Anthrogen Bio Unveils 102 Billion-Parameter Protein Language Model, Odyssey, Following Seed Round

Anthrogen Bio, a six-person team from Y Combinator's S24 cohort, has officially launched Odyssey, a 102 billion-parameter protein language model, marking a significant advancement in AI for biology. The company also announced it has successfully raised seed funding, demonstrating that substantial foundational models can be developed without massive capital investment. The launch was highlighted by Y Combinator partner Gustaf Alströmer, who praised the team's achievement on social media.

Odyssey stands out with its innovative architecture, which replaces traditional self-attention mechanisms with a novel "Consensus" approach. This new method is designed to scale more robustly and efficiently for complex protein structures. Furthermore, the model is trained using a discrete diffusion objective, an approach inspired by evolutionary processes, enabling it to learn and generate protein sequences and structures more effectively.

The protein language model is described as multimodal, learning jointly from sequence, 3D structure, and functional context. Anthrogen Bio states that Odyssey is capable of conditional generation, editing, and co-design of protein sequences and structures, scaling from 1.2 billion to 102 billion parameters. This capability aims to allow for the rational design and optimization of proteins for multi-objective goals, such as binding targets, minimizing side effects, and ensuring manufacturability.

Anthrogen Bio's mission is to build the "network behind biological intelligence," focusing on biologics discovery and development through AI-driven research. The company aims to generate and validate molecular machines for human and planetary health with unprecedented control. The successful development of Odyssey by a lean team suggests a shift in the resources typically required for advanced AI model creation in specialized scientific fields.

The seed funding round, secured after their participation in Y Combinator, includes investments from notable firms such as Box Group, Collab Fund, Liquid 2 Ventures, Soma Capital, and Y Combinator itself, along with several angel investors including Paul Graham. This capital will support Anthrogen Bio's continued development and expansion of Odyssey's capabilities, further solidifying its position in the rapidly evolving field of AI-driven protein design.