Northern Ireland’s AMPLY raises €1.5M to use AI in fighting cancer and drug-resistant infections

Belfast-based AMPLY Discovery, a Northern Ireland AI drug discovery company, announced the completion of a $1.75M (nearly €1.5M) seed funding round to support the development of medicines through its platform.

The round was led by Twin Path Ventures, with participation from Venture Science, Co-fund NI, the British Business Bank, and QUBIS Limited.

Reimagining traditional drug discovery

AMPLY Discovery is developing gene-silencing therapies for cancers like triple-negative breast cancer and acute myeloid leukaemia. 

The company is also advancing preclinical drug discovery programmes focused on nebulised treatments for lung infections caused by drug-resistant pathogens using antimicrobial peptides delivered directly into the lungs. 

AMPLY was spun out of Queen’s University Belfast to commercialise a computational platform developed in the Creevey Lab, based on more than ten years of research. The company, founded by Dr. Ben Thomas, Dermot Tierney, and Prof. Chris Creevey, will use its funding to advance its programmes through the preclinical stage.

Dr. Ben Thomas, CEO and Chief Architect of AMPLY, says, “Ten years ago, I began combining financial modeling expertise with computational biology to create a drug discovery platform. Evolution has spent billions of years perfecting natural defence mechanisms, and now we’re using AI to unlock this wisdom.”

“This isn’t just professional for me; my father died from a drug-resistant infection our healthcare system couldn’t treat. At Queen’s, I built AMPLY to tackle deadly diseases differently, creating technology that will save lives when current treatments fail.”

The company’s drug discovery platform integrates AI, Next Generation Sequencing, and Synthetic Biology to develop treatments for diseases associated with genetic variation. It analyses biological molecules, identifies treatment targets, and bio-prints molecules for lab testing and refinement.

Through AMPLYfolioAI, AMPLY is working to improve understanding of disease processes, design biologic drugs, and develop a precision approach to drug development. The company is addressing challenges in healthcare by focusing on diseases where current treatments fall short, such as aggressive cancers and antimicrobial resistance. 

For example, triple-negative breast cancer continues to show low survival rates, pointing to the need for new approaches that go beyond standard treatments.

Commenting on Twin Path’s conviction in Amply, Partner Katie Lockwood says, “Data is the new oil. We’re impressed by Amply’s proprietary experimental dataset, their unique AI approach that incorporates human expertise, and their ability to validate AI discoveries through in vitro and in vivo testing.”

“The founding team exemplifies the cross-disciplinary expertise we seek in breakthrough AI investments. Their application of AI to computational biology has already yielded impressive results that could transform drug discovery for complex diseases.”

AMPLY tackles antimicrobial resistance

Antimicrobial resistance causes over 1.27 million deaths each year and contributes to nearly 5 million more. AMPLY is addressing this issue using a core technology aimed at identifying treatments where existing options do not work. 

By 2050, the global economic impact of these treatment gaps is projected to reach trillions in healthcare costs and GDP losses.

AMPLY is responding to the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance by developing new antimicrobials quickly and at lower cost. The company argues that stewardship and reduced antibiotic use are not enough to counter ongoing resistance.

AMPLY’s platform-based model allows it to pursue multiple discovery programmes, with a focus on validating its technology and addressing diseases with limited treatment options.

Dermot Tierney, co-founder and COO at AMPLY, says, “We’re deploying our platform against complex cancers and multidrug-resistant pathogens that threaten our current antibiotic arsenal. This investment is a vote of confidence in AMPLY, especially given the challenging fundraising environment for seed-stage biotechs. It enables us to execute our plan and target therapeutic areas with significant unmet needs.”