Cambridge, UK-based Alchemab Therapeutics has raised ￡60m ($82m) in a Series A funding round, in a bid to advance its target-agnostic drug discovery platform.

The firm announced that the round was led by RA Capital Management, with participation from Lightstone Ventures, Data Collective VC, DHVC, SV Health Investors and the Dementia Discovery Fund.

The funding will be used to advance Alchemab’s novel platform, designed to identify disease-modifying antibody therapeutics, the company said in a statement.

The novel platform interrogates the entire antibody repertoires of individuals from well-defined groups, to identify unexpected resistance to disease despite genetic disposition or other risk factors increasing the likelihood of a poor prognosis.

Using these insights, the company is aiming to select naturally protective antibodies with therapeutic potential.

Primarily, Alchemab has a focus on the development of novel therapeutics for hard-to-treat neurodegenerative diseases and cancers, with a number of programmes currently at the preclinical stage.

The novel approach to identifying naturally protective antibodies was developed with support from scientific founders from the University of Oxford, Johns Hopkins University and Mount Sinai Hospital in the US.

“Our approach to understanding the natural immunological response to disease and why some people are able to stay well has huge potential to identify antibody therapies across a range of indications,” said Jane Osbourn, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Alchemab.

“The Series A financing offers a great opportunity to accelerate our efforts to positively impact the lives of patients,” she added.

Earlier this year, Alchemab also announced that it had been awarded an Innovate UK grant to support its development of a novel disease-modifying antibody therapy for Huntington’s disease, in collaboration with the Medicines Discovery Catapult.