AffinityAI
AffinityAI designs protein binders on purpose rather than discovering them by chance, using its proprietary Apex platform to engineer molecules that are specific, functional, and developable from the first design. The platform delivers wet lab-validated binders with pM-nM affinities in 3-8 weeks, targeting defined epitopes including difficult targets like pMHC complexes for cancer immunotherapy, with in vivo efficacy demonstrated in Nature 2025.
- Drug Discovery & Therapeutics
- Biotechnology
- Artificial Intelligence
- Healthcare Technology
Funding
Founders
Founder details are not available yet.
Product
Problem
Generating a protein sequence that binds to a target is no longer the primary challenge in drug discovery and biotechnology; the real difficulty is turning that sequence into a binder that is specific, functional, and developable enough to build a product or research program on. Most binders discovered through screening or immunization fail due to poor specificity, unknown epitopes, instability, or manufacturing issues, creating costly and time-consuming optimization cycles.
Solution
AffinityAI designs protein binders on purpose rather than discovering them by chance, using its proprietary Apex platform to engineer molecules that work for therapeutic, diagnostic, and tool applications. The platform takes a target and a defined epitope and designs binders directly, specifying where each binder engages before anything reaches the bench. Binders are wet lab-validated with high affinity (pM-nM range), rapid turnaround of 3-8 weeks, and multi-parameter optimization across specificity, function, stability, expression, and manufacturability from the first design. The company has demonstrated in vivo efficacy with AI-designed proteins neutralizing lethal toxins in animal models, published in Nature 2025, and has reached difficult target classes like peptide-MHC complexes for cancer immunotherapy, published in Science 2025.
Target Audience
Primary customers are biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, as well as research institutions, seeking validated protein binders for therapeutic development, diagnostics, and research tools—particularly those facing difficult targets that conventional discovery platforms cannot address.
Features
- Apex proprietary protein design platform that designs binders directly to a target and specified epitope, with no need for separate experimental structural campaigns
- Multi-parameter optimization scoring candidates across specificity, predicted function, stability, expression, and manufacturability simultaneously, collapsing traditional sequential optimization cycles into the design step
- Multiple binder modalities: Designerbodies (full-size IgG and fragments), de novo miniprotein binders (6-15 kDa), nanobodies/VHHs, and peptides, matched to the problem's demands
- Epitope-precise de novo design enabling targeting of difficult and conformational epitopes, including post-translational modifications and closely related protein family members
- Multispecific and multivalent architecture design from validated binding domains, preserving affinity while minimizing misfolding, aggregation, or loss of binding
- Demonstrated success on hard targets including membrane proteins and pMHC complexes that defeat conventional immunization and high-throughput screening