As artificial intelligence continues to reshape drug discovery, Nona Biosciences is broadening its positioning beyond AI-enabled discovery alone. The global biotechnology company has recently announced an expansion of its integrated discovery and development framework to support early clinical development and Investigator-Initiated Trials (IITs). The move extends Nona’s capabilities beyond discovery and IND-enabling activities, strengthening key areas such as CMC development, toxicology, and GMP manufacturing.
Known for its integrated “Idea to IND” solutions, Nona is now expanding its platform-driven approach to support programs from discovery into early clinical development. The strategy combines AI, proprietary antibody technology platforms, and strengthened development capabilities to better support global biopharmaceutical partners navigating increasingly complex development pathways.
This strategic evolution comes as Nona continues to build momentum following the appointment of Dr. Di Hong as Chief Executive Officer. Under his leadership, the company is sharpening its focus on scalable platform development, deeper AI integration, and an ecosystem-based delivery model designed to support partners across a wider span of the drug development lifecycle.
A Modalities-on-DemandTM Platform Matrix Built on Harbour Mice®
At the foundation of Nona’s technology stack is its proprietary Harbour Mice® platform, a fully human antibody discovery platform capable of generating both conventional antibodies and fully human heavy chain-only antibodies (HCAb), which has received global biotech and pharma recognition highlighted by the licensing and partnership agreement with Visterra (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Otsuka) and Pfizer in 2025.
Building on this foundation, Nona has developed a core technology matrix, Modalities-on-DemonadTM, to provide integrated solutions for next-generation therapeutic modalities. This includes HBICE®, a platform focused on bispecific and multi-specific antibodies, XDC for antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) and radioconjugates (RDCs), and NonaCarFx™, a direct CAR-function-based screening platform which supports CAR-T discovery. Complementing these platforms is Hu-mAtrIx™, an AI assisted discovery engine designed to integrate directly with Harbour Mice® and accelerate antibody discovery across multiple disease areas.
Expanding Partnerships and Clinical Momentum
Nona’s platform strategy has attracted a growing network of global partners. To date, the company has collaborated with more than 110 partners worldwide and supported over 300 drug discovery programs, with more than 19 molecules advancing into clinical development. These programs span multiple therapeutic areas, including oncology, immunology, neuroscience and more, reflecting the versatility and clinical relevance of Nona’s platform portfolio.
In parallel, the company is expanding into emerging therapeutic areas. One notable example is its collaboration with Umoja Biopharma in the field of in vivo CAR-T therapy. By combining Nona’s fully human Harbour Mice® and NonaCarFx™ platforms with Umoja’s VivoVec™ technology, the partners aim to address some of the complexity associated with current cell therapy approaches.
Alongside these technical advances, Nona’s platform innovation has received growing international recognition. The company has been nominated in the Best Startup category for the 2025 Prix Galien USA, one of the most prestigious honors in life sciences recognizing innovation and excellence in advancing human health.
Embedding AI into the Discovery Engine
AI plays a central role in Nona’s long-term vision. Following Dr. Hong’s appointment, Nona articulated its A³ strategy, which brings together Antibody Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, and Automation into a unified discovery framework. Rather than positioning AI as a standalone tool, the company is embedding it directly into its workflows.
Hu-mAtrIx™ plays a key role in Nona’s AI initiatives, functioning as an AI-assisted drug discovery engine that integrates with Harbour Mice® to accelerate antibody discovery across multiple key therapeutic areas. In parallel, its parent company Harbour BioMed has also released its first fully human Generative AI HCAb (Heavy Chain-Only Antibody) Model, powered by Hu-mAtrIx™ and built on the Harbour Mice® platform, enabling a closed-loop discovery workflow that connects AI-driven sequence generation, intelligent screening, and wet-lab validation.
To further institutionalize AI capabilities, Nona appointed Dr. Hongjiang Miao as Chief AI Officer in December 2025. Dr. Miao brings experience in AI and biocomputing, including work in protein structure prediction and AI-assisted protein design. His mandate is to build Nona’s AI platform and drive deeper integration of AI technologies across the company’s Idea to IND pipeline.
“We see AI as a key driver of how Nona continues to evolve,” Dr. Hong noted. “By integrating AI and automation with our antibody platforms, we are building a more scalable and data driven research environment that supports sustained innovation.”
Beyond IND: Expanding Toward Early Clinical Development
As partner needs evolve, Nona is extending its integrated framework beyond discovery and IND-enabling activities. The company’s expansion of its discovery-to-development capabilities to support early clinical development and Investigator-Initiated Trials (IITs), marks a significant step toward a more end-to-end delivery model.
This expanded framework strengthens Nona’s capabilities across CMC development, toxicology, and GMP manufacturing, while integrating these functions with its existing proprietary platforms, including Harbour Mice®, HBICE®, Hu-mAtrIx™, NonaCarFx™, and Modalities-on-Demand™. Through a combination of strategic partnerships, platform acquisitions, and internal technology development, Nona aims to help global biopharmaceutical partners accelerate clinical trial initiation without compromising scientific rigor or quality standards.
By extending its role beyond antibody discovery and IND preparation, the company aims to support programs through later stages of development through more flexible collaboration structures, continued platform upgrades across antibody and cell therapy modalities, and deeper integration of AI and automation to improve development efficiency and reduce operational complexity.
“Expanding Nona’s technology platforms and capabilities from antibody discovery to early clinic development represents a natural progression of our strategic vision,” said Dr. Di Hong. “By combining our proprietary platforms with strategic external collaborations and internal development efforts, we are strengthening our ability to enable efficient clinical translation while remaining focused on building differentiated, scalable technologies.”
As Nona continues to advance its A³ strategy, the company is steadily strengthening its platform capabilities to better support global partners in accelerating the discovery of innovative therapeutics and clinical trial initiation while maintaining high scientific and quality standards.
