The Life Sciences Department at the Arabian Gulf University (AGU) has recently participated in conducting a scientific study on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for drug discovery, with the participation of 257 academic laboratories from 30 countries around the world. The study was published by the Nature Scientific Reports journal.
The study was supervised by Dr Noureddine Ben Khalaf, Vice Dean for Scientific Research and Innovation, and Prof. Mohamed Dahmani Fatallah, Professor of Molecular Technology, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in the Life Sciences Department. The results of the study were published by Atomwise, a company specialising in drug discovery with AI. The study showed remarkable success in identifying candidate therapeutic drugs for over 300 drug targets using Atomwise’s AI platform; AtomNet.
The researchers stated that AI provides a viable alternative to high-throughput screening, which could bring a prominent shift in drug discovery. The Life Sciences Department at AGU used this technology to analyse potential inhibitors of protein disulfide isomerase, a drug target in diseases like inflammation and cancer. They were able to identify a highly effective molecule in a short period of time using AI, showing potential as a drug molecule for these diseases.
