Three Tech Innovations That Could Save Your Life In 2017
Recursion Pharmaceuticals is working to potentially cut in half the development-to-market time for numerous drugs simultaneously which could ultimately impact the way patients are treated.
A blend of experimental biology and emerging technologies could disrupt the traditional method of discovering drugs. While Silicon Valley is using image recognition software to identify pictures of cats, celebrities and brand logos, one Utah company is using similar technology to create a shortcut in drug discovery for patients suffering rare genetic diseases.
Recursion Pharmaceuticals is working to potentially cut in half the development-to-market time for numerous drugs simultaneously which could ultimately impact the way patients are treated.
Here’s how:
1. Disease database. Recursion is taking thousands of drugs, many of which stalled in human trials for their preferred indications, and is testing them against hundreds of genetic diseases in human cells in an attempt to rapidly discover which could be repurposed to help patients suffering from conditions such as ALS, Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Neurofibromatosis and Retinitis Pigmentosa.
To do so, Recursion is harnessing the power of “big data” as applied to biological problems, setting the stage for a fully evolved and predictive drug discovery ecosystem that will, within years, enable the testing of hundreds of drugs against thousands of diseases for what it might cost to test one drug in one disease today.
This approach is strikingly different from the pharmaceutical industry’s typical target-centric method of drug discovery, which can result in programs that take 10–15 years to get a drug from bench to bedside. Technology companies have delved into life sciences in recent years, hoping to disrupt healthcare, one of the world’s largest industries. Google’s parent company Alphabet, Apple and Samsung have all entered the space.
Recursion executives envision their approach becoming more common as a potential breaking point emerges between downward price pressures and increasing development costs. New drug approvals cost between $1 billion and more than $5 billion, and there are several thousand diseases that haven’t been treated.
2. Image recognition technology. Recursion’s platform is based on the latest image recognition technology — including computer vision, statistical learning and deep neural networks — to interrogate microscopic images of human cells and create data-dense quantification of the physical changes to cells in each disease model and in combination with each drug. Their current platform allows the team to conduct more than 30,000 experiments a week to discover how human cells with various genetic diseases respond to a variety of compounds. Soon their technology will enable up to a million tests a week.
3. Artificial intelligence. The team then uses state-of-the-art automation and high-throughput screening techniques to answer complex biological questions that run the gamut from drug screening, to compound intelligence, to target identification.
Recursion, competing alongside companies such as Bicycle Therapeutics, Covance, Lexis Nexis, Bayer and Facebook, was recently recognized for innovation. The Fierce Innovation Awards: Life Sciences Edition awarded Recursion “Best New Product or Service” for the Biotech Innovation Category. The company also won “Best in Show Award for Best New Product or Service” based on the platform’s potential to leverage the most advanced computational methods to revolutionize drug discovery.
Recursion is now expanding its platform into areas beyond genetic disorders, including infectious disease, inflammation, oncology and diagnostics. One day, this method of drug discovery may be responsible for treatment that could save your life.
Amy Osmond Cook, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the Association of Skilled Nursing Providers. For more information, please visit skillednursingproviders.org.
