Protovate: A Story of the Protein Optimizer

The Beginning

Every iGEM team starts with a scientific question. Ours began with a frustration shared by many researchers: why does protein discovery still take years, despite all the advances in AI and biotechnology?

From this simple question, our curiosity evolved into a bigger vision—what if proteins could learn, adapt, and improve, just like algorithms do?

The Turning Point

Throughout the iGEM season, this idea grew beyond a project. We started mapping out how such a system could actually work in real labs—how data from experiments could feed back into AI models to make each round of design smarter.

What began as an academic prototype slowly revealed its commercial potential: a faster, more resource-efficient way to optimize therapeutic proteins. That realization marked the start of our entrepreneurial path.

The Concept

We called it Protevate—a name that reflects both the biological process of growth and the human drive to explore. Our core idea was a protein optimizer: a closed-loop system combining active learning and directed evolution, capable of designing proteins under realistic biological conditions and accelerating R&D up to threefold.

The Learning Curve

As we tested the concept, we learned to think not only as scientists but also as entrepreneurs.

• Who needs this technology most?
• How does it fit into existing R&D pipelines?
• What value can it bring to biotech partners?

These questions helped us shape our value proposition and imagine real-world applications—from Optimization-as-a-Service to co-development partnerships.

The Next Step

Turning innovation into real-world impact means building both technology and a pathway for collaboration.

Our vision for Protovate is a flexible, scalable model that integrates seamlessly into existing drug discovery workflows. We plan to move forward through four major approaches:

The Road Ahead

Our journey is just beginning:

Protovate is building not only a breakthrough technology, but a sustainable platform for the future of protein drug discovery