It’s been an exciting week at Bind Research! We’re thrilled to welcome three exceptional people to the team. Dr Acely Garza-Garcia, an expert biochemist formerly at the Francis Crick Institute, joins us as Senior Scientist, Biochemistry and Biophysics. Her expertise will be instrumental in building our dataset and advancing our platform. Dr Candide Champion a talented computational chemist who recently completed his PhD at ETH Zurich, joins us as a Scientific Software Engineer. His deep knowledge of molecular modelling and software development is a fantastic addition to our capabilities. Sam Patterson is a bright undergraduate student at Duke University who is visiting Bind for the summer to learn about proteins, drug discovery, and startups. Welcome, Acely, Candide, and Sam! We’re so glad to have you on board!
Earlier this week, we announced the launch of Bind Research, a new not-for-profit organisation dedicated to delivering tools and datasets to make disordered proteins druggable.
We are extremely grateful for the financial backing from the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology, Eric Schmidt, and other partners. You can read more about them here.
Although our public launch is new, Bind has been in the making for well over 2 years. During that time, we have been fortunate to have an incredibly strong foundation of supporters and scientific collaborators and have spoken with hundreds of people. While future posts will spotlight our scientific partners and collaborations in greater detail, today we want to recognise some key players who helped us behind the scenes build our organisation from the very beginning.
Bind Research began as a bold idea. Early conversations—especially with Sam Rodriques and Erika Alden DeBenedictis—made it clear that if we wanted to place tools and datasets in the public domain and collaborate effectively with both academic disordered protein researchers and the biotech/drug discovery communities, the Focused Research Organisation (FRO) model was a perfect fit.1
We are also thankful for the valuable feedback from Convergent Research—particularly Adam Marblestone—who has pioneered and championed the FRO model in the United States. Additionally, our huge thanks go to the team at Renaissance Philanthropy—especially Tom Kalil, Ronit Kanwar, and Jasnam Sidhu—for helping us reach potential funders and adapt the FRO model to the UK for the first time.
Bind would also not have been possible without the dynamic and well-connected team at Deep Science Ventures—especially Laura Fletcher, Dominic Falcao, and Mark Hammond—who helped incubate Bind Research for over a year before our formal incorporation. This support was essential to help us find our footing.
In the coming months, we plan to share details about Bind’s organisational structure in case others find it useful. If you are interested in starting an FRO in the UK, be sure to check out the new partnership between Convergent Research and the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA).
London, UK – 11 February 2025 – Bind Research was today launched as the UK’s first not-for-profit Focused Research Organisation (FRO), committed to transforming drug discovery by targeting disordered proteins – an approach that promises new therapeutic avenues for diseases once considered untreatable.
Bind Research has been established with £12.9 million of support from the UK Government’s Research Ventures Catalyst programme, matched by support from industry, philanthropic, and charitable partners. Bind is grateful for visionary support from the UK government and from Eric Schmidt, former CEO and chairman of Google. Bind is also supported by NanoTemper, the Chordoma Foundation, and the Klaff Family Foundation. The government funding was officially announced at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris.
Disordered proteins comprise over 30% of human proteins, playing crucial roles in cellular signalling and regulation. Highly flexible and constantly shifting between shapes, their dynamic nature has historically rendered them “undruggable” by conventional methods. Bind Research’s ambition is to turn these elusive targets into viable opportunities for drug development.
Bind Research will develop innovative tools for experimental and computational characterisation of disordered protein-drug interactions with unparalleled speed and precision. It will also build comprehensive datasets capturing the dynamic behaviour of disordered proteins to train advanced AI models capable of predicting protein-drug interactions, accelerating the drug discovery process.
“By integrating AI with both experimental and computational innovations, Bind Research is poised to lead a new era in drug discovery – one where once-elusive disordered proteins become accessible targets for life-saving treatments,” said Gabi Heller, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer. “Our FRO structure combines the innovative spirit of start-ups with the rigorous research excellence of academia, and we are assembling an interdisciplinary team dedicated to pioneering breakthroughs that serve the greater societal good.”
The FRO model adopted by Bind Research will create public assets that drive innovation and expedite scientific breakthroughs. This structure is designed to support the discovery of treatments for common diseases while also enabling the inclusion of neglected targets, such as rare and critically underserved conditions.
“Collaboration is at the heart of Bind Research’s strategy,” Gogulan Karunanithy, scientific co-founder and Head of Magnetic Resonance, commented. “We are committed to sharing our innovative tools and datasets with the broader research community, fostering an ecosystem that bridges academia and industry.”
“Recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence have already begun to revolutionise understanding of protein structures,” said Thomas Löhr, scientific co-founder and Head of Compute at Bind Research. “While tools like AlphaFold have advanced the prediction of structured proteins, their capabilities fall short when it comes to disordered proteins. Bind Research is seeking to fill this critical gap by developing high-throughput AI methodologies and building datasets that capture the dynamic nature of these proteins, potentially unlocking entirely new paradigms in drug design.”
Marcus Harrison, Chief Operating Officer, and Melissa Strange, Chief Financial Officer, have joined the expert Leadership Team of Bind Research in addition to Gabi Heller, Thomas Löhr, and Gogulan Karunanithy.
Bind Research
Dr Gabi Heller, CEO
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Mo Noonan, Jonathan Birt
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Bind Research is a UK-based not-for-profit Focused Research Organisation (FRO) committed to improving patient outcomes by transforming disordered proteins into viable drug targets. The organisation is developing innovative tools for AI-enhanced computational and experimental characterisation of disordered protein-drug interactions with unmatched speed and precision. Additionally, Bind Research is building comprehensive datasets of these interactions to create public assets that fuel AI models, enhance predictive capabilities, and accelerate the drug discovery process. Launched in 2025, Bind Research secured financing from the UK’s Research Venture Catalyst programme, with matched support from industry, philanthropic, and charitable donors.
Bind Research has officially incorporated, marking a significant milestone as it embarks on its mission to drive breakthrough advancements targeting intrinsically disordered proteins.
Bind is pitching at the Investor Event for the Research Ventures Catalyst programme. Find us at the Francis Crick Institute on July 23rd (more information here).
Bind Research is excited to welcome Dr Marcus Harrison as Chief Operating Officer.
Dr Marcus Harrison is an experienced COO with over 15 years in executive roles across life science organisations, including university spinouts, non-profits, and industry ventures. Prior to joining Bind Marcus served as Director of Strategy Delivery and Partnerships at the Usher Institute at the University of Edinburgh, Chief Operating Officer at the Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC), and before this in executive positions for several start-up and established life science organisations. During the COVID-19 pandemic Marcus established the operational functions at the Alderley Park Lighthouse Lab, helping to scale the UK’s diagnostic capacity. Marcus’s broad expertise in building organisations positions him well to build Bind’s core operational functions encompassing partner engagement, project delivery, impact reporting, risk management and programme governance.
Bind Research is delighted to welcome Melissa Strange in her new role as Chief Financial Officer.
Melissa Strange is a commercially-minded senior finance leader with over 16 years worth of experience in life sciences companies. Melissa has been involved from early-stage research through clinical development and into commercial phases, and has worked across biotech, healthtech and medtech, where she has provided expertise in financial strategy, tax management and has supported a range of commercial and corporate transactions, including significant dilutive and non-dilutive funding. Prior to joining Bind Melissa served as Chief Financial Officer at Infinitopes, Brainomix and Closed Loop Medicine and was VP, Finance for Summit Therapeutics, a NASDAQ listed biotech. Melissa is also Chair of the Finance and Tax Advisory Committee at the BioIndustry Association. Melissa will be overseeing Bind’s financial operations and legal aspects.
Bind is a finalist in the UK Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) Research Ventures Catalyst programme.
By making it through the first round, we received £70,000 in seed funding, which we are using to lay the foundation of a non-profit research institute to target disordered proteins. Successful proposals will be funded by up to £25M from the UK government with a philanthropic match.
Bind is pitching in the UK Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) Research Ventures Catalyst programme at the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Success in the first round guarantees seed funding with which we can build a full proposal for a Focused Research Organisation with the mission of making intrinsically disordered proteins druggable. Successful proposals will be funded by up to £25M from the UK government with a philanthropic match.