Healthcare
Evogene and Tel Aviv University's Blavatnik Center for Drug Discovery Announce Joint Initiative to Accelerate AI-Driven Small-Molecule Drug Discovery
Evogene Ltd. (Nasdaq: EVGN) (TASE: EVGN), a leading computational chemistry company focused on the generative design of small molecules for the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries, and the Blavatnik Center for Drug Discovery (BCDD) at Tel Aviv University, today announced a strategic joint initiative aimed at accelerating the growth, development, and success of innovation originating from Israel's academic research ecosystem and focused on small-molecule drug discovery. This collaboration
About this update from Evogene Ltd.
Supporting Israel's Academic Innovation Ecosystem: BCDD to Provide World-Class Experimental Infrastructure, Evogene to Deliver Computational Chemistry and AI Capabilities REHOVOT, ISRAEL and TEL AVIV, ISRAEL, July 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Evogene Ltd. (Nasdaq: EVGN) (TASE: EVGN), a leading computational chemistry company focused on the generative design of small molecules for the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries, and the Blavatnik Center for Drug Discovery (BCDD) at Tel Aviv University, today announced a strategic joint initiative aimed at accelerating the growth, development, and success of innovation originating from Israel's academic research ecosystem and focused on small-molecule drug discovery. This collaboration agreement was facilitated by Ramot, Tel Aviv University's tech transfer company. The initiative is designed to support scientific entrepreneurs and research teams that possess deep biological understanding of novel disease targets but often face significant challenges in translating these discoveries into viable drug development programs. By combining BCDD's advanced experimental infrastructure and translational drug discovery capabilities with Evogene's AI-driven computational chemistry generative engine, ChemPass AI™ , the collaboration seeks to create a powerful acceleration framework that bridges the gap between biological insight and drug candidate development. Many promising academic discoveries fail to progress due to the lack of integrated capabilities required for early-stage drug discovery. This joint initiative directly addresses these challenges by providing entrepreneurs with access to both computational and experimental resources under a coordinated development framework. At the heart of the collaboration is an integrated Design-Make-Test-Analyze (DMTA) workflow. Together, Evogene and the BCDD will identify and evaluate promising projects emerging from Israeli academic institutions and entrepreneurial ventures. Selected programs will benefit from Evogene's proprietary ChemPass AI™ generative engine and computational chemistry expertise for the design and optimization of novel small molecules, while the BCDD will provide experimental validation, screening capabilities, and translational development support through its state-of-the-art infrastructure. Together, driven by ChemPass AI™ this integrated workflow is designed to improve development efficiency, reduce early-stage risk and increase the likelihood of commercial success for emerging drug candidates.