Harnessing Nature’s Bounty: Enveda Biosciences Revolutionizes Medicine Discovery
For centuries, people have been turning to natural remedies to alleviate pain and cure diseases. The ancient Greeks, for instance, used willow tree bark to relieve headaches and fever. However, it wasn’t until the 1800s that scientists at chemical firm Bayer isolated its active ingredient, which was later patented as Aspirin.
This phenomenon is not unique to Aspirin. In fact, an estimated 40% of modern pharmaceutical products have roots in remedies used by our ancestors. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that a significant portion of natural chemical compounds remain undiscovered, waiting to be harnessed for their medicinal properties.
The Challenge of Harnessing Nature’s Bounty
Identifying, isolating, and testing molecules from nature is a complex and time-consuming process. It requires a multidisciplinary approach, involving botany, chemistry, pharmacology, and biology. This is where the team at Enveda Biosciences comes in.
Enveda was founded by Viswa Colluru, an early employee of Recursion Pharmaceuticals, which went public in 2021. Colluru realized that AI and other techniques could expedite the process of discovering new medicines from nature.
The Power of AI in Medicine Discovery
Colluru’s team at Enveda analyzed digital information about how humans across cultures have used plants to cure pain and disease. They discovered a fascinating pattern: geographically separated cultures from around the world were more likely to use similar plants for similar diseases and symptoms, even though they never communicated with each other.
"Thousands of years of experiential human wisdom are encoded in plant chemistry," Colluru explained. "We tapped into this collective knowledge to create our database, which now links 38,000 medicinal plants to about 12,000 diseases and symptoms."
Once Enveda’s AI identifies plants with the highest likelihood of providing cures, team members gather the materials and test them using the company’s laboratory and AI model. Unlike traditional methods for studying individual molecules, Enveda’s transformer model can decipher the "chemical language" of the entire sample.
The Future of Medicine Discovery
Enveda’s approach is starting to bear fruit. Two of the company’s drugs are expected to begin clinical trials later this year, one for treating skin conditions, including eczema, and the other for inflammatory bowel diseases.
This progress has not gone unnoticed by investors. Enveda announced that it has raised a $55 million Series B2 from new investors, including Microsoft, The Nature Conservancy, Premji Invest, and Lingotto Investment Fund, as well as existing backers Kinnevik, True Ventures, FPV, Level Ventures, and Jazz Venture Partners.
The fresh funding brings the company’s total capital to $230 million. Enveda plans to use this investment to add long-term strategic partners to its cap table and raise a Series C later this year after the clinical trials have been completed.
A New Era in Medicine Discovery
Enveda Biosciences is revolutionizing medicine discovery by harnessing the power of AI to unlock nature’s bounty. By tapping into collective human wisdom, they are accelerating the development of new medicines that can alleviate suffering and improve lives.
This is a game-changer for the pharmaceutical industry, which has long relied on traditional methods of medicine discovery. Enveda’s innovative approach is opening up new avenues for researchers and scientists to explore, making it possible to develop life-saving treatments more quickly and efficiently.
Conclusion
The future of medicine discovery looks brighter than ever, thanks to companies like Enveda Biosciences that are pushing the boundaries of what is possible. By harnessing nature’s bounty through AI-powered research, we can unlock new medicines and improve lives around the world.
As Colluru said, "We’re not just discovering new medicines; we’re giving people hope for a better tomorrow." With Enveda at the forefront of this revolution, there is no limit to what we can achieve.
