Helical AI

Helical AI is a Virtual AI Lab for biology that brings together the full power of DNA and mRNA bio foundation models in a single open-core platform. Designed to accelerate drug discovery, Helical bridges the gap between cutting-edge AI models and actionable research decisions, enabling both biologists and machine learning engineers to move from hypothesis to insight at the speed of inference.

Helical serves large pharma R&D teams across early discovery and research stages, with active deployments spanning Cardiometabolic, Neurology, Immunology, and Oncology disease areas. Teams using Helical report up to 3–5× higher hit rates versus traditional approaches, with performance compounding as more experiments are conducted over time.

Core Platform Components

• Virtual Lab: Gives biologists self-serve access to design experiments and evaluate biological outcomes without writing code, enabling non-technical users to leverage advanced AI models directly in their workflows.
• Model Factory: Provides ML engineers a production environment for model personalization and alignment, featuring native VS Code integration, dedicated compute resources, and experiment tracking capabilities.

Key Applications and Use Cases

• Target Identification: Discover, validate, and prioritize novel therapeutic targets — including druggable molecular, cellular, and genetic targets — with the highest potential for transforming disease outcomes.
• Biomarker Discovery: Identify and validate predictive molecular indicators for disease progression, treatment response, and patient outcomes using bio-foundation model-powered workflows.
• mRNA Sequence Design: Design and optimize synthetic mRNA constructs for mRNA therapeutics, enhancing stability, translation efficiency, and therapeutic potential across diverse applications.
• Therapeutic Design: Design ASOs, mRNA, and other therapeutic sequences tailored to specific disease contexts and desired biological properties.
• Gene Therapy Design: Optimize gene therapy constructs through advanced foundation models, refining sequence design to meet specific therapeutic goals.
• Patient Stratification: Categorize patients into distinct subgroups based on clinical, molecular, or genetic characteristics to improve therapeutic outcomes and optimize clinical trial design.
• Custom Use Cases: Teams can leverage Helical's platform to build their own workflows and optimize performance with bio foundation models at their core.

Platform Capabilities and Approach

• Personalizes models to specific diseases and therapeutic areas, running in-silico experiments at scale.
• Validates every result against real biological evidence, ensuring predictions are grounded in data.
• Supports the full spectrum from early discovery through research-stage applications.
• Offers a community Slack channel for in-depth discussions about the latest bio foundation models and their applications.
• Headquartered in Luxembourg, Helical AI is a talent-dense team focused on the intersection of biology and artificial intelligence.

Helical AI positions itself as the essential infrastructure layer for the deployment era of AI in R&D — transforming powerful foundation models into a practical, decision-ready platform for discovery teams working on some of the most complex challenges in life sciences.