Consortium.AI wants to cure rare diseases using artificial intelligence

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a rare muscle disorder affecting children that results in loss of the ability to walk. It's rapidly progressive -- average life expectancy is about 20 years -- and caused by genetic mutations on the X chromosome that regulates the production of dystrophin, a protein thought to play a role in maintaining muscle cell membranes. For DMD sufferers and other patients with rare degenerative diseases, there's now hope on the horizon. Insilico Medicine and A2A Pharmaceuticals today launched Consortium.AI, a new venture founded with the goal of applying advances in artificial intelligence (AI) to cutting-edge drug discovery. Through Consortium.AI, the two companies will collaboratively develop therapeutic treatments for DMD and other severe genetic disorders and use machine learning to validate the most promising candidates.