WASHINGTON: A Saudi researcher and assistant professor at Michigan State University (MSU), Dr. Yasser Aldhamen, has made significant progress in developing new cancer medicines using artificial intelligence (AI), the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Monday.
During the project funded by Atomwise, a pharmaceutical company specializing in AI-driven drug discovery, Aldhamen’s team screened millions of chemical compounds using machine learning algorithms.
This process identified 72 promising candidates, two of which demonstrated significant activity in targeting immune proteins that could enhance the body’s cancer-fighting response. The research focused on boosting the function of CD8+ T cells, a type of immune cell crucial for attacking cancer.
The researchers, by harnessing AI, were able to accelerate the drug discovery process. Traditional methods often involve testing thousands of compounds in the laboratory, but AI allowed the team to predict promising candidates based on their potential interactions with target proteins.
Aldhamen and his team are now collaborating with pharmaceutical companies to further refine these compounds and explore their potential for clinical trials. The team’s objective is to develop such compounds into new immunotherapies for cancer treatment.
