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© Diamond Light Source
People around the world are set to benefit from new breakthroughs in AI-driven drug discovery to tackle previously untreatable diseases and transforming patient outcomes using British AI and research expertise.
The UK’s ‘OpenBind’ consortium will use experimental technology to generate the world’s largest collection of data on how drugs interact with proteins, the building blocks of the body. This will be 20 times greater than anything collected over the last 50 years – cementing the UK’s position as a global hub for AI-driven drug discovery.
This will support the training of new AI models that can identify promising new drugs, giving researchers an unparalleled ability to open up new fronts in the fight against disease. Development costs will be slashed by up to £100 billion and spark the innovation and economic growth which underpins the government’s Plan for Change.
Based at Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron facility at the Harwell Science Campus in Oxfordshire, the consortium will work to close critical data gaps. This will drive breakthroughs in healthcare, unlocking new avenues for drugs that can treat and beat diseases, while helping scientists harness the transformative potential of engineering biology to face down other issues like designing new enzymes to tackle plastic waste.
The consortium, backed with up to £8 million of investment from DSIT’s newly established Sovereign AI Unit, will be led by some of the world’s leading scientific minds including Professor Frank von Delft from Diamond and NDM’s Centre for Medicines Discovery, Professor Charlotte Deane from the Department of Statistics at the University of Oxford and David Baker, Chemistry Nobel Prize winner and head of the Institute for Protein Design at Washington University.
Professor Frank von Delft, Principal Beamline Scientist at Diamond and Professor of Structural Chemical Biology at the Centre for Medicines Discovery, said: ‘OpenBind is unique double opportunity: whereas to date we experimental scientists have generated data as a byproduct of answering our scientific questions, now we combine forces with AI scientists and produce the data their AIs actually need. And to do so, we will align several very different types of experiments, harnessing recent dramatic advances, including those we've achieved at Diamond. As this accelerates drug design, we will gain currently unthinkable ways to dissect how diseases work and what to do about them.’
Professor Charlotte Deane MBE, Professor of Structural Bioinformatics in the Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, said: ‘OpenBind realises a major gear-shift for AI in drug discovery by investing in the data that powers it. This funding will mean we can begin generating a catalogue that not only dwarfs in quantity everything messily accumulated over half a century, but transcends it in quality and is geared towards powering the AI algorithms.’
Professor Gianluigi Botton, CEO at Diamond Light Source, said: ‘At Diamond Light Source, a Joint Venture between the UK Government through STFC and the Wellcome Trust, we are proud to be at the forefront of the UK’s ambition to lead the world in AI-driven drug discovery. OpenBind represents an exciting step forward in harnessing our unique capabilities to generate the high-quality data that AI needs to revolutionise healthcare, helping to cement the UK’s position as a global hub for bioscience innovation.’
The RT Honourable Peter Kyle MP, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, said: ‘London Tech Week is where we lay down a marker – not just as a government with technology at the heart of our agenda, but as a country that will harness its opportunities for the global good. OpenBind is a prime example of how we’re doing exactly that. Through home-grown AI expertise, we will be the driving force that doesn’t just treat, but beats disease - benefitting every person in the world. This week, we’ll have plenty more to say on how we’re using technology to drive growth, improve public services, and transform communities all over the country – delivering a Plan for Change grounded in action, not words.’
This investment will also help to unlock unique strategic capabilities for UK AI and biosciences, securing the nation’s critical influence over a sector fundamental to growth, health, and wellbeing.
Investors from industry and philanthropy will be convened to have the opportunity to co-invest and take the project to a point of maximum ambition. These discussions will include a roundtable at 10 Downing Street including Isomorphic Labs, Astex Pharmaceuticals, Apheris, Chai Discovery, Genentech, Genesis Therapeutics, Odyssey Therapeutix, Pfizer Inc, and Renaissance Philanthropy.