Abalone Bio

Abalone Bio is a private, preclinical-stage biotech leveraging its proprietary Functional Antibody Selection Technology (FAST) platform to discover and design antibody agonists for difficult targets like GPCRs. Unlike conventional methods that prioritize binding, FAST screens hundreds of millions of antibodies in parallel for functional activity, generating unique datasets to train machine learning models for antibody design. The company is advancing internal pipeline programs and has validated its platform by discovering activators for two GPCRs, a rare feat, while also pursuing partnerships with pharmaceutical companies.

Functional Antibody Selection Technology (FAST) platform combining synthetic biology (engineered yeast cells for ultra-high-throughput functional screening) and machine learning to discover and design activating antibodies, with a focus on GPCRs.

Competes with other AI-driven antibody discovery firms (e.g., Absci, BigHat Biosciences) and traditional antibody discovery companies. Direct competitors include firms like DJS Antibodies (acquired by AbbVie) and Bicycle Therapeutics in the space of targeting complex receptors, though Abalone's function-first screening for agonists is a key differentiator.