RE: Insilico HUGE breakthrough!26 Feb 2021 22:49
Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, said: “Can AI design a novel molecule for a novel target that has no known inhibitors and has not been validated in a disease? And now we have successfully linked both biology and chemistry and nominated the preclinical candidate for a novel target, with the intention of taking it into human clinical trials, which is orders of magnitude more complex and more risky problem to solve.
Insilico
ISM001: Progress at a GlanceFibrosis Target ID, Compound Generation and Validation in <18 months. Source: Insilico Medicine
To my knowledge this is the first case where AI identified a novel target and designed a preclinical candidate for a very broad disease indication. It is a major milestone for us as our ultimate moonshot is to go after senescence and we need to have many enabling AI technologies that help us understand and manipulate human biology in other chronic diseases.”
Insilico
Potent target inhibition of ISM018_055. Source: Insilico Medicine
The company also announced the formation of a team of over 20 expert drug hunters and drug developers in Shanghai led by Dr Feng Ren, former senior VP of biology and chemistry at Medicilon, and former head of chemistry at GSK, who joined Insilico in February as chief science officer. This team will be responsible for taking the AI-discovered drugs into human clinical trials and creating a broad portfolio of preclinical assets.