Quris CEO talks about the partnership with MBZUAI and its AI platform

Techx: Tell us about Quris AI

Bentwich: Quris is an artificial intelligence innovator aiming to disrupt the drug development process. Our Bio-AI platform better predicts which drug candidates will safely work in humans, avoiding the tremendous costs of failed clinical trials and animal testing.

Quris is already working with leading pharma companies to evaluate the safety profile of pre-clinical and clinical assets. Quris is backed by strategic investors and led by an experienced leadership team of AI and medical research powerhouses.

Techx: How AI is changing the pharma industry

Bentwich: Artificial Intelligence enables researchers to collect and analyze a large amount of data which can support the development of efficient solutions through machine learning algorithms to better predict which drug candidates will safely work in humans. Quris uniquely combines the power of cutting-edge Machine Learning with patients-on-chip technology, to better predict drug safety.

How does it work? While science and technology are complex, their essence is a simple, three-tiered process:

Generate millions of interactions between known drugs (safe drugs and toxic ones) and patients-on-chip (miniaturized interconnected human organs on a chip).

Train the AI model, based on the proprietary multi-modality labelled data. Including microscopy images and proprietary nano-sensing.

Predict whether a new drug candidate will be safe for the human body, and for whom, as not every drug is suitable for every individual.

Techx: How predictive AI technologies can improve clinical trials

Bentwich: Drug safety is a major unaddressed problem. A staggering 92% of all drugs fail in clinical trials, despite ’successfully’ passing animal testing, costing pharmaceutical companies over $53B each year. Our AI platform can better predict which drug candidates will work (and for whom) thus significantly minimising the time and cost of clinical trials. Accurate genome analysis is crucial for developing personalized medicines. AI technologies can efficiently store genetic information and make it easily accessible for researchers, helping them accelerate the timelines of clinical trials.

Techx: Please share the details about the collaboration with MBZUAI

Bentwich: Quris-AI and Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) signed an agreement to develop a world-class Bio-AI centre in Abu Dhabi. The state-of-the-art facility will support the development of personalized medications, tailored specifically to the diverse populations of the MENA region.

The collaboration will establish a centre of excellence in Bio-AI in Abu Dhabi, which will accelerate the development of safer, and more highly personalized medications. MBZUAI is slated to provide expertise in the refinement of predictive AI models while incentivizing sought-after AI graduates to stay in the UAE as they begin their careers.

Techx: What are your future plans (with regards to the UAE)

Bentwich: Quris has established a new office in Abu Dhabi and plans to ignite its research by collaboration with MBZUAI, to advance personal drug safety specifically for the diverse ethnicities in the MENA region.

Quris’ proprietary technology can effectively harness cutting-edge AI while extending its impact on health capabilities. Therefore, helps to put the UAE patient population at the front of the global queue as new medications come to market and can accelerate the development of new personalized and potentially life-saving medicines.