AI Biotech Startup Raises $26M to Design Medicines That Actually Work

Jan de Vries · 2026-10-06

What if we could design medicines on a computer that actually work in the human body? That's the question WhiteLab Genomics is answering, and investors just bet $26 million on it. ### The Big Bet on AI-Designed Medicine The Paris-based biotech company closed a €23.2 million ($26 million) Series B round led by AVP, a global investment firm managing over $2.7 billion in assets. New investors Yaday Health and Blast Club joined, alongside existing backers Omnes Capital and Debiopharm Innovation Fund. So why the excitement? WhiteLab isn't just another AI company. They're tackling one of genomic medicine's toughest problems: getting a therapy safely and effectively to the right cells in the body. "WhiteLab is building AI that designs genomic medicines that actually work in vivo, not just on paper," said François Robinet, managing partner at AVP. "The combination of computational design, experimental validation and the ability to translate those designs into differentiated bio-assets is what attracted us." ### How ALFRED Works Founded in 2019 by David Del Bourgo, Lucia Cinque, and Julien Cottineau, the Y-Combinator-backed company developed a proprietary platform called ALFRED (AI-Led Framework for Rational Exploration in Drug Design). Here's the gist: ALFRED designs and optimizes both viral and non-viral delivery vehicles, such as adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) and lipid nanoparticles, as well as programmable genetic payloads. Then they test them in living organisms. And it's already working. With the Paris Brain Institute, WhiteLab engineered novel AAVs that crossed the blood-brain barrier in animal studies, achieving a strong brain-to-liver targeting ratio with no detectable liver signal. That's huge, because the brain is one of the hardest organs to reach with medicines. ### What's Next for WhiteLab The new funding will expand WhiteLab's in vivo validation work beyond AAVs to non-viral delivery technologies and programmable synthetic promoters. They'll also strengthen their Boston hub for North American partnerships and grow their West Coast presence, while exploring opportunities in Japan and South Korea. > "This financing allows us to scale that work across multiple delivery technologies and payloads, build a portfolio of validated bio-assets and bring them to biopharma partners around the world," said Del Bourgo. WhiteLab operates from Paris, Boston, and Montreal, aiming to build a portfolio of experimentally validated bio-assets. They see precise delivery unlocking potential treatments for conditions ranging from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease to ALS, lysosomal storage diseases, and glioblastoma. At the upcoming European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ESGCT) Annual Congress, WhiteLab will present additional in vivo data from collaborations with Sanofi, Cytiva (Danaher), the Paris Brain Institute, and Institut Imagine. ### The Bottom Line "AI can help us design better genomic medicines, but what ultimately matters is whether those designs work in living systems," Del Bourgo added. "We have already presented compelling results." Alongside the funding, AVP's Robinet and Dr. Daniel Teper, managing partner at Yaday Health and founder/CEO of NAYA Therapeutics, will join WhiteLab's Board of Directors. For anyone watching the intersection of AI and biotech, WhiteLab is one to keep an eye on. They're not just talking about the future of medicine—they're building it, one validated bio-asset at a time.