The South Korean spatial biology company unveils new AI agents, foundation models, and spatial biomarkers for oncology drug discovery.

SEOUL, South Korea, April 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Portrai, Inc. today announced it will present 11 posters highlighting its artificial intelligence and spatial transcriptomics capabilities at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2026. The presentations will detail Portrai's latest computational frameworks and biological findings, designed to decode the tumor microenvironment (TME) and accelerate oncology drug development.

The research presented demonstrates the company's scalable approach to analyzing spatial transcriptomics, addressing the computationally intensive challenges of integrating massive sample collections and overcoming batch effects. Portrai's new technologies include a transcript-only framework for high-resolution pseudocell boundary inference, and CELLama-Perturb, a virtual cell modeling approach for mapping drug sensitivity across spatial tumor heterogeneity. Additionally, the company will showcase an ontology-guided hierarchical cell typing system powered by large language models.

A central highlight of the presentations is PortrAIgent, a novel co-scientist AI agent built for end-to-end spatial transcriptomics discovery. The AI system autonomously manages complex analysis workflows—from missing data imputation and preprocessing to pathway activity scoring and report generation—without requiring manual intervention. Testing confirms that PortrAIgent reliably lowers the expertise barrier needed to translate high-resolution data into testable biological hypotheses.

Portrai will also share translational clinical findings, including a study revealing the core resistance niches that distinguish non-major pathological response (non-MPR) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients following neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy. The spatial data maps intrinsic repair mechanisms to specific TME regions, providing a rationale for emerging combination strategies such as TROP2-directed antibody-drug conjugate(ADC) therapies.

"These 11 presentations reflect our commitment to bridging the gap between high-resolution spatial data and actionable clinical insights," said Hongyoon Choi, MD, PhD, co-founder and CTO at Portrai. "By automating complex spatial analyses and building robust foundation models, we are providing the tools necessary to understand tumor resistance and accelerate the discovery of novel precision targets."

Portrai's abstracts and poster presentations will be available for viewing throughout the AACR 2026 conference.

About Portrai, Inc.

Portrai, Inc. is a spatial biology and artificial intelligence company based in Seoul, Republic of Korea. The company integrates real-world data with high-resolution subcellular spatial metrics to build predictive models and identify first-in-class targets for drug discovery. Portrai's proprietary platforms leverage massive digitized spatial databases to drive internal pipeline development, including candidates targeting pan-adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.

www.portrai.io

Forward-Looking Statements

 This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding Portrai's future business plans, research and development activities, and the potential of its AI platforms and spatial biology technologies for oncology drug discovery. These statements are based on management's current expectations and assumptions, and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the inherent uncertainties associated with scientific research, drug discovery and development, the clinical validation of computational models, and the evolving regulatory environment. Portrai undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/portrai-to-present-11-posters-on-ai-driven-spatial-transcriptomics-at-aacr-2026-302736890.html

SOURCE Portrai, Inc.