The optimistic case for protein foundation model companies
8 days ago
- #biotech-investment
- #protein-models
- #AI-in-biology
- Protein foundation model startups received significant funding, with companies like EvolutionaryScale, Latent Labs, Chai Discovery, Isomorphic Labs, and Xaira Therapeutics raising hundreds of millions to over a billion dollars.
- Critics argue that protein models are commoditized, with open-source options being nearly as good as private models, questioning the justification for such large investments.
- The optimistic view suggests that private models could significantly outperform open-source ones by optimizing for multiple biochemical properties simultaneously, not just binding.
- Potential benefits include optimizing for expression, stability, solubility, immunogenicity, and other properties, which could automate much of the preclinical workflow and save millions in development costs.
- The ability to jointly optimize multiple properties could unlock new biology and justify the high investment in these models, despite current skepticism.