A Draper-led team is one of the performers selected by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health under its Computational ADME-Tox and Physiology Analysis for Safer Therapeutics, or CATALYST program, which aims to use human-based artificial intelligence models to predict drug safety and effectiveness earlier in the development process.
ARPA-H announced the performer teams on Thursday as part of an effort to reduce reliance on animal testing and accelerate timelines for bringing new therapies to patients.
ARPA-H’s CATALYST program reflects a major shift toward AI-driven drug safety evaluation. Join top federal and industry leaders shaping that future at the 2025 Healthcare Summit on Feb. 12, 2026.
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What Work Will Draper’s Team Perform Under CATALYST?
Draper said in a LinkedIn post that the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory will collaborate with Revalia Bio, researchers at Yale University and LifeShare Network to develop a human data stack that integrates multiple real-world biological data types. ARPA-H stated that the goal is to enhance understanding of how various patient groups may respond to investigational medicines before the initiation of clinical trials.
How Might CATALYST Change Drug Development?
ARPA-H stated that CATALYST will develop new computational models for predicting drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and potential toxicities. By engaging regulators and product sponsors at the outset, the program aims to facilitate the early adoption of these models in preclinical decision-making and regulatory filings.
“Too many promising medicines fail late, after years of work and enormous cost, because our best tools still don’t reliably predict how a drug will behave in people,” said Alicia Jackson, ARPA-H director.
The program also aims to advance government efforts to develop predictive approaches that better account for populations often excluded from clinical research, including children and pregnant individuals.
CATALYST will award up to $125 million over a period of four and a half years. ARPA-H said performer contract awards vary by team and are tied to accelerated technical milestones. Awards were made in September.
Other selected performer teams include Deep Origin, Inductive Bio and Peptilogics.
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