Terms of Service

What this service is

Axon NeuroAutomata is a protein analysis tool for researchers. You submit protein sequences, and we run them through ESM-2 (a protein language model built by Meta AI) on cloud GPU infrastructure to generate embeddings, mutation scores, dimensionality reduction plots, and 3D structure predictions.

This is a research tool. It produces computational predictions, not experimental results. It is not a medical device. Don't use it to make clinical decisions about patients.

Your sequences, your data

Your protein sequences belong to you. Your results belong to you.

We don't claim ownership of anything you submit or any outputs we generate from it. We don't use your sequences to train AI models — not ESM-2, not anything else. We process your data to give you results, and then it's deleted. That's the entire transaction.

Output licensing notes:

• Structure predictions are generated by Axon's local GPU inference using the ESMFold model — cite appropriately in publications (Lin et al., Science 2023).
• PDB structures from RCSB are public domain (CC0).
• ESM-2 is licensed under MIT. Using it through our platform doesn't give you rights to the model weights themselves.

What you can use it for

• Scientific research
• Academic study
• Bioinformatics analysis
• Drug discovery research
• Educational purposes
• Personal learning

What you can't use it for

• Clinical diagnosis or treatment of patients. This is not a medical device.
• Submitting protected health information (PHI) of identifiable patients without complying with HIPAA or equivalent regulations. We are not HIPAA-compliant and do not offer a Business Associate Agreement.
• Bioweapons research. Submitting sequences for the purpose of creating pathogens or biological agents of concern.
• Scraping or bulk downloading beyond normal use of the platform.
• Reselling or redistributing the service or its outputs commercially without a written agreement.
• Circumventing rate limits or tier restrictions.
• Reverse engineering the platform.
• Any activity that violates applicable law.

Violations may result in immediate account termination without refund.

Billing

• Free tier: Embeddings, visualization, single-site mutation scoring. Concurrent job limit: 3.
• Pro tier: Everything in Free, plus mutation landscape scanning and 3D structure prediction. Concurrent job limit: 10. Pricing is managed in the Clerk Dashboard.
• Billing is handled by Clerk. Stripe processes payments as Clerk's payment sub-processor. We never see your credit card number.
• Subscriptions auto-renew. You can cancel anytime through your account settings — cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period.
• We may change pricing with 30 days' notice to existing subscribers.

Accuracy and warranties

We're going to be straight with you: this is a research tool that makes predictions based on statistical patterns in training data. ESM-2 mutation scores are not experimental measurements. ESMFold structure predictions are computational models. Both can be wrong.

We provide the service "as is." We don't warrant that predictions are accurate, that the service will be available 100% of the time, or that the GPU won't occasionally be busy.

If you're making important research decisions, validate our outputs experimentally. That's just good science regardless of the tool.

If something goes wrong

Our total liability to you is capped at the greater of: (a) what you paid us in the last 12 months, or (b) $100. We're not liable for indirect or consequential damages.

If you're in the EU/EEA, statutory consumer protections apply and cannot be waived.

Research ethics

If you're processing human-derived protein sequences, it's your responsibility to:

• Have appropriate IRB/ethics review
• Have participant consent
• Comply with your institution's data handling requirements

We're a computational tool provider. We don't review the ethical compliance of what you submit.

If you publish research using Axon, please cite:

• ESM-2: Lin et al., "Language models of protein sequences at the scale of evolution enable accurate structure prediction," bioRxiv (2022)
• ESMFold: Lin et al., "Evolutionary-scale prediction of atomic-level protein structure with a language model," Science 379 (2023)

Third-party services

The platform relies on several third-party services: Clerk (auth/billing), Stripe (payments via Clerk), PostHog (analytics), Logfire (tracing), Modal (serverless GPU inference), DigitalOcean (cloud hosting), GCP (reverse proxy), and RCSB PDB (structure data). Each has its own terms. Structure prediction runs on Axon's own GPU infrastructure.

Account termination

By you: Cancel anytime. Paid subscriptions end at the close of the billing period.

By us: We may suspend or terminate your account for: violating these terms, non-payment, legal obligations, or if we discontinue the service. For non-urgent reasons, we'll give you 30 days' notice.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Disputes are resolved through binding arbitration, with a 30-day informal resolution period first.

EU/EEA exception: EU consumers retain the right to bring claims in their local courts and use the EU Online Dispute Resolution platform. The arbitration clause does not apply to you.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. Material changes get 30 days' email notice. If you disagree, you can close your account.