On March 17, 2026 Dalriada Drug Discovery ("Dalriada"), a partnered discovery organization supporting small-molecule programs from hit identification through lead optimization, and Topos Bio ("Topos"), an AI-native biotechnology company developing therapeutics for intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), reported a research collaboration to accelerate experimental validation for IDP drug discovery using advanced protein mass spectrometry and proteomics.
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Under the collaboration, Topos will leverage Dalriada’s expertise and infrastructure in protein mass spectrometry and chemoproteomics to support discovery efforts against intrinsically disordered and conformationally dynamic targets, protein classes that often lack stable structure and are difficult to interrogate with conventional structure-based approaches.
Dalriada will apply a set of complementary MS- and proteomics-based methods to generate high-resolution data on protein–small molecule interactions in biologically relevant systems, including target engagement profiling, intact mass and peptide mapping analyses, covalent binding kinetics characterization, and mechanism-of-action proteomics. These approaches are designed to inform site-level engagement, selectivity, and pathway-level modulation to help guide iterative design and prioritization.
"IDP programs demand tight feedback loops between computational hypotheses and rigorous experimental measurement," said Dr. Diana Kraskouskaya, CEO of Dalriada Drug Discovery. "By combining advanced mass spectrometry and proteomics with our live-cell iCLASS platform, we can help provide decision-ready engagement and selectivity data earlier in discovery, especially for targets where traditional structural readouts are limited."
Ryan Zarcone, Co-Founder and CEO of Topos Bio, said: "High-quality experimental data are essential for contextualizing and refining AI-generated hypotheses in the challenging biology of intrinsically disordered proteins. Dalriada’s depth in protein mass spectrometry and chemoproteomics, together with the iCLASS platform, provides the molecular resolution and scale needed to support our programs."
Intrinsically disordered proteins are estimated to comprise approximately 30–40% of the human proteome and are implicated in numerous diseases, including neurodegeneration and cancer. Their structural flexibility and dynamic conformational ensembles make them difficult to interrogate using conventional structural biology alone, reinforcing the need for complementary MS- and proteomics-based approaches.
This collaboration reflects a shared commitment to integrating advanced computational modeling with high-resolution experimental biology to expand the druggable proteome and advance therapies for historically challenging targets.
(Press release, Dalriada Therapeutics, MAR 17, 2026, View Source [SID1234663642])