LifeMine Therapeutics

What LifeMine Therapeutics does

LifeMine Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts that pioneered a Top-Down Drug Discovery™ approach leveraging evolutionary insights from fungi to identify genetically encoded small molecules (GEMs) as drug candidates. Founded in 2017 by Gregory Verdine and Richard Klausner, the company combines genomics, AI/machine learning, bioinformatics, and synthetic biology through its proprietary Avatar-Rx™ platform to digitally analyze fungal DNA, identify biosynthetic gene clusters, and predict molecule function via Embedded Target Genes (ETaGs) — enabling drug candidates to advance to preclinical readiness in as little as six months versus multiple years under traditional bottom-up discovery. The company's lead clinical-stage asset, LIFE-001, is a precision-engineered, controlled-release calcineurin inhibitor being developed for immune-mediated disorders (ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease) and organ transplant rejection, with first-in-human Phase 1 dosing initiated in April 2025.

LifeMine's competitive differentiation rests on its LifeBank collection — described as the largest fully genomicized fungal strain collection in existence, comprising over 100,000 deep-sequenced wild-type fungi spanning 25,000+ species, originally sourced from pharmaceutical companies including Merck, Schering-Plough, Pfizer, Wyeth, and Lederle. The business operates without product revenue, generating value through milestone-based strategic pharmaceutical partnerships (the flagship being the March 2022 alliance with GlaxoSmithKline covering up to three human targets) and prospective future drug commercialization. The company has raised approximately $295 million across disclosed funding rounds ($70M Series B in September 2017 co-led by GV and WuXi Healthcare Ventures, $50M in January 2021, $175M Series C in March 2022 led by Fidelity) with a high-quality investor base including GSK, Google Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners, Invus, Foresite Capital, Leaps by Bayer, MRL Ventures Fund, and 6 Dimensions Capital. The company maintains three offices — Watertown, MA; Gloucester, MA; and Basel, Switzerland (via wholly-owned subsidiary LifeMine Therapeutics (Switzerland) GmbH) — and its board includes 2019 Nobel Laureate William G. Kaelin, Jr. and senior partners from GV, WuXi AppTec, and Arcus Biosciences.

Name

LifeMine Therapeutics

Legal name

LifeMine Therapeutics, Inc.

Website

http://www.lifeminetx.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

LifeMine Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company using its proprietary Avatar-Rx platform and Top-Down Drug Discovery approach to mine fungal genomes for novel precision medicines, with lead asset LIFE-001 now in Phase 1 trials for immune-mediated disorders and organ transplant rejection.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Drug Discovery & Development

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Pharmaceutical Preparation Manufacturing (325412)

SIC

Pharmaceutical Preparations (2834), Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

AI/ML Platforms for Drug Discovery & Experiment Optimization (HLAGAJAO)

akta.pro secondary industry

Engineered Protein Therapeutics (de novo/AI-designed proteins, novel scaffolds) (HLAAAAAJ)

Keywords

• Genomic drug discovery
• Small molecule therapeutics
• Fungal genomics platform
• Immunosuppressive drug development
• AI biopharmaceutical R&D

Headquarters

HQ city

Watertown

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Drug Development and Commercialization: LifeMine is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing precision medicines. The company generates revenue through the development and eventual commercialization of novel therapeutics discovered through their Avatar-Rx platform. Their lead program LIFE-001 is currently in Phase 1 clinical trials for immune-mediated disorders and organ transplant rejection.
2. Partnership and Licensing Revenue: The company has established a drug discovery and development alliance with GSK, potentially generating revenue through milestone payments, development fees, and licensing arrangements as programs advance through clinical development.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

LifeMine Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that discovers and develops precision medicines through its Avatar-Rx platform, which uses AI, machine learning, bioinformatics, and synthetic biology to mine fungal genomes for genetically encoded small molecules (GEMs) via its Top-Down Drug Discovery approach. The company's lead clinical-stage program, LIFE-001, is a precision-engineered calcineurin inhibitor in Phase 1 trials for immune-mediated disorders and organ transplant rejection. LifeMine also generates revenue through drug discovery alliances with pharmaceutical partners such as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

Product overview

LifeMine Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering a Top-Down Drug Discovery™ approach that leverages evolutionary insights from fungi to develop next-generation precision medicines. The company's core platform is Avatar-Rx™, which integrates AI, machine learning, bioinformatics, and synthetic biology to mine fungal genomes for genetically encoded small molecules (GEMs). LifeMine's product portfolio includes LIFE-001, a precision-engineered calcineurin inhibitor currently in Phase 1 clinical trials for immune-mediated disorders and organ transplant rejection, and an extensive fungal strain collection called LifeBank comprising 100,000 deep-sequenced fungi across 25,000 species. The company also has a drug discovery and development alliance with GSK targeting novel small molecule leads against up to three human targets.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Avatar-Rx: LifeMine's genomic drug discovery platform that digitally analyzes fungal DNA for biosynthetic gene clusters to identify drug candidates.

Products and services

• Avatar-Rx Platform LifeMine's proprietary genomic drug discovery platform that digitally analyzes fungal DNA for biosynthetic gene clusters using AI, machine learning, and synthetic biology to identify genetically encoded small molecules (GEMs) as drug candidates. The platform is used internally by LifeMine for pipeline generation and is also deployed through drug discovery alliances with pharmaceutical partners such as GlaxoSmithKline, enabling drug candidates ready for preclinical development in as little as 6 months.
• LIFE-001 A precision-engineered, controlled-release, organ-sparing, immunophilin-independent calcineurin inhibitor being developed by LifeMine for multiple immune-mediated disease indications (including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease) and prevention of organ transplant rejection. LIFE-001 is described as a pipeline-in-a-product with a previously unprecedented structure and mechanism of action, designed to become a field-dominating universal T cell immunosuppressant. Currently in first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trial with first participant dosed in April 2025.
• GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Drug Discovery and Development Alliance Strategic alliance with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) under which LifeMine deploys the Avatar-Rx platform to discover novel small molecule leads directed to up to three human targets provided by GSK, addressing multiple disease areas. The alliance generates revenue for LifeMine through milestone payments, development fees, and licensing arrangements, and includes potential for additional co-development and commercialization partnerships.

Quantifiable outcome

• Drug candidates ready for preclinical development in as little as 6 months
• +2 more outcomes

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability3 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 March 2022LifeMine and GSK entered a drug discovery and development alliance, the first such agreement in genomic drug discovery from fungi, to identify novel small molecule leads directed to up to three human targets provided by GSK addressing multiple disease areas. This collaboration represents a significant validation of LifeMine's Avatar-Rx platform.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Recursion Pharmaceuticals: AI/ML-driven drug discovery company using high-throughput biology and computational platforms to identify novel therapeutics. Direct competitor in the AI-for-drug-discovery category, with similar platform-to-pipeline business model and publicly traded scale benchmarking.
• Insitro: Machine learning-driven drug discovery company combining genomics, CRISPR, and cellular models to discover therapeutics. Closely comparable in fusing human genetics/omics with ML to nominate drug targets, with backing from GV — a shared investor.
• Schrödinger, Inc. Computational chemistry and physics-based drug discovery platform serving pharma with software and internal pipeline. Comparable as a platform combining physics-based modeling with AI/ML for small-molecule discovery and co-development with Big Pharma.
• Isomorphic Labs: Alphabet-owned AI drug discovery company spun out of DeepMind, focused on structure-based and generative AI for novel therapeutics. Closely comparable mission to use AI/ML for novel drug discovery with pharma partnerships.
• Exscientia: AI-driven small-molecule drug discovery company with clinical-stage assets and pharma partnerships. Comparable as an AI-first small-molecule discovery platform with a Big Pharma collaboration model similar to LifeMine's GSK alliance.
• XtalPi: AI + quantum physics-driven drug discovery platform serving pharma with both platform services and internal pipeline. Comparable AI/ML + computational approach to small-molecule discovery, with public-market valuation benchmark.

Emerging players

• Atomwise: AI-driven small-molecule drug discovery company using structure-based deep learning to screen compounds. Comparable in applying AI to small-molecule discovery, but with less emphasis on genomics/fungal biology as the discovery engine.
• Generate:Biomedicines: Generative AI platform designing novel protein therapeutics. Comparable in using generative/AI-based de novo molecular design (aligned with LIFE-001's 'designed de novo' positioning) but focused on biologics rather than small molecules.
• BenevolentAI: AI-driven drug discovery company using knowledge graphs and ML to identify targets and therapeutics. Comparable AI-first platform approach but with a different technical architecture (knowledge graphs vs. genomic/fungal mining).

Broad incumbents

• Morphic Therapeutic: Clinical-stage biotech developing oral integrin therapies for immune-mediated diseases (acquired by Eli Lilly for ~$3.2B in 2024). Comparable in therapeutic area (immune-mediated diseases) and clinical-stage profile; LifeMine's CMO Simon Cooper was previously Morphic's CMO.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/lifemine-therapeutics
• Xx.com/LifeMineTx

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles15 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds6 records

Investors18 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about LifeMine Therapeutics