Latest from Fauna Bio
Aug 9, 2022
Spiny Mouse Magic: An interview with Chelsey Simmons
2022
Read more
Aug 9, 2022
Spiny Mouse Magic: An interview with Chelsey Simmons
2022
Listen to podcast
Aug 9, 2022
Spiny Mouse Magic: An interview with Chelsey Simmons
2022
Watch video
Spiny Mouse Magic: An interview with Chelsey Simmons
2022
Read more
Watch Video
Jul 19, 2022
Introducing the Centaur Knowledge Graph
2022
Read more
Jul 19, 2022
Introducing the Centaur Knowledge Graph
2022
Listen to podcast
Jul 19, 2022
Introducing the Centaur Knowledge Graph
2022
Watch video
Introducing the Centaur Knowledge Graph
2022
Read more
Watch Video
Jun 21, 2022
Fauna Bio leverages animal genomics, hibernation biology to target human diseases - Science Board
2022
Read more
Jun 21, 2022
Fauna Bio leverages animal genomics, hibernation biology to target human diseases - Science Board
2022
Listen to podcast
Jun 21, 2022
Fauna Bio leverages animal genomics, hibernation biology to target human diseases - Science Board
2022
Watch video
Fauna Bio leverages animal genomics, hibernation biology to target human diseases - Science Board
2022
Read more
Watch Video
Jun 14, 2022
Fauna Bio's Comparative Genomics Approach Finds New Compounds for Heart and Lung Diseases
2022
Read more
Jun 14, 2022
Fauna Bio's Comparative Genomics Approach Finds New Compounds for Heart and Lung Diseases
2022
Listen to podcast
Jun 14, 2022
Fauna Bio's Comparative Genomics Approach Finds New Compounds for Heart and Lung Diseases
2022
Watch video
Fauna Bio's Comparative Genomics Approach Finds New Compounds for Heart and Lung Diseases
2022
Read more
Watch Video
May 17, 2022
Fauna Bio in Drug Discovery News: Can animal genomics help find therapies for human disease?
2022
Read more
May 17, 2022
Fauna Bio in Drug Discovery News: Can animal genomics help find therapies for human disease?
2022
Listen to podcast
May 17, 2022
Fauna Bio in Drug Discovery News: Can animal genomics help find therapies for human disease?
2022
Watch video
Fauna Bio in Drug Discovery News: Can animal genomics help find therapies for human disease?
2022
Read more
Watch Video.avif)
Apr 29, 2022
A mutt is more than the sum of its breeds: Fauna Bio collaborates on large-scale citizen science study in dogs
2022
Read more
Apr 29, 2022
A mutt is more than the sum of its breeds: Fauna Bio collaborates on large-scale citizen science study in dogs
2022
Listen to podcast
Apr 29, 2022
A mutt is more than the sum of its breeds: Fauna Bio collaborates on large-scale citizen science study in dogs
2022
Watch video
A mutt is more than the sum of its breeds: Fauna Bio collaborates on large-scale citizen science study in dogs
2022
Read more
Watch Video
Apr 26, 2022
Fauna Bio - NHGRI Small Business Grantee Success Stories
2022
Read more
Apr 26, 2022
Fauna Bio - NHGRI Small Business Grantee Success Stories
2022
Listen to podcast
Apr 26, 2022
Fauna Bio - NHGRI Small Business Grantee Success Stories
2022
Watch video
Fauna Bio - NHGRI Small Business Grantee Success Stories
2022
Read more
Watch Video
Apr 12, 2022
Fauna Bio Awakens Medicine to the Mysteries of Hibernation
2022
Read more
Apr 12, 2022
Fauna Bio Awakens Medicine to the Mysteries of Hibernation
2022
Listen to podcast
Apr 12, 2022
Fauna Bio Awakens Medicine to the Mysteries of Hibernation
2022
Watch video
Fauna Bio Awakens Medicine to the Mysteries of Hibernation
2022
Read more
Watch Video
Mar 31, 2022
UW Oshkosh Partners with Fauna Bio to Search for New Treatments for Human Disease
2022
Read more
Mar 31, 2022
UW Oshkosh Partners with Fauna Bio to Search for New Treatments for Human Disease
2022
Listen to podcast
Mar 31, 2022
UW Oshkosh Partners with Fauna Bio to Search for New Treatments for Human Disease
2022
Watch video
UW Oshkosh Partners with Fauna Bio to Search for New Treatments for Human Disease
2022
Read more
Watch VideoSep 21, 2021
Fauna bio raises $9 million to expand comparative genomics platform for novel target discovery
2021
Read more
Sep 21, 2021
Fauna bio raises $9 million to expand comparative genomics platform for novel target discovery
2021
Listen to podcast
Sep 21, 2021
Fauna bio raises $9 million to expand comparative genomics platform for novel target discovery
2021
Watch video
Fauna bio raises $9 million to expand comparative genomics platform for novel target discovery
2021
Read more
Watch Video
Mar 30, 2021
Fortune AI Minute
2021
Read more
Mar 30, 2021
Fortune AI Minute
2021
Listen to podcast
Mar 30, 2021
Fortune AI Minute
2021
Watch video
Fortune AI Minute
2021
Read more
Watch Video
Mar 17, 2021
Interview with Sandy Martin: What We Can Learn About Hibernation From Genes
2021
Read more
Mar 17, 2021
Interview with Sandy Martin: What We Can Learn About Hibernation From Genes
2021
Listen to podcast
Mar 17, 2021
Interview with Sandy Martin: What We Can Learn About Hibernation From Genes
2021
Watch video
Interview with Sandy Martin: What We Can Learn About Hibernation From Genes
2021
Read more
Watch VideoNo results found.
Please try a different filter
Frequently Asked Questions
At the end of the day, humans are mammals. What Fauna is really doing is looking at ‘human’ genes that are helping these other species resist and reverse disease. We’re using extreme biology to look back at our own evolutionary history and find ‘the answer inside us’. We’re NOT putting squirrel genes into people!
Hibernators are particularly well suited for this approach because almost every major group of mammals has hibernators (including primates!). The gray mouse lemur in Madagascar hibernates pretty similarly to ground squirrels. This means they are tapping into core mammalian genetic pathways that are very similar across very different species. This is the reason that at Fauna Bio we even have T-shirts at Fauna that say “I’m 89% squirrel”!
To help us translate these insights into therapies for humans, we layer on many hundreds of different datasets from humans and then test our therapies in human disease models, to give us confidence that the same genes protecting ground squirrels from heart damage can protect humans in heart failure (as one example).
We are creating safer, more effective therapeutics for human diseases based on evolutionary adaptations to similar problems.
Our lead program, Faun1083, is a truly novel approach to a type of heart failure known as Heart Failure with preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF), which is about half (50%) of all heart failure cases around the world and is increasing as people get older and with obesity and metabolic disease. This is a drug that is entering the final set of safety studies (IND-enabling studies) that we need to be able to start clinical studies in humans.
This therapy came directly from learning how species like the 13-lined ground squirrel protect their hearts from damage that occurs during hibernation.
Yes! In two main ways:
- Because our custom knowledge graph, Centaur, now contains not only Fauna Bio data, but data from more than 35 large biomedical datasets with 1 million nodes, 38 million edges it is too large for any human to glean insights from it without the use of AI. Our graph neural network to analyze this knowledge graph has a billion model parameters!
- In order to enhance speed and scalability of drug discovery, we have specially trained AI agents (collectively called Fauna Brain) that can replicate the output of several days of effort by our team of highly trained drug hunters in a matter of minutes. This system is an excellent example of ‘human in the loop’ as our AI engineer worked directly with team members doing drug discovery with the ConvergenceAI platform to have Fauna Brain learn how to use the platform and improve its predictions. This is a living system that continues to learn and improve every time we use it for discovery.
Using extreme animal physiology enables Fauna Bio to do discovery from <100 samples vs. the more than >30,000 samples we’d need to try and get similar insights from human genomics (if we could even find signal at all…).
Our lead program, Faun1083, came from a study with just 60 samples from ground squirrels, almost 3 orders of magnitude less data than you’d need from human studies. This is because we are sampling tissues at the precise times when they are repairing themselves and it makes it much more obvious what genes are involved in that protection.
We still use all that human data, but to confirm findings from the ground squirrels as we can then look at humans that have natural mutations in genes we find with our approach and ask if we see correlations to diseases like heart failure. For our lead program, Faun1083, humans with mutations in the target of that program have links to changes in heart damage markers, changes in fuel utilized by the heart and changes relating to pulmonary hypertension, a common occurrence in patients with HFpEF.
Our internal innovations team has identified > 35 other species with disease resistance traits, in diseases like neurodegeneration, metabolic disease, chronic kidney disease and even aging. The amazing pipeline and partnerships we’ve been able to build have all been from 1 species, the remarkable 13-lined ground squirrel, but its just the tip of the iceberg!
