Japanese AI company Elix and the University of Vienna have entered a joint research agreement to advance drug discovery using AI technologies.
“We are thrilled to partner with Elix to bridge the gap between advanced structural biology and artificial intelligence. My laboratory has always been driven by the desire to push the boundaries of what NMR can achieve in drug discovery,” said associate professor and research group leader Julien Orts at the University of Vienna.
Traditional drug discovery methods require time and money to identify promising compounds from many candidates. These methods also face low success rates.
The use of AI in molecular design and property prediction is helping researchers. AI can help to more accurately design drug candidates and narrow down synthesis and evaluation targets. This accelerates overall development and reduces costs.
The research group specialises in pioneering NMR spectroscopy techniques to decode the atomic-resolution structures, dynamics and interactions of biomacromolecules.
The lab’s primary focus involves studying protein conformational switches and allostery in signalling, utilising methodologies they developed such as INPHARMA for validating small-molecule binding modes and NMR² for the automated determination of protein-ligand structures.
In collaboration, Elix will offer its experience in chemoinformatics-based approaches and AI-driven molecular generation.
“By combining our ability to resolve protein dynamics at atomic precision with Elix’s sophisticated AI-driven generation, we can move beyond static structures and begin to target the complex, transient behaviours of proteins that were once considered out of reach,” said Orts.
By combining expertise, the aim is to target previously undruggable targets. The lab is specifically focusing on intrinsically disordered proteins and proteins implicated in epigenetic signalling and cancer.
