On October 13, 2026 Envisagenics, Inc., an AI-driven RNA splicing therapeutics company, reported that it has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Direct to Phase II grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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The award will provide more than $2 million over two years to support further 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. With this capability, Envisagenics can prioritize targets with strong biological rationale and therapeutic potential.
"We believe SpliceDisco will be a critical tool in helping us identify and prioritize novel cancer targets most prevalent in patient populations, and more specifically those directly linked to pathological splicing mechanisms," said Martin Akerman, CTO and Co-Founder of Envisagenics. "By deploying SpliceDisco across our oncology programs, we aim to strengthen the biological rationale behind our targets and accelerate the development of differentiated cancer therapies."
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.
"This award represents an important milestone in our mission to unlock the therapeutic potential of RNA splicing biology in oncology," said Maria Luisa Pineda, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Envisagenics. "With support from the NCI, we will further advance our platform capabilities and accelerate the discovery of first-in-class therapeutic programs that have the potential to address significant unmet medical needs for patients."
This award builds on Envisagenics’ track record of innovation and prior support from the NIH, including previous SBIR grants focused on advancing AI-driven RNA splicing analytics and therapeutic target discovery for precision medicines.
"We are grateful for the NIH’s continued support of innovative technologies and for recognizing the transformative potential of AI-enabled RNA splicing analysis," said Dr. Pineda. "This support will help us expand SpliceCore for both our internal pipeline and external partnerships. As oncology drug developers seek more precise and disease-specific targets, alternative splicing represents a differentiated source of therapeutic opportunities."
(Press release, Envisagenics, OCT 13, 2026, View Source [SID1234673371])