Ai3Bio Launches With $49 Million Series A Funding to Target Autoimmune Diseases
Biotechnology startup ai3Bio launched with $48 million in Series A funding to advance proprietary antibody and lipid nanoparticle technologies designed to eliminate disease-causing Th17 cells in vivo. Co-founded and led by Steven Altschuler, the Watertown, Massachusetts, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based company aims to transition autoimmune disease treatment from broad immunosuppression to lasting remission.
Capitalization and Investor Backing Fuel Next-Generation Platforms
The $48 million Series A round was led by founding investors UPMC Enterprises and Ziff Capital Partners, with additional participation from Cockrell Interests and Tanis Ventures. This capital structure backs the integration of foundational technology innovations that created ai3Bio, drawing on assets and research from two distinct biotech entities: Corner Therapeutics and Novasenta. The funding aims to support IND-enabling studies that advance the company’s therapies into first-in-human clinical trials.
Traditional medications broadly suppress the immune system or target B cells indirectly, creating a cycle of relapse once treatment stops.
Targeting Pathogenic T Cells Through Dual Platforms
ai3Bio has developed two complementary technology platforms named STARx and T Deplete. The STARx platform utilizes a lipid nanoparticle to deliver mRNA that triggers a targeted, anti-inflammatory self-destruct process inside pathogenic Th17 cells. Simultaneously, the T Deplete platform employs a specialized antibody to recruit the body’s native immune cells to clear those same cells. According to company disclosures, preclinical testing of blood samples from autoimmune patients demonstrated that the lipid nanoparticle technology effectively removed the targeted cells, while the antibody platform proved safe and effective in non-human primate models.
“Despite billions of dollars of investment, no therapeutic on the market today delivers lasting remission for the more than 15 million Americans who live with autoimmune diseases,” said Steven Altschuler, co-founder and chief executive officer of ai3Bio, noting that the enterprise was established to shift the paradigm toward a one-step treatment.
Altschuler previously co-founded Spark Therapeutics, bringing clinical gene therapy commercialization experience to the venture. Scientific co-founder Jonathan Kagan, a pediatrics professor at Harvard Medical School and gastroenterology researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital, emphasized the mechanistic necessity of eliminating the cells responsible for producing disease-driving cytokines. “In order to reset the immune system, the Th17 cells that produce these cytokines need to be eliminated,” Kagan said.
With safety studies currently underway, management is preparing for upcoming regulatory filings to bring both platforms into human trials. The company’s leadership team includes Chief Technology Officer Michael Lyman and Chief Financial and Business Officer Nick Seaver. By using artificial intelligence-driven discovery alongside advanced immunology, ai3Bio intends to establish a modular portfolio where validation in a single autoimmune indication—such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus, or diabetes—provides a template that can be expanded across multiple disease targets.
Industry stakeholders tracking the intersection of artificial intelligence and immunology will monitor ai3Bio’s progress as IND-enabling safety studies clear the path toward initial clinical evaluations.