therapeutic area/ solution: Oncology, metabolic disease, neurological disease indications

🤝 Looking for: Research collaborations on Oncology clinical trials

Thank you for taking the time to chat with me. Let’s dive straight into things; what specific problem or need does BluMaiden address, and what motivated you to tackle this particular issue?

The chemical libraries used by pharmaceutical industry face several challenges in small molecule drug discovery. One major issue is the frequent rediscovery of known compounds, which consumes valuable resources without advancing novel treatments. Additionally, these chemical libraries often exhibit molecular bias, limiting the diversity of compounds available for screening and reducing the chances of identifying truly innovative drugs. When you look at FDA-approved small molecule drugs that have been successful, you’ll see that since the early 1980’s about 50% of these originate from Natural Products. This is primarily due to their structural diversity and biological activity. Nearly half of these are synthetic drugs designed to mimic Natural Products.

 My motivation to found BluMaiden stems from my research interest has always involved metabolite biology, investigating the mechanisms and interaction of small molecules derived from Natural Products and their physiological effect on the host. At BluMaiden, we’ve assembled a team of diverse science and technology experts to explore novel chemistry space inside the human body, which is a Natural Product, and linked this with clinical data (human evidence) to provide pharmacological significance.

How does your solution differentiate itself from existing alternatives in the market?

There are impressive and successful companies like Schrödinger, In Silico Medicine, and Atomwise using computational chemistry for de novo synthesis or binding of compounds for drug development. We greatly admire these companies. BluMaiden operates in this space but uniquely couples in silico hits with human clinical data early in the process to provide the physiological relevance Pharma needs. We achieve this by analyzing microbiome data from disease-specific clinical trials and, using a tech-bio approach, understanding the connection between disease biology and the protein or ligand. We believe that starting from clinical evidence gives us a unique edge and a higher chance of finding safe and effective drugs.

What innovative technologies or approaches does your startup leverage to improve healthcare outcomes?

We use Natural Products as a reservoir for new drug discovery, requiring a team of experts across multiple domains of science and technology. Our greatest assets are effective communication and understanding across disciplines. To focus on individual innovations, we employ highly customized machine learning models and feature engineering to capture the health-predictive signals in microbiome and clinical data. Additionally, we leverage long-range semantic relationships in large-scale heterogenous datasets to predict new curative opportunities. There’s much more than that, as our approach also encompasses cutting-edge methodologies and interdisciplinary collaborations to drive ground breaking advancements in drug discovery.

Does the variability/volatility of microbiomes negatively impact your models? Or rather is in an opportunity to derive more data?

Microbiome data is just one of many potential natural product sources we are interested in and currently focus on. While variability and volatility in microbiomes necessitate deriving more data due to inter-subject and other types of variance, this also presents a significant opportunity. By looking deeper into the data, we can uncover robust derivative features that conventional analysis and competitors often miss. These smarter features help us identify the underlying signal amidst apparent noise. Discovering these largely overlooked but clinically relevant opportunities is a key strength and focus of our work.

Did Covid provide any unique opportunities and challenges for BluMaiden?

We founded BluMaiden as the Covid lockdowns were ending, a time that had a profound impact on the biotechnology industry.  Initially, there was a surge in investment driven by the urgent need for therapeutics solutions. However, this enthusiasm quickly waned as market saturation and a shift in investor interest led to a bear market.

From my perspective as founder, one notable advantage of that period was the relative ease of connecting with key individuals in Singapore who would typically have been engaged in frequent international travel. This facilitated the formation an exceptional board of directors, advisory board, and scientific team, which might have been more challenging under normal circumstances.

What are the key challenges or regulatory hurdles you anticipate facing now that Covid is over, and how do you plan to address them?

In the post-Covid biotechnology landscape, investors and venture capital have shifted their strategies, now prioritizing sustainability and profitability. At BluMaiden, we focused on creating a sustainable business model from the outset. Despite making some strategic pivots, we have successfully developed a globally deployed Pharma Services for clinical trial analytics. As an auditable vendor to clinical trial sponsors, we provide analysis and reporting with clinical insights in patient stratification, drug responder vs non-responder analysis, end-point optimization, and more. We are proud to be an AWS Qualified Software Provider, and collaborate with the AWS teams to allow us to operate in key markets in the USA and Europe.

Security is always a challenge in life sciences. Is microbiome data as major a security concern as compared to something very sensitive such as clinical data?

Personal data security is a top priority for us, particularly with clinical data. Our systems comply with PDPA, HIPAA, GDPR, , PHIA, MTCS, and STORMS, and we are also implementing several ISO standards. Additionally, we have strong partnerships with industry leaders like Amazon AWS, being a Qualified Software Provider, supporting our operations in key markets in the USA and Europe.

If there was one pain point you could solve today, what would that be and how do you think it can be solved?

Obtaining reliable clinical data in sufficient quantity is a crucial challenge for many biotech’s, including our early-stage drug discovery programs. BluMaiden addresses this through our Pharma Services division. By offering comprehensive services, we gain early access to clinical studies and ensure the reliable generation of data through regulatory-compliant, pharma-grade quality management system. This data feeds directly into our drug discovery engine. The synergistic relationship between these divisions ensures smooth data flow and sustainability for our business.

For more information and to stay updated on Blumaiden's latest developments in cutting-edge analytics and nature-inspired drug discovery, visit their website or contact them directly. www.blumaiden.com

Disclaimer- Views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author's employer, organization, committee or other group or individual. The above analysis is also purely personal opinion and should not be taken as professional advice.

Disclosure- At the time of this post, I have not received any sponsorship, whether financial or in-kind for this post. I do not have an equity or financial stake in the company.

Thanks,

Terence

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