Belfast-based AMPLY Discovery completes €1.5M seed funding
Summary
Belfast-based AMPLY Discovery, a Northern Ireland AI drug discovery company, announced the completion of a $1.75M (nearly 1.5M) seed funding round to support the development of medicines through its platform.The round was led by Twin Path Ventures, with participation from Venture Science, Co-fund NI, the British Business Bank, and QUBIS Limited.AMPLY Discovery is developing gene-silencing therapies for cancers like triple-negative breast cancer and acute myeloid leukaemia.The company is also advancing preclinical drug discovery programmes focused on nebulised treatments for lung infections caused by drug-resistant pathogens using antimicrobial peptides delivered directly into the lungs.AMPLY was spun out of Queens University Belfast to commercialise a computational platform developed in the Creevey Lab, based on more than ten years of research. Ben Thomas, CEO and Chief Architect of AMPLY, says, Ten years ago, I began combining financial modeling expertise with computational biology to create a drug discovery platform. Evolution has spent billions of years perfecting natural defence mechanisms, and now were using AI to unlock this wisdom.This isnt just professional for me; my father died from a drug-resistant infection our healthcare system couldnt treat. The company is addressing challenges in healthcare by focusing on diseases where current treatments fall short, such as aggressive cancers and antimicrobial resistance.For example, triple-negative breast cancer continues to show low survival rates, pointing to the need for new approaches that go beyond standard treatments.Commenting on Twin Paths conviction in Amply, Partner Katie Lockwood says, Data is the new oil. The company argues that stewardship and reduced antibiotic use are not enough to counter ongoing resistance.AMPLYs platform-based model allows it to pursue multiple discovery programmes, with a focus on validating its technology and addressing diseases with limited treatment options.Dermot Tierney, co-founder and COO at AMPLY, says, Were deploying our platform against complex cancers and multidrug-resistant pathogens that threaten our current antibiotic arsenal.