In 2021, Biotage acquired ATDBio, a world leader in custom oligonucleotides. Gene therapy startup Eleven Therapeutics have a close collaboration with ATDBio. We sat down with their CEO Prof. Yaniv Erlich to learn more. 
Yaniv Erlich co-founded Eleven Therapeutics in 2020.
Tell us a little about yourself and your organization.
My name is Yaniv Erlich and I am the CEO and co-founder of Eleven Therapeutics. Before that, I used to be the CSO of MyHeritage and an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University.
Why did you need to employ an external partner?
As a start-up we need to move fast and collaborate with the best and brightest minds. You cannot afford to waste time on anything. We have a network of carefully selected partners, whom we are lucky to work with that help us to accelerate our research and development cycles. We are very happy that ATDBio is part of our network and it is a true pleasure to work with them.
How did you first hear about ATDBio?
We had a colleague that told us about them. I think I sent a cold email and they responded very fast. We were excited that they are located in Oxford and are UK local.
What service did ATDBio provide?
We utilize ATDBio for boutique-type synthesis of custom oligonucleotides. In many times, we have ideas about unorthodox designs, and they are always happy to work with us on these more challenging chemistries.
Why did you choose to work with ATDBio?
ATDBio offers high quality products in the area of oligonucleotides and can accomplish chemistry challenges that other companies cannot.
How did ATDBio perform?
There are two great things about ATDBio. First, they are very bright and knowledgeable about nucleic acid chemistry. So, we know that we can trust them to answer the different questions that we have. Moreover, they are fearless and are always eager and excited to try different things as part of their services. The second thing is that they really care about their customers. We had a deadline for an important project just before the New Year and they were able to work hard with us, synthesize the molecules that we needed, and help us to meet the deadline. This type of approach is noted and highly valuable by us. This combination of courage and care is what you want from a partner.
Would you work with ATDBio in the future?
We definitely plan to do so!
Why are therapeutic oligonucleotides important?
Therapeutic oligonucleotides bring multiple advantages. First, they usher in the possibility to design drugs that have digital-like properties. This property allows to leverage the genetic revolution by creating a one-to-one mapping between a potential drug target (i.e., a gene) and the active compound. Second, most oligonucleotide therapies harness enzymatic processes such as the RNAi machinery or CRISPR. This enables to create long lasting effects of the drug while reducing the amount of active compound. Finally, the advent of high throughput sequencing ushered in a new era in which massive amounts of oligonucleotides can be read, opening the possibility for large scale hypothesis free screens for therapeutic oligonucleotides.
What are your plans for the future?
The future is bright. Our platforms are getting more mature and we are in the process of growing our pipeline. Our vision is to introduce the next generation of RNAi therapies that will be fully programable to act across multiple organs of interest in order to help patients in need.
Eleven Therapeutics
Eleven Therapeutics is a new start-up that ushers in the next generation of RNAi therapeutics by combining artificial intelligence, or AI, massively parallel functional assays, and combinatorial chemistry. Its flagship invention features a new modality, dubbed SCSI-RNA™, meaning single-chassis, small interfering RNA, a fully programmable molecule, rationally designed to address the delivery, durability, and efficacy challenges of any disease and biological target of interest. Founded in 2020 by a group of globally-leading, interdisciplinary scientists, Eleven Therapeutics brings new RNAi therapeutics for patients in need by capitalizing on some of the world’s best pools of talent through its three collaborative hubs—in Cambridge, UK; Boston, U.S.; and Tel Aviv, Israel. Eleven is currently focusing its development pipeline on siRNA treatments for a range of respiratory diseases.
Literature Number: PPS677
