Seattle-based biotech Ora Biomedical is planning to open a drug-discovery facility in the Puget Sound region.
A company spokesperson said Ora Biomedical is deciding between space at the Swedish Medical Center Cherry Hill campus and a space in Tukwila owned by Sabey Corp. Ora Biomedical on Monday announced a pre-seed round from Optispan Ventures, which the Ora Biomedical spokesperson said would be a $500,000 round.
“Optispan Ventures and Ora Biomedical have a shared vision of revolutionizing how we age,” Ora Biomedical CEO Mitchell Lee said in a release. “Thanks to our partnership with Optispan, we can accelerate the launch of our longevity drug discovery factory and move one step closer to developing breakthrough healthy aging therapeutics for humans and all other animals we love.”
The Ora Biomedical spokesperson said the space will be about 2,500 square feet and house about 20 to 25 people when it is fully operational, but the team will grow over time. The spokesperson added the company will move in at the start of 2023, and the space will become fully operational by May 2023.
Ora Biomedical is currently incubating at the University of Washington School of Medicine but will move into a temporary space with the pre-seed money through the end of the year, according to the spokesperson, and the company will look to raise more money this year for the permanent facility.
Founded this year, Ora Biomedical focuses on aging therapies and delaying chronic illness. The biotech has a robotic system it calls WormBot-AI that uses AI-based data analysis to identify therapies that help with aging.
Optispan Ventures, meanwhile, was also founded this year and is based in Seattle, according to its LinkedIn page. The firm says it is focused on improving the medical system.
“We are pleased to partner with Ora to apply their game-changing Wormbot-AI technology and go far beyond what has previously been possible in this field”, Stuart McKee, CEO of Optispan, said in a release.
