Lembas Bio and Tel Aviv University Use AI to Design Oral Peptides That Raise GLP-1 Release and Cut Weight in Obese Rats
Researchers at Lembas Bio and Tel Aviv University reported in ACS Nutrition Science on October 6, 2026 an AI-guided design pipeline, built on AlphaFold2 structural modeling, for peptides that act on nutrient-sensing receptors of the gut cells that release the hormone GLP-1. After four rounds of design and screening, lead peptides raised GLP-1 secretion more than 27-fold in a mouse gut cell line, exceeding an optimized small-molecule GLP-1 secretagogue, and 28 days of oral dosing reduced food intake and body weight in diet-induced obese rats, with semaglutide as an active comparator. The authors present the work as a route to nutritional ingredients, and the results so far come from cells and rats.