Molecular World Models: Understanding, Simulating, and Designing Biomolecules Across Modalities

Caltech World Model Club × Caltech C Seminar Series: Molecular World Models: Understanding, Simulating, and Designing Biomolecules Across Modalities

We are excited to welcome Odin Zhang, founder of Valhalla Technology, for the next talk in our joint seminar series! His startup has raised nearly $50 million in funding. He previously trained under 2024 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Prof. David Baker and developed ODesign and other frontier AI models for molecular science. His team is now pioneering all-modality molecular world models.

RSVP if you'd like to learn how world models are transforming science, or if you're just curious. Open to the LA community!

Event Details

Speaker: Odin Zhang, Founder and CEO of Valhalla Technology (joining remotely)Date: Friday, November 6, 2026Time: 5:30–6:30 PMLocation: Chen 100, Caltech (🍕 free food provided)

Abstract

Biological systems are composed of diverse molecular modalities, yet most molecular AI models remain specialized for individual molecule types or tasks. In this talk, I will introduce our efforts toward molecular world models that provide a unified framework for understanding, simulating, and designing molecular systems across modalities. I will present our recent progress in all-atom molecular modeling and design, spanning antibodies, cyclic peptides, nucleic acids, small molecules, and their interactions. Together, these studies explore how shared representations and physical principles can enable generalizable molecular modeling beyond modality-specific approaches.