Peptiter / DiscoveryLab
Discovery
Discovery story

Search space — eight-stage reduction strategy.

An eight-stage reduction strategy that takes the combinatorial sequence space down to ranked, testable neighborhoods.

Search-space optimization

How DiscoveryLab avoids exponential explosion and unverifiable mechanism claims.

Eight stages, each constraining, ranking, rejecting, or verifying candidates. The full peptide universe is never enumerated — only biologically plausible neighborhoods are searched, and candidate mechanisms must survive explicit graph and evidence checks.

FIG-02 · Cumulative search-space reduction (representative program)log scale
Stage 0 · raw 10-mer universe
1.02e13
Stage 2 · receptor-conditioned
8.4e6
Stage 3 · BioScout source motifs
MOTS-c + 1.42e5
Stage 4 · scaffold-constrained
4.8e4
Stage 5 · family neighborhoods
1.24e4
Stage 6 · GP-evolved survivors
2,180
Stage 7 · verified mechanism + gates
74
Stage 8 · LabSpace batch + assay plan
12
STAGE 01

Condition-first framing

Researchers begin with a biological condition or desired phenotype. The system maps it to pathways, receptor families, candidate mechanisms, contraindication concerns, relevant assays, and clinical/preclinical evidence.

obesityrheumatoid arthritismetabolic dysfunctioninflammationtissue repairsarcopeniaendocrine signalingimmune modulation
STAGE 02

Target and receptor narrowing

Instead of searching all possible peptides, DiscoveryLab selects a constrained biological target set — limited to evidence-supported receptors, pathways, and intervention hypotheses for the condition.

GLP-1RGIPRGCGRMC4RGHRH-RIL pathwaysTNF-relatedGPCRsnuclear hormone

Examples only. Coverage depends on available evidence per condition.

STAGE 03

BioScout mimicry

Comparative BioScout identifies evolved source systems that already solve related biological problems and produces evidence-backed source-system search plans — not blind candidate generation.

mitochondrial-derived peptidesvenom peptidesgut–brain signalinghost defenseendocrine peptideswound repairimmune-modulating
STAGE 04

Motif and scaffold constraints

The system extracts or applies pharmacophore hints, conserved motifs, receptor-binding residues, charge and hydrophobicity profiles, cyclization opportunities, secondary-structure propensity, protease resistance, and synthesis feasibility.

motifspharmacophoresbinding residuescharge mapcyclizationhelicityβ-turnncAA v2synthesis cost
STAGE 05

Family generation, not single sequences

Candidate families are generated around constrained scaffolds: parent sequence, conservative variants, non-natural amino-acid substitutions, cyclized versions, terminal modifications, stability-enhanced variants, and receptor-selectivity variants.

The system searches local neighborhoods around biologically plausible scaffolds instead of sampling the full peptide universe.
STAGE 06

Genetic programming and cross-pollination

Successful families evolve under selection pressure from in-silico scores, with bounded mutation, crossover between motif families, scaffold recombination, and ncAA substitution strategies. Candidates failing safety, synthesis, or fit gates are rejected.

Genetic programming is used as a constrained optimization layer, not as unconstrained random sequence generation.
STAGE 07

In-silico lab + mechanism verification

Candidates are scored before any wet-lab handoff: receptor fit, pathway relevance, predicted stability, solubility, aggregation risk, synthesis complexity, off-target concerns, novelty, manufacturability, assay suitability, graph-level mechanism verification, Lean audit artifact generation, and perturbation evidence support.

STAGE 08

Human review and wet-lab handoff

Only candidates passing evidence, mechanism, quality, and safety gates move to LabSpace: batch creation, destination lab selection, capability matching, assay request, status tracking, returned wet-lab results, and feedback into candidate ranking and pathway assumptions.