DREAMS: when AI finds drugs for rare diseases
Kantify is the co-coordinator of the DREAMS project, a European funded research and innovation project selected after a highly competitive call for proposals. DREAMS is coordinated by Dr Xavier Nissan from i-Stem, the French research centre specialized in induced pluripotent stem cells research.
What is DREAMS
The objective of this 5-year project is to discover treatments for 5 rare neuromuscular disorders through a groundbreaking methodology combining Artificial intelligence (AI), stem cells and pharmacological screening. In a groundbreaking endeavour set to span five years, the DREAMS consortium is paving the way for a novel approach to treating neuromuscular diseases. This transformative project merges the power of artificial intelligence, pluripotent stem cells, and cutting-edge pharmacological screening techniques to seek out therapeutic solutions for five debilitating conditions affecting more than 400 000 people worldwide.
The challenge of rare disease drug discovery
Rare disease drug discovery is notoriously hard. The high costs, limited understanding of the diseases and lack of investments, are key challenges for drug hunters and patients. 95% or rare diseases still lack a treatment. To address these challenges, the European Commission has invested nearly €8 million into the DREAMS consortium—Drug REpurposing and Artificial intelligence for Muscular disorders. With this generous backing, the consortium is driven to pioneer an innovative method that combines artificial intelligence, pluripotent stem cells, and pharmacological screening. The objective is to craft treatments for five rare neuromuscular diseases: Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Centronuclear myopathy, Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy, Pompe disease, and Danon disease.
The contribution of Kantify to DREAMS
In DREAMS, Kantify is responsible for the AI modelling and discovery, thanks to its AI platform Sapian. To make our contribution well understood, the DREAMS project has just released an article and video on how the project will leverage AI and in particular the AI platform developed by Kantify, Sapian.