2 days ago
Indian Startup Uses Generative AI to Design Gene Editors
DNA is like an instruction book used by every living thing.
Sometimes mistakes in DNA cause diseases.
Gene editors can fix some of these mistakes, but current tools have important limits.
Mandrake Bio wants to use generative AI to design better gene-editing proteins.
Its goal is to make editors that are smaller, more accurate, and able to perform more complicated changes.
The company tests each design in a laboratory.
The test results are then used to improve the next AI designs.
Mandrake Bio hopes its technology will eventually help medicine and agriculture.
It has raised about ₹16 crore to develop the technology and plans to seek more funding.
Bengaluru-based Mandrake Bio is using generative AI and biophysics to design new gene-editing proteins.
Founder Tanay Lohia says current gene-editing treatments are expensive, limited to some diseases, and often require editing cells outside the body.
The company aims to create editors that are compact, precise, controlled, and capable of more complex DNA changes.
Mandrake Bio tests its AI-generated designs in an in-house laboratory and feeds the results back into its models.
The startup raised about ₹16 crore in pre-seed funding and is pursuing partnerships with agricultural, seed, therapeutic, and biotech companies.
- Who
- Bengaluru-based Mandrake Bio, led by founder and chief editing officer Tanay Lohia.
- What
- The startup is using generative AI and first-principles biophysics to design new gene-editing proteins.
- Where
- Mandrake Bio is building the technology in Bengaluru, India, while targeting global markets.
- When
- The report was published on August 31, 2026; the company raised its pre-seed funding earlier in 2026.
- Why
- It aims to overcome limitations of existing gene editors and develop tools for therapeutic and agricultural applications.
Key facts
- Company
- Mandrake Bio
- Base
- Bengaluru, India
- Technology
- Generative AI, first-principles biophysics, and laboratory testing
- Target applications
- Therapeutics and agriculture
- Funding
- About ₹16 crore in a pre-seed round
- Business model
- Co-development with agricultural, seed, therapeutic, and biotech companies
- Development approach
- An AI-and-laboratory closed loop that uses test results to improve subsequent designs
Quotes
Tanay Lohia
Founder and chief editing officer of Mandrake Bio
““We treat editor development as an engineering discipline, not a discovery expedition,” he says. “That compresses years of enzyme engineering into weeks of design and lets us test a handful of excellent candidates instead of screening thousands of mediocre ones.””
thehindubusinessline.com
““We build the properties that matter — compactness, precision, and control — directly into each candidate rather than hoping to find them in nature,””
thehindubusinessline.com
Sources
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