Bertis Selected for Korea’s Scale-Up TIPS Program to Advance SURF, Its AI-Based Drug Target Discovery Platform

- Secures KRW 3 billion in government R&D funding following a recommendation from Samsung Venture Investment and a competitive evaluation, underscoring its proteomics capabilities and supporting its expansion into drug target discovery

- Accelerates its expansion into the global drug discovery and development market with technology for discovering and validating novel targets based on surfaceome analysis, an increasingly important area for global pharmaceutical companies

[Image] Bertis and Scale-Up TIPS logos

Bertis, a proteomics technology platform company (co-CEOs Dong-young Noh and Seung-man Han), announced that it has been selected for the Specialized Type of Scale-Up TIPS, a program administered by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) and the Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs (TIPA).

Scale-Up TIPS is a program that supports technological advancement and commercialization for growth-stage, technology-intensive SMEs and venture companies by linking private investment with government research and development (R&D) funding. The Specialized Type involves specialized operators with expertise in nationally strategic technology fields, including biotechnology. Drawing on its proteomics capabilities and commercialization track record, Bertis received a recommendation from Samsung Venture Investment, a Samsung-affiliated corporate venture capital (CVC) firm, and was selected following a competitive evaluation among companies recommended by investors.

Through the program, Bertis will receive KRW 3 billion in government R&D funding over three years, through August 2029, to further advance SURF through a project focused on developing a novel drug target discovery platform based on surfaceome analysis. By enhancing the platform’s end-to-end workflow, from data generation and target discovery to validation and target package development, Bertis aims to continuously identify and validate novel targets and target combinations, build a portfolio of these assets, and strengthen its position as a drug discovery and development partner to global pharmaceutical companies.

SURF leverages Bertis’s accumulated expertise in proteomics and AI to discover novel cell surface protein targets and help mitigate risks in therapeutic development from the target selection stage onward. By generating proteomic data in-house, the platform is designed to integrate candidate discovery, prioritization, and validation, along with the generation of evidence to support further development, into a single workflow. In particular, SURF extends its analysis beyond individual surface proteins to include proteins in close proximity, generating evidence that can support the development of next-generation therapeutics, including bispecific and multispecific antibodies designed to target multiple proteins located near one another.

Through this project, Bertis will build a surfaceome database covering cell lines from a range of cancer types and validate the expression profiles and functions of novel target candidates at the cellular and tissue levels. The company then plans to develop drug target packages incorporating validated targets and their binding ligands, providing pharmaceutical companies with resources they can use to develop a range of therapeutics, including antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and bispecific antibodies.

Cell surface proteins are important targets for a range of therapeutic modalities, including ADCs and bispecific antibodies, and are attracting growing interest in drug discovery and development. However, clinical-stage ADC pipelines have become concentrated on a limited number of major surface protein targets. As a result, global pharmaceutical companies are increasingly seeking differentiated novel targets, together with experimental data and validation evidence to assess their development potential and suitability for different therapeutic modalities. Bertis aims to address this demand by providing target packages supported by experimental validation data and expanding commercialization through collaborative research and technology transfer with pharmaceutical companies.

“Surfaceome research is a key area for the development of next-generation therapeutics and is attracting significant attention from the global pharmaceutical industry,” said Seung-man Han, co-CEO of Bertis. “With our selection for the Specialized Type of Scale-Up TIPS, we will further advance SURF and strengthen our position in the surfaceome-based drug target discovery market. We aim to contribute to the competitiveness of Korea’s biotech industry by enabling targets discovered in Korea to become the starting point for global drug development.”

In July, Bertis unveiled SURF for the first time at the MSD Health Innovation Summit, co-hosted by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) and MSD Korea, where it earned a Judges’ Selection.