Beijing – Analytical BioSciences Ltd. (ABio), a leader in single cell genomics, announced today of an investment from and a strategic joint effort with BioMap, a AI-powered Life Sciences Company initiated and founded by Baidu’s founder Robin Li, to develop commercial analytical platforms and big data infrastructure for applications of single cell genomics in biomedical fields and develop a single-cell + AI innovation ecosystem.

Following the NGS revolution, single cell genomics promise an unprecedented scale and resolution to interrogate biological systems. The sheer explosion of high-resolution data and ever-expanding batteries of analytical tools have already led to ground breaking discoveries and insights in understanding mechanisms of disease such as cancer. It is becoming the cornerstone of basic scientific research, drug development, and is expanding into clinical applications as well. ABio was founded under the auspices of harnessing the disruptive potentials of single cell genomics, and has already established the world’s largest and most comprehensive databases of integrated and curated single cell genomics data, currently at over 26 million cells. Moreover, it has developed and integrated core analytical and visualization tools to support the analytical needs.

Baidu, as a leading company in the field of artificial intelligence in China, has the industry-recognized and world-leading big data platform. Backed up by Baidu’s strength, BioMap uses AI to build a complete biocomputing platform and works with both startups and research institutions that provide new data axes, data analysis, and drug design tools. It also plans to team up with partners to work on new methods for more personalized and precise diagnosis as well as targeted drug development. Single cell genomics, both in terms of its potential and astronomical data management and mining challenges, provide a perfect opportunity for ABio and BioMap to combine their expertise and lead the development in solutions and the market.

“The investment, complementary capabilities, and shared conviction in single cell genomics from BioMap is very heartening. We look forward to opportunities to accelerate the further development of single-cell big data platforms, intelligent data analysis processes and in-depth interpretation solutions. With the ever-expanding bodies of structured and computable big data and an integrated analytical environment, I anticipate greater progresses will be made at Pharma/Biotech, and other clinical and medical areas.” said Professor Zemin Zhang of Peking University, founder and a scientific advisor of Analytical BioSciences.

“The ability to harness true values of the vast amount of single cell data rests on both robust high performance computing infrastructure and sophisticated data management and analytical systems.” said Dr. Yangzhou Wang, CEO of Analytical BioSciences. “We are grateful to the confidence from Baidu/BioMap in ABio, in both the investment and its commitment to jointly develop a long-term partnership. We look forward to a shared journey for both companies. I’m very excited to have our scientists and engineers working together to develop products/solutions that benefit scientists, patients and physicians, and improve human health care for the world.”

“We are very proud to announce the collaboration with Analytical BioSciences both in equity investment and in a joint effort towards the next-generation single-cell multi-omics AI engine.” Said BioMap CEO Wei Liu, “Multi-omics data has become a cornerstone for future Life science research. As China’s first computational life science platform company, we look forward to working with Analytical BioSciences to jointly accelerate the research and development of innovative precision medicine products. Analytical BioSciences is a leading single-cell biotechnology platform company in the industry. We believe that, as this collaboration goes further, together we can make a real impact to clinical translational research.”

In December 2020, Analytical BioSciences closed an A+ round of financing, led by SoftBank China Venture and joined by IDG capital and Apricot Venture. BioMap becomes the latest and the first corporate strategic investor for Analytical BioSciences.

About Analytical BioSciences

Analytical BioSciences is a single cell genomics company focusing on accelerating the development of novel therapeutics. Our mission is to unlock the mechanism of diseases through the most advanced translational single cell platforms with the largest, high-resolution databases, and the most comprehensive commercial grade data analytics. Led by science and data, the company has been and will continue to generate new knowledge and compile/organize insights for the identification and validation of novel cellular targets and biomarkers, which ultimately lead to next generation breakthrough therapeutics and diagnostics.

The company has assembled a core team with diverse backgrounds in genomics, bioinformatics, IT and investment, and has rich R&D and managerial experience in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals industries. As a biotech company with a global customer base, Analytical BioSciences has established operations in both China and the United States to support its business priorities and expansion. Since its founding, Analytical BioSciences has been designated as Beijing Zhongguancun High-Tech Enterprise and National High-Tech Enterprises. It is the only CPP Bioinformatics partner of 10x Genomics and has already collaborated with top international pharmaceutical companies, as well as premier universities and hospitals in the world.

About BioMap

BioMap is China’s first computational life science company, led by Baidu’s CEO Robin Li as chairman and Baidu Ventures’ former CEO Liu Wei as co-founder and CEO. BioMap was born in an era of explosive growth of biological data. Our mission is to leverage AI and data to radically improve patients’ lives. Positioned as a data-driven company, BioMap is accelerating the R&D process of early screening/diagnosis, drug discovery, and other precision medicine products by utilizing high-performance biocomputing and AI capabilities, extracting insights from our unique and extensive library of population and molecular data sets. We focus on building our internal AI engine and data collection capabilities to curate our proprietary insights for difficult diseases. We also work with partners to build an ecosystem for promoting discovery and development of innovative therapeutic and diagnostic options for patients. Our partners come from Baidu Ventures’ global portfolio companies and world-leading research and clinical institutions.