The SLAS Ignite Theater ‘Innovation & technology: from lab to patient’ will take place at SLAS2024 in Boston on 5 and 6 February 2024.

The event will be curated by DDW and sponsored by Integra Biosciences and Hamamatsu Corporation, providing leading research from experts in academia, government agencies and industry.

On Monday 5 February at 3pm, Andrea Bortolato, Director of Drug Discovery at SandboxAQ, will share his insights on the topic ‘Combining physics-based methods with AI to maximise the success and speed of drug discovery and development.’

What you will learn:

• How AI can address key bottlenecks in the drug discovery process
• Techniques to validate a hypothesis proposed by an AI strategy
• The importance of physics-based solutions to drug development

Register now to show your interest in attending this event.

Bortolato has more than 15 years of experience in computational chemistry and drug discovery at companies like BMS, Schrodinger, and Heptares Therapeutics, with over 50 scientific publications/patents.

He explains which technologies he feels will be most important for accelerating discoveries from the lab to the patient: “Machine learning (ML) and in particular AI generative methods are transforming drug discovery and development. In parallel, physics-based and quantum-inspired methods based on first principles and molecular description of the system provide a rigorous solution complementary to ML-based methods. They can provide an effective strategy to create simulated data to extend the ML approach training set or to validate the hypothesis and results proposed by an AI strategy. Physics-based solutions can bring the full potential of AI to life with a transforming impact on all stages of drug discovery and development.”