The University of Burgundy-Franche-Comté, Oncodesign and SATT Sayens announce the launch of a joint laboratory (LabCom), created by the CIAD laboratory (University of Burgundy and Belfort-Montbéliard University of Technology) and the biopharmaceutical company Oncodesign. The LabCom “AIDD4H” (Artificial Intelligence in Drug Discovery for Health), dedicated to personalized medicine in oncology, is the first step in the creation of an open innovation campus with an international focus on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in drug discovery.
Created in 2015, the University of Burgundy Franche-Comté (UBFC) is a community of universities and institutions (COMUE) that brings together seven higher education and research institutions. It offers high-quality multidisciplinary training, linked to research in the fields of agrifood, microtechnology, energy and mobility. In addition to this regional economic activity, the UFBC is internationally recognized for 3 scientific areas:
- Advanced materials, waves and intelligent systems,
- Territories, environment, food,
- Individualized and integrated care.
The CIAD laboratory (Distributed Knowledge and Artificial Intelligence) is one of its laboratories. With approximately 70 people (teacher-researchers, doctoral students, engineers, post-doctoral students, administrative staff), it aims to design hybrid, distributed and explainable artificial intelligence.
Oncodesign
Oncodesign, founded in 1995, is based in Dijon, at the heart of the university and hospital cluster and within the Paris-Saclay region. Oncodesign has 230 employees in three business units: Service, Biotech, and Artificial Intelligence. This biopharmaceutical company specializing in precision medicine aims to discover effective therapies to fight cancer and other diseases without therapeutic solutions. It has over 1,000 customers, including the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, and relies on a unique technology platform that combines artificial intelligence, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, regulatory bioanalysis and advanced medical imaging.
Sayens
Founded in 2013, SAYENS is a catalyst for innovation to benefit companies and the market, sources of growth and job creation.
Committed to working alongside researchers and companies to make science the future of innovation, SAYENS has access to the skills of 6,500 researchers and 4,000 doctoral students from 140 public research laboratories in the Grand Est (Lorraine and Sud Champagne Ardenne-Troyes) and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté regions.
The joint AI LabCom AIDD4H
AIDD4H aims to identify and validate new therapeutic targets and new mechanisms of action in the development of innovative treatments for precision medicine in oncology. Labeled by the Medicen competitiveness cluster, this project is based on a collaboration between the CIAD laboratory and Oncodesign. This joint laboratory was created following the LabCom 2020 call for projects. SATT Sayens coordinated the set-up of the laboratory and will support it, thanks to the expertise of its R&D engineers and intellectual property specialists, in its deployment and the realization of its technological roadmap. Catherine Guillemin, President of Sayens declares:
“It gives us great satisfaction to be able to contribute, through this joint AIDD4H laboratory, to the development of new innovative solutions to meet the challenges of digital health and accelerate the transition to the medicine of the future.”
Dominique Grevey, President of UBFC, adds:
“This joint laboratory is a good illustration of the University’s territorial anchoring and represents an important challenge: AIDD4H aims to accelerate the discovery of molecules by integrating artificial intelligence approaches for data processing. I salute this very fine project, carrying a path toward a better future for citizens.”
AI to meet the challenges of new drug discovery
Bringing new drugs to market is a long-term task: it can take 12 to 15 years from the time the therapeutic target on which to begin research is determined, then developed and finally validated. This research is very costly, and some drugs are abandoned (1 drug is retained by the FDA-EMA authorities for every 10,000 molecules synthesized). Artificial intelligence makes it possible to optimize the choice of molecules by using data in a reliable and much faster way.
Philippe Genne, Chairman and CEO of Oncodesign, states:
“We have historically worked with public research players in our territory. We are delighted to enter into a new collaboration with the CIAD laboratory. Today, because AI increases our capacity to exploit data tenfold, it saves time and makes choices in the development of new therapies more reliable. The joint AIDD4H laboratory is a gas pedal enabling the integration of AI into our Drug Discovery process.”
Translated from Lancement d’AIDD4H, LabCom d’Intelligence Artificielle pour la découverte de nouveaux médicaments
