AI translates nature’s wisdom into modern medicine

This platform maps the chemical compositions of healing plants to speed up drug discovery

Spotted: Around 40 per cent of today’s pharmaceutical products draw inspiration from traditional medicine and the natural world. Even so, much of the chemical composition of nature has not yet been studied, meaning that many more medicines could still be identified.

Enveda Biosciences is mapping some of that unknown chemistry. Using deep machine learning and proprietary high-throughput screening methods, the company profiles the chemical components of plants. The algorithm then predicts the properties of those chemicals and how they might interact with the human body. The list of chemicals with potential gives researchers a valuable start in identifying and testing medical drugs.

As the library of plant chemistry maps grows, Enveda’s process will continue to speed up the early-stage drug discovery process. Researchers use the AI to search for molecules and compounds that do or do not act in certain ways on specific parts of the body, which reduces the time lab teams need to spend on identifying promising options and rapidly speeds up the development of new medicines.

The company recently raised $55 million in series B2 funding from new investors, including Microsoft and The Nature Conservancy, and plans to begin clinical trials of its first two drugs later in 2024. The drugs being tested are for inflammatory bowel diseases and a variety of skin conditions, including eczema.

Written By: Keely Khoury