AstraZeneca and San Francisco-based biotech Algen Biotechnologies announced a collaboration worth up to $555 million to accelerate immunology drug discovery. Algen will apply its AlgenBrain platform, integrating single-cell CRISPR gene editing and artificial intelligence, to identify novel gene regulation targets implicated in disease pathways. This partnership exemplifies the growing adoption of AI technologies in biopharma R&D, aiming to enhance precision and speed in therapeutic development. The deal advances AstraZeneca’s immunology pipeline and strengthens its computational drug discovery capabilities.