Cambridge scientists say 'Virtual child' and other AI initiatives can create new drugs

In a new prospectus called, Accelerating the impact of AI in health: Opportunities to partner with Cambridge – the organisations highlight the pioneering technology already being developed across the city’s universities and hospitals. But they acknowledge that the only way to turn brilliant ideas into products that can be scaled to benefit all of society is to partner with leading pharmaceutical and technology companies, as well as regulators.

They pinpoint three areas where AI has the power to revolutionise healthcare in the future:-

• Drug discovery – currently it can cost £1.8 billion to bring a new drug to market. AI and machine learning has the potential to accelerate greatly the speed scientists can identify new drug targets or design entirely new drugs to tackle disease.

• Cutting the cost of clinical trials – roughly 80 per cent of clinical trials are delayed or closed because of problems recruiting people. The process of finding the right participants is also one of the most time consuming and expensive parts of the process. The new prospectus says that AI, when combined with electronic health data, could play a key role in matching the right patients to the right trial far more cheaply and quickly. AI tools can also be used to adapt the design of the trial as it goes along, making it much more efficient.

• Healthcare delivery – AI could have a significant impact on efficiency in the NHS, with tools like digital scribes, which take notes of conversations between doctors and patients, and personalising therapies, so that an individual patient is offered exactly the right drug at the right time and at the right dose.

The prospectus by Cambridge University Health Partners and Innovate Cambridge, showcases the cutting-edge work of the city’s leading AI research teams at Royal Papworth and Addenbrooke’s hospitals, the University of Cambridge, Anglia Ruskin University and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Trust.

Exemplars include a project led by Professor Richard Gilbertson’s group at the CRUK Cambridge Centre, which is designing a ‘virtual child’ to test ‘virtual drugs’ without the need for humans. The ‘child’ is a computer model that will be programmed to develop cancer. The team can then run virtual clinical trials that can pinpoint, predict and prioritise potential new treatments in a much quicker, cheaper and safer way.

The prospectus also features the Cambridge Centre for AI in Medicine (CCAIM), which is leading the world in using AI to identify looming health issues in large populations before they develop symptoms, allowing us to move towards the AI-enabled hospitals of tomorrow.

And it highlights how the city’s NHS trusts are working with the universities and local companies to develop AI tools to improve care. For example, Dr Raj Jena – who works at Addenbrooke’s hospital – has co-developed a system called OSAIRIS that can mark-up cancer scans two and a half times quicker than a human, freeing up more face-to-face time with patients and helping to cut waiting lists.

Professor Andres Floto at CCAIM and Royal Papworth Hospital is developing an AI tool that helps sufferers with cystic fibrosis forecast dips in their health before they begin to feel unwell. Machine learning algorithms are also used to spot signs of lung infections in CF patients, enabling them to start treatment before they become sick and saving them from having to go into hospital unnecessarily.

Data is the fuel that drives AI, and Accelerating the Impact of AI in Health talks about the success of the ‘AlphaFold Database’ – a collaboration between EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) on he Wellcome site south of the city and Google DeepMind – which is being used by 200 million users in 190 countries.

AlphaFold is like a free guidebook to most of the proteins in humans, proteins being the small engines that build our cells – understanding them is essential to healthcare research. It also features innovative Cambridge companies such as Appraiseye, which is using AI to analyse what surgical instruments surgeons use during operations.

The system has the potential to save hospitals millions of pounds in surgical instrument cleaning costs and reduce their carbon footprint, because tools that haven’t been used don’t need cleaning. And it can monitor the floor of the theatre to spot any areas that haven’t been mopped between operations.

The new prospectus finds that Cambridge already has the computing and entrepreneurial foundations in place to lead the AI healthcare revolution. The University of Cambridge has built one of the UK’s fastest artificial intelligence supercomputers, called DAWN, and has joined forces with UCL in London to lead a new research hub designed to harness quantum technology to improve the early diagnosis and treatment of disease.

Experts at Anglia Ruskin University and the Kavli Centre for Ethics, Science, and the Public are looking into both the opportunities and the challenges of AI technology, focusing on how we make sure it benefits everyone in society and remains environmentally sustainable.

The city is also home to 120 AI-powered companies, employing 13,000 people and turning over £6bn: the prospectus says that collaborations between industry, academia and the NHS are critical to maximising the technology’s potential.

Lord James O’Shaughnessy, Chair of Cambridge University Health Partners says: “AI is sparking a revolution in the time and cost it takes to discover and test new drugs. From finding new targets and designing new molecules, to making it quicker and simpler to recruit eligible participants for clinical trials, in the next few years AI will transform the process of drug development.

“That is why we want to establish Cambridge as a hub for AI-driven health innovation by partnering with some of the leading organisations around the world to develop the next generation of drug discovery tools and clinical trials.”

The call for industry partners is being launched at next week’s Cambridge Tech Week and BioCentury Grand Rounds – two major events bringing businesses, investors and academics to the city from around the world.

The prospectus can be accessed in full via: https://cuhp.org.uk/programme/ai-prospectus-industry-partners/