Turbine, a leading company specialising in virtualising biological experiments through artificial intelligence (AI), has announced a new collaboration with AstraZeneca to enhance the discovery of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).

ADCs are targeted cancer therapies that deliver potent drug payloads directly to tumour cells. However, their discovery process is often delayed by the need to identify effective payloads across diverse tumour types and patient populations, which typically requires costly and large-scale screening of hundreds of cell lines and patient-derived xenografts (PDXs).

The partnership aims to use Turbine’s AI-driven platform to predict response mechanisms, optimise ADC positioning, and reduce the need for large-scale cell line screens. By virtualising biological experiments at scale, Turbine’s platform enables researchers to explore mechanistic insights and accelerate the ADC discovery process.

Under the collaboration, Turbine and AstraZeneca will implement a “lab-in-the-loop” approach. Using AstraZeneca’s ADC datasets — including both single-agent and combination studies — Turbine’s platform will recommend a strategically chosen subset of cell lines for testing and then predict outcomes across thousands of in silico models.

"By implementing a lab-in-the-loop approach, we can move beyond broad experimental screening toward a more efficient, targeted strategy that selects the ADC combinations most likely to succeed in patients," said Daniel Veres, CSO and Co-Founder of Turbine.

"This also lays the groundwork for deeper integration of our Virtual Lab into discovery workflows, helping ensure that the right experiments are run to generate the greatest impact for patients,” he added.

Previously, Turbine and AstraZeneca worked together using Turbine’s Simulated Cell platform to identify and understand mechanisms of resistance to therapy in hematological cancers and to predict combination synergy and relevant biomarker candidates involving DNA Damage Repair mechanisms.

Turbine’s platform, validated through partnerships with global pharma leaders including Bayer, MSD, and AstraZeneca, has supported nearly 30 research programmes to date.