6 December 2022 - - US-based biotechnology company BigHat Biosciences, Inc has forged a collaboration with US-based pharmaceutical company Merck (NYSE: MRK) to apply the company's technology to design candidates for up to three drug discovery program, the company said.

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.

Under the collaboration, BigHat and Merck 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 are looking forward to using the power of the complementary skills sets within each research team to generate high-quality lead antibodies.

BigHat Biosciences is designing safer, more effective antibody therapies for patients using machine learning and synthetic biology.

BigHat integrates a wet lab for high-speed characterization with machine learning technologies to guide the search for better antibodies.

They apply these design capabilities to develop new generations of safer and more effective treatments for patients suffering from TODAY's most challenging diseases.

BigHat is a series B biotech outside San Francisco with a team-oriented, inclusive, and family-friendly culture.

BigHat's pipeline of wholly-owned and partnered therapeutic programs span many disparate indications with high unmet need, such as cancer, inflammation, and infectious disease.

BigHat has raised over USD 100m from top investors, including Section 32, a16z, and 8VC.