Twist to Supply Antibody Data for Lilly’s TuneLab AI Platform

Twist Bioscience will provide antibody characterization services to Lilly TuneLab, Eli Lilly’s AI drug discovery platform, under an agreement announced September 16. The service data will support TuneLab’s AbLab model, which predicts whether antibodies have properties suited to development.

TuneLab users can order Twist’s antibody services using designated protocols and preferred pricing. Twist says the resulting laboratory data can help researchers compare antibody sequences and will be contributed to TuneLab’s model training.

The arrangement links computer predictions with lab experiments. TuneLab gives participating biotech companies access to models trained on Lilly research data, while Twist supplies experimental measurements that can inform antibody development.

Lilly says TuneLab uses federated learning, a system intended to let companies use shared models without directly exposing their proprietary data. The platform launched in 2025 with models built on Lilly’s drug-discovery research, which the company said represented more than $1 billion in investment.

For Twist, the deal puts its antibody testing services in front of companies using TuneLab. Those orders could create business for the services, but the announcement did not disclose contract value, minimum purchases, or expected revenue.

The agreement is not an announced joint development program for a specific drug candidate. Instead, Twist’s stated role is to provide data-generating services, while TuneLab users apply the platform’s models to help assess candidate molecules.

Investors will have to look for signs that the relationship brings customers and repeat work. Twist also flagged customer growth and the ability to expand revenue among the risks in its disclosure, making adoption of the service a key measure to watch.

The near-term test is whether biotech teams use the preferred protocols and feed new antibody data back into TuneLab. The companies have not announced a timetable for measuring results or any drug candidates emerging from the arrangement.