Small, highly selective, programmable binding molecules
- Sub-nanomolar binding affinities
- Tunable stability/bioavailability profiles
- Predictable nucleotide sequences
- 10x smaller size than antibodies (4-30 kDa)
- Rapid discovery and in-vitro validation (20 days)
- Animal- and cell-free chemical synthesis
- Negligible batch-to-batch variation
- Site-specific design (down to single point mutations)
- Stable at room temperature
- Easily chemically modified without loss of function
- Low immunogenicity
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Digital molecules: aptamers
Analogue molecules: antibodies
Advanced Therapeutics
$1.48 Trn
Advanced Diagnostics
$86 Bn
Manufacturing
$2.5 Bn
A foundational technology
enabling new markets
Advanced Therapeutics
- 40+ clinical assets; ~50% passed Phase 2
- Multiple FDA Fast Track designations
- $5.9Bn Astellas–Iveric Bio acquisition ranks among the top 10 largest pharma deals for a single aptamer asset
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Advanced Diagnostics
- Multiple FDA-cleared tests
- Somalogic: 7,000+ proteins, 150+ partners
- Next-gen continuous monitoring diagnostics entering clinical studies
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Manufacturing
- Widely used in hot-start polymerases
- Applications in purification, detection, QC
The aptamer opportunity
- Key patents restricting the aptamer industry expired in 2015-2020
- Breakthroughs in RNA and DNA therapeutics have propelled the field forward
- PentaBind designs multi-attribute, drug-like aptamers which ovecome traditional problems with SELEX aptamer design
Tackling unmet needs
with therapeutic aptamers
Therapeutic challenge
- Antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) struggle to penetrate tumor microenvironments (TMEs)
- Antibody conjugates clear slowly, limiting radionuclide payload use
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Therapeutic Impact
- PentaBind’s AptDCs (10× smaller, 4–30 kDa) penetrate TMEs efficiently
- Aptamers enable fast clearance and precise radionuclide halflife matching​
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PentaBind's aptamers selectively internalise into cancer cells
Our platform's unique
AI and wet-laboratory feedback loop
Leveraging a novel aptamer modality, a fusion of AI, molecular modelling and wet-laboratory methods, over a decade of aptamer product development and drug discovery experience, and the largest aptamer dataset of its kind, PentaBind designs multi-characteristic 'drug-like' aptamers
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Our pipeline
of therapeutic drugs
PentaBind’s uniqueness-based selection outperformed our original candidates. Their AI identified an aptamer, now our best performer by a wide margin, that we would have overlooked under our previous enrichment methods"
A track record in drug development and aptamer commercialisation
A multi-disciplinary team spanning data science, biology, chemistry, automation engineering and drug development with experience taking aptamer products to market.
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Shortlisted as Best New Startup of the Year by Cancer Research Horizons
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Shortlisted as Deep Tech Investment of the Year by the UK Business Angels Association. This prestigious award is sponsored by the Royal Academy of Engineering
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