DIGITAL BIOLOGY
Features
Katalyze AI raises $10.5 million for its pharmaceutical research agent platform
The seed round will support an AI platform that connects laboratory, manufacturing and enterprise software. Katalyze says it already serves 5 of the 20 largest pharmaceutical companies. Sanofi's head of R&D data platforms credited its security and governance features with helping it expand beyond a pilot. Katalyze says one deployment completed an analysis expected to take a year in 45 minutes.
ABB and Roche Diagnostics plan robots for clinical laboratory workflows
The collaboration will start with pathology slide handling and autonomous transport of samples and materials between instruments. ABB will build the robotic systems, while Roche supplies diagnostic and application expertise to fit them to laboratory work. The products remain to be developed, and the announcement gives no timeline or financial terms.
Absentia's AI liver model enters the FDA's ISTAND qualification pathway
Acceptance covers the Letter of Intent stage, the first of three stages toward qualification. The Digital Liver Model combines mechanistic biology with AI trained on drug-response data to predict drug-induced liver injury before human trials. Absentia says it is the first AI-driven drug development tool accepted into the pathway; acceptance does not mean qualification is complete.
A-Alpha Bio launches Atlas to license antibody binding data for AI training
Atlas packages measurements from A-Alpha Bio's standardized AlphaSeq assay into datasets for training and benchmarking antibody design models. The company is migrating data from its collection of 450 million affinity measurements and over 7,000 lab-validated antibody-antigen pseudo-structures. A consortium focused on VHH antibodies is enrolling subscribers to pool experimental data; an scFV-focused consortium is expected in 2027.
Alchemab receives £25 million from the British Business Bank for antibody development
The investment brings Alchemab's Series A to £109 million. It will fund expansion of the company's antibody database from 500 million to a billion sequences and help move candidates toward clinical development. Alchemab uses AI to find antibodies in people with unusual disease resilience. Its ALS antibody ATLX-1282, licensed to Eli Lilly, is in clinical development.