Transforming Drug Discovery by Nanoscale Chemistry and Screening Enabled by Machine Learning

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Nanna Therapeutics has invented a ground-breaking set of technologies which has the potential to change the way in which medicines are discovered, in terms of efficacy, safety, speed and cost. This could provide the UK economy a major boost by providing vastly expanded discovery capabilities and increased productivity to the wider pharmaceutical industry. This project is focused on developing ground-breaking integrated micro-droplet technology to enable the accelerated discovery of new medicines in many areas such as cancer, inflammatory disorders as well as rare diseases. Currently, the creation of a new drug is a production line-type process made up of several linear segments, all of which need to be completed before proceeding to the next. Moreover, limits in existing traditional chemical technology mean that the inputs to the process (new molecules) are severely restricted limiting the chances to find new drugs. Nanna Therapeutics aims to completely transform this slow, linear production line, replacing it with a miniaturised parallel system using micro-droplets where there are almost no limits on the inputs, thus enabling the generation of cheaper, effective medicines for any disease.Our technology allows large numbers of drug-like compounds to be made on micro-beads and released in tiny droplets and assessed in a wide range of tests going beyond disease efficacy on cells, such as their suitability as safe drugs. Machine-learning analysis of the large volumes of comparable data will in future allow selection and even prediction of the safest and most effective compounds to progress to patients.The miniaturisation benefits allow scientists to start the whole drug discovery process using cells from patients, rather than surrogates mimicking only aspects of a disease, increasing the success of therapies emerging from clinical trials. This has significant implications, as it unlocks the possibility of providing rapid treatments to diseases, which currently would not be economically viable, as well as rapidly responding to new disease threats. By including tests to assess if a compound is safe, there is potential to reduce animal testing and increase human safety prediction prior to the clinical testing.Once established this technology can be used wherever there is a need for new ‘materials’, including electronics, textiles, food and agriculture. Such enabling technology could facilitate the growth of many industries and strengthen the UK as a leading force in the chemical industry, generating many new jobs and wealth to the country.