Bonito Biosciences has entered a collaboration with DaltonTx to develop new delivery systems for oligotherapeutic medicines, beginning with programmes targeting the central nervous system.

The partnership combines Bonito’s ligand discovery platform and proprietary delivery datasets with DaltonTx’s artificial intelligence technology to identify and optimise molecules designed to transport RNA-based medicines into difficult-to-reach tissues.

A major challenge in the development of RNA therapeutics is ensuring medicines reach the correct cells and tissues. Delivery to the brain remains particularly difficult because of biological barriers that limit access to the central nervous system.

Under the agreement, Bonito will contribute data generated through its functional selection platform, which screens large libraries of encoded ligands against cellular delivery targets. The company said these datasets provide information on receptor engagement and intracellular delivery across different biological systems.

DaltonTx will use its AI platform to analyse these data and support the design of new delivery ligands through structural prediction, affinity mapping and developability assessment.

The companies said the initial focus will be on identifying delivery ligands for conjugated oligotherapeutic payloads, including bispecific approaches intended to improve targeted delivery into the central nervous system.

Richard Wagner, chief executive officer of Bonito Biosciences, said: “We believe precision delivery is fundamentally a data and prediction problem. By combining closed-loop functional screening with AI-driven design, we aim to accelerate the discovery of delivery systems capable of reaching tissues and cell types that have historically remained inaccessible to oligotherapeutics.”

Improving delivery remains a critical objective across the RNA therapeutics sector. While advances in antisense oligonucleotides, siRNA and other RNA-based approaches have expanded treatment possibilities, many tissues remain difficult to access efficiently and safely.

The companies believe combining large-scale experimental screening with machine learning could improve understanding of the relationship between molecular structure and delivery performance, potentially helping researchers identify more effective targeting strategies.

DaltonTx said its technology is designed to combine AI systems, human expertise and experimental data into a continuous learning process intended to support drug discovery decision-making.

Commenting on the collaboration, Garry Pairaudeau, chief executive officer and co-founder of DaltonTx, said: “Bonito has built a uniquely differentiated platform for generating functional delivery datasets at extraordinary scale. Combining these data with DaltonTx’s world leading agentic AI platform, which integrates AI, human expertise, and experimental data into one continuous learning engine, has the potential to significantly accelerate the discovery of next-generation delivery systems for conjugated oligotherapeutics.”

The collaboration reflects growing interest in applying AI technologies not only to drug discovery, but also to one of the industry’s most persistent challenges: the precise delivery of advanced medicines to specific tissues and cell types.