AI drug discovery get investment boost
24 Oct 2018 by Evoluted New Media
The use of Artificial Intelligence in drug discovery has attracted an investment from Innovate UK.
Software company Optibrium, AI company Intellegens, and Medicines Discovery Catapult have secured a grant from Innovate UK to fund a £1 million project to harness the power of AI to learn from complex data and guide scientists in the design and testing of potential new drugs.
Matthew Segall, Chief Executive Officer of Optibrium, said: “We will apply cutting edge deep learning methods and new data to address important challenges in drug optimisation. The funding from Innovate UK is important validation of our project team’s expertise and the impact it will have on the industry’s efficiency and productivity.”
The aim is to harness the power of AI to learn from complex data and guide scientists in the design and testing of potential new drugs. Drug discovery generates a huge quantity of complex biological, chemical, clinical and safety information that needs to be collected, analysed and presented in a way that it can be best used to make evidence-based decisions.
The research partners are seeking a means of providing better insights into how a drug interacts with the body, improving the efficiency and productivity of drug discovery. The project will use novel deep learning methods to create a next generation platform that will better predict the absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity (ADMET) of new drug candidates.
