French AI company Iktos and Japanese firm Curreio have announced a collaboration agreement in the field of new drug discovery, combining generative design technology with cryo-electron microscopy platform to speed up and reduce costs associated with preclinical drug candidate creation for an undisclosed target. Under the agreement, Iktos’ Makya generative AI technology will be used alongside structure-based modelling via insights from Curreio’s cryo-EM platform to produce structures optimised for protein-ligand interaction, likely meeting project targets. Cryo-EM was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017; it is an analytical technique that has many advantages such as obtaining structures in aqueous solution without requiring crystallization. The success rate of structural analysis using Cryo-EM depends on the maturity of related technologies.
Key Words: Iktos, Curreio, collaboration agreement, new drug discovery
Iktos' proprietary deep learning model enables designing molecules optimized to meet all success criteria of small molecule discovery projects. This approach uniquely explores chemical space and produces innovative molecule designs with optimized predicted properties thanks to integration of Spaya retrosynthesis AI technology.
The partnership between both companies will bring together their powerful algorithmic and structural analysis capabilities towards accelerating structure-based drug discovery efforts.