Arctoris was featured in First Word Pharma following the announcement of a technology partnership with Insilico Medicine, a leading AI-driven biotechnology company, to jointly discover and profile new therapeutics against COVID-19.
The collaboration brought together two highly complementary capabilities: Insilico Medicine’s AI-guided drug discovery, spanning target identification and generative chemistry, and Arctoris’ robotic platform for the rapid generation of high-quality cell-based, molecular and biochemical data. Together, the partners were able to iterate new molecules several times faster than industry standard, in a develop-test-refine loop that demonstrated what becomes possible when AI and automation work in concert.
The partnership’s first focus was a JAK inhibitor study, profiling a set of potent inhibitors with the potential to help patients by modulating the cytokine storm, one of the most serious and life-threatening complications of COVID-19. Insilico identified novel small molecules using its AI capabilities, with Arctoris rapidly evaluating their intended biological actions on its robotic platform.
The two companies had already been collaborating through BioTarget, a Cancer Research UK-supported initiative to crowdsource drug discovery for cancer treatment, and the partnership signalled a broader commitment to joint programmes in oncology, a field of shared strategic importance to both organisations.