Generative AI helps Hong Kong’s Insilico Medicine design potential new IBD drug
Using AI, Insilico took only 12 months from initiating the project to nominating the molecule for preclinical trials, instead of several years
Hong Kong-based Insilico Medicine said its generative artificial intelligence (AI) platforms helped it design a molecule that showed promise in a new drug for treating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a sign that AI is becoming increasingly influential in drug discovery.
The AI-developed molecule has demonstrated t he ability to restore intestinal barrier function as well as “favourable safety” in preclinical animal experiments, Insilico Medicine said in a paper published on Wednesday in scientific journal Nature Biotechnology.
Existing drugs for the long-term condition IBD, such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, a re limited a s they present risks including cardiovascular and tumorigenic side effects, according to Insilico’s paper.
Insilico, using its generative chemistry AI platform Chemistry42, was able to assign the new molecule the property of being gut-restricted, meaning that it is able to work only in the gut without getting into the bloodstream, which could reduce adverse effects common in current solutions , according to founder and CEO Alex Zhavoronkov.
“Generative AI allows you to do multi-parameter optimisation by imagining molecules with the properties that you define,” Zhavoronkov said in an interview on Tuesday.
The company also used its generative biologics AI platform, PandaOmics, to identify its IBD therapeutic target, which its new AI-designed molecule would specifically inhibit to achieve therapeutic effect.
