Teaching AI to build antibodies from scratch

Summary

A new study led by the Baker Lab shows for the first time that functional, full-length antibodies can be developed entirely on computers — no animal immunizations or extensive screening required. This breakthrough could reshape the $200 billion antibody drug industry and open pathways to treatments for diseases currently considered undruggable. The work builds on a preprint we posted in March 2024 showing AI could generate functional nanobody fragments. Today’s publication marks a significant advance: it is now possible to design complete antibody variable regions containing both heavy and light chains — the molecular architectures used in most current antibody drugs. “AI antibody design will transform the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, enabling precise targeting and simpler drug development.” David Baker, PhD, senior author and director of the Institute for Protein Design We’re sharing the antibody design software RFantibody freely for academic, personal, and commercial use, enabling laboratories worldwide to apply this technology. The code is available on GitHub . Publications Atomically accurate de novo design of antibodies with RFdiffusion Published in : Nature [ PDF ] Authors : Nathaniel R. Bennett , Joseph L. Watson , Robert J. Ragotte , Andrew J. Borst , DéJenaé L. See , Connor Weidle , Riti Biswas , Yutong Yu , Ellen L. Shrock, Russell Ault, Philip J. Y. Leung, Buwei Huang, Inna Goreshnik, John Tam, Kenneth D. Carr, Benedikt Singer, Cameron Criswell, Basile I. M. Wicky, Dionne Vafeados, Mariana Garcia Sanchez, Ho Min Kim, Susana Vázquez Torres, Sidney Chan, Shirley M. Sun, Timothy T. Spear, Yi Sun, Keelan O’Reilly, John M. Maris, Nikolaos G. Sgourakis, Roman A. Melnyk, Chang C. Liu, David Baker Lead Authors Nate Bennett, PhD Joseph Watson, PhD Rob Ragotte, PhD Andrew Borst, PhD DéJenaé See Connor Weidle Riti Biswas Yutong Yu (UC Irvine) Coverage AI-designed antibodies promise big boost to drug development — Financial Times ‘Not the end of the story:’ Nobel laureate David Baker on what’s next for de novo design after RFantibody lands in Nature — Endpoints News AI-Designed Antibodies Achieve Atomic Precision to Enhance Drug Discovery — GEN Academic AIs make inroads in protein binder design — C&EN AI tuned for antibody design Antibodies are proteins that recognize and bind to specific sites on target molecules, triggering protective respo…