Connect with us

Technology

SandboxAQ Partners with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in $25 Million Initiative to Develop Novel Treatments

Published

on

SandboxAQ collaborating with the University of Dundee through The Michael J. Fox Foundation’s LRRK2 Investigative Therapeutics Exchange (LITE) program to improve its inhibitor for the gene most commonly associated with Parkinson’s

PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — SandboxAQ announced today it has signed a $25 million research grant through The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) LRRK2 Investigative Therapeutics Exchange (LITE) program to advance drug candidates for Parkinson’s disease (PD.) The partnership brings SandboxAQ’s expertise in neurodegenerative diseases and its Large Quantitative Models (LQMs) to cutting-edge research in the field of Parkinson’s research where, despite important biological and genetic discoveries, effective new therapeutics have yet to be approved.

As part of the partnership, SandboxAQ will collaborate with University of Dundee in Scotland to improve the potency and specificity of its LRRK2 inhibitors and to identify innovative compounds acting as allosteric modulators. LRRK2 is a gene identified in 2004 as being the most commonly associated with Parkinson’s, however, no new therapy targeting this protein has reached the market.

This research grant is to support an MJFF program focused on bridging basic science advances to industry-led drug development. LITE will include tens of millions of dollars in grant support and has already attracted more than 30 academic and clinical collaborators and more than a dozen companies. The program aims to develop new approaches to targeting the LRRK2 gene with therapies while also supporting the development of LRRK2-relevant clinical biomarkers to measure progress.

The initiative will take advantage of recent LRRK2 structures to identify or design new drug candidate molecules and complete pre-clinical investigation, with the goal of optimizing four inhibitors with distinct modes of action within the next two years. The agreement includes a license for SandboxAQ’s LQMs, with key milestones to be delivered over the 24-month engagement period.

“By combining MJFF’s network and expertise with SandboxAQ’s AI and computational capabilities, we have a powerful force joining us and creating a unique opportunity to accelerate the development of new therapies for Parkinson’s,” said Professor Dario Alessi, Director of the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit at the University of Dundee and LITE program leader. “This collaboration represents a significant step forward in our understanding and treatment of this challenging disease.”

SandboxAQ’s LQMs integrate AI tools with physics-based scoring functions, allowing the creation of detailed protein-ligand complex models, the rapid screening of millions of compounds, ligand identification, and small molecule design.

These technologies will help advance the research being conducted across the LITE Consortium, whose projects are led by scientists from the University of Dundee and attract more than 30 global academic and clinical collaborators as well as more than a dozen companies. SandboxAQ is one of the first commercial partners to join the LITE consortium.

“We are confident that SandboxAQ’s Large Quantitative Models and AI simulation techniques will enable us to translate academic discoveries into new drugs and ultimately help people who have Parkinson’s disease,” said Nadia Harhen, GM of AI Simulation at SandboxAQ. “Our partners at the University of Dundee have done extraordinarily important preclinical research, and we are excited to help them translate their discoveries into breakthrough therapies to help patients affected by PD.”

The collaboration with the University of Dundee is SandboxAQ’s second research partnership with the MJFF. Also today, SandboxAQ shared a collaboration with Belgium-based KU Leuven‘s Vangheluwe Lab to identify small molecule modulators capable of restoring the function of the ATP10B gene, another key gene linked to PD.

About SandboxAQ
‍SandboxAQ is a B2B company delivering AI solutions that address some of the world’s greatest challenges. The company’s Large Quantitative Models (LQMs) deliver critical advances in life sciences, financial services, navigation, cyber and other sectors. The company emerged from Alphabet Inc. as an independent, growth capital-backed company in 2022, funded by leading investors including T. Rowe Price, Eric Schmidt, Breyer Capital, Guggenheim Partners, Marc Benioff, Thomas Tull, Section32, and others. For more information, visit http://www.sandboxaq.com.

About the LRRK2 Investigative Therapeutics Exchange (LITE) Program
The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research launched LITE in 2024 to support new approaches to targeting the LRRK2 gene with therapies, while also supporting the development of LRRK2-relevant clinical biomarkers to measure progress. Mutations in the LRRK2 gene were first linked to PD 20 years ago, and they are now understood to be the most common causes of inherited PD. The LITE program, which will provide tens of millions of dollars of grant support, paves the way for new cooperation on LRRK2, attracting more than 30 academic and clinical collaborators as well as more than a dozen companies expressing interest at launch. The program connects companies that are developing LRRK2-targeting therapies with key opinion leaders and provides preclinical and clinical resources to establish best practices for advancing LRRK2 therapeutics. LITE will be led by Dario Alessi, PhD, of the University of Dundee in the United Kingdom. Alessi, a global leader in the study of kinases, leads a project focusing on LRRK2 signaling pathways as part of the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) Collaborative Research Network (CRN), creating a point of collaboration across initiatives as he continues to build on this work in the space. The LITE program also will benefit from collaboration with other ASAP initiative-supported programs including the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiatives (PPMI) and the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program (GP2). Learn more here.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sandboxaq-partners-with-the-michael-j-fox-foundation-for-parkinsons-research-in-25-million-initiative-to-develop-novel-treatments-302290452.html

SOURCE SandboxAQ

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

Published

on

By

SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

Continue Reading

Technology

Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

Published

on

By

SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

Continue Reading

Technology

Air Products to Expand Industrial Gas Supply for Samsung Electronics’ Next-Generation Semiconductor Fab in South Korea

Published

on

By

New investment underscores the company’s long-term commitment to Korea and its leading role in the global semiconductor industry 

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Air Products (NYSE:APD), a world-leading industrial gases company and serving Samsung globally, today announced it has been selected by Samsung to supply industrial gases for its new advanced semiconductor fab in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Under the agreement, Air Products will build, own and operate multiple state-of-the-art production facilities and a bulk specialty gas supply system to supply nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and hydrogen for Samsung’s new semiconductor fab. The new facilities are expected to come onstream in multiple phases from 2028 through 2030.

Air Products has a long track record of executing multiple phase expansions in Pyeongtaek to support Samsung’s growing manufacturing needs. This latest project represents Air Products’ largest investment to date in the semiconductor industry and will establish Pyeongtaek as the company’s single largest operations site globally supporting the electronics industry. 

“Air Products is honored to be selected once again by Samsung and to have their continued confidence as a trusted partner supporting their strategic growth plans,” said SR Kim, President, Air Products Korea. “This significant investment reinforces Air Products’ role as a leading global supplier to the semiconductor industry and underscores our long-standing commitment to supporting our strategic customers with safety, reliability, efficiency and excellent service.”

Air Products has served the global electronics industry for more than 40 years, supplying industrial gases safely and reliably to many of the world’s leading technology companies. The company has operated in Korea for more than 50 years and has established a strong position in electronics and manufacturing sectors.

About Air Products

Air Products (NYSE: APD) is a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for over 85 years focused on serving energy, environmental, and emerging markets and generating a cleaner future. The Company supplies essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries, including refining, chemicals, metals, electronics, manufacturing, medical and food. As the leading global supplier of hydrogen, Air Products also develops, engineers, builds, owns and operates some of the world’s largest clean hydrogen projects, supporting the transition to low- and zero-carbon energy in the industrial and heavy-duty transportation sectors. Through its sale of equipment businesses, the Company also provides turbomachinery, membrane systems and cryogenic containers globally.

Air Products had fiscal 2025 sales of $12 billion from operations in approximately 50 countries. For more information, visit airproducts.com or follow us on LinkedInXFacebook or Instagram.

This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this release and are not guarantees of future performance. While forward-looking statements are made in good faith and based on assumptions, expectations and projections that management believes are reasonable based on currently available information, actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors, including the risk factors described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 and other factors disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the assumptions, beliefs or expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances upon which any such forward-looking statements are based.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/air-products-to-expand-industrial-gas-supply-for-samsung-electronics-next-generation-semiconductor-fab-in-south-korea-302757497.html

SOURCE Air Products

Continue Reading

Trending