Arlan Biotech

Arlan Biotech, founded in 2021 by Bolat Sultankulov and Dauken Seitkali, is a biotechnology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with roots in Astana, Kazakhstan. The company initially focused on creating a test system for coronavirus using synthetic nanobodies but pivoted to leverage artificial intelligence after realizing the potential to move beyond traditional laboratory methods. This strategic shift led to the development of a generative AI-powered Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform. The founders' backgrounds are central to the company's trajectory; CEO Bolat Sultankulov holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering and has over a decade of experience in biotech, including founding startups in in-vitro diagnostics and regenerative biology. Co-founder and CTO Dauken Seitkali contributes his expertise in machine learning and data science.

The core of Arlan Biotech's business is its proprietary AI platform that accelerates the discovery and development of single-domain antibodies, also known as nanobodies or VHH sequences. This technology drastically reduces the time for discovering nanobodies from months to minutes. The platform allows users to select a specific protein target, and the AI generates optimized VHH sequences for it. This capability addresses a significant bottleneck in biopharmaceutical research, where the traditional process of developing antibodies is slow and expensive. By generating its own synthetic data for training its machine learning models, Arlan Biotech has overcome the challenge of limited publicly available data. The company's business model is primarily B2B SaaS, targeting pharmaceutical companies and research scientists. It offers custom nanobody production services and sells nanobodies as standalone products to research laboratories.

Arlan Biotech's services are aimed at researchers and companies in the fields of in-vitro diagnostics (IVD), oncology, and targeted drug delivery. The platform provides tools to accelerate new diagnostic and treatment strategies for inherited disorders, cancer, and infectious diseases. The company has engaged in pilot projects with institutions like Harvard Medical School and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. Since its inception, Arlan Biotech has participated in several accelerator programs, including the Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund (MBRIF), Silkway Accelerator, and StartX at Stanford University, which has helped refine its business model and expand its network. The company secured pre-seed funding from venture funds and angel investors from Kazakhstan, the US, and the UAE, and has been recognized as a revenue-generating entity.

Keywords: nanobody discovery, generative AI in biotech, single-domain antibodies, VHH sequence generation, antibody engineering, biopharmaceutical SaaS, protein targeting, drug discovery platform, computational biology, synthetic nanobodies, in-vitro diagnostics, CAR-T therapy, AI-driven drug development, epitope mapping, custom antibody services, deeptech, life sciences AI, pharmaceutical research tools, biotech startup, molecular biology