A simple script to download bioactivity data for small molecules The PubChem Bioassay Database is the largest open-source repository of bioactivity data. With over 290 million data points from well-described biological experiments, it is an invaluable source of information for data scientists. At Ersilia, we use it often to complement…

The road to becoming CEO of the Ersilia Open Source Initiative (EOSI), the small non-profit I co-founded together with Edoardo and Miquel, has been (and maybe still is) a bumpy one. This is the first truly personal blog post I write, but I realized it is important for me to…

An example of the benefits of being an Open Collective for a charitable organisation like Ersilia. — In the last 20 years, community-based organizations, non-profit initiatives, associations… or, in other words, collectives of people working towards a common goal, have flourished worldwide. Perhaps the first example that comes to mind are open source projects, maintained by a network of developers that do not belong to a particular…

If you are a charity leader and feel that professional business consultancy and mentoring can bring your charity to the next level, do not miss this post! — Since we decided to venture into the non-profit world and constitute the Ersilia Open Source Initiative as a charity, we have had to wear many hats. …

What are the real capabilities of AI/ML and what is needed to efficiently incorporate it into day-to-day scientific research? — In the last few years, AI/ML has undoubtedly lived up to its expectations. Since the early 10’s, AI/ML tools have multiplied, starting from a neural network capable of recognizing images of cats without previously labelled data, and passing through the algorithm that beat the GO world champion (DeepMind). Every year…

We want to thank FundOSS for including the Ersilia Open Source Initiative in the pilot round of democratic funding for Open Source Software, as well as our 104 backers, who have helped us raise $13,752 — Screen-time is rising worldwide, with some countries, like the Philippines and the US, reaching an alarming 10 hours a day spent in front of computers, smartphones or tablets. We might not realize it, but at the core of most of the apps and online services we (heavily) use there is…

Presenting our logo — Branding is an important part of any business, large or small, for-profit or charitable. The logo is the first thing any customer sees from you, and, as such, should transmit the values and identity of your company. Let’s take, for example, Google’s Icons. Gmail, Maps, Drive, Calendar, Photos, you name…

An applied example: Ersilia Open Source Initiative — The Ersilia Open Source Initiative (EOSI) is a non-profit organization with the mission to strengthen research capacity against infectious and neglected diseases. To this end, we leverage the power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) methods to improve the drug discovery pipelines. …