Training Data · Tuesday, August 4, 2026
Chai Discovery was founded in 2024 after observing significant progress in protein folding and design, particularly the potential to design antibodies computationally, a task previously considered too difficult. Co-founder Josh noted that while many early protein design efforts focused on 'mini proteins,' their focus on antibodies aligns with the broader needs of the drug industry. They believed that if antibody structures could be predicted, designing them would become feasible.
“Um, but we were talking about protein folding. Uh, but for a long time people thought that protein folding for antibodies was just like too hard of a problem.”
“So the holy grail was whether we could design antibody proteins on the computer, especially ones that had all that therapeutic function.”
“And our thinking was that if you couldn't predict what an antibody looks like, how are you ever going to design one?”