Review Article

AI-driven antibody design with generative diffusion models: current insights and future directions

Xin-heng He1,2, Jun-rui Li1, James Xu3, Hong Shan1, Shi-yi Shen1,2, Si-han Gao4, H. Eric Xu1,2,3
1 State Key Laboratory of Drug Research and CAS Key Laboratory of Receptor Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China
2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
3 Cascade Pharma, Shanghai 201318, China
4 School of Pharmacy, Fudan University, Shanghai 201203, China
Correspondence to: H. Eric Xu: eric.xu@simm.ac.cn,
DOI: 10.1038/s41401-024-01380-y
Received: 26 April 2024
Accepted: 15 August 2024
Advance online: 30 September 2024

Abstract

Therapeutic antibodies are at the forefront of biotherapeutics, valued for their high target specificity and binding affinity. Despite their potential, optimizing antibodies for superior efficacy presents significant challenges in both monetary and time costs. Recent strides in computational and artificial intelligence (AI), especially generative diffusion models, have begun to address these challenges, offering novel approaches for antibody design. This review delves into specific diffusion-based generative methodologies tailored for antibody design tasks, de novo antibody design, and optimization of complementarity-determining region (CDR) loops, along with their evaluation metrics. We aim to provide an exhaustive overview of this burgeoning field, making it an essential resource for leveraging diffusion-based generative models in antibody design endeavors.
Keywords: antibodies; generative model; diffusion; de novo antibody design; CDR optimization; model evaluation

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