Ainnocence today
announced a major milestone in artificial-intelligence–driven drug discovery in
the white
paper by C&EN: a sequence-first AI platform capable of screening
billions of small-molecule and antibody candidates across the entire genome in
hours on a single GPU without relying on 3D structural modeling.
This approach represents a fundamental shift in how therapeutic candidates are
discovered, replacing decades of structure-dependent simulations and
computationally expensive systems such as AlphaFold with direct learning
from biological sequences and experimental data. The result is a scalable,
faster, and 10 thousand times more cost-efficient paradigm for
early-stage drug discovery.
From Structure Bottlenecks to Sequence Intelligence
Traditional AI drug discovery pipelines are constrained by protein structure
availability and limited 3D structure prediction in meso,
computationally intensive molecular dynamics, and limited throughput. By
contrast, Ainnocence’s platform operates entirely at the sequence level,
enabling:
· Whole-proteome virtual screening without solved structures
· Billions of candidates evaluated in hours, not months
· 80% reduction in wet-lab cost and time
· 10–60% experimental hit rates, far exceeding industry averages
· 60+ successful screening projects
· Cover all target families and naturally disordered proteins and motif
“Drug discovery is a multi-parameter optimization problem,
miss one constraint and the candidate fails,” said Lurong Pan, Founder and
CEO of Ainnocence. “Sequence-based AI allows us to optimize binding,
specificity, developability, and manufacturability simultaneously, at a scale to
whole genome level that was previously impossible.”
Validated at Global Scale and in a Pandemic
The platform has been applied across 60+ therapeutic programs, including
antibodies, small molecules, cell therapies, siRNA, and synthetic biology
applications. In one landmark study, Ainnocence computationally designed
mutation-resistant antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 variants, successfully
predicting neutralizers for Delta and Omicron before Omicron emerged,
demonstrating the model’s ability to learn evolutionary patterns directly from
sequence data.
Internal benchmarks show that Ainnocence’s protein foundation models achieve
Spearman correlation performance comparable to structure-based models, while
requiring orders of magnitude less compute and running efficiently on a single
GPU.
Recognized by C&EN and the American Chemical Society
This breakthrough has been featured in the white
paper Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) the flagship news outlet
of the American Chemical Society, underscoring the scientific and industrial
significance of Ainnocence’s approach.
C&EN highlighted how sequence-based AI bypasses the limitations of
structural snapshots, leverages vastly more abundant experimental data, and
unlocks scalable discovery across chemical and biological space marking a
turning point similar to the inflection moments seen in large language models
and protein foundation models.
A Platform, Not a Point Solution
Ainnocence’s technology stack includes:
· SentinusAI® for antibody and protein therapeutics
· CarbonAI™ for small-molecule, PROTAC and pocket discovery from sequence alone
· CellulaAI™ for multi-epitope cell therapy design
· NatmolAI™ & BioSynthAI™ for natural products and synthetic biology
Each platform continuously retrains on experimental
feedback, compounding intelligence with every program.
What Comes Next
As biological data volume continues to grow, sequence-based AI is poised to
become the dominant discovery layer across pharma, biotech, and industrial
biology. Ainnocence is expanding partnerships, integrating human-relevant
microphysiological systems, and extending its models toward late-stage
optimization and translational prediction.
“Humans can’t intuitively see chemistry from letters,” Pan said. “But AI
can. And once it does, the entire drug discovery landscape changes.”
Collaborate with Ainnocence
Ainnocence is open to collaboration with academic groups, biotechnology companies, and industry partners interested in applying Ainnocence platforms, supporting joint development projects, pilot studies, and long-term partnerships tailored to specific needs.
For collaboration inquiries, contact service@ainnocence.com or visit www.ainnocence.com.
About Ainnocence
Founded in 2021 and headquartered in California, Ainnocence is a next-generation biotechnology company transforming drug discovery and synthetic biology through AI-based, sequence-first engineering. The company’s self-evolving platform evaluates up to 10 billion molecules spanning proteins, antibodies, small molecules, nucleic acids, and chemical formulations within hours to weeks, enabling rapid, multi-objective design across therapeutic, biological, and chemical systems. By reducing R&D timelines and costs while increasing success rates, Ainnocence empowers industry and academic partners to pursue complex biological innovation with greater precision and control.