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Getting a new drug from lab bench to pharmacy shelf typically takes more than a decade and costs billions of dollars. And after all that time and money, more than 90% of drug candidates still fail. Metanova Labs thinks decentralized AI can change the math.
The company operates NOVA, a specialized network running on Bittensor’s Subnet 68, that crowdsources AI models from miners around the world to screen molecular compounds against therapeutic protein targets. So far, SN68 has screened roughly 4.8 million molecules against 7,000 targets, a combinatorial approach that expands the search space to approximately 65 billion possible molecule-target combinations.
How NOVA turns mining rigs into molecular labs
NOVA distributes the computational workload across Bittensor’s decentralized network. Global miners compete to submit novel molecular compounds and develop algorithms that identify promising drug candidates.
The incentive structure is designed to reward quality over quantity. Miners earn rewards for compounds that demonstrate effective binding to therapeutic targets while maintaining minimal toxicity profiles.
Metanova Labs CEO Micaela Bazo has positioned the platform as a deliberate move away from the Big Pharma playbook, emphasizing democratizing access to drug discovery tools and letting anyone with computational resources and scientific talent contribute to the process.
Mental health is the first proving ground
SN68 has focused a significant portion of its early work on mental health conditions. The combinatorial approach NOVA uses, expanding possibilities into the billions of potential molecule-target pairings, could surface candidates that traditional screening methods never encounter.
Where blockchain meets biotech
Each subnet on Bittensor serves a different purpose, and SN68 is specifically tuned for drug discovery. The blockchain records contributions, manages rewards, and ensures transparency across the system.
Metanova Labs has suggested that this model could halve the costs associated with early-stage drug discovery.
What this means for investors
But the risks are real. Screening billions of molecular combinations computationally is impressive, but the vast majority of computationally promising candidates still fail when they hit wet-lab validation and clinical trials. NOVA accelerates the earliest and cheapest stage of the pipeline. The expensive, failure-prone stages that follow remain unchanged.
Investors watching this space should track two metrics closely: how many of SN68’s computationally identified candidates advance to wet-lab validation, and whether any traditional biotech companies begin licensing or partnering with Metanova Labs.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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