New ChatGPT-like GenAI model to design new drugs to treat disease: Details

A team of scientists are reportedly developing a new ChatGPT-like generative artificial intelligence (AI) model which could design new drugs for treating disease.

ChatGPT gained fame in 2023 for writing emails, cracking medical and administrative examinations as well as diagnosing patients.

Inspired by ChatGPT’s popularity and wondering if this approach could speed up the drug design process, the scientists in the Schmid College of Science and Technology at Chapman University in California, US have decided to create their own GenAI model.

The platform, named “drugAI,” allows users to input a target protein sequence (for instance, a protein typically involved in cancer progression).

DrugAI, trained on data from the comprehensive public database BindingDB, can generate unique molecular structures from scratch, and then iteratively refine candidates, ensuring finalists exhibit strong binding affinities to respective drug targets — crucial for the efficacy of potential drugs.

The model identifies 50-100 new molecules likely to inhibit these particular proteins.

“This approach allows us to generate a potential drug that has never been conceived of,” said Dr. Hagop Atamian from the. “It’s been tested and validated. Now, we’re seeing magnificent results.”