Small-Molecule Drug Discovery
iScholarX is a biopharmaceutical company discovering new chemical entities for obesity, diabetes, pain and cardiovascular disease, using computational chemistry and machine learning alongside laboratory work.
Models generate and rank candidate molecules before a single compound is synthesized.
Obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, alongside a research effort in pain.
Every program is an NCE — a novel molecule rather than a reformulation.
Therapeutic Areas
Our research is directed at areas of significant unmet need where molecular design is the limiting step.
Designing new chemical entities intended to act on the biology of body-weight regulation and energy balance.
Figure — energy-balance signalling: gut-derived satiety signals reach hypothalamic circuits through membrane receptors, shifting intake against expenditure.
Programs directed at glucose regulation and the metabolic pathways underlying type 2 diabetes.
Figure — glucose handling: islet secretion drives transporter recruitment at the muscle membrane; the curve shows the resulting excursion over time.
Oral small molecules for MASH with fibrosis, designed to address the hepatic and metabolic components of the disease together rather than in isolation.
Figure — lobular progression: hepatocyte lipid loading, then inflammatory infiltrate, then collagen bridging across the lobule (steatosis → steatohepatitis → fibrosis).
A multi-mechanism approach to analgesia: damping pain signalling at the periphery in a single molecule designed not to enter the central nervous system.
Figure — peripheral signal control: peripheral receptor activity on the nociceptor axon damps the firing train before it ascends, with the central compartment left outside the design space.
Discovery efforts aimed at cardiovascular and cardiometabolic risk, an area closely linked to our metabolic work.
Figure — vascular consequence: lipid accumulation beneath the endothelium narrows the lumen and alters the pressure waveform downstream.
Development Pipeline
4 pre-clinical new chemical entities: two oral small molecules for cardiometabolic disease, an oral small-molecule series for MASH, and a peripherally restricted analgesic. Target and composition details are not disclosed.
XI-D
Oral small molecule
Obesity, type 2 diabetes and related cardiometabolic disease
Oral, non-peptidic small molecule designed from a single scaffold and benchmarked against the approved oral reference standard.
XI-T
Oral small molecule
Obesity, type 2 diabetes and related cardiometabolic disease
Oral small molecule extending the earlier profile with an additional designed activity and a built-in selectivity gate.
XI-MTR
Oral small molecule
MASH with fibrosis (F2–F3); type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance; dyslipidemia
Oral small-molecule series in computational design. Predicted properties only; no in vitro or in vivo data yet.
PNX-M11
Peripherally restricted analgesic
Acute and chronic pain
A single molecule combining complementary peripheral mechanisms, with CNS exclusion designed into the physicochemistry rather than added afterwards.
The XI Platform
XI is our internal discovery process. It helps us decide which molecules are worth making and testing.
The methods behind it are proprietary. Every result is treated as a hypothesis until laboratory data confirms it.
Indication, route, selectivity and developability constraints are fixed before any chemistry is committed to.
Our internal XI process narrows a large design space to the small number of molecules worth making. Methods are proprietary and not disclosed.
Nothing advances on a predicted number. Assays and in-vivo work decide what moves forward.
The same internal process supports our cardiometabolic, hepatic and pain programs.
Standards
We apply the same standards we would to any experimental method: fixed protocols, recorded provenance and results checked against laboratory data.
Work runs under fixed, versioned protocols, so a result can be reproduced exactly as it was first produced.
Inputs, parameters and outputs are recorded per program, giving each decision a traceable record.
Predicted values are labelled as predicted and are never presented as measured data.
Candidate selection and program decisions remain with our scientists.
Output is judged against laboratory data, and disagreements are treated as information rather than noise.
Designs are assessed for novelty against the prior-art landscape as they are made, not after the fact.
How We Work
Models generate candidate chemical matter against a defined target profile.
Prioritized designs are synthesized for evaluation.
Candidates are characterized experimentally for activity and properties.
Results are returned to the models to guide the next design cycle.
Research
Computational design only matters if it survives contact with experiment. Our work is organized so that every predicted molecule has a path to being made and measured, and every measurement has a path back into the models.
Team
Coming soon
Leadership, scientific and advisory profiles will be published here shortly. For introductions in the meantime, please reach out through the contact form.
Contact usPartnering
We work with research groups, contract organizations and industry partners who share an interest in advancing novel chemical entities in cardiometabolic disease and pain. If your work intersects with ours, we would like to hear from you.
Start a conversation
Careers
We bring computation and laboratory science together on the same programs. We are interested in computational chemists, machine learning scientists, medicinal chemists and pharmacologists.
Contact
Choose a topic and your message is routed to the right team. You will receive an email confirmation, and you can attach a document if it helps.
Applying for a role? Use the careers application form.
