Absci and AstraZeneca collaborate in AI venture to uncover cancer therapies

Absci, a leading company in generative AI antibody discovery, has joined forces with AstraZeneca, a biopharmaceutical giant, to harness the power of AI in the search for a groundbreaking cancer treatment.

This collaboration will leverage Absci’s Integrated Drug Creation platform, which seamlessly integrates with AstraZeneca’s expertise in oncology. The goal is to accelerate the discovery of a potentially game-changing cancer therapy.

Under the agreement, Absci will utilize its pioneering generative AI technology to develop a therapeutic candidate antibody tailored for a specific oncology target. The collaboration includes an upfront commitment, significant R&D funding, milestone payments, and royalties on future product sales.

Sean McClain, the Founder & CEO of Absci, expressed his excitement about collaborating with AstraZeneca, stating that they are leaders in developing novel treatments in oncology. He believes that together they can design a therapeutic candidate antibody that has the potential to improve the lives of cancer patients.

Absci’s Integrated Drug Creation platform combines generative AI and scalable wet-lab technologies to generate proprietary data by analyzing millions of protein-protein interactions. This data fuels Absci’s proprietary AI models, enabling the design of antibodies that are later validated through wet-lab experiments.

This accelerated approach, which completes the entire cycle within approximately six weeks, increases the likelihood of successful development outcomes for biologic drug candidates.

Puja Sapra, PhD, SVP of Biologics Engineering & Oncology Targeted Delivery at AstraZeneca, commented on the collaboration, stating that it is an exciting opportunity to utilize Absci’s de novo AI antibody creation platform to design a potential new antibody therapy in oncology.

This announcement follows Absci’s recent publication on the design and validation of de novo antibodies using their state-of-the-art ‘zero-shot’ generative AI model.

The collaboration between Absci and AstraZeneca is expected to further demonstrate how AI can revolutionize drug discovery.

(Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash)

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