How Many Proteins Has Leash Bio Screened?

Ian Quigley says Leash Bio has developed and screened about 2,000 different protein constructs and about 5,000 screens in the history of the company, each across at least 6.5 million molecules, and has not raised a lot of money. Chemical material cast across many targets is meant to build a machine understanding of chemical behavior, so early materials can be optimized much faster, especially at the low capital infusions the company has used.

Strong chemical reasoning would support work in agriculture, veterinary science, and material science immediately, without a physical screen in every new domain. Protein-folding teams already chase protein targets that have not been screened yet, or that are very challenging to screen, and still get strong starting material. A large screen aimed at one drug already supplies the material, so a model of that single target is unnecessary. The company is hopeful that enough variation in engineered activity cliffs reaches a point of doing all things, after which screening would not be needed again.