Harnessing AI and new technologies to meet neglected patients' needs

Digitalization, machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and new technologies and platforms are bringing transformational benefits to the fields of medicine, pharmaceutical research, and public health. We are working to ensure these extend to the most neglected.

DeepMind is a British AI company whose scientists and engineers are at the forefront of using AI to address a challenge that has confounded biologists for 50 years: how to predict the shape of a protein using the amino acids that constitute it. Proteins are the building blocks of life – and disease – and the ability to predict their structures has profound implications for drug discovery and development.

AlphaFold, DeepMind’s software to predict the structure of proteins with high accuracy, has been made available in an open-source model, as has the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database of over 20,000 proteins that make up the human body and over 200,000 proteins that constitute over 25 disease-causing organisms. It is likely to be a true gamechanger in pharmaceutical R&D.

In 2021, our discovery team was invited to trial the software to overcome a puzzling challenge that was impossible to address with standard laboratory methods – and the research breakthrough could help speed up the development of a promising treatment for leishmaniasis.

DNDi is committed to employing new technologies to improve the efficiency and accelerate the pace of the R&D process, including AI-driven drug discovery tools; novel imaging, diagnostic, and clinical trial design, and operations technologies; and AI-driven data analysis. In addition to exploring the use of new technologies in the drug discovery and development process, we are also expanding our use of eHealth solutions at our trial sites to strengthen data collection, processing, and analysis, and improve patient safety while managing associated risks, particularly in the areas of privacy and the protection of patients and personal data.