VHH nanobodies, designed without immunisation
Designed de novo against your target dynamics. In 6 weeks.
You send us the antigen. We design VHH antibodies (nanobodies) against the exact site you want to engage, make the best candidates, and validate them at the bench. Candidate sequences in six weeks, validated binders in nine. No llama, no immunisation, no display library, and no waiting to find out which epitope an animal happened to choose.
- VHH · Fab · scFv · IgG · minibinder
- You keep the IP
- No immunisation, no animal
How a 15 kDa single domain antibody reaches what a 150 kDa IgG cannot
Single-domain antibodies (also called nanobodies or VHHs) are the equivalent of the variable domain of camelid heavy chain-only IgGs (HCAb).
Being only 15kDa, they offer significant advantages in research and therapeutic applications.
As ultra-compact binding entities, VHHs reach epitopes that are inaccessible to conventional antibodies. Their structural simplicity and robustness make them ideal tools for research, diagnostics and next-generation therapeutics.
Here’s why working with VHHs and minibinders is a great choice for your research
- Predictable: selected or designed using structure-driven and AI-powered workflows, offering a reproducible and rational development process.
- Efficient: no immunization nor phage display nor blind screening, drastically shortening timelines from target to functional binder.
- Simple: fully compatible with recombinant expression systems, enabling fast production and straightforward scaling.
- Small: reach cryptic or buried epitopes that are inaccessible to conventional antibodies and display superior tissue penetration.
- Stable: maintain activity under demanding experimental conditions, ensuring long-term reliability and shelf-life stability.
- Easy to engineer: fully sequence-defined, modular and customizable, enabling optimization, integration and IP protection.
You choose the epitope
This is the difference that changes a programme. Immunisation and display libraries select whatever binds; you take what you get. We design against the site you specify, which means you can target a functional site, a site conserved across species, or a site that steers clear of a competitor's claims. Because nothing has to be injected into anything, toxic, poorly immunogenic or highly conserved antigens are not ruled out from the start. What decides feasibility is the structure of the site you want to engage, and the free feasibility study checks it before you commit.
Your VHH discovery, step by step
- Feasibility (days): We score your antigen and the site you want to engage, and return a compatibility verdict. Free.
- Prototyping (week 1): A short scoping run on your actual target: we design the workflow it needs and size the generative campaign, so the quote reflects your target rather than an average one.
- Generative design (weeks 2-4): Binders generated against the chosen site on a clinically precedented scaffold, under developability constraints
- Computational triage (weeks 4-5): Filters on sequence liabilities, structure and independent re-prediction narrow the output to 50 to 200 candidates worth looking at closely
- Molecular dynamics (weeks 5-6): The shortlist is pre-validated dynamically: we watch the complex hold, or fail to hold, before anything is expressed
- Wet-lab validation (weeks 7-9): Best candidates expressed and tested: binding, expression, behaviour in solution
You approve each stage before the next one starts.
A nanobody has no light chain, so its three complementarity-determining regions are its whole binding site.
What we need to start
The antigen sequence is enough. A structure helps, and if the epitope is defined by a published antibody, its PDB entry is usually all we need. Tell us the format you want downstream (VHH, VHH-Fc, bispecific, fusion) and what affinity and species cross-reactivity your programme requires.
What you get from a nanobody project
- Ranked candidate sequences, each with the epitope it engages.
- A developability profile per candidate: aggregation, expression and specificity, assessed during design rather than discovered later.
- Binding data from the laboratory for the candidates we take forward.
- The design record: how each candidate was produced, ready for your files and your counsel.
- Full ownership. The sequences, the data and the intellectual property are yours.
Why teams choose designed VHHs
Speed. Six weeks to sequences against a defined site, where a campaign takes months and may return nothing usable.
Control. The epitope, the format and the developability constraints are yours to set.
Developability by design. Aggregation, expression and specificity are constraints inside the generative run, not a report written afterwards. A liability removed at design time is one that never costs you a round.
Freedom to operate by design. Every candidate comes with its sequence identity to the published and claimed prior art, computed and documented: the data your counsel's opinion rests on. See designing around an antibody patent.
Animal-free. No immunisation, which matters for 3Rs commitments and for antigens no animal tolerates.
Built for therapeutic programmes. Our candidates feed therapeutic antibody development as well as diagnostic and research applications, and the design record follows them into preclinical development.
Take advantage of the VHHs and minibinders technology in your own field of applications
In Biotech & Pharma
- Target the exact site you choose, even on antigens that cannot be used for immunisation
- Switch from mAbs to VHHs and minibinders as molecules with numerous advantages
- Benefit from easy scale-up and reproducibility
In diagnostics
- Switch your polyclonal antibody to VHHs or minibinders for more robust process
- Design precise pairs of molecules for your tests (CLIA, ELISA, LFA, etc.)
- Increase the sensitivity of your tests
In R&D
- Discover totally new molecules against your antigen
- Realize experiments with VHHs and minibinders even in the hardest conditions
- Reach cryptic or hidden antigens, identify conformational changes or idiotypes with precisely designed VHHs and minibinders.
Frequently asked questions
Can you design a VHH without immunising llamas?
Yes. It is the only way we work. The antigen sequence is the starting point and the epitope is yours to specify.
What are the alternatives to phage display for nanobody discovery?
Computational design is the one that lets you choose the epitope. Immunisation, synthetic and naive libraries, and single B-cell sorting all select from diversity; the site you get is an outcome. Design makes it an input, and the free feasibility study tells you within days whether your site is tractable.
Can I use the nanobodies for research rather than therapy?
Yes, and it is often the faster project: research use needs less validation than a therapeutic programme. For a research reagent we will often propose a miniprotein binder instead, which is smaller, cheaper to express and easier to make in quantity. Tell us the application and we will say which format serves it best.
How fast is it, really?
Six weeks from go-ahead to ranked candidate sequences. Nine weeks to binders validated in the laboratory.
Who owns the sequences?
You do, along with the data and any intellectual property arising from the work.
See it in action
- Case studies
Our own designs on IL-7Rα, measured by SPR in an independent laboratory.
- How it works
Panel in 6 weeks, wet-lab validated in 9
- Scientific notes
Practical answers on de novo VHH design, patent freedom to operate, antibody formats and developability
- Miniprotein binder design
De novo miniprotein binders and minibinders designed against a chosen epitope
Start designing better antibodies
We design developable antibodies using AI in under 6 weeks, wet-lab validated in 9 weeks, from your antigen sequence. No immunisation, no phage display, no animal.