Molecular Partners AG
Biotech platform
Molecular Partners is a biotech pioneer creating protein-based drugs.
The process of finding, assessing and then synthesising proteins that work for a specific use-case is extremely data intensive and cannot be managed at scale without proper data management. The biotech research teams all need to have access to the same repository of proteins and their history.
The Challenge
Molecular biology research is rocket science
In fast-growing startups, there comes a time when there are too many systems and too many different processes to keep track of while still remaining scalable. The challenge for MP (Molecular Partners) and us was to bring lab journals and a huge trove of diverse and interconnected protein and DNA data into one single source of truth. Of course, this had to be user friendly to convince the biotechnologists to migrate from their data-islands (Excel, Filesystem) to our SaaS platform.A special focus was on traceable digital processes for quality assurance and regulatory as well as legal compliance (patent litigations).
The Idea
Accelerating therapeutic discovery
We set out to build a central web application serving as laboratory notebook and research information repository. This company-wide database, including protein data, molecule properties and experimental outcomes facilitates and expedites the R&D and innovation processes in the business. Now, after more than five years in use and constant evolution, the entire MP team is using the app and multiple parallel protein discovery projects can be run at scale.
The Solution
Some processes are special
The web app brings digitised processes in a traceable form to the drug research teams. UX research (usability testing) with the entire user base allowed the creation of a highly customised and specialised solution that is well aligned to the special nature of MP's protein design research. With a management dashboard around methodology statistics, application usage and user information the solution gives context to all internal stakeholders. Even the CEO can see how many new working proteins are in the pipeline!
