
	Visterra is a biotechnology company that uses its Atomic Interaction Network analysis to identify unique disease targets and design effective therapeutics.
	
	Our Current Business Focus on Infectious Disease
	Our proprietary technology is particularly well-suited to address diseases where the target is highly polymorphic and/or has frequent mutations. This has led Visterra to initially focus on infectious diseases, an area characterized by organisms with complex and evolving properties, including many different forms (polymorphism) and the potential to mutate over time. The ability of infectious organisms to avoid host immunological responses or evade treatment by current therapies has resulted in therapeutic challenges to date. Visterra&#39;s technology offers a new approach to the well-established pharmaceutical market for infectious diseases, with the ability to identify new targets and engineer novel antibodies to be broadly effective in combating these complex diseases with growing global unmet medical needs.
	
	Our Proprietary Hierotope&trade; Platform
	Visterra&#39;s technology is based on our proprietary Hierotope&trade; Platform, which uniquely identifies an area, or epitope, on the target protein, glycoprotein or glycan that is fundamental to its structure and function. This ideal epitope&mdash;or hierotope&mdash;becomes the target to which Visterra designs a novel therapeutic.
	
	Visterra&#39;s technology is powered by Atomic Interaction Network (AIN) analysis, which are computational tools and techniques.For protein and glycoprotein targets, our Hierotope&trade; Platform is able to identify the region of the protein, or epitope, which is structurally &quot;constrained,&quot; and thus prevented from mutation over time or under immunological or therapeutic pressure. This conserved and constrained epitope, or hierotope, becomes an ideal target against which we design a novel therapeutic to effectively and durably combat the disease. For glycan targets, our Hierotope&trade; Platform is able to identify structural and conformational constraints of the intended target, against which we then design a novel therapeutic to effectively and durably combat the disease.
	
	Our Pipeline
	Visterra&#39;s lead candidate, VIS410, will enter the clinic in 2014. It is a human monoclonal antibody designed to offer truly broad-spectrum, preventive and therapeutic coverage of influenza A, neutralizing all key potential seasonal and pandemic influenza A strains, including existing strains (H1N1, H3N2) and emerging threats (H5N1, H7N9).
	
	Visterra also has a drug development program for an antibody to treat all four strains of dengue virus and expects to have its dengue antibody candidate enter the clinic in 2015. In addition, Visterra has exciting research programs focused on difficult-to-treat infectious and non-infectious diseases.
	
	Our Heritage and Investors
	Visterra was founded based on the scientific work of Dr. Ram Sasisekharan&#39;s research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The company is backed by Polaris Partners, Flagship Ventures, Lux Capital, the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation, Omega Funds, and Alexandria Venture Investments.
