Israeli Startup Raises $40 Million in Series B to Develop Cures for Food Allergies

On January 27th Israeli startup Ukko announced that it raised $40 million in new Series B funding. The new funding will allow it to enter clinical trials with its investigational therapeutic for peanut allergies and accelerate its treatment for celiac and other gluten sensitivities. The round was led by Leaps by Bayer and followed by eight other firms.

Ukko harnesses artificial intelligence (AI) and protein engineering to develop healthier food and therapies for food allergies. The company is co-founded by CEO Anat Binur alongside the company’s Chairman, Yanay Ofran, a leading expert in computational biology and professor at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv.

Advantages of AI

The use of AI for in-silico drug development gives biotech companies the advantage of experimenting with many different drug designs long before reagents are ready and laboratory work is done. This increases the speed of development and reduces the number of supplies that need to be bought for experiments.

Ukko’s uses a proprietary AI-powered platform that precisely engineers food proteins to eliminate their allergy triggering properties while keeping their good biochemical and nutritional characteristics. The platform uses patient samples, computational biology, immunology, and protein engineering to make hypoallergenic proteins

“We are at a unique crossroads in the history of science,” said Prof. Yanay Ofran, Chairman and Co-founder of Ukko. “Big data allows us to understand the underpinnings of food sensitivities. Computational tools allow us to precisely design the proteins that make up our bodies and our food. New genome editing technologies allow us to rewrite DNA to produce these new proteins in living cells. Ukko sits at the intersection of these breakthrough technologies, allowing us to redefine healthy food at the molecular level, based on real data.”

Ukko’s Approach and Pipeline

Ukko has a food-to-therapy approach to solving food allergies and sensitivities. It is working on improved gluten proteins specially designed for people with celiac and other gluten sensitivities. The intention is to allow bakers, food companies, and home cooks to make delicious baked goods that everyone can eat. On the therapeutic side, Ukko uses its protein design platform to develop a new and promising investigational therapy for peanut allergy. Ukko also plans to address additional food allergens.

“Ukko’s investigative approaches to solving allergies and food sensitivities both from the food side and therapeutics side have the possibility of delivering enormous benefits for humanity,” said Juergen Eckhardt, MD, Head of Leaps by Bayer.

“One of the big challenges we’re addressing through our Leaps investments is attempting to reverse autoimmune diseases, which have enormous impacts on our health systems in every community around the globe. We are proud to lead this investment in Ukko and help solve the biggest allergies and food sensitivities. It is a great fit to our global leadership role in both health and nutrition.”

Growing Food Allergies

Hundreds of millions of people worldwide suffer from food allergies, and it is predicted that this group will grow in number. For example, one in 13 American children has food allergies (about two in every classroom). The incidence of celiac disease has been doubling every 15 years, and, even at that rate of growth, over 80 percent of patients remain undiagnosed.

These people are not only suffering every time they eat a sandwich but are at higher risk for developing other serious conditions like anemia and cancer. Food allergies cost more than USD 25 billion every year in the U.S. alone and place enormous strain on the healthcare system and the agricultural and food industries. Last year, Aimmune Therapeutics’ Palforzia became the first-ever peanut allergy treatment to bag USFDA approval.

Developing technologies that can mitigate the effects of these potentially debilitating diseases is a huge investment for a more productive society.

Related Article: Aimmune’s PALFORZIA™ Scores FDA Win, Becomes the First Ever Treatment For Peanut Allergy

References

1. https://media.bayer.com/baynews/baynews.nsf/id/Ukko-secures-USD-million-Series-B-funding-Leaps-Bayer-overcome-allergies-sensitivities?Open&parent=news-overview-category-search-en&ccm=020

Author

Eduardo Longoria