Repurposing TIN Seminar: Computational Technology & AI in Drug Repurposing

This new webinar series will address some of the challenges in the Drug Repurposing space described during the seminars held during 2020. The focus of these new webinars will be on technological and commercial/ regulatory aspects worth exploring in order to support the UCL community and will count on the invaluable contribution of external partners from industry, not-for-profit organisations, charities and patient groups.

The first seminar of the series will focus on technological challenges and will showcase the innovative solutions developed by industry-leaders in the Drug Repurposing field. The Medicines Discovery Catapult will guide us through various approaches to identify drug candidates and guide development of treatments for unmet medical needs with specific case studies. Additionally, speakers will explore the world of machine learning and artificial intelligence and will introduce the audience to topics like classification and predictive models, image-to-drug translation, and 3D CNNs for enhanced activity models. Presentations from Healx and Biovista, will explore the powerful impact of artificial intelligence on drug repurposing efforts to find new therapeutic opportunities.

Agenda:

• 15:00 - 15:05 Welcome and Introduction of the TINs (Asha Recino - Coordinator of the Repurposing Therapeutic Innovation Networks)
• 15:05 - 15:10 Opening Remarks (Oscar Della Pasqua - Chair of the Repurposing Therapeutic Innovation Network)
• 15:15 - 15:30 Data Driven Approaches to Identify Drug Candidates (Gemma Holliday - MDC)
• 15:30 - 15:45 A Combined In-Silico Drug Repurposing Study (Anna Pallo - MDC)
• 15:45 - 16:00 Machine Learning/AI Solutions Developed at the MDC for Repurposing and Cheminformatics (Kepa Burusco-Goni - MDC)
• 16:05 - 16:20 AI-powered Approaches that Healx uses to Identify New Therapeutic Uses for Known Drugs (Saatviga Sudhahar - Healx)
• 16:20 - 16:35 Not all AIs are Created Equal: Using the Right Tool for the Job to Increase the Value of Drugs Through Unexpected Uses (Aris Persidis - Biovista)
• 16:40 - 17:00 Questions from the Audience and Panel Discussion

Who Should Attend?

Basic and translational researchers at all career stages and currently involved/or planning to work in the Drug Repurposing space are encouraged to attend. The Repurposing TIN aims to reach out to researchers interested in what research questions to ask when repositioning drugs that are already on the market, and in getting the right type of support at the right time.

We'd also like to invite existing and potential industry partners to attend, as we provide insights into the work of the TINs to accelerate the translation of biomedical discoveries into viable therapeutics.