Archon Biosciences launches to create antibody cages

Archon Biosciences has launched with $20 million to design custom antibody cages with the help of AI . The Seattle-based company spun out of the lab of 2024 Nobel laureate David Baker at the Institute for Protein Design (IPD). Antibodies, which are proteins that are meant to bind to a certain target, have become a key part of modern medicine. There are antibody-based drugs approved to treat COVID-19 , multiple types of cancers , and, controversially, Alzheimer’s disease . But customizing an antibody to add or change a function is difficult without changing the molecule’s core properties. Enter antibody cages, or AbCs. According to James Lazarovits, Archon’s cofounder and CEO, assembling these proteins into cage structures allows its scientists to fine-tune the antibody’s properties without having to change the structure of the antibody itself. Lazarovits compares the approach to Volkswagen’s modular manufacturing process: the frame across its cars is the