Global Brain has invested in Zafrens Inc. (Zafrens), which developed a biotech that enables democratized drug discovery thanks to its simultaneous phenotypic and molecular high-throughput screening platform, through its 321FORCE Global Innovation Fund L.P. (321FORCE™). Zafrens is a biotechnology company pioneering a high-throughput experimental platform named “Active-Drug-seq.” This foundational platform allows a single user to perform parallel 50,000-200,000 simultaneous cell cultures in nanoliter volumes. The proprietary barcoding mechanism also bridges sequencing-based readout with longitudinal microscopic images, allowing single-cell resolution multi-omics analysis even in complex experiments such as co-cultures of cancer cells and immune cells. Given the universality of the workflow and the ease of execution, the platform can be used for or be applied to any drug modalities and molecular perturbations. The company’s current efforts are being directed to small molecule drug discovery and T-cell analysis, with exploratory work in antibody-epitope mapping. Global Brain has decided to invest in Zafrens, recognizing the potential of its unique foundational platform, the experienced management, and the team of scientists with diverse expertise. Global Brain will contribute to the growth of Zafrens in cooperation with Mitsui Chemicals, Inc.

About Zafrens

Location: California, US
CEO: Swamy Vijayan
Founded: April 2021
URL: https://www.zafrens.com/

About 321FORCE™

Name: 321FORCE Global Innovation Fund L.P.
General Partner: Global Brain Corporation
Fund Size: JPY 5 billion
Fund Term: 10 years

About Global Brain

Location: Tokyo, Japan
Representative: Yasuhiko Yurimoto
Founded: January 1998
URL: https://globalbrains.com/

Global Brain has invested in Zafrens Inc., a biotech company pioneering functional multi-omics for drug discovery