Variant Bio announced a partnership with Novo Nordisk for disease research and development that could total $50 million for the biotech startup. The Seattle company is working with genetically diverse populations around the world in the pursuit of new drug therapies. The company has built a platform that uses statistical genetics and machine learning to identify the most promising treatments.
The multi-year collaboration with Novo Nordisk is focused on using genomic information in treating metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. Most research on the role of genetics in disease has focused on people with European ancestry, said David Moller, Variant’s chief scientist. Variant is partnering with Indigenous peoples worldwide to build more representative data sets.