AI Finds and Validated a New Drug in Just 46 Days 15x Faster Than Normal

Researchers have developed a new AI system which was able to discover and then successfully test several new compounds within 46 days. Insilico Medicine which is developing artificial intelligence for drug discovery has published a paper describing how its AI system designed six novel inhibitors (or promising treatments) of DDR1, a kinase target implicated in fibrosis and other diseases, in 21 days. Insilico Medicine conducted the study using their Generative Tensorial Reinforcement Learning (GENTRL) AI. Four of the compounds were found to be active in biochemical assays and two were validated in cell-based assays. One lead candidate was tested and demonstrated favourable results in mice. After the design stage, GENTRL was able to synthesise and pre-clinically validate the drug in 25 days, meaning the whole process took just 46 days. According to the research team, the method is 15 times faster than a typical pharma company’s efficient R&D process. Although this research looks promising to identify drugs candidates it is still very much a proof of concept.