A new British startup believes that artificial intelligence is the key to speedrunning the slow and temperamental process of drug design.
\n\nPotential Sciences plans to build large-scale chemical datasets by using basic principles of physics to simulate interactions between atoms, then small molecules, then complex amino acids and proteins. With that data, it’s betting it can train AI models and prediction systems capable of identifying highly targeted drugs for specific diseases, bypassing costly and time-consuming lab experimentation.
\n\n“We want molecules that are never going to work in the clinic to fail fast,” Hatem Helal, Potential Science’s founder and CEO, tells WIRED. “That means having better predictors of how they will behave as they interact with human biology.”
\n\nThe startup, which launched on November 5, says it has seed funding in the tens of millions of dollars from SovAI—the UK government’s AI venture capital fund—and Twin Path Ventures, among other investors. The founders declined to disclose the precise figure or valuation.
\n\nIf things pan out as Potential Sciences hopes, it could pave the way for the accelerated development of new treatments for all sorts of diseases. By reducing the cost of experimentation, Helal says, the company’s approach could also make it…
Original source: https://www.wired.com/