LivingFilters, a Lund University spinout that develops AI-designed proteins for biosensors and filters, has raised €420 K (SEK 4.6 million) in a pre-seed funding round led by Turbine Capital, with participation from Filip Larsson, Johan Billgren, Skåne Ventures, and Peter Neubauer.
The company uses AI-designed protein binders to selectively detect and remove environmental contaminants (including PFAS, pharmaceutical residues and micropollutants) from water.
The funds will support a pilot project and the development of two initial products: biosensor probes for rapid contaminant detection and selective filter components for water treatment plants.
“This investment allows us to take the next step from breakthrough science to real-world impact. Together with our partners at the Chemistry department at Lund University, RecoLab and industry partners, we will validate our technology in operational water treatment environments and accelerate the path towards commercial deployment. Our ambition is to make precision-designed proteins a new tool in the global effort to secure clean water.”
says Mikaela Persson, co-founder and CEO at LivingFilters.
Current water treatment technologies (activated carbon, ozonation, membrane filtration) are all non-selective and energy-intensive. They are hard to reconfigure as the list of regulated contaminants grows. Two EU directives are now forcing action: the Drinking Water Directive requires PFAS monitoring from January 2026, and the revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive mandates a fourth treatment step for pharmaceuticals and micropollutants, with large plants required to comply by 2033.
“Mandatory compliance deadlines have converted a diffuse environmental problem into a funded procurement market. LivingFilters combines unique expertise acquired through advanced training and research at the world-leading Baker Lab for computational protein design with cutting-edge research at Lund University, a technology with no direct commercial comparable in Europe, and a regulatory tailwind that does not depend on voluntary adoption.”
says Karin Edström, General Partner at Turbine Capital.
LivingFilters uses AI to design protein binders from scratch, creating molecular tools that bind to a single target contaminant with high precision. A new binder can be computationally initiated within hours and experimentally validated within a couple of weeks.
The platform builds on breakthroughs recognised by the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for computational protein design. LivingFilters’ co-founder and Chief Science Officer Amijai Saragovi conducted his postdoctoral research at the Baker Lab, Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, the world’s leading group in computational protein design. He now leads his own protein design group at Kemicentrum, Lund University.
