Techbio startup Scripta Therapeutics emerges from stealth by announcing a £9 million seed round to upend conventional approaches to drug discovery.
Scripta combines AI, imaging, and patient derived models to create and modulate disease maps based on transcriptional networks, building a new biology first paradigm to decode and undo the programmes that drive disease.
The round is led jointly by Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE) and Apollo Health Ventures, with further investment from AlbionVC, YZR Capital, and Parkwalk Advisors, and support from Oxford University Innovation.
Scripta’s approach centres on transcription factors, the master controllers of gene expression that act as detailed and dynamic maps of disease mechanisms. Using a data rich, lab-in-the loop combination of experimental biology with advanced AI and informatics, the company aims to efficiently identify therapeutics that modulate these maps and restore healthy cell states.
While the platform can be applied broadly, Scripta is initially focused on Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions, working in collaboration with scientific co founder Noel Buckley, Professor of Neurobiology at the University of Oxford.
Experienced biotech business builder Ray Barlow, CEO of SynOx Therapeutics, has also been brought on to strengthen Scripta’s board as a Non Executive Director.
We’re flipping the script on conventional target based drug discovery to find therapies that genuinely move the needle for patients. By focusing on understanding and manipulating the master controllers of biology, we’re searching for drugs with the potential not just to delay disease progression but to stop it in its tracks.
Peter Hamley, Founder & CEO
Scripta brings fresh thinking and a novel biology led, data rich approach to a traditionally challenging area of drug discovery. I am looking forward to working with this outstanding team to deliver effective new medicines that are long overdue for so many patients.
Ray Barlow, CEO at SynOx Therapeutics
We’re proud to be backing Scripta a brilliant team that exemplifies the next generation of technology enabled drug discovery and capitalises on the strength of the University of Oxford and the wider Oxford ecosystem.
Claire Brown, Partner at Oxford Science Enterprises
Manipulating transcription factors in disease has long been seen as an intractable challenge, yet it holds tremendous promise for treating neurodegeneration and other life limiting conditions. Scripta’s innovative approach could deliver transformational therapies and exemplifies one of Apollo’s key investment strategies: reprogramming diseased cells into healthy ones to tackle the root causes of age related diseases and enable disease modifying treatments.
Marianne Mertens, Partner at Apollo Health Ventures
