Why AI Isn't Ready to Make Medicines

Many in venture capital and biopharma are anointing artificial intelligence the savior of drug discovery—but what can AI actually do?

In this eye-opening episode, Michael Marks sits down with Mike Nohaile, CEO of Prellis Biologics, to explore the hype versus reality in AI-enabled drug discovery. Mike details why, despite significant breakthroughs like AlphaFold and recent Nobel Prize win for computational protein design, fully AI-generated medicines still present challenges. He also discusses why we urgently need more effective medicines and details Prellis’ unique system which combines laser printed human organoids and an externalized human immune system with AI, enabling the discovery of fully human antibodies. 

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Links:

Explore Prellis Biologics

https://prellisbio.com/

Understand AlphaFold, DeepMind’s AI model for predicting protein structures

https://deepmind.google/alphafold

Read about the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry 

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2024/press-release/ 

• (00:00) - The Reality of AI in Drug Discovery
• (03:05) - The Need for Better Medicines
• (06:05) - Evolution of Pharmaceutical Therapies
• (08:55) - Challenges in Protein Drug Discovery
• (12:13) - AI's Role in Protein Design
• (14:46) - Limitations of AI in Drug Development
• (17:58) - Understanding Protein Structures
• (20:54) - The Future of AI in Medicine
• (22:36) - The Challenges of Drug Development
• (29:44) - Innovations in Antibody Production
• (35:01) - Advancements in Obesity Treatments
• (39:54) - The Future of Drug Discovery