Immunai signs up to $15 million research pact with Boehringer Ingelheim
The collaboration focuses on decoding T-cell dysfunction, a common thread linking cancer and autoimmune disorders.
Immunai, the AI-driven biotechnology company focused on mapping the human immune system, has entered a multi-project collaboration with German pharmaceutical group Boehringer Ingelheim aimed at identifying new therapeutic targets in cancer and autoimmune diseases.
The agreement, initially valued at up to $15 million and running through 2027, will combine Immunai’s artificial intelligence platform with Boehringer Ingelheim’s drug discovery efforts in what both companies describe as a broad search for previously overlooked biological mechanisms linked to T-cell dysfunction.
The partnership reflects a growing trend among large pharmaceutical companies to use artificial intelligence and increasingly complex biological datasets to improve the odds of discovering new medicines.
At the center of the collaboration is a scientific question that has traditionally been studied through separate lenses: how malfunctioning T-cells contribute both to cancer and to autoimmune diseases. While cancer researchers often focus on restoring immune activity, autoimmune researchers seek to suppress it. Immunai and Boehringer Ingelheim believe that examining both conditions together may reveal common biological pathways that have remained hidden.
In the first phase of the project, the companies will build a data foundation spanning both disease areas and analyze thousands of patient samples using Immunai’s single-cell AI platform. The goal is to identify patterns of T-cell dysfunction that could point to new therapeutic targets.
The most promising findings will then be tested in Immunai’s laboratory facilities and may serve as the starting point for future drug discovery programs within Boehringer Ingelheim’s research portfolio.
The approach relies on Immunai’s AMICA-OS platform, which combines large-scale immune-system datasets, AI models and laboratory-based validation tools. Rather than beginning with a specific biological hypothesis, the companies plan to use an expansive, data-driven approach to uncover potential targets.
“Cancer immunology and autoimmune diseases both involve T-cell dysfunction, but they have largely been explored separately,” said Noam Solomon, Immunai’s CEO. He said the collaboration would combine large-scale clinical data, translational science and laboratory validation in an effort to identify therapeutic opportunities that conventional research methods may overlook.
Earlier this year, Immunai announced a collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb focused on applying its platform to oncology clinical-development programs. In May, it disclosed a third expansion of its multi-year partnership with AstraZeneca. The company employs more than 170 people, is headquartered in New York, and says it has raised nearly $270 million to date.
