Ex-Amazon Engineer Invests Own Money in AI Drug Discovery Startup

A former Amazon artificial intelligence engineer is betting on himself to reshape the future of drug discovery.

Instead of relying on venture capital funding, Xhuliano Brace has invested a six-figure sum of his own money into Rhizome Research, a Seattle-based startup using AI to design custom small-molecule drugs. Brace says investors were hesitant to back two founders under 30 pursuing what he describes as a “contrarian” approach to AI-powered drug development, prompting him to self-fund the company.

After spending four years working on AI projects at Amazon, Brace left the tech giant to launch Rhizome Research. The startup, founded last year, has now emerged from stealth mode with a five-person team focused on developing next-generation tools for pharmaceutical research.

Building an AI Model From the Ground Up

Unlike many companies that build on existing molecular AI platforms, Rhizome Research created its own proprietary foundation model called r1.

The model is based on a graph neural network architecture and has been trained on more than 800 million small drug-like molecules.

Rather than focusing on proteins, the company’s technology analyzes the atoms and chemical bonds that make up molecules. In a graph neural network, atoms function as nodes while chemical bonds act as the connections between them, allowing the AI to better understand molecular structures and interactions.

This approach differs from the widely known RoseTTAFold model developed by the University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design, which is centered on protein structures built from amino acids.

Creating Drug Candidates Faster

Rhizome aims to simplify fragment-based drug discovery, designing small molecules that bind to specific biological targets requested by customers.

The startup also plans to ensure every AI-generated drug candidate can be synthesized efficiently in laboratories while remaining suitable for patent protection.

As part of its technology rollout, Rhizome recently introduced ADAMS, an open-source AI tool that uses natural language prompts to simulate how biological molecules interact with one another.

The company is also preparing to release MolSim, a proprietary physics-based simulation platform that predicts how strongly a small molecule will bind to its intended target using advanced free-energy calculations. Unlike ADAMS, MolSim will remain closed-source.

Experienced Scientific Leadership

Brace leads Rhizome Research as CEO and brings academic backgrounds in mathematics, computer science, and economics from the University at Albany.

The founding team combines expertise across chemistry, physics, and pharmaceutical research.

Co-founder and Chief Scientist Yiwen Wang holds a PhD in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University.

Chief Technologist Gregory Sinenka earned a PhD in physics and previously worked at a European research center as well as Johnson & Johnson.

The startup also benefits from industry guidance through Scientific Advisor John Proudfoot, formerly a U.S.-based director in the Medicinal Chemistry Department at Boehringer Ingelheim.

Building Seattle Into a Drug Discovery Hub

Rhizome Research has already established partnerships with wet laboratories capable of validating AI-designed drug candidates and is actively exploring commercial customer relationships.

The company currently operates from Foundations, Seattle’s startup community created by entrepreneur and investor Aviel Ginzburg. While some employees work remotely, Brace plans to expand the team in Washington state.

His long-term vision extends beyond building a successful startup.

Brace hopes Seattle can become a global center for small-molecule drug discovery, pointing to organizations such as the Allen Institute and the University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design as key parts of the region’s growing biotechnology ecosystem.

He also highlighted other AI drug discovery startups with connections to the region, including Pauling.AI, Synthesize Bio, and Xaira Therapeutics, which is headquartered in San Francisco while operating laboratories in Seattle.

Betting on the Future of AI

Despite personally investing a substantial amount of his own savings—including proceeds from online trading—Brace says he has no regrets.

He believes artificial intelligence will play an increasingly important role not only in healthcare and pharmaceutical development but also across industries such as advanced manufacturing and materials science.

With its proprietary AI models, scientific expertise, and focus on custom molecule design, Rhizome Research is positioning itself to become part of the next wave of startups transforming drug discovery through artificial intelligence.

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