BigHat Biosciences, Inc., a biotechnology company with a machine learning-guided antibody discovery and development platform, has entered a collaboration with Merck to apply the company’s technology to design candidates for up to three drug discovery programs.
 
BigHat’s design platform, Milliner, integrates a high-speed characterization with ML technologies to engineer antibodies with more complex functions and better biophysical properties. This approach could help reduce the difficulty of optimizing antibodies and other therapeutic proteins. 
 
The companies will collaborate to optimize up to three proteins by leveraging BigHat’s platform to synthesize, express, purify, and characterize molecules. The teams have initiated work on the first program and will use the power of the complementary skills sets within each research team to generate high-quality lead antibodies. 
 
Mark DePristo, co-founder and CEO of BigHat, said, “We are thrilled to be collaborating with Merck’s world-class drug development teams to design safer, more effective antibodies for these important therapeutic programs.”
 
“This agreement with BigHat expands Merck’s strategy of applying AI/ML across our drug discovery capabilities,” said Juan Alvarez, vice president of Biologics Discovery, Merck Research Laboratories. “We look forward to working with the team to leverage BigHat’s technology and expertise in enabling molecular design of novel biologic candidates.”