XtalPi has announced the signing of a license agreement between Ailux Biologics, a division of XtalPi Inc., and Janssen Biotech, on one of its proprietary biologics AI platforms.

Under the agreement, Ailux Biologics grants Janssen and its affiliates a non-exclusive license to leverage its XtalFold platform for the discovery and engineering of biologics. XtalFold is a proprietary AI-based software suite that provides rapid and accurate structural insights to accelerate biologics innovation across multiple phases. The agreement was facilitated by Johnson & Johnson Innovation.

XtalFold utilizes sequence information alone to model the interaction between biomolecules, which forms the foundation of biotherapeutics like monoclonal antibodies. In rigorous benchmark studies, XtalFold achieved a state-of-the-art overall success rate and the quality of hard-to-model regions like the antibody-antigen interface.

Since its launch one year ago, XtalFold has been fully validated in more than 30 partner and internal programs, delivering highly impactful results in a variety of use cases, including antigen design, epitope identification, affinity maturation, pH-sensitivity engineering, and bispecifics design.

Yi (Alex) Li, VP of XtalPi and Head of Ailux Biologics, said, "Biologics are intricate machines that operate in three-dimensional space. XtalFold enables the visualization and design of biologics in 3D space in real-time, which could take months using currently available experimental approaches. We are excited to share this foundational technology with Janssen, which has already proven transformative in-house."