Innophore GmbH

Innophore GmbH is an Austrian computational biotechnology company headquartered in Graz. It was founded in 2017 as a spin-off from the Austrian Centre for Industrial Biotechnology (acib) and the University of Graz, with support from Science Park Graz. The company builds its business on a single core scientific idea: that while proteins matter, their binding sites matter even more. This idea is embodied in the Catalophore™ method, first published in Nature Communications in 2014, which describes every protein cavity as a multidimensional point cloud. This representation allows searching across whole proteomes by the shape and chemistry of an active site, enabling enzyme discovery, drug repurposing, off-target safety screening and protein engineering on the same technology platform. Innophore operates at the intersection of biotechnology and pharmaceutical research. It offers both services and software. Its service arm runs computational discovery and engineering projects for partners in biotechnology and pharma, covering industrial enzyme optimization (thermostability, pH range, selectivity, activity on non-native substrates) and pharmaceutical applications such as hit identification, drug repurposing, proteome-wide off-target screening, de novo ligand design and biocatalysis. Clients retain intellectual property on enzymes, hits and variants delivered. The software arm provides an on-premise platform, a desktop cavity workbench, a cloud copilot for off-target search and a PyMOL plugin, all powered by the same Catalophore™ engine. The company gained public attention during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when it modeled the SARS-CoV-2 main protease within hours of the genome being published and flagged it as a prime drug target — the same site later targeted by antivirals such as Paxlovid. Its models were downloaded tens of thousands of times, and the company reached the finals of the JEDI "Billion Molecules against COVID-19" Grand Challenge. Innophore has also mapped the druggable cavities of the entire human proteome as the Human Cavitome Atlas. Innophore remains a private company. Its team combines structural bioinformatics, AI and machine learning, high-performance computing, biocatalysis and green chemistry, chemistry and molecular biology, and strategy and operations. The company runs clusters of about 6,500 CPUs, uses cloud resources on AWS and Google Cloud, and employs GPU acceleration with NVIDIA. Its technology has been validated by a decade of peer-reviewed publications and industry partnerships, including a collaboration with SignalChem starting in 2019.

Innophore's roots go back to the research labs of Graz, Austria. The foundational Catalophore™ method was published in Nature Communications in 2014 by the team that would later found the company. The method describes every protein cavity as a multidimensional point cloud, allowing searches across whole proteomes by the shape and chemistry of an active site. Austrian and international media dubbed it a "search engine for new enzyme functions." That same year, the work won the international CPhI Pharma Award (sometimes called the "Pharma-Oscar") and the ÖGMBT research award. In 2017, Innophore GmbH was founded as a spin-off from the Austrian Centre for Industrial Biotechnology (acib) and the University of Graz, with support from Science Park Graz. It became a company in its own right: an enzyme discovery business already extending its technology toward recognizing drug side effects. In 2019, the company moved into industrial biotechnology with new and novel enzymes. Early industry partnerships followed, including a collaboration with SignalChem, as the platform reached beyond enzyme discovery toward drug-safety questions. The year 2020 brought a pandemic stress test. Within hours of the SARS-CoV-2 genome going public, Innophore modeled its main protease (Mpro) and flagged it as a prime drug target — the same site antivirals like Paxlovid would later go after. The company's models were downloaded tens of thousands of times, and it reached the finals of the JEDI "Billion Molecules against COVID-19" Grand Challenge. In 2021, the company launched virus.watch (as referenced in the evidence). It also mapped the druggable cavities of the whole human proteome as the Human Cavitome Atlas. By the mid-2020s, Innophore offered a mature portfolio of services and software, all built on the Catalophore™ engine, and continued to serve clients in biotechnology and pharma with cavity-first computational discovery and engineering.

• Foundational Catalophore™ method published in Nature Communications; wins CPhI Pharma Award and ÖGMBT research award

• Innophore GmbH founded as a spin-off from acib and University of Graz, supported by Science Park Graz

• Enters industrial biotechnology; collaboration with SignalChem

• Models SARS-CoV-2 main protease within hours of genome publication; reaches finals of JEDI Grand Challenge

• Launches virus.watch; maps Human Cavitome Atlas

Cavity-first computational discovery and engineering for enzyme and drug development, combining a proprietary point-cloud technology with services and software.

• Catalophore™

  Point-cloud cavity engine for protein binding site analysis, enabling enzyme discovery, drug repurposing, off-target screening and protein engineering.

• CavitOmiX

  Proteome-scale cavity analysis tool built on Catalophore™.

• On-premise platform

  Full platform for on-premise deployment.

• Desktop cavity workbench

  Desktop application for cavity analysis.

• Cloud copilot for off-target search

  Cloud-based tool for off-target safety screening.

• PyMOL plugin

  Plugin integrating Catalophore™ with PyMOL molecular visualization.

1. 1Home - Innophoreinnophore.com
2. 2About us - Innophoreinnophore.com
3. 3Services - Innophoreinnophore.com
4. 4Team - Innophoreinnophore.com
5. 5Innophore GmbH - Wikidatawikidata.org