Red Queen Bio Leverages AI to Design Antibodies Against Future Viruses, WSJ Reports
OpenAI-backed Red Queen Bio has secured $36 million in funding to develop antibody drugs targeting a range of viruses, including those that AI could potentially create. According to The Wall Street Journal, the biosecurity startup is focusing initially on bird flu and other influenza viruses, with plans for clinical trials in 2027.
Red Queen uses AI to design antibodies by tightly binding them to viral targets. They grow cells in the lab to test these candidates and then use the results to refine their models. As CEO Nikolai Eroshenko explains, "The tighter they bind, the less of them you need. Suddenly, you have something that can scale."
Eroshenko and co-founder Hannu Rajaniemi established Red Queen Bio in 2025, following HelixNano's spin-off. OpenAI led a $15 million seed round last November, joined by Cerberus Ventures, Fifty Years, and Halcyon Futures.
The company emphasizes its commitment to scaling biological defenses faster than AI capabilities advance while maintaining strict safety protocols.
Red Queen Bio joins other initiatives at the intersection of AI and biosecurity. Google DeepMind launched an AI biosecurity program in July. A Cisco study revealed vulnerabilities in AI models against bioweapon queries, and recently, Anthropic's Dario Amodei called for a ban on AI bioweapons before the UN Security Council.