Terray Therapeutics

We had a fantastic time at our 2nd annual Career Day last week 🎉 Students from elementary through high school joined us for lab tours, hands-on demos, and inspiring conversations about science and innovation. They toured and spent time in Terray’s R&D lab, where they learned about chemical reactions, nanoscale silicon chips, and 3D printing, getting a glimpse into some of the ways Terray produces precise data at scale to power our computational advantage in drug discovery. Fostering education for Terray employees is a core part of the culture, and we saw that in action with these young people. Big thanks to our team and the curious young minds who made the day so memorable. Investing in the next generation of scientists is part of who we are. #STEMEducation #DrugDiscovery #CareerDay #FutureScientists.

We're #hiring a new Head of Lab Operations in Monrovia, California. Apply today or share this post with your network.

Are you headed to Decoding Bio's Summit this week? Fez our incredible CBO will be there - look him up!

Huge congratulations to Terray's CTO, Narbe Mardirossian, on the recognition of his work by Meta! Meta's Open Molecules 2025 (OMol25) dataset - the largest and most comprehensive quantum chemistry dataset ever created - was built using the Density Functional Theory (DFT) method that Narbe developed during his PhD with Martin Head-Gordon at University of California, Berkeley, College of Chemistry almost a decade ago. Though DFT has had many contributors over time who have developed different functionals, the simplicity and effectiveness of Narbe's approach to this complex problem was critical in its selection for generating the ground truth data for OMol25. Narbe has brought this level of integrity and rigor to building the computational platform that Terray uses every day to design small molecules. His computational team is pushing the frontier of ML-driven molecular design, delivering tangible breakthroughs for both Terray's internal autoimmune pipeline and partnered programs. https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/gPfSpHMd

Earlier this month Terray attended #SynBioBeta. On a panel about fostering big pharma partnerships, Eli Berlin, Terray’s co-founder and COO/CFO, listed three key elements for early biotech companies – from recruiting the right leaders at the right time to being strategic with partnership work:    🏛️ Hire Key Leadership Early Eli recommended hiring a Chief Business Officer (CBO) early in the company’s life, and a Chief People Officer (CPO) when the company reaches about 50 employees, rather than waiting until it grows larger. This helps build the necessary business and organizational muscle from the outset.  (nod here to Feroze U. and Anna Goranson!) 🧪 💻 Prove Value Internally First He emphasized the importance of being “heads down” in the early stages to demonstrate your technology’s capabilities through internal programs before seeking partnerships with big pharma. This demonstrates to the company and its partners that you are developing technology that will be valuable for drug programs. 🤝 Partnerships Are Bought, Not Sold Eli noted that large pharma partnerships are “bought, not sold.” The best approach is to be transparent and bring high integrity when presenting what your company can deliver, and to focus on aligning with the strategic needs of potential partners. You cannot force a partnership; it must be a natural fit with the partner’s priorities and your capabilities.   These tenets have led to Terray’s work with Gilead Sciences, Bristol Myers Squibb, Calico Life Sciences and a collaboration with Odyssey Therapeutics. Thanks to #SynBioBeta and John Cumbers for inviting us on stage and to Cynthia Hong, Jakob Uszkoreit, Ola (Aleksandra) Wlodek and Nima Ronaghi, PhD for the great discussion. And thanks to Ivan R. Jaubert for these photos!

What is this ball of tape? At Terray, we are constantly building toward the future of discovering and developing de novo drugs for some of the most challenging disease targets. We build AI models that are massively improving predictions and speeding the process, but we know AI is not magic – it depends on the quality, speed, and amount of unique data. We’ve transformed every step of our operation to be highly controlled, rigorously documented, automated, and scalable, so our data is precise, iterable, and low-cost.  This ball of tape tells the story of this two-year transition from manual to automated processes.  It is a colorful reminder of how we have grown!

At Terray we have a healthy focus on team building and on . . . Star Wars. Our May the 4th be With You celebration was a great success. We are bringing it to you here on May the Four(teenth) Also Be with You day! Thanks to Danielle Schamp and Audrey Vu for donning capes and wielding the light sabres!

Terray and Odyssey Therapeutics are collaborating to jointly discover and develop small-molecule medicines to treat and inhibit autoimmune conditions. Last month, we hosted Christopher Butler, Odyssey’s SVP, Chemistry and Head of Early Discovery, in Monrovia to get an in-depth tour of our automated lab and work directly with our AI leadership. Pictured here, Chris is in his element speaking deep chemistry with Terray’s Chief Platform Officer, Craig Schulz.    Terray’s AI platform, combined with novel data at scale and a rigorous lab process, provides unique insights into some of the toughest challenges in medicine. The collaboration with Odyssey brings together complementary expertise in pursuit of first-in-class therapeutics.  

How do partnerships between big pharma and startups happen and what makes them thrive? Terray co-founder, Eli Berlin, joined a panel at #SynBioBeta, moderated by Nima Ronaghi, PhD of Breakout Ventures, alongside leaders from Novartis, Inceptive and Constructive Bio to address this topic. Here are the top takeaways for early-stage biotech companies: *Focus on complementarity: Successful partnerships happen where startups recognize that they are not simply selling, a partner is buying. The value lies in aligning capabilities with the strategic needs and programs of larger partners. *Demonstrate real-world value: With no standardized benchmarks, it is essential to validate technology through internal pipelines and case studies, showing clear, actionable results that drive programs and partnerships forward. *Embrace collaboration: Effective partnerships require both sides to bring their expertise to the table. For startups, this also extends to engaging across the big pharma organization, from business development to medicinal chemistry, and valuing every member of the team. At Terray, we have seen the impact of this approach through our work with Bristol Myers Squibb, Calico Life Sciences, Gilead Sciences, and Odyssey Therapeutics. We are committed to building partnerships that accelerate innovation and deliver meaningful outcomes for patients and change the trajectory of human health. Thanks to the panelists! Cynthia Hong, Jakob Uszkoreit, Ola (Aleksandra) Wlodek #SynbioBeta #Biotech #PharmaPartnerships #Collaboration #Innovation

Our #ML and #AI team works hand-in-hand with our medicinal chemists to build models and tooling that drive the drug discovery work of the Terray team. But they do get out to have some fun, including at a recent offsite! John P., Matteo Rossi, Miles Wang-Henderson, Carl Underkoffler, Benjamin Kaufman, Ryan Pederson, PhD, not pictured Jamie Kwon, Edward Williams