Absci

Absci was founded in 2011 by CEO Sean McClain in a basement lab in downtown Portland, OR as part of the Portland State University Business Accelerator (PSBA). In 2013, Absci became one of the first tenants of the Oregon Translational Research and Development Institute (OTRADI), eventually going on to become the accelerator program’s first graduate in 2016.[2] Having outgrown the space at OTRADI, Absci received a $200,000 grant from Washington state governor Jay Inslee's Strategic Reserve Fund in 2016 to help the company move its operations and build out lab space in downtown Vancouver, WA.[2] In 2018 the company successfully commercialized its E. coli expression platform, SoluPro®, which allows for the production of soluble, complex proteins in high yields. Absci held its IPO in July 2021 and began trading on the NASDAQ with the ticker symbol 'ABSI'.[3] In November 2021, Absci opened a new 85,000 sqft headquarters in Vancouver, WA.[4]

In January 2021, Absci announced the acquisition of Denovium, Inc. The Denovium Engine™ uses deep learning AI to categorize and predict the behavior of proteins. In June 2021, Absci acquired Totient, a discovery company that analyzes the immune system’s response to certain diseases in order to identify novel antibodies and their therapeutic targets. At the time of its acquisition, Totient had reconstructed 4,500 antibodies gleaned from immune system data from 50,000 patients.[5][6]

Absci has disclosed partnerships with a number of biopharma companies including Merck, Astellas, EQRx, PhaseBio, and Alpha Cancer Technologies. Its partnered programs include drug candidates in various phases of preclinical and clinical development. [7]