Envisagenics Receives $2.2 Million Grant for Oncology Research
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NEW YORK, Oct. 13, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- Envisagenics, an AI-driven RNA splicing therapeutics company, has received a $2.2 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Direct to Phase II grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). This funding will support the development and commercialization of SpliceCore, including SpliceDisco, a new machine learning algorithm designed to connect cancer-specific therapeutic targets with the splicing mechanisms that drive disease.
The grant will enable Envisagenics to further develop SpliceDisco, a tool that will help the company identify and prioritize novel cancer targets. According to Martin Akerman, the company's Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder, SpliceDisco will be critical in helping Envisagenics identify and prioritize targets with strong biological rationale and therapeutic potential.
Alternative RNA splicing is a fundamental biological process that enables a single gene to produce multiple distinct proteins. In many cancers, this process becomes dysregulated, generating protein isoforms found only in tumor cells. These tumor-specific isoforms represent a significant and largely untapped opportunity to develop precision therapies that spare healthy tissue.
Envisagenics' proprietary SpliceCore AI software platform combines artificial intelligence, large-scale transcriptomic analysis, and experimental validation to systematically identify and prioritize these therapeutic opportunities. Built on one of the industry's most comprehensive RNA splicing resources, SpliceCore predicts critical characteristics, including disease specificity, patient prevalence, and therapeutic suitability, to enable the development of highly differentiated precision medicines.
The project funded with this grant will support the development of SpliceDisco. By combining AI-driven prioritization with experimental validation, the project is designed to generate cancer-specific, partner-ready therapeutic target opportunities with defined disease relevance, patient prevalence, and modality fit across Envisagenics' internal oncology pipeline and external collaboration programs.
Envisagenics is advancing a pipeline of wholly owned programs in neurodegenerative disease and oncology. Its lead program, ENV-375, is a late-stage preclinical antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In oncology, the company is developing a portfolio of first-in-class cancer-specific targets for antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), T cell engagers (TcEs), multispecific antibodies, radioligand therapies (RLTs), and other next-generation immunotherapies.
The company's SpliceCore platform, which includes SpliceDisco, is built on one of the industry's most comprehensive RNA splicing resources, encompassing more than 14 million distinct RNA splicing events. This extensive database will be crucial in identifying and prioritizing novel therapeutic targets in oncology.
The grant will support the development of SpliceDisco, which will be deployed across Envisagenics' oncology programs to strengthen the biological rationale behind their targets and accelerate the development of differentiated cancer therapies. The company aims to leverage this technology to generate cancer-specific, partner-ready therapeutic target opportunities with defined disease relevance, patient prevalence, and modality fit.