Tag: AI-driven drug discovery

UK and France ministers back AI drug discovery at Diamond

UK and France ministers back AI drug discovery at Diamond

The UK’s Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, Feryal Clark, visited Diamond to gain insights into the groundbreaking work planned by the OpenBind consortium.  An ambitious initiative that aims to revolutionise drug discovery through artificial intelligence. 

Ms Clark, who is the Under-Secretary of State for AI and Digital Government, was accompanied by Clara Chappaz, France’s minister delegate for artificial intelligence and digital affairs. 

OpenBind, which recently secured £8 million in anchor funding from DSIT’s Sovereign AI Unit, will generate the world’s largest dataset on drug-protein interaction – twenty times larger than any previous effort in the field. This data will be used to train next-generation AI models capable of identifying new drugs faster and more affordably, promising to significantly reduce development costs.  

Ms Clark and Ms Chappaz toured the facility with Diamond’s CEO Gianluigi Botton to observe key research instruments. The ministers visited the I04-1 beamline, which will be integral to OpenBind’s ambitions. 

It was great to visit Diamond Light Source with our French partners, to see some of the work making the UK a global hub for AI-driven drug discovery. The OpenBind consortium is a brilliant example of how world-leading UK capabilities are unlocking new AI models that can identify new treatments, faster.

Backed by our Sovereign AI Unit, this cutting-edge work, applying AI tech to biosciences, has huge potential to unlock new avenues to attract international investment and help rebuild our NHS. This is critical work in support of our Plan for Change.

Feryal Clark, Under-Secretary of State for AI and Digital Government

OpenBind exemplifies Diamond’s integral role in harnessing home-grown AI expertise to drive global innovation and impact. By combining Diamond’s world-class capabilities with advanced AI technologies, we are not only improving drug development but also delivering on the UK’s technological ambitions.

Diamond CEO Gianluigi Botton

The OpenBind consortium represents the ambitions laid out in the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, which calls for investment in AI to drive economic growth, transform public services and position the UK as a global leader in responsible AI innovation. OpenBind’s collaborative approach, bringing together academia and internal expertise, also reflects the importance of EU partnerships, ensuring that scientific breakthroughs are shared across borders to tackle global challenges in health and sustainability. 

Read more on Diamond website

Image: Diamond Head of Industrial Liaison Elizabeth Shotton; French Minister Delegate for artificial intelligence and digital affairs Clara Chappaz; Under-Secretary of State for AI and Digital Government Feryal Clark; and Diamond CEO Gianluigi Botton.

Diamond will host a pioneering AI-driven drug discovery consortium

Diamond will host a pioneering AI-driven drug discovery consortium

Diamond will be the base for OpenBind, an AI-driven drug discovery centre which will make the UK a world-leader in drug innovation and advancement.

With its unparalleled XChem facilities, Diamond will be a global hub for AI-driven drug discovery. This will lead to the prospect of tackling previously untreatable diseases and dramatically reducing the cost of drug discovery and development. The project is backed by up to £8 million of investment from DSIT’s newly established Sovereign AI unit, a key driver in the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan.

The consortium will close critical data gaps by using new AI models to find potential new drugs and help create better treatments for diseases. It will also help scientists use engineering biology to solve bigger problems, like making enzymes that can break down plastic waste.

The main aim is to create the world’s largest collection of data on how drugs interact with proteins, the building blocks of the body. Using automated chemistry and high-throughput X-ray crystallography, the consortium will generate more than 500,000 protein-ligand structures over a period of five years. This is twenty times greater than anything collected in the last 50 years.

OpenBind will offer a core dataset that will drive progress across scientific and technological areas, including predicting molecular structures, designing new molecules and improving research workflows. It will work in tandem with other new methods in order to reduce trial-and-error experimentation, guide better decision-making, and support more efficient exploration of chemical possibilities.

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.

Professor Gianluigi Botton, CEO of Diamond Light Source

The consortium will be led by some of the world’s leading scientific minds including Professor Frank von Delft, principal scientist of the macromolecular crystallography I04-1 beamline and the XChem facility at Diamond, as well as the University of Oxford’s Professor Charlotte Deane and Nobel laureate David Baker, head of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington.

Read more on Diamond website

Image: Professor Frank von Delft, Diamond’s principal scientist of the MX I04-1 beamline and the XChem facility