Google Cloud introduces AI tools to accelerate the drug development process

The way drugs are developed is being rewritten. Discovering and approving new drugs is a lengthy process that requires years of development and a dismal success rate, but artificial intelligence (AI) could speed up the process significantly.

On May 15, Google Cloud launched two new AI-powered tools designed to help biotech and pharmaceutical companies accelerate drug discovery and advance medicine: Target and Lead Identification Suite and Multiomics Suite.

According to a study published in the March 2021 issue of the British Journal of Pharmacology, it currently takes 12 to 15 years to develop a new drug from idea to launch as a finished product and can cost over $1 billion. Additionally, identifying a biological target needed for a viable drug can take up to 12 months, according to the NIH, National Center for Biotechnology Information.

The tools could help replace traditional ones: X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), two main processes that determine the 3D structures of proteins, the biological target that is needed for the first step in drug development but has a high error rate.

This was announced at the May 16-18 Bio-IT World Conference at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts, an event that will showcase “the technologies and analytical approaches that are solving problems, accelerating science and the future of precision medicine advance”. The event featured speakers from Pfizer Inc., Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Harvard Medical School.

The future of scientific drug research is here.

We announce the launch of our two newest drug discovery acceleration solutions to bring therapeutics to market faster: Target and Lead Identification Suite and Multiomics Suite.

Learn more ↓ https://t.co/6hJW1albal

— Google Cloud (@googlecloud) May 16, 2023

CNBC reports that the Target and Lead Identification Suite is designed to help biotech and pharmaceutical companies predict and understand the structure of proteins that happen to be a fundamental part of drug development. It allows scientists to share and manage molecular data on a protein using Google Cloud’s Analytics Hub to exchange data securely.

Researchers then use data to predict the structure of a protein using AlphaFold2, a machine learning model developed by Google subsidiary. AlphaFold2 runs on Google’s Vertex AI, a platform that enables researchers to build and deploy machine learning models faster.

Within “minutes” AlphaFold2 can predict the 3D structure of a protein with high accuracy.

The Multiomics Suite, on the other hand, will help researchers ingest, store, analyze and share large amounts of genomic data. This suite helps researchers analyze genomic data.

CNBC reports that Colossal Biosciences, a biotechnology company that aims to use DNA and genetic engineering to “reverse extinctions.”

Researchers can sequence DNA much faster than it takes to decode and analyze it. But thanks to technology, genomic data can be gathered in areas such as the genetic variations associated with diseases.

Research into Investigational New Drugs (INDs) in biotechnology often overlaps with the cannabis industry, and Google’s new tools could transform the business of certain companies.

Shweta Maniar is Global Director of Life Sciences Strategy and Solutions at Google Cloud. “We help organizations get medicines to the right people faster,” Maniar told CNBC. “I’m personally very excited, it’s something I and the team have been working on for a number of years.”

The first important step in drug development is to identify a biological target to focus on and develop a treatment for. A biological target is most commonly a protein, a building block for disease and other life forms. And to find the target, researchers must identify the structure of a protein that determines its function in a disease.

“If you can understand the role, the protein structure, the role, you can start developing drugs on it now,” Maniar said.

The AI ​​market is estimated to reach the trillion mark if the technology keeps up with this pace. Google announced OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2021 and its generative chatbot Bard in February.