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AI from Austria in the international limelight

07. April 2025

AI is disruptively transforming the field of life sciences is generally well known. The fact that Austria is in the forefront of this development is less known to people. Innophore, a spin-off from the University of Graz, simulates the behaviour of proteins and, together with cooperation partner NVIDIA, aims to find active substances to combat diseases.

The research company Innophore simulates the behaviour of proteins on the computer, for example as a means of developing new drugs or creating environmentally compatible detergents and has gained international recognition for its work. Last year Innophore succeeded in mapping out the human proteome i.e., the totality of all proteins in the body. NVIDIA made the necessary computing power available for this purpose. Founded in California in 1993, the producer of graphic processors (GPUs) experienced its boom at the beginning of the crypto hype. In addition to mining bitcoins, GPUs are also suitable for training artificial intelligence. Overall, NVIDIA has emerged as one of the most valuable companies in the world. The company considers Innophore, a spin-off of the University of Graz, to be an important partner. This is the reason why NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang highlighted the Austrian company in the keynote address at CES, the world’s largest electronics trade fair, held in Las Vegas at the beginning of the year.

Drug development with AI

The next shared objective is to be discover drugs for the purpose of combatting disease. Christian Gruber, chemist and CEO of Innophore, recently announced a further intensification of the firm’s partnership with NVIDIA in the future. Together they aim to put together a new universal biological model which not only maps out the human organism in detail but also pathogens, bacteria, fungi, and animal systems. In short, this means simulating all proteins in the world in a single model. The new protein simulation is to be made available to young researchers, especially from MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley, but also from Austrian universities. “Naturally it would be great for us if these people work with our technology,” Gruber states.

“Europe, and Austria in particular, is a fantastic business location with a large number of talents and clever minds. European subsidiaries are often behind many scientific breakthroughs.”

Gruber sees personalised medicine as one of the most important applications. It is a fact that drugs may have different effects on people due to biological differences. Innophore’s software can predict this, serving as the basis for personalized and customized treatment.

“The aim of protein simulation is to make predictions about the effect of something, for example how a virus variant will behave, or which side effects could arise if a certain drug is used,” Gruber adds. “AI enables us to do this at an unbelievable speed.”

Innophore, headquartered in the federal province of Styria, was founded in 2017 as a spin-off of the University of Graz. In the meantime, the company has also set up a subsidiary in San Francisco. Following the protein analysis software Cavitomix enabling detection of the side effects of drugs, Innophore is currently working with its cooperation partner NVIDIA on its proprietary BIoNeMo platform, for example in the field of drug development.

Read more about the industry here: Life Sciences in AustriaLife Sciences in Austria ()