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        Hong Kong-based AI drug discovery company Insilico Medicine has announced the initiation of first-in-human Phase I clinical trials for its fifth AI-discovered drug ISM5411 for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a gastrointestinal disease.
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        ISM5411 is a prolyl hydroxylase domain enzyme (PHD) inhibitor designed by Insilico's AI platform, Pharma.AI. It is an oral drug that promotes the expression of genes protecting the gut barrier.&nbsp;
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        The initial dose of the drug has been administered to healthy volunteers in Australia for the ongoing Phase I study, and the intention is to expand to broader populations by conducting global multi-center Phase Ib trials. These Phase Ib trials will specifically involve patients with ulcerative colitis and will follow the Phase Ia study.
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    <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/insilico-medicine-announces-first-in-human-study-for-orally-phd-inhibitor-ism5411-for-inflammatory-bowel-disease-ibd-302001695.html">
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AI Drug Discovery

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 <p>Hong Kong-based AI drug discovery company Insilico Medicine has started Phase I clinical trials for its fifth AI-discovered drug ISM5411. The drug is aimed at treating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a gastrointestinal disease.</p>
 <p>ISM5411 is an oral drug designed by Insilico's AI platform, Pharma.AI. It is a prolyl hydroxylase domain enzyme (PHD) inhibitor that protects the gut barrier by promoting the expression of genes.</p>
 <p>The Phase I study has begun in Australia with healthy volunteers, and the company plans to expand to a global multi-center Phase Ib trial involving patients with ulcerative colitis.</p>
 
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Insilico Medicine initiates Phase I study for IBD drug

<div> <p>Massachusetts-based AI-drug discovery company Seismic Therapeutic has raised USD 121 million in a Series B funding round, with Bessemer Venture Partners leading the investment. Amgen Ventures, Codon Capital, and existing investors also participated. This brings the company's total funds raised to USD 222 million. The funds will be used to further progress Phase I proof-of-mechanism trials for Seismic's two main programs, S-1117 and S-4321. Additionally, the funds will support the expansion of the company's IMPACT platform by developing additional methods.</p></div>

Seismic Therapeutic raises USD 121 million Series B to advance immunology pipeline

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<p>Washington-based AI-powered synthetic biology company Absci and AstraZeneca have partnered to develop a cancer-combating antibody. The partnership is worth up to USD 247 million and includes upfront fees, R&amp;D investment, milestone payments, and royalties on product sales.</p>
<p>Absci will utilize their AI technology for protein analysis to potentially discover a cancer therapy. Their zero-shot gen-AI technology will be used to design drug candidates based on factors like target affinity, safety, and manufacturability. The specific type of cancer being targeted has not been disclosed.</p>
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Absci partners with AstraZeneca to design AI-based antibody for cancer treatment

The Israel-based drug simulation company, QuantHealth, has enhanced its platform, Katina, which utilizes AI to simulate clinical trials and enhance drug development efficiency. Katina uses AI to guide researchers through selecting patient groups, treatment parameters, and endpoints. The platform includes features like a Monte Carlo workflow for generating high-volume trial protocols and a built-in scoring system for simulating trials, providing valuable insights to aid researchers in making decisions.

QuantHealth upgrades Katina for optimizing clinical trials

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  <p>Canada-based AI-drug discovery company Phenomic AI has partnered with pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim to discover components in stroma-rich cancers.</p>
  <p>Under the agreement, Phenomic will receive $9 million upfront and potential earnings of over $500 million in milestones and royalties.</p>
  <p>The collaboration will focus on using Phenomic's scTx single-cell transcriptomics platform to improve treatment for stroma-rich cancers, such as colorectal and pancreatic cancers. Boehringer Ingelheim will license Phenomic's targets and handle non-clinical, clinical development, and commercialization of associated cancer therapies.</p>
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Phenomic AI and Boehringer Ingelheim collaborate to discover stroma-rich cancer targets

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 <p>Clinical-stage AI-driven drug discovery company Biolexis Therapeutics has secured USD 10 million in a Series A funding round led by Clarke Capital.</p>
 <p>The funds will be used to accelerate the clinical testing of Biolexis' drug discovery pipeline, principally aimed at metabolic drug candidates for treating various metabolic ailments globally, and to widen the company's operations.</p>
 <p>Founded in 2021, Biolexis formulates small-molecule drugs to battle diseases, including cancers, autoimmune, and inflammatory diseases, by employing the company’s AI platform, MolecuLern. The company’s pipeline has 40 programs in discovery and 10 programs in the Investigational New Drug application-enabling phase of development.&nbsp;</p>
 
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Biolexis raises USD 10 million in Series A funding to accelerate clinical testing

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  <p>Switzerland-based AI biotech startup Cradle has secured USD 24 million in a Series A funding round led by Index Ventures, with participation from Kindred Capital, Chris Gibson, Tom Glocer, and other existing investors. This brings the total funds raised by the company to USD 33 million.</p>
  <p>The proceeds will be utilized to expand the team, boost sales, and construct additional engineering and lab facilities.</p>
  <p>Founded in 2022, Cradle is involved in designing proteins using GenAI that focus on understanding molecular structures, allowing a quicker, more cost-effective process of protein design. The firm employs natural language processing and proprietary data to anticipate alterations needed in the protein's genetic code for enhanced function and stability. The company also offers AI-assisted design tools that can predict a protein’s 3D structure, generate new sequences with improved thermostability and optimize codons.</p>
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Cradle raises USD 24 million in Series A funding for team expansion

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<p>Medical imaging AI development platform Flywheel has teamed up with Microsoft and NVIDIA to introduce a SaaS data management solution. The collaboration aims to leverage Flywheel's infrastructure and Microsoft Azure's services to facilitate data preparation for AI model development. The objective is to speed up the identification of standardized, high-quality datasets and streamline the management, curation, and analysis of medical imaging data. Moreover, the partnership enables the integration of Flywheel's solution with mPower Clinical Analytics by Nuance, improving patient cohort discovery and enhancing radiology image data.</p>
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Flywheel partners with Microsoft and NVIDIA to launch data management solution

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  <li><p>Google-backed AI drug discovery company XtalPi and Singapore's national drug discovery platform Experimental Drug Development Centre (EDDC), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to integrate automated synthesis solutions and large language models in pharmaceutical research. The terms and financial details of the agreement have not been disclosed.</p></li>
  <li><p>The partnership will leverage XtalPi's robotic and AI techniques in EDDC's R&amp;D processes to focus on automated chemical compound synthesis and AI-based drug discovery, aiming to generate high-quality data, increase research efficiency, and accelerate the development of new drugs. The collaboration also aims to explore the application of advanced AI models by integrating automated experiments, cellular phenotypes, and multi-omics data.</p></li>
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XtalPi and EDDC sign MOU to advance automated synthesis

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 <p>Roche's member company, Genentech, has partnered with NVIDIA to use AI technology to accelerate drug discovery and development. The collaboration will utilize NVIDIA's cloud-hosted AI supercomputing services and software alongside BioNeMo to enhance Genentech's proprietary algorithms and customize models on a large scale. The primary focus of this partnership will be to improve Genentech's drug discovery AI models. It is important to note that Genentech will maintain control over its proprietary data sharing, with NVIDIA only being given access when granted permission by Genentech.</p>
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