by Mrudula Kulkarni
3 minutes
Turbine’s AI Platform Identifies Key Cancer Targets for Ono, Advancing Drug Discovery
From News from Startup World | Pg 17
Turbine, an AI-driven biological simulation company, has announced that Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. has selected multiple cancer targets identified through Turbine's proprietary Simulated Cell™ platform for further development. Turbine will now conduct in vitro validation of these targets in collaboration with Ono. This marks a significant milestone for Turbine, achieved just a year after initiating the collaboration, which focuses on using advanced AI models to predict and simulate human cellular behavior.
The targets were discovered through billions of in silico experiments designed to model protein signaling and disease mechanisms. Szabolcs Nagy, Turbine’s CEO, highlighted how this digital platform accelerates the process of identifying promising drug targets. The next phase will involve validating these targets in Turbine’s wet labs, with potential milestone payments from Ono as the collaboration advances.
Seishi Katsumata, Executive Director of Discovery & Research at Ono, expressed optimism about the partnership, emphasizing the potential of Turbine’s platform to develop transformative therapies for cancer patients. Both companies aim to bring these new therapeutic options to market as quickly as possible.
Turbine’s AI-based platform, which has previously been employed by major pharma companies like AstraZeneca and Bayer, is designed to streamline drug development by accurately modeling human biology and disease pathways, offering unprecedented speed and efficiency in target discovery and validation.