Dsm-firmenich partners with Boltz to apply AI to fragrance discovery
The Swiss nutrition, health and beauty group has entered into a partnership with Boltz PBC, a start-up founded by former MIT scientists, in order to integrate artificial intelligence models into its process for discovering fragrance and flavor molecules.
A partnership focused on the design of sensory molecules
Dsm-firmenich announced on September 14, 2026 a partnership with Boltz PBC, a company specializing in AI models for biomolecular modeling. The agreement provides for the use of Boltz's proprietary foundation models in the group's ingredient discovery process, intended for the development of scent and flavor molecules.
According to the press release, these models will be combined with Dsm-firmenich's data library on taste and smell receptors. The stated objective is the prediction and design of molecular structures, as well as the study of interactions between molecules and receptor proteins.
Access to the Boltz platform and collaboration between teams
As part of the partnership, Dsm-firmenich teams will have full access to the Boltz platform, including the Boltz Lab interface, the Boltz API and integration with agents based on language models enabling the steering of design and prediction processes in natural language.
The press release specifies that Boltz researchers will work directly alongside Dsm-firmenich teams. The agreement should result in a set of exclusive models incorporating the group's expertise in sensory sciences.
AI at the heart of the group's discovery strategy since 2020
Sarah Reisinger, Chief Science & Research Officer of Dsm-firmenich, recalled that the group had launched in 2020 the first AI-created flavor. Gabriele Corso, co-founder and chief executive officer of Boltz, indicated that biomolecular interaction and design models could be applied beyond the pharmaceutical sector, notably to smell and taste receptors.
