With a portfolio of nine rare disease projects in its pipeline Healx has managed to predict new treatments much faster and more effectively – and at a fraction of the cost of traditional drug discovery methods – by combining their AI tech with patient insight, and drug discovery expertise.<\/p>\n
Innovation Origins talked with Dr. Tim Guilliams, CEO and co-founder of Healx, about his motivation and his experience in entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n I have always been passionate about using AI and machine learning (ML) to accelerate the discovery and development of treatments for rare diseases. So,\u00a0I founded Healx alongside Dr David Brown, the co-inventor of Viagra and former Global Head of Drug Discovery at Roche. This followed a meeting we had with a rare disease parent, Nick Sireau, who was relentlessly trying to repurpose a drug called nitisinone to save his children from the ultra-rare disease, alkaptonuria (AKU). It was then that we realised just how big the therapeutic unmet need was for rare disease patients.<\/p>\n Healnet, our AI-powered drug discovery platform, uses a combination of ML and natural language processing (NLP) to mine data from a variety of scientific data sources (scientific literature, patents, clinical trials, disease symptoms, drug targets, and underlying chemical structures). These methods have allowed us to create the most comprehensive knowledge graph of rare disease data.\u00a0A suite of AI algorithms is then deployed to pinpoint relationships between drugs and diseases that have the potential to deliver therapeutic benefit to patients. These predictions are then layered with critical oversight from our multidisciplinary team of rare disease experts, patient advocates and drug discovery scientists. As a by-product of this process, we often uncover new biological mechanisms as well.<\/p>\n As for what makes us stand out from other AI companies in the drug development space, our technology and our patient-centric approach to rare disease treatment discovery are two aspects that are truly unique to Healx.\u00a0In terms of our technology, since Healnet is the only AI platform specifically designed to discover rare disease treatments, it features the world\u2019s most complete knowledge graph of biomedical rare disease information. This makes it the most comprehensive AI platform currently out there for the prediction of rare disease treatments.\u00a0Whilst technology is integral to our work, we\u2019re committed to keeping patients at the heart of what we do, after all they are the real disease experts. This patient-centric approach sees us collaborate with patient groups worldwide to understand their most urgent challenges. Involving them from the outset also closes the discovery research loop earlier.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Yes. This was the moment we received positive results back from the pre-clinical trials for our fragile X syndrome treatments. The fact that we had results showing that the treatments our AI-powered platform had predicted were effective was a very special moment for all of us here at Healx.\u00a0We already knew that our tech worked and could accurately predict drugs to be repurposed to treat rare diseases, but to have them validated at pre-clinical stage \u2013 and for others to be able to see the efficacy of what we\u2019re doing – was a fantastic feeling.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/archive.ioplus.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Tim-Guilliams-1024x683.jpg\")
Why did you decide to pursue a start-up such as Healx?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Can you tell me about the technology used?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What makes Healx different from other similar startups?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Can you remember the moment where you knew you had something outstanding in your hands?<\/strong><\/h3>\n