A Seattle-area startup called Pauling.AI Using artificial intelligence to automate the initial steps that lead to new drug discovery. According to the founder and CEO, the technology can complete tasks in a matter of weeks “Seattle startup Pauling” that previously required three to six months Javier Tordable.
Using AI to speed up research timelines could eventually lead to an exponential increase in new treatments, proponents say.
“A lot of people in the field would dream that, at some point, we would go from 30 or 40 new drugs approved each year to 300 or 400,” Tordable says, “and all kinds of diseases would be cured.”
Seattle startup Pauling
Tordable launched his company in 2024 after a 16-year tenure at Google, most recently as technical director of the company’s healthcare and life sciences initiatives. Although he doesn’t have expertise in biology or chemistry, Tordable says he’s adept at building technology tools that can perform complex tasks — such as those needed to create new pharmaceuticals.
The startup operates on a “scientist-as-a-service” model, which allows researchers to outsource the early stages of the drug discovery process to AI. The platform enables “Seattle startup Pauling” computational chemistry work, engineering drug candidates and modeling how they might interact with molecules and inhibitors within a cell.
The result is a curated list of small-molecule compounds that scientists can take to a physical laboratory to test as therapeutics. In the future, the startup will want to develop more complex compounds as drug candidates, such as antibodies.
Seattle startup Pauling
To accomplish all this, Poling is building automation tools that integrate with existing large language models and databases from numerous sources.
The startup has six employees who work remotely. Its leadership includes the Chief Scientific Officer Alexander Savitskyis a computational “Seattle startup Pauling” biologist who has worked in academia in Ukraine and researched at the Mayo Clinic.
Pauling has secured an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding from Flex Capital and angel investors. It currently serves fewer than a dozen customers, including several high-profile academic institutions, Tordable said.
The company joins a growing field of AI-biotech ventures, including numerous Pacific Northwest startups: Diverse AI in Vancouver, BC; Seattle-based Potato and Synthesis Bio; and Zaira Therapeutics, which is based in San Francisco and has labs in Seattle. In addition, Future House This sphere is a California non-profit.
Ultimately, Tordable hopes that by shrinking the time and cost of drug development, it will be economically feasible to tackle rare diseases that are not typically served by big pharma, providing treatments and cures to neglected patients.
“The nice thing about working in this field is that we’re not just doing it for economic return,” Tordable said. “There is also a huge benefit to humanity.”