UCB Partners With Cradle to Apply AI Across Antibody Discovery and Engineering

UCB has entered a strategic collaboration with Cradle, an Amsterdam-based developer of an AI-driven protein design and engineering platform, to apply AI across selected antibody discovery projects.¹ The partnership extends UCB’s digital antibody discovery and engineering program, which combines the company’s in-house antibody discovery platform with computational science and a network of technology and research partners.¹ Financial terms were not disclosed.

“At UCB, we view AI not as something to chase for its own sake, but as a scientific force multiplier that augments human expertise across biology, chemistry, and translational research,” said Alistair Henry, chief scientific officer of UCB.¹

How will UCB use Cradle’s platform?

UCB will apply Cradle’s platform within selected discovery projects, from hit generation through lead optimization and preclinical readiness.¹ As UCB scientists use the platform, experimental results feed back into program-specific models, creating what the companies describe as a “lab-in-the-loop” that helps scientists optimize candidates across the full set of properties needed for development.¹

That multi-property focus reflects a central challenge in antibody engineering. High target affinity alone does not ensure that an antibody will be stable, manufacturable, or safe, and optimizing one attribute often degrades others, according to a 2026 review in Antibody Therapeutics.² “Predictive modeling combined with wet-lab validation allows us to potentially design better molecules, learn faster, and bring high-quality therapeutics to patients even sooner,” Henry said.¹

Cradle’s generative AI platform is used to engineer therapeutic proteins, antibodies, enzymes, peptides, and vaccines, and customers retain ownership of the proteins they design.³ The company raised $73 million in a Series B round led by IVP in November 2024, bringing its total funding to more than $100 million, and has named Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, Novo Nordisk, Grifols, and Novonesis among its customers.³ Cradle said its platform can shorten research and development timelines by up to 12 times.³

How does this fit UCB’s broader AI strategy?

The Cradle agreement is one of several computational partnerships UCB has formed to support antibody discovery. In January 2025, UCB licensed XtalFold, an AI-based structural modeling suite from Ailux Biologics, a division of XtalPi, to model antibody-antigen interactions across its discovery and optimization work.⁴ In April 2026, UCB and the University of Southampton launched the Digital Antibody Research Collaboration, a three-year program to build an end-to-end platform for in silico design of therapeutic antibodies, expanding an existing relationship that already included computational chemistry and antibody formulation projects.⁵

UCB focuses on severe immunological and central nervous system diseases, and it generated €7.7 billion in revenue in 2025.¹

“AI will have its greatest impact on biologics R&D when it can be scaled beyond individual experiments or programs and become part of how scientists work across the discovery organization,” said Stef van Grieken, chief executive officer and co-founder of Cradle.¹

What role do scientists play?

Both companies emphasized that the platform is intended to support, rather than replace, scientific judgment.¹ That balance between model predictions and experimental evidence is a recurring theme in computational drug development. In a BioPharm International® interview, Thomas Luechtefeld, PhD, founder and chief executive officer of Insilica, discussed how scientists should evaluate AI-generated outputs in toxicology. “Users must determine which experiment was performed, what the outcome was, and how far to trust it,” Luechtefeld said.

What happens next?

The companies did not disclose which programs, targets, or therapeutic areas the collaboration will cover.¹ Van Grieken said the partnership brings Cradle across UCB’s biotherapeutics pipeline, giving scientists a common platform to apply AI to “more programs, more modalities and more complex engineering challenges.”¹

References

1. UCB advances its digital antibody engineering program with new Cradle collaboration. News release. UCB. November 4, 2026. Accessed November 5, 2026.
2. Jiang Q, Guan J, Yu D, et al. Beyond affinity: AI-supported developability assessment and multi-objective optimization in antibody development. Antib Ther. 2026;9(4):508-520. doi:10.1093/abt/tbag039
3. Kääb G. Cradle secures $73M Series B to accelerate AI-driven protein engineering. European Biotechnology. November 27, 2024. Accessed November 5, 2026.
4. UCB partners with Ailux Biologics, a division of XtalPi, on biologics AI platform. UCB. January 9, 2025. Accessed November 5, 2026.
5. University of Southampton and UCB to develop digital antibodies with AI. UKTN. April 27, 2026. Accessed November 5, 2026.