Profluent, Spurred by Salesforce Research, using AI to discover Medicines

Last year salesforce launched its new project ProGen in which it claims to Design proteins using generative AI. If ProGen is launched to the market — it will be very helpful to uncover medical treatments more cost-effectively than traditional methods, said the researchers of ProGen projects.

Salesforce claims-” ProGen gives scientists and researchers the ability to use AI as a controllable tool to design highly-tailored proteins with desired properties. “

“In the future, these properties can include the ability to bind to another molecule and operate at high temperatures.”-They added.

ProGen was published in the journal Nature Biotech in January 2023, in which the model showcased that it can create the 3D structures of artificial proteins. However, the cost for the same was not disclosed anywhere in the research.

Also read: Will Humane AI PIN Replace Smartphones

The Salesforce perspective: “ProGen exemplifies how generative AI can be applied to bioscience and healthcare in this emerging field,” said Nikhil Naik, Director of Research, at Salesforce. “This research reveals how useful large language models can be in designing novel proteins for use in real-world applications.”

Ali Madani, a researcher in the team of ProGen founded the company Profluent in 2022. Madani claims that the biotech company will bring the AI-generating protein technology into the hands of the pharmaceutical company. The company will bring out the latest AI tech out of the lab. Recently the company has also added funding of $35M led by Spark Capital.

“Many drugs — enzymes and antibodies, for example — consist of proteins,” Madani said. “So ultimately this is for patients who would receive an AI-designed protein as medicine.” Madani along with his partners and team at Profluent is now taking the concept a step ahead by starting with gene editing.

Many genetic diseases can’t be fixed by [proteins or enzymes] lifted directly from nature,”. “Furthermore, gene editing systems mixed and matched for new capabilities suffer from functional tradeoffs that significantly limit their reach. In contrast, Profluent can optimize multiple attributes simultaneously to achieve a custom-designed [gene] editor that’s a perfect fit for each patient.”- he added.

Also read: Microsoft’s first AI PCs are here: PreBook now to get the seamless experience

This new model is not yet out in the market the company is training the new AI model for large data sets. The company claims that this new model will cut down a large amount of time and cost invested in developing new treatments.

“We’ve developed our initial platform and shown scientific breakthroughs in gene editing,” Madani said. “Now is the time to scale and start enabling solutions with partners that match our ambitions for the future.”- Madani says in his recent interviews.