Artificial Intelligent technology is expanding its uses every day. Quadrant Health speaks to a newly developed company to find out how they’re using Ai for drug discovery.
Isomorphic Labs, a company founded by Alphabet, is on a mission to reimagine the drug discovery process through an AI-first approach.
Based in London, the new company will build a “computational programme to understand biological systems from first principles”, in order to discover new ways to treat diseases.
It forms off work started by DeepMind, another company by Alphabet, which uses artificial intelligence to predict the structure of protein.
The unique approach by Isomorphic Labs will “reimagine the entire drug discovery process from the ground up, by making step-change improvements leveraging machine learning methods”, a spokesperson from Isomorphic Labs told Quadrant Health.
Ai is pathing the way for innovation in healthcare
The use of complex algorithms designed to perform certain tasks is not just limited to drug discovery. Major innovations have been created over the past year alone for Ai in healthcare.
Earlier this year, the Department for Health and Social Care announced a £36 million boost for Ai technologies in a bid to revolutionise NHS care.
Thirty-eight new pioneering Ai projects were announced as part of the funding, including new technologies to help detect cancers and provide mental health support.
Former Health and Social Care Secretary, Matt Hancock said: “AI has the potential to completely revolutionise every part of how we approach healthcare, from how we diagnose diseases and the speed at which our doctors and nurses deliver treatments to how we support people’s mental health.
The 38 projects we are backing reflect the UK’s trailblazing approach to innovation in the healthcare sector and could help us take a leap forward in the quality of care and the speed of disease diagnoses and treatment in the NHS.
“Confronted with this global pandemic, our tech sector has risen to the challenge and upended how we do things through innovations to support people to test from home, complete remote consultations and diagnose issues safely.”
Over 42,000 patients have already benefitted from new Ai technology
The 38 projects form part of the NHS AI Lab’s £140 million AI in Health and Care Award. In September 2020, £50 million was given to 42 Ai technologies as part of the award.
This enabled ground-breaking Ai technology to benefit over 17,000 stroke patients and over 25,000 patients with diabetes or high blood pressure.
Matt Whitty, Chief Executive, Accelerated Access Collaborative and Innovation, Research and Life Sciences Director for NHS England and NHS Improvement, told Quadrant Health: “The announcement of the Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award winners demonstrates our backing for a broad range of innovations, including those to improve cancer care and support for our first mental health project.
The NHS has the tools in place to become a world leader in testing and deploying new AI technologies that can improve patients’ lives and showcase the breadth of talent and ingenuity present throughout the UK across academia, industry and the NHS.”
The AI in Health and Care Award aims to accelerate the testing and evaluation of AI in the NHS so patients can benefit from faster and more personalised diagnosis and greater efficiency in screening services.