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Alexander Powers

Also known as Alex Powers, Alexander S Powers, Alexander S. Powers

Alexander Powers works at the intersection of machine learning and drug discovery. He studied Chemical Biology with a Computer Science minor at UC Berkeley, became a 2017 Hertz Fellowship finalist, and coauthored ATOM3D, which received a NeurIPS Datasets and Benchmarks Award in 2021. His research spans fragment-based ligand generation, 3D molecular diffusion and target-aware design; in 2025, he coauthored work on generative drug design and CB1 agonists. As of October 2026, he is cofounder and CTO of Flex Therapeutics, whose platform designs selective small molecules for cryptic protein pockets.

Now at
Flex Therapeutics
Works
73
Badges
Links
LinkedIn

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026. Citations and h-index are hidden because this OpenAlex record may be incomplete or mix in other authors.

Timeline

  1. 2015

    Chemical biology at Berkeley

    In fall 2015, UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry includes him on its Dean’s Honor List for a term GPA of at least 3.900. He studies Chemical Biology with a minor in Computer Science at Berkeley.

  2. 2017

    A Hertz Fellowship finalist

    The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation names Alexander Powers among the finalists for its PhD fellowship in Chemistry in 2017 and lists UC Berkeley as his school.

  3. 2021

    ATOM3D earns a NeurIPS award

    He coauthors ATOM3D, a collection of benchmark datasets for tasks on molecules in three dimensions. In 2021, the paper receives a NeurIPS Datasets and Benchmarks Award.

  4. 2022

    Fragment-based ligand generation

    In 2022, he coauthors a method for fragment-based ligand generation. It expands a protein-bound fragment into a larger molecule with E(3)-equivariant networks and a 3D point-cloud representation.

  5. 2023

    GeoLDM and structure-guided drug design

    In 2023, he coauthors GeoLDM, a latent diffusion model for generating 3D molecular geometries. In October 2023, he presents machine-learning methods for structure-guided drug design at a Stanford Chemistry thesis defense.

  6. 2024

    Target-aware molecule diffusion

    In 2024, he coauthors AliDiff, which uses preference optimization to steer target-aware molecule diffusion models toward higher binding affinity and structural rationality.

  7. 2025

    MedSAGE and a CB1 study

    In May 2025, he coauthors MedSAGE, a paper on generative AI and medicinal chemistry for structure-based small-molecule design. A 2025 Nature study he coauthors describes peripherally restricted CB1 agonists designed to minimize arrestin recruitment.

  8. As of October 2026

    CTO at Flex Therapeutics

    He is CTO and cofounder of Flex Therapeutics, whose platform designs selective small molecules for cryptic pockets and specific protein states.

Career

  1. NowFlex TherapeuticsCofounder, CTO

Education

  1. From 2015University of California, Berkeley

From the biography.

  1. 20% of people at companies who shape AI also hold a university role, led by Google and Stanford UniversityIncludes Stanford University. We estimate that 539 of the 6,766 people with a known current organization (8%) hold both a university role and a company role, including 20% of people at companies and 13% of people at universities.
  2. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Includes Stanford University. Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI each year from 1955 to 2025, tracing the shift from university labs to companies.
  3. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Stanford University. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Stanford University. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.

Sources and credits

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  1. Dean's Honor List Fall 2015 | College of Chemistry chemistry.berkeley.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Alex Powers | Emergence emergence.stanford.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. 40 Finalists Named for the 2017 Hertz Fellowships hertzfoundation.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. NeurIPS 2021 Awards neurips.cc. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. ATOM3D: Tasks on Molecules in Three Dimensions datasets-benchmarks-proceedings.neurips.cc. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Fragment-Based Ligand Generation Guided by Geometric Deep Learning on Protein-Ligand Structures mlanthology.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. Geometric Latent Diffusion Models for 3D Molecule Generation proceedings.mlr.press. Checked 20 October 2026.
  8. Thesis Defense: Alexander Powers, Dror Group chemistry.stanford.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  9. Aligning Target-Aware Molecule Diffusion Models with Exact Energy Optimization arxiv.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  10. Rohan Koodli koodli.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  11. A cryptic pocket in CB1 drives peripheral and functional selectivity nature.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  12. Flex Tx | Team flextherapeutics.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  13. Student Accelerator | Emergence emergence.stanford.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.