A recap of the August Monthly Hamilton Health Check-up
In the world of drug discovery, a company from Hamilton, Ontario, is making a big impact by challenging the status quo. Stoked Bio, a biotech start-up coming out of McMaster University, is leveraging a biology-first approach combined with artificial intelligence to develop new therapies for some of the most difficult-to-treat diseases, including antibiotic resistance and glioblastoma, a deadly form of brain cancer.
The latest Hamilton Health Innovation Check-up hosted by Synapse Life Science Consortium welcomed CEO Jeff Skinner, who shared more about the research behind Stoked Bio’s MOSIAC™, and what’s next for the team as they navigate their commercialization journey.
Tackling the Toughest Diseases with MOSIAC™
While many AI-driven drug discovery companies rely on existing data sets that can be biased or incomplete, Stoked Bio has developed a proprietary process called MOSAIC™. This unique method focuses on creating disease-specific training data to ensure that the AI outputs are not just statistically valid, but biologically meaningful. Skinner explains, “AI is a better way to do statistics, but it’s only as good as the data that’s coming in.” This focus on high-quality, biologically-rich data allows Stoked Bio to discover drug candidates that traditional methods might miss.
Stoked Bio’s innovative approach is already yielding promising results in two critical areas of medicine:
- Antibiotic Resistance: Led by co-founder and CSO Jon Stokes, Stoked Bio is at the forefront of the fight against antibiotic resistance. The company’s work has already led to two patent filings for AI-generated antibiotics targeting E. coli and Staph aureus, bacteria that’s known to cause pneumonia. The E. coli project, in particular, has shown strong results with supporting animal data, demonstrating that the model can successfully predict effective new therapies.
- Glioblastoma: In addition to antibiotics, Stoked Bio is tackling glioblastoma, a devastating type of cancer with dire prognosis. Despite over 100 years of research, only four drugs have been approved, with the best one adding only months to a patient’s life. The company is actively working with collaborators at McMaster, and new predictive molecules are currently being tested in the lab to find a better solution.
Growing Stoked Bio
Stoked Bio’s business model is designed to be self-sustaining, focusing on generating near-term revenue through partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. By licensing their assets at the preclinical stage, they aim to create a steady stream of revenue to fuel further research and development. This approach, as Skinner describes it, is about hitting “singles and doubles early, doing it over and over and over again.”
With ongoing fundraising efforts and a growing list of collaborations and grants, Stoked Bio is set for a bright future. They recently opened their first office in Hamilton’s McMaster Innovation Park and are actively hiring from the local community to help contribute to the region’s thriving biotech ecosystem.
For a city known for its innovation, Stoked Bio is a testament to the combination of groundbreaking research and entrepreneurial drive that is defining the next generation of Canadian biotech.
At the end of each month, the Synapse Life Science Consortium hosts a virtual session to bring the life science community together to share updates, explore collaboration opportunities, and discuss the development and deployment of health innovations, called the Monthly Hamilton Health Check-up. Stay connected with future sessions to be part of the ongoing conversation that is driving health innovation in Hamilton and beyond.
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