Nuclera and leadXpro have formed a new scientific partnership designed to improve how researchers access and study some of the most difficult yet valuable drug targets: membrane proteins.
Announced simultaneously in Cambridge, Boston and Villigen, the collaboration combines Nuclera’s rapid multiplex membrane protein screening with leadXpro’s AI and machine‑learning construct design and structural biology expertise.
Membrane proteins play central roles in human biology but are notoriously hard to express and purify in the quantities and quality needed for structural and biophysical studies. This bottleneck often slows or limits structure‑based drug discovery, even when the underlying biology is well understood.
The two companies will integrate Nuclera’s Cell‑Free Protein Synthesis multiplex screening technology with leadXpro’s AI/ML‑driven design tools to create an iterative, AI‑guided workflow. This will link in silico construct design with rapid experimental screening, aiming to de‑risk and accelerate membrane protein programmes and shorten the route to critical structural insights.
Promising constructs will be screened on Nuclera’s eProtein Discovery System, with selected variants undergoing detailed biophysical analysis and high‑resolution cryo‑EM structure determination led by leadXpro. Findings will feed back into AI/ML models to improve construct stability, functionality and yields.
The partnership will also support future integration of predictive design capabilities into Nuclera’s product portfolio while strengthening leadXpro’s platform for producing and characterising difficult membrane protein targets.
Dr Michael Chen, CEO and co‑founder of Nuclera, said: “Scientists are under pressure to progress increasingly complex membrane protein programs faster. By partnering with leadXpro, we can pair AI/ML‑driven construct design with our rapid multiplex membrane protein screening to provide a truly ‘lab‑in‑loop’ workflow.”
Dr Michael Hennig, CEO of leadXpro, explained: “Access to well‑optimized membrane protein constructs is critical for producing high‑quality proteins that enable biophysical and structural biology studies. Nuclera’s eProtein Discovery platform provides a robust, rapid, and reproducible approach to exploring construct space.”
