The impact that advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence pose in various sectors, particularly the healthcare sector are undeniable. In fact, the AI promises to expedite the drug development process as well as assist in the diagnosis of illnesses.
Recently, A2A Pharmaceuticals and Insilico Medicine unveiled Consortium.AI, which is a new venture created with the aim of applying developments in artificial intelligence(AI) to advanced drug discovery in a bid to treat rare degenerative conditions such as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy(DMD).
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is an unusual muscular condition that affects children and leads to immobility or loss of their ability to walk. Aside from being rapidly progressive, it has an average life expectancy of approximately 20 years.
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy results from genetic mutations on X chromosome, which regulates the generation of dystrophin, a protein that is said to play an essential role in maintaining muscle cell membranes. As such, the news regarding the launch of Consortium. AI marks a sigh of relief for patients suffering from this disease as well as other similar rare degenerative conditions.
Through Consortium.AI, both A2A Pharmaceuticals and Insilico Medicine will work together to create therapeutic treatments for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy among other critical genetic conditions. What’s more, the companies will then leverage the power of machine learning in validating the most promising candidates.
Insilico Medicine, a Baltimore-based company, is behind the pioneering the utilization of generative adversarial networks (GANs) in molecular structure building for conditions with a known ligand or a complex biomolecule but no target. GANs are a group of algorithms that are suitable for unsupervised learning.
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Insilico Medicine ’s team made up of over 50 researchers is actively creating drug discovery programs in various conditions such as aging, sarcopenia, diabetes, ALS, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson ’s fibrosis, cancer and dermatological diseases.
Dr. Elena Diez Cecilia, A2A Pharmaceuticals’ head of business product development, said that the company is pleased to collaborate with Insilico Medicine, particularly combining their complementary technologies and strengths to expedite the advancement of improved therapeutics into the clinic for those patients that require them.
She also added that Muscular Dystrophy is both a terminal and debilitating degenerative illness that can result in the inflammation of muscle as well as wasting. For this reason, Dr. Elena called for increased effective therapies.
In a similar effort, A2A Pharmaceuticals, which is situated in New-York, utilizes computational tools in designing therapies intended for disease targets that are difficult to treat including protein-protein interactions.
Alex Zhavoronkov, the founder and chief executive officer of Insilico Medicine, asserted that A2A Pharmaceuticals boasts a team of highly talented drug hunters who have a stellar track record as far as discovery, development and licensing of its drug candidates are concerned.
For this reason, he expressed his company’s excitement in partnering with A2A Pharmaceuticals’ team in addressing the unsatisfied medical requirements of patients who are desperately looking forward to getting solutions. Aside from all that, Alex Zhavoronkov finalized his statement by saying Consortium.AI nothing short of an amazing application for artificial intelligence (AI).
Source VentureBeat
