Sightera Biosciences has raised €3 million in pre-seed funding to expand its artificial intelligence-powered drug discovery platform and advance programs targeting cancer and fibrosis. The round was backed by Entourage Ventures, Anacura and Qbic Fund, bringing together investors with experience across artificial intelligence, biotechnology and life sciences.
Sightera plans to use the funding to develop its technology platform, expand its drug pipeline, and advance its lead oncology program toward preclinical selection.
The company is developing small-molecule medicines using AI models trained on biological information generated from patient-derived disease models.
Rather than relying primarily on generic databases, Sightera creates proprietary datasets reflecting the biology of actual patients, including difficult cases where existing treatments have stopped working.
The company believes this approach can improve the relevance of AI-generated drug candidates by incorporating human disease biology from the beginning of the discovery process.
Drug discovery systems traditionally begin with a biological target and search for molecules that interact with it. However, promising laboratory results do not always translate into effective treatments when candidates are tested in patients.
Sightera is attempting to address this challenge by starting with patient-derived models and allowing those biological findings to guide the design of potential medicines.
The company’s current pipeline includes two oncology programs and one fibrosis program.
SIGHT001 is Sightera’s lead oncology program. The company said the candidate has produced promising in vivo results in pancreatic cancer and encouraging ex vivo data involving colorectal and bile duct cancers.
In vivo research evaluates a potential treatment within a living organism, while ex vivo studies examine cells or tissues removed from an organism under controlled laboratory conditions.
The new financing will support the advancement of SIGHT001 toward the preclinical candidate stage.
Reaching this stage would involve selecting a molecule with the properties required for further development before clinical testing can begin.
Sightera will need to continue evaluating factors such as effectiveness, safety, dosing, stability and how the molecule behaves inside the body before it can move toward human trials.
The company is also developing SIGHT002, a second AI-driven oncology program focused on aggressive esophageal and gastric adenocarcinomas.
Adenocarcinomas are cancers that begin in gland-forming cells and can occur throughout the gastrointestinal system.
Sightera believes the underlying biology targeted by SIGHT002 may also create opportunities in additional solid tumors.
Its third program, SIGHT101, is focused on fibrosis and is currently in the preclinical hit-to-lead phase.
Fibrosis occurs when excessive scar tissue develops within an organ or tissue, potentially interfering with normal function. The condition can affect organs including the liver, lungs, kidneys and heart.
During the hit-to-lead phase, researchers evaluate early compounds and attempt to improve their potency, selectivity and drug-like characteristics.
Sightera will use part of the pre-seed funding to move SIGHT101 into lead optimization, where the company can further refine the most promising molecules before selecting a development candidate.
The financing will also support broader improvements to Sightera’s platform and the proprietary biological datasets used to train its AI systems.
High-quality data is particularly important in AI drug discovery because the usefulness of a model depends heavily on the relevance and reliability of the information used during training.
By generating data from patient-derived disease models, Sightera aims to create a more direct connection between its computational predictions and the biological complexity of human disease.
The company is initially concentrating on oncology and fibrosis, areas where patients may have limited treatment options and where disease biology can differ significantly between individuals.
Sightera’s platform could eventually be used to identify novel targets, design new molecules and prioritize compounds for laboratory testing across additional diseases.
The pre-seed round provides the company with capital to continue validating this approach while advancing several internal drug candidates simultaneously.
Sightera has received support from organizations including Vlerick Business School, Business in Antwerp, Antwerp University Hospital, the University of Antwerp Valorisation Office, Flanders Investment & Trade, Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Wetenschapspark Universiteit Antwerpen and POM Antwerpen.
The company is also expanding its team as it begins its next stage of platform and pipeline development.
