Insilico Medicine announces its first nominating preclinical candidate discovered by AI
Insilico Medicine announced today (26 February 2021) that AI-generated novel molecule for a novel target discovered with AI drug discovery platform reached preclinical candidate stage in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), a major breakthrough since the company was set up in Hong Kong 2014.
Founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, Dr Alex Zhavoronkov
To nominate a preclinical candidate, Insilico Medicine started with a set of 20 completely novel targets discovered by AI for fibrosis and narrowed down the target to specifically address IPF. Subsequently, Insilico generated a set of novel compounds to selectively inhibit the novel target. From the target hypothesis to preclinical candidate selection, Insilico achieved target identification, molecule generation, and validation through traditional laboratory experiments in less than 18 months.
Founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, Dr Alex Zhavoronkov, said, “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.”
He added, “In 2016, we demonstrated that a deep learning system can identify a novel biological target from omics data with experimental validation. From 2017 and 2019, we consistently demonstrated that generative AI can invent and design novel molecules that work in human cells and animals. 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.”
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.
Associate Director-General of Investment Promotion, Mr Charles Ng, lauded the milestone of Insilico, “We are very delighted to see Insilico led by Dr Alex Zhavoronkov has achieved a new breakthrough in AI drug discovery. This is also an important milestone for Hong Kong innovation and technology development, a showcase that affirms Hong Kong’s status as a viable and competitive biotech hub.”
About Insilico Medicine
Established in 2014, Insilico Medicine develops software that leverages generative models, reinforcement learning (RL), and other modern machine learning techniques for the generation of new molecular structures with specific properties. Insilico Medicine also develops software for the generation of synthetic biological data, target identification, and the prediction of clinical trial outcomes. The company integrates two business models; providing AI-powered drug discovery services and software through its Pharma.AI platform (www.insilico.com/platform/) and developing its own pipeline of preclinical programs. For more information, please visit insilico.com.
About InvestHK
Invest Hong Kong is the department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government responsible for attracting foreign direct investment and supporting overseas and Mainland businesses to set up or expand in Hong Kong. It provides free advice and customised services for overseas and Mainland companies. For more information, please visit www.investhk.gov.hk.
For a photo, please visit www.flickr.com/photos/investhk/albums/72157718435543361.
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