Predicting Protein Function Beyond Structure
SHANGHAI, Dec. 25, 2024 — Shanghai Matwings Technology Co., Ltd. (“Matwings”), a global leader in AI-powered protein design, recently secured tens of millions of USD in Series A funding, led by Qiming Venture Partners.
Matwings is at the forefront of protein engineering, utilizing its proprietary AI-based platform, AccelProtein™, to predict protein functionality directly, going beyond structural data. This approach allows AccelProtein™ to identify high-performing proteins efficiently.
AccelProtein™ is built upon the Pro-PRIME model, a groundbreaking technology developed by a team led by Professor Liang Hong at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Years of research in data collection, curation, and optimization culminated in the Pro-series – an AI framework for protein design. Their work was recently published in Science Advances.
A prime example of AccelProtein™’s capabilities is the design of a specialized Glycosyltransferase enzyme for EPS-G7 production (a key material in pancreatitis screening). In just four months, Matwings boosted the enzyme’s glycosylation activity sevenfold, improved product specificity from 60% to 98%, and reduced hydrolytic activity by 33%, resulting in a 90% reduction in EPS-G7 production costs.
Another success involves a super alkali-resistant affinity ligand (a nanobody) for affinity chromatography. Matwings enhanced alkali resistance threefold, increased binding capacity by over 100%, and improved heat stability by 8℃. This innovation saved a Matwings client millions of USD in CMC costs, with successful scale-up production reaching 5000L. This makes cost-effective affinity chromatography purification accessible for a wider range of biologics, providing more affordable drug production solutions.
Since 2021, Matwings has successfully completed over 30 protein engineering and enzyme-mining projects, both independently (e.g., Enterokinase, Carboxypeptidase B, KEX2 Protease, Maltogenic Amylase, Subtilisin, Protein A, PETase, T7 RNA Polymerase, and phi29 DNA Polymerase) and collaboratively. These projects span various applications, including drug innovation, in vitro diagnostics, healthcare, food and beverage, and green energy.
About Matwings
Founded in 2021 by a team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Matwings is a pioneer in AI protein models.
Matwings goes beyond directed evolution, designing and engineering functionally optimized proteins using a proprietary, pre-trained, AI-based platform with 780 million curated full-length protein sequence data, including almost 500 million private data points.
This advanced technology platform, AccelProtein™, allows us to engineer proteins and create novel proteins with superior properties, such as stability, activity, affinity, and yield.
To date, Matwings has successfully engineered over 30 proteins, either independently or with partners, with over 40 projects currently underway across pharmaceutical and synthetic biology applications, including key enzymes and proteins for CMC, innovative biologics, and more.
Matwings actively seeks global collaborations for product development and commercialization.
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