Evogene and QUT Partner on AI-Driven Cancer Therapeutics
Evogene announced a collaboration with Queensland University of Technology to advance AI-driven cancer therapeutics. The partnership will initially focus on developing treatments that target chemoresistance in lung cancer, applying AI beyond process optimization to the molecular design of new biologics.
- The collaboration targets a novel cellular detoxification pathway discovered by Dr. Mark Adams' lab at QUT, which is implicated in driving resistance to platinum-based chemotherapies like Cisplatin in non-small cell lung cancer. Dr. Adams' research focuses on exploiting cellular programs that regulate genome instability and cell cycle to improve therapy response. - Evogene's contribution is its proprietary generative AI platform, ChemPass AI™, which is built on a foundation model trained on approximately 38 billion molecular structures. In a recent collaboration with Google Cloud, this model demonstrated around 90% precision in generating novel, high-quality molecules, a significant improvement over traditional GPT-based models. - The partnership's goal is to move beyond just identifying potential drug candidates to designing small molecules with optimized multi-parameter profiles, considering factors like potency, selectivity, toxicity, and synthesizability simultaneously. This aligns with the broader industry trend of using AI to de-risk development and reduce costly late-stage failures. - For biomanufacturing, the AI-driven design of these new biologics is a precursor to the creation of bioprocess digital twins. These virtual models can simulate and predict how the novel molecules will behave during production, optimizing parameters like cell culture conditions and predicting yield before physical scale-up, which is critical in a GMP environment. - The QUT side of the partnership is anchored in its School of Biomedical Sciences and the Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health, which focus on translating genomic discoveries into clinical applications. The university has a track record of successful industry collaborations and commercialization, supported by its Office of Industry Engagement. - This collaboration is part of Evogene's broader strategy of applying its computational platforms to various life science sectors through subsidiaries and partnerships, including microbiome therapeutics (Biomica Ltd.) and agricultural chemicals (AgPlenus Ltd.). - The challenge of chemoresistance in non-small cell lung cancer is substantial, with studies indicating that 60-70% of patients exhibit intrinsic resistance to cornerstone therapies like Cisplatin. This highlights the urgent need for new therapeutic strategies that can sensitize tumors to existing treatments.
