Antiverse: Accessing hidden targets with AI design and cell engineering

Antiverse is using generative AI and engineered cell lines to design antibodies against some of the hardest membrane targets in drug discovery — proteins such as GPCRs and ion channels that offer only a sliver of accessible surface outside the cell. The U.K.-based biotech’s antibody discovery platform was freshly fueled last week with a $9.3 million series A round and a new partnership with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Founded in 2017 by former engineers Murat Tunaboylu and Ben Holland, Antiverse Ltd. has gained momentum since 2023, showing it can generate high-affinity antibodies, in the 10 pM range, and disclosing partnerships with at least two global pharmas: Japan’s Nxera Pharma Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:4565) and U.S.-based GlobalBio Inc...