Phronesis AI: A Drug Design Company

It was the thick of lockdown orders in 2021, and, like most of us, Phronesis CTO Will Spagnoli was unable to see friends and loved ones. Armed with his gaming PC, a quiet college dorm room and the ability to learn things exceedingly quickly, he decided to do something about it. He began coding, and looking for something that would not just allow for the end of lockdown, but eliminate Covid once and for all.

“I would not consider myself a coder, I’m just a problem solver,” says Will. “If there’s a problem, then I'm going to learn it inside and out.” But Will soon realized that while many biotech companies were attempting to do drug discovery, they were not approaching it like a math problem, like he was. And then came the lightning bulb moment -- Phronesis could focus on discovering de novo molecules, in other words, molecular inhibitors that would bind to a protein -- the protein being the disease. The platform would search both existing drugs and suggest molecules that had yet to be discovered. And hopefully, make it so Will could see his friends again.

The Backstory

Spagnoli’s biotech journey began when he met serial entrepreneur Rick Fine. Fine cut his teeth with business at a young age -- starting 12 small companies before the age of 20. Fine sees the value in starting early: “When someone says they want to be an entrepreneur, I tell them to look at their past. If you didn’t have a business as a kid, even a lemonade stand, well maybe you’re not suited to entrepreneurship.” During his career, Fine has worked in such disparate fields as scrap metal, magnesium smelting, real estate and IT asset disposition. The common denominator of these ventures was a passion for innovation and combining undiscovered or underused elements together to make them useful.

After meeting Will through a colleague, (and recognizing his own go-get-em attitude in the young man) Rick welcomed him into his latest company, Sleeping Donkey. Sleeping Donkey aims to utilize resources that founders have and match them with those who seek equity. In other words, to take sleeping (unused) capital and “wake it up!” by giving it a purpose. Rick then brought aboard his longtime friend, attorney Michael Leventhal. Will discovered that one way to streamline Sleeping Donkey was to use AI. The three then looked into the data server industry, which uses considerable amounts of energy. Will decided to pivot to a problem that had been consuming him (and everyone else in the biotech world at the time), curing Covid. With the go-ahead from Fine, Will began to use his expertise in AI and experiment with a new type of platform.

The Platform 

Of course, the best way to see the power of the Phronesis AI (LIME) platform is to demo it yourself. The interface is user-friendly, allowing for a democratization of the drug discovery process. However, as a quick overview, the app allows you to upload the file of a protein structure and then choose where on the protein to aim. AI will then predict what de novo molecules would be useful to combat that protein. (For example, the spike protein on the Covid19 virus.) And there is a clear path to real world implications, with a neural network featuring predictions for binding affinity, drug combination interaction and in vitro success, as well as synthetic complexity, drug-likeness, docking modes, and more.

The Future

The immediate promise of Phronesis is to take the development of drugs that can either immunize or provide therapies and not only lower the cost, but speed up research. And the keystone to this is the LIME platform and app. (The name is a nice example of Will’s cleverness, as a “lime” is of course a necessary part of downing a Corona.) This is a powerful piece of technology that empowers de novo drug design, and could place it into the hands of pharmaceutical companies and everymen alike. 

The drug development process takes an average of 15 years and $2.5B. However, the Phronesis AI software is intended to reduce the first 2-5 year preclinical period down to 6 months. Later goals for the company include material sciences and robotic integration -- even a completely AI-powered drug discovery and manufacturing process. 

Phronesis is currently partnering with educational institutions including UC Irvine, Johns Hopkins, and most fitting of all, a Covid-19 project with the University of Georgia targeting the virus’ PLPro receptor. So although the pandemic may not be over, future ones could be thwarted given the technology that Phronesis pioneered during this one. As Leventhal put it: “This is not the last company Will will found. His journey is just getting started. But for Rick and I, we are thinking about legacy. If we have something, the world’s going to have it too.”