Spring Discovery, a Palo Alto, California-based startup, is combining biology, machine learning, and lab automation to accelerate the discovery of aging therapies. Spring Discovery founder and CEO Ben Kamens said that aging is the greatest risk factor for the most detrimental diseases on earth and finding therapies holds the potential for dramatically reducing diseases.
“We’re adding a new approach to this search that combines experimental biology and engineering into a high-throughput machine,” said Kamens. Kamens is also known as the first hire and lead engineer of education platform non-profit organization Khan Academy.
Spring Discovery also announced $18 million in Series A funding from a group of investors led by First Round and General Catalyst. Longevity Fund, Felicis, Caffeinated Capital, Zhen Fund, Susa, Village Global, SciFi, and several other investors participated in this round as well. Kamen’s advisers include Elad Gil of Color Genomics, Amgen’s head of neuroscience discovery Sasha Kamb, a Y Combinator partner Sam Altman.
According to Business Insider, Kamens has been taking insulin since he was a teenager as he has Type 1 diabetes. And living with this condition gave him an appreciation for what it means to be healthy.
The goal of Spring Discovery is to find out what changes in cells and tissues as people age in order to discover new therapies to reverse the changes. This could help those who are at risk of diseases like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s.
Since Spring is combining a team of engineers who specialize in machine learning and AI with scientists whose backgrounds include stem-cell biology and genetics, Kamens believes that discoveries will be made quickly.
With this round of funding, Spring is expanding its laboratory in San Carlos, California. As of right now, the company’s lab is equipped to run full experiments on biological materials such as human cells and mice. And Kamens told Business Insider is planning to hire roughly 20 new team members over the next two years.
