The partnership will also seek to advance promising initial scientific discoveries through the preliminary steps of drug discovery and development. Autobahn Labs will invest up to $5 million per project for Salk discoveries that require access to drug development expertise and state-of-the-art capabilities.
“The strategic and operational support provided by Autobahn Labs will allow us to move forward at an accelerated pace to translate scientific discoveries into new therapeutics,” says Salk President Gerald Joyce. “The beauty of this collaboration is that the most promising findings across different areas of research at Salk will have the opportunity to move from the bench to the development of clinical drug candidates. We hope that this collaboration will lead to new therapeutic options for many areas of unmet medical need.”
Autobahn Labs invests earlier than traditional venture financing models, providing intellectual, financial, and physical capital to advance new scientific discoveries, from novel concept to preclinical drug candidate, with the goal of creating companies foundationally enabled by Salk science. As an added benefit, Salk trainees will have opportunities to learn about the processes of drug discovery, development, and commercialization.
Featured Stories
Leading with Technology – Salk scientists develop new means of discoveryOur scientists continue to push technological limits to—among other things—store more excess atmospheric carbon in deeper plant roots, study pancreatic cancer more accurately, follow cellular activity in real time more clearly, and track all kinds of motion more easily.
Dannielle Engle—Putting patients firstEngle, an assistant professor, has a deeply personal connection to pancreatic cancer that changed her career trajectory and made her want to focus on the disease. Inside Salk sat down with Engle to find out more about her dedication to finding better treatment options.
Weiwei Fan—Life is energyFan, a staff scientist in Professor Ronald Evans’ lab, studies mitochondria because he feels drawn to understanding how these energy generators within our cells function and the natural variations that exist between individuals.
Natanella Illouz-Eliaz—Recipe for a plant biologist: tomatoes, failure, and perseveranceIllouz-Eliaz, a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Joseph Ecker’s lab, grew up in Israel near the border with Lebanon, where high-pitched sirens periodically drove her family into bomb shelters for safety. But her parents insisted that she get the best education possible.
Richard Heyman—From Salk to biotech and backHeyman, a scientist and entrepreneur who has founded numerous biotechnology companies, currently serves as vice chair of Salk’s Board of Trustees, but his Salk story actually began when he was a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Professor Ronald Evans.