UCB Taps Cradle for AI Antibody Design, Insilico Medicine Releases Open Source Longevity AI System

By Bio-IT World Staff

November 14, 2026 | Boston Children's Hospital and the University of Oxford to lead a $46M Genetic Medicines Hub within the ARIA autism research ecosystem; MD Anderson partners with P-Cure on compact proton and helium ion therapy; Takeda joins ISSCR consortium on stem cell-based models for drug discovery; Harvard Medical School team builds AI co-scientists for cancer research; Ascidian taps Exegenesis Bio for AAV capsids; new products from IDT, Aldevron, Lab Thread, and Licklider; and more.

Licklider announced the public beta release of SciGround, a mathematical verification layer for research conducted with large language models. Researchers keep their own AI assistant as a reasoning partner while SciGround runs verification outside the model, checking whether study design, data, analysis, and claims agree. SciGround MCP connects to any assistant that supports the Model Context Protocol, and calculations run in established software including SciPy, NumPy, R, FLINT/Arb, and the Z3 solver. Tests, comparison direction, and thresholds are fixed in advance, and the system pauses or refuses when a design does not fit a supported workflow. Each result is returned as a machine-readable record of the claim, assumptions, evidence, inputs, and software versions. Ten workflows are supported at launch, including t-tests, ANOVA, and bulk RNA-seq differential expression. Press release.

Ascidian Therapeutics and Exegenesis Bio announced a strategic agreement combining Ascidian's RNA exon editing technology with Exegenesis Bio's AAV capsid engineering and discovery work, including its AI-assisted AAVarta platform. The companies will evaluate Exegenesis Bio capsids against the requirements of specific RNA exon editing programs and select editor-capsid combinations for in vivo and clinical development, with Ascidian carrying out further development. The goal is to match delivery vehicles to the needs of individual programs, as tissue-specific capsids can reduce exposure to non-target cells, which may improve safety and lower cost of goods. Ascidian selected Exegenesis Bio after a global search for capsid partners. The framework is non-exclusive, and target indications and financial terms were not disclosed. Press release.

The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) announced that Takeda has joined its Consortium on Advanced Stem Cell-Based Models in Drug Discovery and Development as a Founding Member. The consortium aims to speed the responsible use of human stem cell-derived models in drug discovery and development by setting standards, developing tools, and building collaborative infrastructure to qualify and adopt these models, responding to growing policy and regulatory interest in new approach methodologies (NAMs). Takeda joins founding members Bayer, Novo Nordisk, R&D Systems by Bio-Techne, the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation, and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. The Allen Institute is a core member, Xellar Biosystems is a contributing member, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation provides foundational support. Press release. 

AAX Biotech and Discovery Evolution announced a research collaboration to discover and develop bispecific antibody candidates for oncology for further preclinical evaluation. AAX Biotech will contribute antibody and multispecific engineering and its Opti-mAb technology, which aims to improve the yield and stability of the single-chain variable fragments (scFvs) used as building blocks in many multispecific antibodies. Vienna-based Discovery Evolution will provide therapeutic target identification and digital antibody discovery through its RedQueen engine, which combines digital directed evolution with computational biophysics and focuses on G protein-coupled receptors and other challenging membrane proteins. The companies plan to evaluate further development and partnering opportunities as the research progresses. Press release.

Helmholtz Munich announced that its spin-off Viacure Therapeutics is preparing an antibody therapy for type 2 diabetes for clinical testing. The approach targets Inceptor, a receptor discovered by Heiko Lickert's team at Helmholtz Munich's Institute of Diabetes and Regeneration Research that dampens insulin signaling in beta cells. In preclinical studies, blocking Inceptor increased insulin sensitivity and insulin content in beta cells and improved regulated insulin release and survival under diabetes-related stress. Viacure coordinates a consortium with the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI and CUP Contract Labs, with a budget of nearly €10 million, 80% of it funded by the Free State of Saxony and the European Union. The partners aim to complete preclinical development by the end of 2028. Press release.

Boston Children's Hospital and the University of Oxford announced they have been selected to establish a Genetic Medicines Hub, one of six research hubs within the Aligning Research to Impact Autism (ARIA) ecosystem, backed by a $46 million multi-year commitment. Working with The Jackson Laboratory and N=1 Collaborative, the hub will build a scalable platform to design, test, and optimize genetic medicines for children with genetic disorders that cause neurodevelopmental disorders, including profound autism. The initial focus is antisense oligonucleotides across six gene targets: ARID1B, CHD2, GRIN2B, RNU4-2, SCN2A, and SLC6A1. Planned capabilities include high-throughput molecular testing, protein-level screening, AI-informed tools for designing candidate molecules, and integrated data platforms for sharing results and protocols. Press release. 

Lab Thread announced the launch of a Model Context Protocol server that lets scientists connect their own AI assistants, such as ChatGPT and Claude, directly to their laboratory data without exporting records or commissioning custom integrations. Because Lab Thread stores data as structured, linked records, answers include full experimental context. The server runs in Lab Thread's cloud environment with tenant isolation, role-based permissions, and immutable audit logs, and only the minimum necessary context is sent to the user's chosen assistant. New AI functions let scientists generate protocols and ELN templates, configure equipment and storage locations, and transcribe handwritten notes into lab notebook entries. The company also incorporated in the United States and opened an office in Boston. Press release. 

The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) announced that its Tumor Avatars in Space (TAVIS) project is studying how microgravity affects the response of colorectal cancer models to chemotherapy aboard the International Space Station. WFIRM scientists built tumor organoids from cells obtained from colorectal cancer patients, which launched on a NASA mission on October 13. Astronaut researchers are studying the organoids in space while a matching control group is treated on Earth, with samples expected to return later in November for comparison. If results are positive, researchers would look for genetic factors that explain the difference and identify small-molecule drugs that could be combined with chemotherapy. The project is funded by CASIS, which manages the ISS National Laboratory, with partners BioServe Space Technologies and Axiom Space. Press release. 

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and P-Cure announced a strategic alliance to develop and clinically validate a particle therapy platform that delivers both proton and helium ion therapy from one compact, upright treatment system. The first phase will evaluate the clinical value, patient benefits, and operational advantages of P-Cure's FDA-cleared compact upright proton system. The second phase will run preclinical and clinical programs on helium ion therapy to generate evidence for clinical adoption, regulatory approval, and reimbursement. The long-term goal is a single system that lets physicians choose either therapy based on tumor location, disease characteristics, and treatment goals. MD Anderson may receive payments tied to clinical milestones and commercial sales and has an institutional conflict of interest with P-Cure that is managed under a monitoring plan. Press release. 

Insilico Medicine announced it has open-sourced Longevity Grok, also called the Personal Longevity Superintelligence (PLSI), a multi-agent AI system for the Grok Bot platform developed with David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School. PLSI coordinates up to 30 specialized AI agents to unify fragmented health data from lab panels, wearables, continuous glucose monitors, epigenetic assays, and clinical records into a standardized longitudinal health trajectory. It runs a continuous loop that forecasts risks, proposes lifestyle interventions with predicted biomarker changes, and scores outcomes against those predictions. Raw records stay on the user's device unless they opt in to share deidentified data for communal research, and formal diagnosis and prescriptions remain with licensed physicians. The code is available on GitHub. Press release.

Harvard Medical School announced that a team led by Marinka Zitnik has received nearly $7 million from Cancer Grand Challenges to build agentic AI co-scientists that help cancer researchers analyze data, generate hypotheses, and propose experiments. The project, called AURORA, builds on Zitnik's ToolUniverse and can draw on scientific literature, databases, AlphaFold, protein language models, omics-based tumor models, and real-time experimental results, providing reasoning traces for each output. An additional $4 million goes to three Cancer Grand Challenges teams in Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, PROMINENT, NexTGen, and MATCHMAKERS, which will test the system in their ongoing work. The team will compare the system's reasoning with experimental outcomes to measure how often its suggestions hold up. AURORA is funded by Cancer Research UK. Press release. 

AAX Biotech announced the appointment of Sarah Fredriksson as chief executive officer, effective November 1, as the company shifts from validating its technology to commercial scale-up. AAX Biotech's Seqitope platform enables high-throughput, high-resolution epitope mapping, and its Opti-mAb technology stabilizes single-chain variable fragments for applications such as bispecific antibodies and CAR-T cells. Its platforms have been selected for evaluation by pharmaceutical companies including Daiichi Sankyo and are offered through partner Evitria. Fredriksson was most recently CEO of Aqilion, where she built a pipeline of four immunology and inflammation programs and led a Series A financing. She previously founded Genovis and served as its CEO for 16 years. Co-founder Daniel X Johansson remains chief scientific officer. Press release.

UCB and Cradle announced a strategic collaboration that extends UCB's digital antibody discovery and engineering program. UCB will use Cradle's AI-driven protein design and engineering platform on selected discovery projects, from hit generation through lead optimization to preclinical readiness. Under a lab-in-the-loop approach, experimental results feed back into program-specific models that UCB scientists use to optimize candidates across multiple properties. The program combines UCB's own antibody discovery platform with computational science, disease biology expertise, and a network of technology and research partners. Cradle's platform combines AI-driven molecular engineering, active learning from experimental data, and multi-property optimization, and is used across more than 80 active R&D programs. Financial terms and specific programs were not disclosed. Press release.