Benchsci (Scinapsis Analytics Inc.), has announced a CAD$95 million (US$70 million) series D funding round. The funds will be used to expand the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) drug discovery platform, Ascend by Benchsci, which enables scientists to discover biological connections, reduce trial and error experimentation, and uncover risks early.

Integrated Biosciences Inc., an early-stage startup that is combining synthetic biology and machine learning in the hunt for drugs that tackle cell senescence, has demonstrated its capabilities in a newly published study in Nature Aging on May 4, 2023, which employed artificial intelligence (AI) to identify three novel compounds that are highly selective for Bcl-2 and that exhibit favorable medicinal chemistry profiles.

Oxford Drug Design Ltd. has been engaged by Phoremost Ltd. to accelerate a targeted protein degradation discovery program that seeks to identify new E3 ligase-based therapeutic strategies to treat cancer.

Scientists have identified proteins that changed in response to exercise specifically in trial participants whose blood sugar control improved after taking up an exercise regimen. Based on serum protein analysis, the investigators also developed a machine-learning algorithm that could predict whether an individual’s metabolic sensitivity would be improved by exercise.