Deep Genomics, an artificial intelligence startup founded by the University of Toronto's Brendan Frey, has secured US$180 million from investors, including Japanese multinational Softbank and Canada Pension Plan Investments, the Globe and Mail reported. Launched in 2015, the startup uses machine learning to develop treatments for genetic diseases. According to the Globe and Mail, Deep Genomics currently has 10 drugs in pre-clinical development, four of which are set to enter human trials by mid-2023. It is also working with San Francisco Bay-area biopharmaceutical company BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. to identify drug candidates for rare diseases. "These are all new chemical entities that would not exist" without Deep Genomics' technology," Frey, who is CEO of Deep Genomics and a professor in U of T's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, told the Globe.

The world of genomics has made abrupt strides in the past several years, with the first CRISPR-edited babies being born just a few weeks ago. Using advanced CRISPR technology, Scientist Jiankui He'announced that twin girls with an edited gene that reduces the risk of contracting HIV "came crying into this world as healthy as any other babies a few weeks ago."' The announcement was met with great backlash, sparking'outrage from many researchers and ethicists who say implanting edited embryos to create babies is premature and exposes the children to unnecessary health risks. Opponents also fear the creation of "designer babies," children edited to enhance their intelligence, athleticism or other traits.' CRISPR technology is used in editing human genomes.

Deep Genomics, the Toronto-based AI therapeutics startup, has made the first-ever discovery of a diseases treatment and drug candidate using artificial intelligence. The startup announced on Wednesday that its propriety AI-based drug discovery platform has identified a novel treatment target and corresponding drug candidate for Wilson disease, a rare and potentially life-threatening genetic disorder. "Our AI systems can figure out how diseases are caused and how to fix those diseases much more rapidly than humans ever could." "This is the amazing accomplishment for the team," Brendan Frey, founder and CEO of Deep Genomics, told BetaKit. He noted that part of Deep Genomic's goal is to "help everyone in the world" use the discovery and technology its developing in Canada to support discovery and development more broadly.

Research and development for new drugs is both an expensive and lengthy process, often lasting years, if not decades. With the development of artificial intelligence technology however, this process is both becoming more cost-efficient and shorter, something that is expected to exponentially accelerate the development of new drugs. According to Brendan Frey, founder and CEO of AI-based drug discovery company, Deep Genomics, developing drugs has traditionally been like gambling, "It's like the Big Pharma companies come into a casino, put a million-dollar coin into a slot machine and with some probability like 10% or something, they get a win (Robertson: 2019)." This is where AI comes in. Until now, Deep Genomics has developed over 20 machine learning systems trained from both public and proprietary data to screen for disease-causing mutations while looking for drug targets.

Drug discovery needed to change. The low-hanging fruit had been harvested, but the biopharma industry, in the words of Deep Genomics CEO Brendan Frey, is still shoving the tree until an apple falls. "Making drugs has traditionally been a gambling game. Big Pharma is throwing a stick into the tree and seeing what happens," Frey told FierceBiotech. "It's like the Big Pharma companies come into a casino, put a million-dollar coin into a slot machine and with some probability like 10% or something, they get a win."

There were some headlines the other day about the "first AI-discovered drug", so that should send us to the work in question to see what's going on. The company in question is called Deep Genomics, and here's what its founder has to say: "Making drugs has traditionally been a gambling game. Big Pharma is throwing a stick into the tree and seeing what happens," Frey told FierceBiotech. "It's like the Big Pharma companies come into a casino, put a million-dollar coin into a slot machine and with some probability like 10% or something, they get a win." Instead of gambling to get at the fruit higher up on the tree, Frey built Deep Genomics, a company using artificial intelligence to discover new disease targets as well as the best compounds to drug them.

The healthcare industry has always been a leader in innovation. The constant mutating of diseases and viruses makes it difficult to stay ahead of the curve, but with the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, it continues to advance, creating new treatments and helping people live longer and healthier lives. A study published this week by The Lancet Digital Health compared the performance of deep learning--a form of artificial intelligence (AI)--in detecting diseases from medical imaging versus that of healthcare professionals, using a sample of studies carried out between 2012 and 2019. The study found that, in the past few years, AI has become more accurate of identifying disease diagnosis in these images and has become a more viable source of diagnostic information. According to the researchers, out of 14 studies that compared deep learning models and healthcare professionals within the same sample, the diagnostic performances were found to be equivalent.

Brendan Frey's passion for genomics -- the science of analyzing and interpreting our DNA -- was ignited in 2002. When a family member was diagnosed with a genetic disorder, there wasn't enough information for doctors to evaluate the full scope of the problem, let alone fix it. "I thought we should live in a better world," Frey says. "One in which we can accurately detect and treat genetic diseases." A decade ago, the odds of that happening anytime in the foreseeable future were decidedly small.

The healthcare industry has always been a leader when it comes to innovation. The constant mutating of diseases and viruses make for a difficult industry to stay ahead of the curve, but with the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, it continues to advance with creating new treatments and helping people live longer and healthier lives. A study released this week by The Lancet Digital Health examined all the data between 2012 and 2019 of testing that has been involved with artificial intelligence and deep learning in the discovery of disease diagnosis through medical imaging. The study found that AI has become more accurate in the past years of identifying disease diagnosis in these images and has become a more viable source of diagnostic information. According to Lancet Digital, out of 14 studies conducted, the systems were able to correctly identify disease 87% of the time while healthcare professionals were correct 86% of the time.

As the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of drug development increases, market growth is greatly favored. Artificial intelligence (AI) is called engineering and science adopted to design intelligent machines, such as intelligent computer programs. A system that applies multiple human intelligence-based functions, such as learning, reasoning, and problem-solving skills in areas such as computer science, biology, linguistics, mathematics, and engineering. Artificial intelligence is regarded as the next boundary of medical innovation. Healthcare's AI is implemented to align structured and unstructured data.