Case study: AI brings new molecules to market faster with SynFini
SRI’s AI-powered synthetic chemistry technology helps biopharma companies design, synthesize, and bring new molecules to market faster. SRI spun out the company in 2023.
CHALLENGE: CHEMISTS SPEND MORE TIME ON “HOW” THAN “WHAT”
Despite enormous progress in discovering and commercializing synthetic chemicals for drugs, agrochemicals, and specialty materials, the way chemists perform synthetic chemistry has changed little in more than a century. Much of a chemist’s time is still spent manually recreating and scaling procedures, taking time that could otherwise go toward innovation. Because so much of the work is manual, reproducibility suffers. Chemistry that is “known” on paper must be recalibrated by the next practitioner who tries to use it – bogging down the drug discovery process and delaying time to market.
SOLUTION: AN AI SUITE THAT AUTOMATES IDEA-TO-MOLECULE
SRI’s Biosciences team, in collaboration with its Artificial Intelligence Center, set out to close that gap with SynFini™, a suite of tools that uses AI to automate the translation of ideas into testable physical molecules. Rather than losing time to how a molecule gets made, SynFini lets chemists concentrate on what to make, accelerating chemistry design, development, and synthesis so that decisions come faster.
IMPACT: OPTIMIZING MULTI-STEP DEVELOPMENT IN HOURS, NOT WEEKS
SynFini enables full digital capture of synthesis protocols, so they are fully reportable and reproducible. Its components focus on route design, reaction screening and optimization, and multi-step synthesis development, and can work independently or in combination for applications across synthetic chemistry, including drug discovery and continuous manufacturing process design.
SynRoute™, a computational synthetic-planning tool, analyzes and optimizes a route design in minutes, prioritizing strategies by cost, likelihood of success, and ease of implementation. SynJet™, a high-throughput automated chemistry system built on an inkjet-printing platform, can screen and optimize reaction conditions for challenging multi-step chemistries in hours rather than the weeks traditional manual methods require. AutoSyn™, a flow-chemistry hardware platform configured like a miniaturized, bench-scale chemical plant, supports more than 3,000 multi-step reaction configurations and can move from milligram to gram scale in under two hours.
In September 2023, SRI spun out its SynFini platform as Synfini, Inc., now an independent company that commercializes and scales automated compound testing for rapid drug production. Synfini works with biopharma, agrochemical, and specialty chemical partners at commercial scale.
PARTNER WITH US
SRI continues to partner with clients on chemical design and optimization work, including scalable synthesis and testing for structure-activity relationship development, integration of third-party AI drug-discovery platforms with automated synthesis, and early API continuous-manufacturing process development. SynFini joins a long line of companies spun out of SRI over its 80-year history, including Siri and Intuitive Surgical.
SRI Ventures has a track record of successful ventures that span areas such as aerospace, automation, AI, drug discovery, robotics, geospatial, 3D and virtual environments, and more. Our portfolio includes companies that have been acquired by industry giants such as Apple, Bayer, Ford, and Salesforce.