Back to biology: how BERG is using artificial intelligence to tackle cancer

Ten years ago people thought they were crazy, but today the team behind Boston-based pharma start-up BERG is catching the industry's attention with its data-driven, back-to-biology approach to drug discovery. A combination of maths and biology, they believe – and are now beginning to prove – is the future of tackling the world's most complex diseases, from cancer to Parkinson's. Since the Human Genome Project (HGP) was completed in 2003, there's been a widely accepted belief that understanding genomics is the answer to curing cancer. But that's far from the view held by BERG co-founder, CEO and President Niven R. Narain. "Genomics is one component of biology," he explains.