#United States #Palo Alto #SandboxAQ #AQAffinity #OpenFold3

SandboxAQ Introduces AQAffinity

In a groundbreaking development for the pharmaceutical industry, SandboxAQ has launched AQAffinity, a new AI model that enhances OpenFold3, significantly improving drug discovery workflows. This innovative tool expertly addresses one of the most persistent challenges in drug discovery: the dependence on experimentally determined structures.

Drug discovery has often been slowed by the need for structural data, which complicates the process of predicting how drugs will interact with their respective biological targets. Traditional methods required researchers to have existing structural data before they could proceed with open investigations. However, AQAffinity changes the game by allowing rapid predictions of binding affinities without the need for prior structural information. This allows scientists to prioritize successful candidates sooner, reducing the time and cost involved in the drug development process.

How AQAffinity Works

Built as an extension of the OpenFold Consortium's OpenFold3 biomolecular co-folding model, AQAffinity adapts a structure-free approach to binding affinity prediction. This strategic pivot enables researchers to explore less-characterized proteins confidently and helps in addressing the bottleneck posed by structurally limited targets. By eliminating the structural limitations, AQAffinity empowers researchers to