What Accelero Biostructures does

Accelero Biostructures is a private contract research organization (CRO) founded in 2015 and based in the San Francisco Bay Area that provides structure-based drug discovery and structural biology services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The company is built around high-throughput protein X-ray crystallography, leveraging synchrotron-based data collection infrastructure at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and methodologies developed over more than 15 years within the Joint Center for Structural Genomics (JCSG) consortium. Its commercial offerings are organized around two proprietary platforms: ABS-Services℠, a unified gene-to-structure pipeline covering crystal screening, data collection, structure determination, refinement, SAXS, and analysis; and ABS-OneStep℠, a next-generation fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) platform developed with NIH SBIR funding that resolves weak-affinity bottlenecks in conventional FBDD workflows by enabling single-step determination of fragment hits and their 3D binding-site structures.

The company's revenue model is professional services fee-for-service, with contracts negotiated directly through business development outreach and priced based on project scope. Its customer base is horizontally segmented across established and emerging pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology firms, and academic research institutions, with use cases spanning structure-based drug discovery, fragment-based screening, biologics characterization, and co-crystal structure determination. The company has produced more than 1,500 novel protein structures and over 300 peer-reviewed publications across its founders' careers, including work published in Nature, PNAS, JBC, and J Struct Biol. To date, the company has funded operations through NIH SBIR Phase I (September 2016) and Phase II (May 2019) non-dilutive grants, supplemented by service revenue, with no institutional venture capital identified in available sources.

Name

Accelero Biostructures

Legal name

Accelero Biostructures, Inc.

Website

https://accelerobio.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Accelero Biostructures is a San Francisco Bay Area CRO that provides protein X-ray crystallography-driven structure-based and fragment-based drug discovery services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients through its ABS-Services℠ and ABS-OneStep℠ platforms.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Structural Biology Contract Research Services

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714)

SIC

Laboratory Analytical Instruments (3826)

akta.pro primary industry

Material Characterization & Spectroscopy (NMR/FTIR/MS) (HLAGADAK)

Keywords

• Structural biology services
• Protein crystallography
• Structure-based drug discovery
• Fragment-based drug discovery
• Contract research services

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Contract Research Services: Accelero Biostructures generates revenue by providing fee-for-service protein crystallography and structural biology research services to pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology firms, and academic institutions. Services include gene-to-structure determination, fragment-based drug discovery, co-crystal structure analysis, and custom structural biology projects on a contract basis.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Accelero Biostructures provides contract protein X-ray crystallography and structural biology services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, anchored by two proprietary platforms: ABS-Services℠, a unified gene-to-structure pipeline offering high-throughput, high-quality, high-reliability structure determination, and ABS-OneStep℠, a next-generation fragment-based drug discovery platform that identifies fragment binding hits and 3D binding site structures in a single step. The company resolves bottlenecks across the entire gene-to-structure workflow, including crystal screening, X-ray data collection and processing, structure determination, refinement, analysis, SAXS, and co-crystal structure work for traditional and previously non-druggable targets.

Product overview

Accelero Biostructures offers a dual-platform portfolio centered on protein X-ray crystallography-driven drug discovery and structural biology. The core offering consists of ABS-Services℠, a comprehensive gene-to-structure protein crystallography pipeline providing high-throughput structure determination services for pharmaceutical and biotech clients; and ABS-OneStep℠, a next-generation fragment-based drug discovery platform that resolves bottlenecks in conventional FBDD approaches by enabling single-step determination of fragment binding hits and 3D binding site structures. Both platforms leverage synchrotron-based X-ray data collection and are designed to accelerate structure-based drug discovery for traditional and previously non-druggable targets.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• ABS-Services℠ ABS-Services℠ is a unified pipeline of gene-to-structure protein X-ray crystallography solutions for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, delivering high throughput, high quality, and high reliability structure determination. It supports structure-based drug discovery (SBDD) and protein engineering through crystal screening, X-ray data collection and processing, structure determination, refinement, analysis, SAXS, and complete gene-to-structure workflows, including co-crystal structures of protein-small molecule, protein-DNA/RNA, and protein-protein complexes.
• ABS-OneStep℠ ABS-OneStep℠ is a next-generation fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) platform that uses protein X-ray crystallography to provide an extremely sensitive and efficient single-step approach for determining fragment binding hits to orthosteric and allosteric sites and elucidating their 3D binding site structures. It resolves key bottlenecks in conventional FBDD approaches, including weak affinities for fragment binding, and is designed to expand FBDD to traditional and previously non-druggable targets.

Quantifiable outcome

• SBDD overall has led to ~250 drugs in the market
• +2 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• SARomics BiostructurescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 2 April 2026Strategic collaboration announced April 2026 to expand structural biology and drug discovery services. Leverages operations in the United States and Sweden to enhance workflow efficiency and broaden service reach for biopharma and biotech clients worldwide.
• FinsnobiocoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 July 2021Partnership for X-ray crystallography drug discovery services announced July 2021. Finsnobio is a Swedish biotech company focused on fragment-based drug discovery using X-ray crystallography.
• XPose TherapeuticscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 December 2020Joint research collaboration announced December 2020 for the discovery and development of novel cancer therapies. Combines XPose Therapeutics' expertise with Accelero Biostructures' structural biology capabilities.
• Mid-Atlantic BioTherapeuticsminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 July 2020Partnership to develop pan-coronavirus inhibitors. The research was supported by NIH funding, demonstrating scientific merit recognized through competitive grant award.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Schrödinger: Computational chemistry and structure-based drug discovery platform serving pharma and biotech. Overlaps with Accelero in SBDD enablement but operates as a broader software-plus-services platform with significantly larger scale and product economics.
• Evotec: Large global CRO offering a broad portfolio including structural biology, fragment-based discovery, and integrated drug discovery services. Competes with Accelero on the structural biology/FBDD service line but as part of a much wider contract research offering.
• WuXi AppTec: Large Chinese-headquartered CRO/CDMO with extensive drug discovery services including structural biology. Competes on breadth and scale rather than specialist crystallography depth, but overlaps on target customers and project types.
• Charles River Laboratories: Major global CRO with discovery and safety assessment services. Overlaps with Accelero in early-stage drug discovery support for pharma clients but does not specialize in protein crystallography to the same degree.

Direct peers

• Proteros: Germany-based structural biology CRO specializing in protein X-ray crystallography, fragment-based screening, and structure-based drug discovery. Direct competitor offering the same core service (gene-to-structure, co-crystallography) to the same pharma/biotech customer base.
• ZoBio: Dutch structural biology CRO focused on protein crystallography and fragment-based lead discovery using X-ray and biophysical methods. Closely comparable service offering, delivery model, and target customer profile to Accelero.
• Astex Pharmaceuticals: Pioneer in fragment-based drug discovery using X-ray crystallography (now part of Taiho Pharmaceutical). Overlaps with Accelero's ABS-OneStep FBDD platform on technology and target client base, though Astex retains internal programs rather than being a pure CRO.
• SARomics Biostructures: Sweden-based structural biology CRO offering protein crystallography and structure-based drug discovery services to pharma and biotech. Accelero's April 2026 strategic collaboration partner and the closest functional peer — overlapping service portfolio, target customer base, and technology stack.
• Crelux: German structural biology CRO (part of the Ferring group) offering gene-to-structure, protein crystallography, and fragment screening services. Direct functional peer competing for the same pharma outsourcing budget.
• Vernalis: UK-based fragment-based drug discovery company (now part of HitGen) using structure-based approaches including X-ray crystallography. Comparable technology overlap in FBDD and structure-based design serving pharma collaborators.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/AcceleroB
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/accelero-biostructures

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Accelero Biostructures